Dear Friends,

God is at work in India and one question that is going through my heart is how are people coming to the Lord? God is so powerfully revealing Himself through His Word and Deed. Here is a powerful testimony of the one whom God transformed and is serving the Lord in bringing hundreds of people to Christ!

Basmote was born and brought up in a high caste Hindu family in the state of Maharashtra. He was wealthy and influential in his village.

While growing up as a young adult he became the priest of the village because of His cast and devotion to his Hindu gods. He was very regular in going on pilgrimages to mountains and temples as part of his devotion to his gods. He was very committed to his religious activities and became the leader of a Hindu movement. People feared him because he was not only a priest but a strong leader of the Hindu movement.

During one of the pilgrimages, as he was claiming the mountain, a young girl gave him a New Testament. He received it because he did not want to hurt the young girl. He wanted to throw away the New Testament because he knew it is the scripture of the untouchables and Christians were his enemies. But he thought since it was the holy book of the Christians and if he threw away the book, some curse would come on him and his family, so he kept the book with them. As soon as he returned from his holy pilgrimage, he tucked the New Testament away, thinking he will never see it again.

He said, after a few days, strange thoughts went through his mind. He found himself peace-less and empty. Though he was doing his every day rituals, caring for the temple and going on pilgrimage, nothing seemed to make meaning. His life was fruitless and hopeless. He was frustrated and thought it would be best for him to die because he did not have peace and his religion did not help him.

One day when he was seriously thinking of ending his life, his eyes saw the New Testament the girl had given him. He thought to himself “why don’t I read this book and find out how different it is from my Bhagwad Geetha. So! he opened the New Testament and his eyes fell on Matthew 28:18 “And Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”. He thought if Jesus had all power and authority, why should I not follow him? None of my gods claimed that all power and authority were given to them. He was so fascinated by this sentence and kept pondering over this trying to understand the same.

Since there was no Christian in his village, he went to a nearby town, found a Christian who happened to be a Pastor and asked him to help him understand about the Lord Jesus Christ. As he continued to read the Bible, he began to realize that Jesus was the true and living God. He understood that only through Jesus Christ one could find salvation. As he continued to read the word and submitted himself to the truth He saw his life transformed. He had complete peace and joy and started to share about the Lord with his family and people in his village.

One day God opened the door for him and his wife to do ministry in his village and that led to the starting of several house churches.

The context was a hindu doctor couple had severe health problems. Basmote and his wife felt led to visit them and pray for them. God immediately healed them and the couple became followers of the Lord. In great appreciation the medical couple opened a room in their hospital to conduct worship and through the ministry of Basmote in the hospital a church was established. Now over 250 believers (first generation Christians – from Hinduism and Buddhism backgrounds) are worshipping the Lord. Praise the Lord!

Esther one of our women’s co-coordinator shared this with us and said when she went to conduct a training program for women in his village Basmote said, “this is the first training conducted in our village in the last 8 years since I became a follower of the Lord”. He was so thankful that we conducted the women’s training. He gathered 80 people mostly young people and 10 church planters desperately wanted to attend the training as they have never been to any training.

Basmote is now so eager for the next training program as he pleads “this is the hour for our children to be trained to become Soldiers of Christ”.

Friends, Basmote’s only desire and cry is somehow we invest in the lives of young people whom God can use mightily to touch the lives of millions of young people. In a recent survey, it is estimated that 42% of India’s population is under the age of 18. That means over 450 million people are just before our eyes that need to be reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They can be easily reached by their contemporaries as they understand the different ways to reach them.

It is time for us to get behind these emerging next gen leaders, giving them a passion and vision and pouring our lives, energy and resources to equip them as transformational leaders to reach the millions of young people of India.

A vision God has laid in my heart for the next five years is to leave a legacy by developing 2,000 next generation leaders as trainers of trainers who will influence and train 250,000 men and women in their sphere of influence to be involved in fulfilling the great commission.

WE NEED YOUR HELP: Will you please pray with us that God will help us identify and train 2,000 next gen leaders? The cost of developing one Next Gen Trainer of Trainer is only $250 to take him/her through various training programs. Your investment today will leave a legacy for the next generation of Godly leaders who will be passionate and committed to disciple their generation to the Lord.

Your gift of $100, $150, $250, $500, $1000 and more will truly help us see a godly faithful generation of leaders to move on in fulfilling the great commission in India. If you would like to donate online, please go to https://secure.hostdepot.com/11/067/donate.asp and designate it to “Next Generation Trainers of Trainers”.

What a joy it is to journey with our Lord together in His mission of reaching the unreached and engaging in building transformational leaders to disciple the nation. Thank you for being part of this exciting journey in God’s mission in India.

You have been a great partner in the Gospel and thank you so very much for being available to the Lord and to us in this journey.

Praying for you and may the Lord bless you.

Your servant in the mission,

Dr. Paul (Bobby) Gupta
President
HBI Global Partners
P.O. Box 584, Forest, VA 24551
Online donation : https://secure.hostdepot.com/11/067/donate.asp