This is a post from our 15 December 2008 newsletter, v.16.2 (MEC)
Russian-American Christian University (RACU). Mark teaches a New Testament Survey course to undergraduates at RACU in Moscow. The college is bi-lingual and this required course is taught in English. Of the class of 34 students, perhaps 30 were born into traditionally Baptist or Pentecostal families. The others came to Christ as teens. They are majoring in Business and Government, Social Work, and Philology (Linguistics and Literature) because they feel called out from the church to change the world. To be among young people who believe they can witness to the world around them without wearing the robes of clergy is a great blessing. Pray for RACU as it moves into its own building this spring and pray for these students as they blaze a trail where Russian Christian leaders have rarely gone before.
NHI Team at BTCS in Bangalore, November 2008. Far left: Angam Haokip, national associate and president, BTCS; Back row, left-right: Don and Sharon Lee, resident associates; Ernst Lutz, friend of the mission accompanying Mark; Mark Currie, visiting associate. Front row: these are Angam’s four elder brothers, the two younger serve at the Missionary Children’s Home, the two elder were in town on family business (i.e., to arrange a marriage).
Biblical Theological College and Seminary in India (BTCS). Our NHI associate Angam Haokip directs BTCS, a training center in south India that serves as the hub of a church planting movement in NE India and beyond. In November, Mark visited Angam and our resident mission associates Don and Sharon Lee in Bangalore, a Christian capital of India. With 6% of the population professing Christianity, and most Christians living in the northeast quarter of the city where Mark stayed, signs of Christian mission endeavor are everywhere. Yet amidst this center of mission and church activity, where everyone seems to know everyone else, if not personally, then by reputation, BTCS is a unique work.
Biblical Theological College and Seminary (BTCS), Class of 2009. (left-right with state/people group): Aungte (Myanmar), Samuel (Myanmar), Jedee (Myanmar/Lisu), Moia (Mizoram), Sudha (Tamil Nadu), Nawlihat (Myanmar/Lisu), Haichei (Mizoram/Mara), Thanzaw (Myanmar/Burmese), Manglun (Manipur/Kuki), Haopu (Manipur/Kuki) Not pictured: Kimneichong (Bhutan), Zousiem, Thangsei
English is the common language at BTCS where 13 different Indian and tribal language groups are represented. Of some 35 students, 1/3 are from Burma, almost 2/3 are from the “Seven Sister” states of NE India (whose hill people largely exist outside India’s strict caste system), several students and faculty are from south India. Like the students at RACU in Moscow, most of these students come from Christian families, but unlike those at RACU, these young people feel called to serve the church directly and they want to be part of the church movement that has already begun. As part of a vision we call “2050”, four graduating classes have already been sent out to serve among the Mara and Lisu people in western and northern Burma, among the Myanmar people in the Irrawaddy Valley, among the Kuki and other tribes in the Seven Sisters, and among Hindus in Nepal and Buddhists in Tibet. An informal fellowship of 37 churches exists and that will grow. In February 2010 we are planning “Churachandpur 2010”, a church conference in Manipur state of 100 congregations who are joined in fellowship across the nations just listed. After 6 years Angam and his BTCS team have already proven themselves as a mission center for young leaders intent on serving God among the nations in northeast India, Myanmar, and beyond. Pray for this church-planting movement!
Eight of sixteen disciples who live in an upper room at BTCS.
NHI/MPATs. New Hope International / Missionary Pastors and Teachers. Today our mission consists of 10 people serving in three teams. The Czech Team serves in Pardubice, Czech Republic here Jimmy and Hulda Bennett operate an English Language school as an evangelistic outreach, and where they are part of a church planted by Word of Life, Uppsala, Sweden. The India Team is in Bangalore, India and consists of our national associate Angam Haokip, the founder and director of BTCS described above, and our resident associates, Don and Sharon Lee, who have been serving there since 2004. The Lees teach at BTCS and at the Academy for Church-Planting and Leadership. They are also getting involved in a national movement of house churches called Radiance that is specifically targeting the emerging “village” represented by the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry. Mark interviewed an Indian professor at SAIACS (South Asia Institute for Advanced Christian Studies) who described this emerging segment of society as being one of the key reachable groups within the impenetrable tapestry of Hindu culture in India. In January, the Lee’s son Philip will join the team and work to build friendships through the Radiance community. The Russia Team remains Mark, serving at New Hope Church in Moscow; Chris, continuing her Ph.D. studies at Old Dominion in Norfolk, Virginia, and Tom and Lois Ford, of Warren, Pennsylvania, who continue their friend-raising support development in the USA.
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