Passage to India

CMF develops new partnership with Indian church planters

An organization founded by national believers in India has planted more than 250,000 house churches with more than 11 million new followers of Jesus over the past 20 years, and now CMF has formed a partnership with the group to expand the work even further. 

Asian Partners International, Inc. (APII), works in northern India in the area between Delhi and Kolkata using a Community Learning Center (CLC) approach and Community Health Evangelism (CHE) to enter both rural and urban communities. 

“Our strategy is to set up a center in rented space in a building and minister to the community by meeting its needs,” said Randy Cole, who serves as the Indiana-based president of APII. 

“As these community needs are met, we identify indigenous leaders, then train and equip them to become disciple-makers and church planters,” Randy explained. “The cost for each CLC is about $3,000 per year. On average, this annual investment will yield 50 trained leaders, 50 new churches and 2,000 new believers. We believe that CLCs will be the pathway to reaching our goal of 30 million new believers by 2018.”

The partnership

CMF made its first contact with APII through Connection Pointe Christian Church, Brownsburg, IN, and will continue to work with the church to coordinate activities and support for projects in India. 

Some of the ways in which CMF will partner with APII include these:

1. Plan short-term trips for pastors and professors from the U.S. to teach leaders in India. Rapid growth creates a huge need to train leaders.
2. Recruit and send short- and long-term personnel to teach Bible, English, CHE and community development, and do leadership training.
3. Support and sponsor rescue centers that return abandoned children to their communities or help them be adopted.
4. Develop church-based sponsorship of new Community Learning Centers in unreached areas.
5. Help raise funds to build a new Global Learning Center at a cost of around $750,000. A GLC is a training site for local teachers and leaders.

Some CMF personnel already traveled to India in 2014 to lead CHE training seminars, and more training is planned for 2015. Long-term personnel are already being recruited with the prayer that we could have permanent “boots on the ground” in 2016. 

“Asian Partners is excited and humbled to partner with an organization like CMF,” said Randy Cole. “It will be amazing to see what God can accomplish when like-minded and Spirit-led organizations work together to further His Kingdom.”

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can help support church planting in India, click here to email our Partnerships division. If you’d like to discuss service opportunities in India, click here to email CMF’s Mobilization division.

The quake heard around the world!

APII plans relief work in remote Nepal village

The staff at CMF’s new partner ministry in northern India, Asian Partners International, Inc., is in the right place with the right knowledge and training to assist in recovery efforts from the horrific April 25 earthquake in Nepal, says Randy Cole, the president of the U.S. operations of APII.

The organization is based in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, only 60 miles from the Nepal border. The APII staff members have previously traveled to Nepal to train partner organizations. They are proficient in the Nepali language, culture and geography.

Team on the ground

“A fact-finding team from APII recently went to Nepal to assess the situation for relief efforts,” said Randy. “They attempted to reach the most-affected areas near the center of the quake, but were prevented from getting to the actual epicenter due to landslides and rain. It is still accessible only by helicopter.

“They described the entire area near the epicenter as having a ‘very dark and heavy’ atmosphere,” added Randy. “There were several aftershocks while the team was there; in fact, there have been more than 250 aftershocks since the April ‘big one.’ ”

The team has tentatively identified the village of Simjung as the place where they hope to begin relief efforts. Currently no other work has been organized for this village.

“The earthquake destroyed 70% of the homes in this village – more than 700 houses,” said Randy. “We hope to restore 15-20 houses or shelters in this village before the rainy season comes. There are many potential partners in the area so we are assessing the options and praying that the Lord will lead us to the right partnership.”

The team will first need to obtain approval from the Nepal government, survey and collect local family information, procure building materials and then begin building.

“The project is not without risk,” said Randy. “Due to the very treacherous terrain, logistics will be very difficult and the cost of transporting the building materials will be expensive. And the risk of another large earthquake is also very high.”

In the meantime, as the team wades through the red tape, APII is working with a couple of local churches to provide food, water and temporary shelter for this village, and they are asking for your help.

“At Asian Partners, we ask you to pray for the relief effort,” said Randy. “Pray that the Spirit would lead us to the right partnership and that the roads would be opened in the most affected areas so that relief ministry can start to make a difference. And for the sake of His Kingdom, please help us with a donation so that we can provide food, water, and shelter to ‘the least of these.’ ” (Matthew 25:40)

APII has currently raised more than $50,000 for earthquake relief, including $19,290  provided by CMF donors. You can donate to the earthquake relief fund at cmfi.org/earthquakerelief.