India (MNN) — Recently, Mission Network News and Global Action
partnered together to give away a mission trip to India to one of MNN's
listeners. Almost 300 listeners responded.
Both ministries are happy to announce that the winner of the trip
is Sarah Kornmann from St. Paul, Minnesota. Kornmann will be traveling to
Northern India to help Global Action with their ministries over this upcoming
New Year's.
Global Action has been working for three and a half years in the area Kornmann will be
visiting. They minister to rural villages just south
of the India and Nepal border. In these villages, many of the natives have
never seen a white person, nor heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Lars Dunberg with Global Action said when missionaries come
into the villages, villagers often look at them like they are from Mars.
Dunberg said the natives question why they have come. Global Action responds with,
"We are here because someone loved us and because we love you. And we want to
share that love with you as well."
Global Action tries to show this love in tangible ways. One
example is by providing children and elder people with warm wool blankets for
the frigid winters. Many lack the clothing to protect themselves from sub-zero
temperatures, causing terrible sickness and often, death.
"For the last few years, we have tried to help these people
and show the love of Christ by just wrapping a woolen blanket around them. You can't believe what a very heavy woolen blanket will do. It will
save a life; it will avoid illness; it will help them survive the winter,"
Dunberg said.
Last year Global Action distributed over 6,000 blankets there, and
this year they hope to pass out 10,000 blankets and hopefully save just as many
lives.
Another way they put their faith into action is through
their ministry with orphans in the region. Dunberg said he did not like the
idea of an orphanage or any similar institution. Instead, they have established
a program where a Christian couple becomes foster parents to seven orphans. Global
Action built apartments for these couples, so they can live with the children
in family units. Through this, Christ love is displayed vividly in their
actions and not so much in words.
In an area of villages where the nearest city is a five-hour
drive away, Global Action has seen God expand their ministry greatly in the last
several years.
So far, Global Action has established a school for around
100 students up to sixth grade. Dunberg said they hope to have a high school
built in the next three years as well, which will provide the children of the
area with more of an education than ever before. Eventually, they even hope to
send people to university.
Global Action has also established the India Hope Center, which
allows them to be a "beacon of light" in a community of over 25,000 Muslim
homes.
"We just broke ground for the clinic, which will also become
maternity hospital. The church is being dedicated next week," Dunberg said,
listing some of the other ministries Global Action is working on in the region.
The church being dedicated is in the center of the school,
and they were recently able to put a roof on it and put the floor in. Now, the
orphan families and people who work at the Hope Center and other Christians from
surrounding villages will hold services there.
There is no other church in a 50-mile radius.
While persecution is still a reality in India, it is
mostly contained to militant Hindus upset over losing the elections. Dunberg
said the new secular government now in power for the next five years is trying
to establish freedom of religion, for Muslims, Hindus and Christians alike.
Please pray for this to become a reality and that even
more people will be exposed to the Gospel message.
If you are interested in going on one of these trips, there
are three taking place this winter, each lasting a total of ten days. The first
trip is over Thanksgiving, the second in December, and the last over New Years–the one Kornmann will be on.
Or if you prefer working in a different area of India,
Global Action also has similar trips to New Delhi, where they help over 3,600
slum children each week.
Dunberg said either way, he would love for people to become
involved; there are still openings on all three trips.
"We would love for them to come. I just know that their lives
will never be the same," Dunberg said about anyone interested in participating in
the trips.
To get an application for a trip or to learn more about
Global Action, visit their Web site.
