thegospeltoindia.com

Monday, August 31, 2009
Dear brethren,
I arrived in Delhi on the 25th of August to a hot and muggy night. The third world smells, the incessant honking of taxi horns, and the growing masses of people greeted me as I entered the center of Delhi a population of over 16 million people.

The past week has been filled with decisions, meetings and opportunities. Brother Thang Lien, the director of the Delhi Bible Institute and my co-worker has prepared a busy agenda. After three days of negotiations , prayers and planning we have leased a large building containing a large entrance hall suitable for services of up to two hundred people with twelve a joining rooms to be used for classrooms, the director’s quarters, a guest room and rooms for preaching students at the Bible Institute.  The facilities lies in the heart of the largest and one of the poorest districts in Delhi. It is among this poor area that we will reach out with the Gospel of Christ as we teach our Bible students both the Word of God and as important, how to teach and bring the masses to Jesus Christ.

DBI (Delhi Bible Institute) was started in January of 2009 with a night school containing two classes of students. One class is our Bible Training School that teaches each book of the Bible to both our preaching students and others interested in learning the Bible.  We have twenty in this school at present with a waiting list of ten. Our other class contains, at present ten students who are studying the English language to prepare themselves to enter our Bible program. Most of our students are Burmese (Myanmar) refugees who have fled from their violent country and are seeking asylum in India. Now that we have acquired  a larger and more useful property we will establish a Bible School for Christian men who desire to study the Word of God that they may preach in their own countries, states and villages.  These students will live at our school and will  study the Bible four hours daily for two years.  They will also take vocational courses or  earn college degrees that they may be “tent-making” preachers and support themselves as they proclaim the saving message of the cross of Christ.

I am excited about the location of our school and the beginning of the Palam Church of Christ located in the Palam District of New Delhi.  In this very poor to lower middle class area we will reach out to the vast Hindu population with the Good News of Jesus Christ.  We are planning a very aggressive (perhaps not the best word to use in India) and sustained evangelistic program to  reach these good but lost people .   With God’s help we will quickly fill our facilities at the school with many new converts to the One True God.

Last Friday night I had the privilege to meet and teach a combined class of about 25 of our students. I was impressed with their eagerness to learn under the harsh conditions in which they live. As I mentioned, most are Burma refugees.They have fled their country with little else then the clothes on their backs. Here they live under the auspices and control of the United Nation. They are given about $70.00 per month to provide all of their necessities from the UN.In the city of Delhi this is a very small amount when a one room cement floored apartment will cost at least $100.00 per month. They cannot leave Delhi without losing all asylum rights and opportunities for acceptance into other countries as refugee. They wait daily for word that some country will accept them into their own country.  Some have been here for sixteen years waiting for some country to give them a start at a new life. Most of these students follow some form of indigenous denominational religion but are very interested in our classes on true New Testament Christianity. I ask them how many of hem had ever read the New Testament.  Only two raised there hands. I was disappointed until I learn that most of them had never had a Bible in their own language or even English to read. We will purchase Bibles for all that they may have access to the BOOK of LIFE.

The next day, Saturday, I visited the Burmese refugee villages that they live in waiting for asylum status and acceptance into another country. Since fleeing their homeland they can never return there unless there is a political change in the brutal military junta that has controlled Burma since 1991. There are over 2000 refugees living in small cement stacked apartments.  Usually more than one family lives in a one room blocked area of about 12x15. There conditions are very harsh.  Delhi is extremely hot during the summer months and they have no way to cool themselves. Flies are so prevalent in the small alleyways leading to the apartments that to open ones mouth is to invite an unwanted meal  and probably dessert as well.

I have been in Delhi for one week now and will fly tomorrow to Dibrugarh Assam to locate facilities for the Theophilus Bible Institute that we relocated from Itanagar. I will leave there to travel about 150 kilometers to begin the construction of the Mustard Seed Children’s Home in Lakla, Assam.  After spending about two weeks there I will travel to the Longphu village in Nagaland where I will live among this “primitive” Indian tribe for about two weeks and teach them for the very first time about New Testament Christianity.  Towards the end of October I will return to Lakla for a few days to work on the children’s home and back to Delhi to preach at our first church services in our new school facilities.  Hopefully around November first I will fly back to remind my wife she has a husband, my three daughters I am still around and my grandchildren that Papa is back!

I must admit that I have expanded the Delhi work greatly because of the wonderful opportunities among the refugees and because of the sixteen million souls that need to hear the Gospel.   If we had 16,000 preachers in Delhi they would each have to preach to 100,000 people to cover this vast city.  At present there is only four located preachers.  Please consider a one time gift or a monthly contribution to help cover the estimated 2500.00 per month it will cost to operate the Delhi Bible Institute and train Gospel, “tent making” preachers for this capital city and the ripe fields of India.  The wheat is ready for harvest! Let us work to provide the reapers for the harvest day is surely coming.

As always and often, I thank God for your support in every way.  The work in India is often challenging, never boring and so full of promise.  Your continued support  of our work together is bearing fruit daily and will continue to bring souls to Jesus many years after we have gone ourselves to be with our Lord and Savior.

Garry Jones     

Please send funds or questions and comments to:

JONES MISSION FUND
P.O. BOX 1126
CLINTON, TN. 37717
865.567.7872 or 865.494.7956

This work is under the oversight of the elders of the Clinton church of Christ,
500 N. Main Street, Clinton, TN. 37717

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website:  The gospel to india. com

You can download this report in pdf format.