One man’s heart for reaching the unreached: “I wake up to new challenges each day”

**Please note: The following story contains highly sensitive information. It is intentionally vague in order to protect the security of our partners.**

In 1996, Jacob* enrolled at one of our Asian partner schools after feeling a call from God to minister. He says his time at the school was filled with “days of dreams, visions and revelations from the throne of God. The subjects…helped me to develop a broader understanding of ministry and equipped me to meet the many challenges I would be facing….I resolved that there was no other reason for me to be alive but for this one purpose: that the Gospel must be preached everywhere to all people. Lost souls became my passion.” Since graduating in 2000, God has been using Jacob in mighty ways across Asia.

He immediately ventured into church planting and preaching the Gospel. Rev. Ashish Chrispal, PhD, OC Asia Regional Director, says as a minority religion in Asia, the Christian Church and seminaries face many challenges due to the pluralistic nature of the continent, including its diversity in religions, ideologies, over 2,000 languages and more than half of the world’s population. Jacob says his ministry has brought him face to face with many of these issues, as well as much resistance and religious intolerance. However, his training has helped him “to cope with these physical, mental and spiritual challenges.”

Rev. Ashish Chrispal, PhD, OC Asia Regional Director

In 2004, he began training local evangelists and pioneering tribal churches. “There were so many dangerous situations, threats and hardships,” he says. “We [go] into some of the most challenging situations for missions [in the region]. It is not an exaggeration to say that our lives are exposed to death perpetually.”

Ministry Impact – Despite all the challenges, Jacob’s team has grown to 50 pastors and evangelists. They have reached more than 500 villages as one of the only evangelism teams in the region. “The Lord extended our boundaries and gave us new territories. Our message [is being accepted] by both tribal and non-tribal groups.” In one area alone, they have planted churches in more than 200 villages, many of which have worship services on weekdays due to the team’s small size. The need for pastors is great as too few look after these churches currently. Through two Bible schools they’ve established, the team has successfully trained more than 50 local evangelists as of now. “Several youths have been transformed drastically, and many are serving the Lord.”

“We are aggressive preachers of the Gospel as the only means of transformation,” Jacob says. “We boldly face and deal with what is holding the Gospel from progressing and churches from prospering.” The team can testify to villages changing beyond recognition. They continually pray for the areas in which they work, as many have issues with transportation, irrigation facilities, electricity and poverty, the latter of which leads some parents to sell their daughters into prostitution. The pastors are trained to discern demonic strongholds, and their churches have had many cases of deliverance from spiritual bondage. “We believe that a very strong prayer life seasoned with the Word of God will result in miracles every passing day.”

*Name has been changed for security purposes.

Current realities of the region               According to Operation World (2010)

• Vast extremes of wealth exist in Asia, from the world’s richest individuals and families to arguably the most destitute. Asia includes some of the most technologically advanced countries as well as those with some of the most primitive living conditions and subsistence economies.
• Of all continents, persecution is most intense and lack of religious freedom most widespread in Asia, yet Christian growth is also most prominent here. Amazing religious diversity as well as great differences in both religious tolerance and the role religion plays in societies can be found in Asia….It is the only continent where Christianity is not the largest religion….Therefore, Asia remains a very significant challenge for world evangelization.
• Muslim 26%, Hindu 23%, Non-religious 16%, Buddhist 11%, Chinese 10%, Christian 9%, Ethnoreligious 2.5%
• Evangelicals in Asia, nearly 150 million, now number more than those on any other continent apart from Africa.
• Asians comprise over 81% of the 4.7 billion non-Christians in the world.
• Asian countries represent 9 of the world’s 10 largest unevangelized populations.
• Of the 37 countries of the world that are less than 10% Christian, 32 are in Asia.

Trends to watch:

• Trafficking is a major means of illegal and illicit income. Drug trafficking remains the most well known and violent of these trades. Human trafficking, usually for manual labor or the sex trade, has accelerated rapidly in the last few years, and children are among its victims. The partnership between OC and Compassion International includes the development of Holistic Child Development training programs at our partner schools to address the development of exploited children like these; Rev. Ashish Chrispal, PhD, OC Asia Regional Director, plays a critical role. Human trafficking particularly affects the poorer countries, where women are sold or enter into indentured slavery and are forced to pay off debt through prostitution. But it also affects wealthier countries; places such as Japan, parts of China, Thailand, India and many Arab countries traffic in girls from abroad to populate brothels.
• The severity of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is intensifying in certain regions. Two major infection points are Mumbai, India, and Bangkok, Thailand, where the flourishing sex industry helps spread the scourge to poorer, surrounding lands. Intravenous drug use is another driving factor in the spread throughout Asia.
• The resurgence of non-Christian world religions increasingly influences politics, restricts religious freedom, heightens inter-ethnic divisions and affects Christian outreach and strategy.