Investing in India

By: Jeremiah Shetti, BMA Missionary in India 

I come from a Christian family; both of my parents are Christians. My father is the first Christian in his family. He is still the only Christian in his family, and he comes from a strong Hindu Brahmin family. My mother’s family was Christian. My mother’s father was an elder in his church, but some of the people from my mother’s family are still Hindu. My father worked for World Vision, and my mother was a teacher in public school, but they are both retired now. 

My wife, Abigail, is a new convert; she comes from a Hindu family. She and her elder sister are the only Christians in her family. She got saved at the age of 17 after her elder sister led her to Christ. Presently, she is helping me with the mission work, but has less time nowadays since both of my boys are young. I have two sons: the elder is Ezra, and he is 9 years old. The younger is Ethan, who is 8 years old.

When I was born, I was a premature baby and was only three pounds. The doctors were not sure if I would live, but my parents believed that I lived only because of the prayers of my parents and friends. That is one reason they are so happy to see me in ministry. I was saved at the age of 14 at a youth camp organized by Youth for Christ. Later I slid back, and at the age of 20 I rededicated my life to Christ. I completed my bachelor’s degree in Commerce and started working in a finance company. After that, I worked for a credit card company, but I was never happy with my life. 

I was active in youth ministry at church and worked as a volunteer with Youth for Christ. Still, I always thought there was something missing in my life, but I never wanted to get into full time ministry. While I was working for the credit card company, I met Bro. Pradeep Borde. 

We started meeting with each other, and that’s when I realized that God was calling me to full time ministry. 

I resisted at first, but Bro. Pradeep and my dad convinced me to go to seminary in Jacksonville, Texas. I was always was good at teaching and mentoring. I knew that I had this special gift because I truly love people, but I really struggled with the fact that I will have to be a pastor or be in full time ministry all my life. I prayed numerous times a day and often would cry, just to convince God that I did not want to be in full time ministry. But God never left me alone. The Holy Spirit helped me realize that I would find peace and satisfaction only when I surrendered to ministry. The day I surrendered to ministry in my prayers, I was at peace and felt an amazing satisfaction in my heart. 

A few months later, I had to go for an interview for my VISA. The day before going to the interview, I prayed to God once again. I prayed to him that, “if it is not your will for me to go to the U.S.A. and study, please God let my VISA application be rejected.” The next day, so many VISAs were rejected. I even saw a few people coming out of the Embassy crying with disappointment. To my surprise, though, my VISA application was approved immediately. This experience convinced me even more that God was with me, and that I need to follow his will all my life. When I went to the seminary studies, I was certain that God wanted me to do missions and work with people.          

After completing my Master of Arts in Religion, I returned to India. 

The first few months I was praying and deciding on where I wanted to start. Then I started working in an area called Kasarwadi in my home town of Pune. We started with four members meeting every Thursday. I worked, and still am working, in this area. Within one year we had more than 20 members coming regularly. The first time we had baptisms, we baptized eight people. It is amazing how God helped me reach so many people. I am not a very outgoing person, but God really helped in giving me the courage to reach out to people. We started growing in numbers since then, and today we have had more than 40 baptisms in that area. We also have a fully functional church. At present I am not pastoring it, but we have appointed a pastor named Steven Pagi. He is taking good care of the church.           

After a couple of years, I visited the District of Osmanabad and saw that there was no mission work over there. There was no Christian organization or any church doing evangelism or church planting. I truly believed that God wanted me to reach out to these people who have never heard the gospel. The District of Osmanabad is very rural. It has less opportunities, and is basically a farming region, which makes it very poor. Most of the people belong to the Dalit caste. During this time is when I started working in a village called Terrgaon. Today, we have more than 50 adult members and about 70 kids regularly attending Sunday school and church services in this village. We have started work in eight villages of Osmanabad. At present, we have work in and around Pune, and we are working more in Pune. 

Presently, we are concentrating on working in the Pune district. 

There is a great migration going on in India. Almost all the people are moving to cities from villages. This is one reason most churches in the rural areas are dying or are on the verge of dying. This is the reason why we have shifted our focus of work in the city of Pune. If we must reach more people, we will have to work in the cities. 

I feel that working in the cities has lot more challenges. Some of the challenges are that people have less time, they are always on the run, they are more materialistic and less concerned about their soul, they have more financial resources, churches need bigger and better church buildings to grow, etc. The current population of Pune is close 3.5 million. I am convinced that there is a great need, and it is God’s will that we reach the millions of lost people that live in Pune. 

We are working hard on getting a new project started in Pune. 

We are working on building a facility which will have two churches: one will be a Marathi speaking church (the local language over here), and the other will be an English speaking church. This facility will also have a day care center for kids of the community and an English Bible college of Associated Level. The Bible college will be a part time college so that the students can also study and work bi-vocationally. The day care center gives us an opportunity to reach people directly, and the Bible college gives us an opportunity to train more people who will reach more people.

This facility will also have a parsonage and eight rooms for Christian students who come from villages for their education or work in Pune. I believe we will reach a lot more people and plant many churches with the help of the Bible college and this facility. We will need a big loan and financial support to get this project started, but I am sure that God will provide. This is probably the most important prayer request of the ministry that God has laid upon my heart. 

Verses that changed my Life:

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matthew 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”