Monsoon rains impact Mission India’s work

India (MNN) — Heavier than normal monsoon rains have destroyed more than 1 million homes in East India and have interrupted ministry there. The flooding hit the states of Andra Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu hardest.

Vice President with Mission India of Grand Rapids, Michigan says they operate children's Bible clubs, church planter training and literacy training all over the country. "A number of these areas where we are conducting literacy programs have been affected by these rains and actually flooded the homes, destroyed some of the homes and killed some livestock," he says .

The wonderful thing, he says, is that the people of India are resilient. "In India, disasters are not uncommon. And, people will manage to survive these kinds of events. And, they will only miss a few days or a week or so of literacy classes and they'll start coming again."

He says they're not struggling to keep the program going. "Our struggle is being able to provide the opportunity to read to so many that are waiting. Right now we actually have on our waiting list over 200,000 people who want to enroll in the program, but can't because we don't have funds to provide that opportunity."

$30 can fund the program for a full year for one person. He says the literacy program has one important component. "We use Bible content, literacy primers and we find that approximately 40 percent, on average, of the people who go through out literacy program decide to commit their lives to Jesus Christ."

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