Indian nationals reach out throughout SE Asia.

India (MNN) — God is doing some great things in India as Teen Missions International trains nationals to reach out with the Gospel at home and throughout Southeast Asia.

Teen Missions’ Bob Bland says reaching India is a strategic move for the future. “India is such a vast country, and certainly we need to reach India, because they say that, I think it’s in 2010, that the population of India is going to be greater than the population of China. And so we really need to reach out there.”

East of the country of Bangladesh is Nagaland, India, where Teen Missions is expanding with a Bible school. Bland says that teams are being trained and prepared to take the Gospel throughout SE Asia. They’re branching into southern India, to people who are in the same language group as those in Sri Lanka. Teams are not only reaching out in their own country, but also along their borders, into Pakistan, Nepal and Burma.

In this area of India, God has raised up young people willing to take a bold step in their evangelistic witness. Bland tells of their future plans, “We will be running a boot camp there, and sending those national kids just across the border into Burma because they are of the same language type group and customs, and so it’s an open door for us to reach into Burma.”

It’s definitely not a country open to Gospel witness, says Bland, “You have to be very careful. You can preach in the churches, but of course anything public, you can’t do. But there are ways of getting in and reaching people, but you have to do it on a more personal evangelism type basis.”

Pray for teams as they face constant opposition and persecution. Pray that God would continue to strengthen the national believers and continue to raise up more workers to spread the Gospel.