And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation; but as it is written, “They who had no news of Him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand.” Romans 15:20–21
What a blessing it is for us to partner together through STN to get the gospel to unreached people in India and Nepal! The pastors we are training and supporting are working in and through their churches to reach thousands of unreached people in remote villages. Thank you for your continued involvement in this vital ministry!
Until now STN has provided training for pastors in Southern India and in Northern India but virtually all of the church planting pastors we support financially are in Southern India. The leadership of STN believes we need to continue to do this but we need to expand our efforts to financially support church planters in Northern India as well. This region has the smallest percentage of believers (per capita) in all of India; in some areas, it is as low as 1/100 of 1%.
How will we do this? After months of prayer and discussion we believe the next thing we need to do is to provide full financial support to our Regional Director in the North who can oversee this church-planting ministry on behalf of STN. That man is Suresh Mathews. He is a godly man with decades of ministry experience in India. He currently works full-time for another agency and volunteers as the Senior Pastor of his church. He has been working with STN since our beginning as the coordinator of our conferences in the North. He has also helped us with all the legal work to establish STN in India and he serves on the STN India Board. We believe that freeing up Suresh to work full-time for STN will enable us to move forward rapidly with church planting efforts all over Northern India and Nepal.
At this time there are sponsors who contribute toward Suresh’s support. Currently we are receiving $390 per month toward his support but for Suresh to go full-time we will need to increase that amount to $1,000 per month. [Note: his expenses are higher than that of church planters because of the costs associated with his ministry (home, office, car, travel expenses, etc.)]
If you are thinking about supporting an STN Pastor (or an additional one) we would like you to prayerfully consider supporting Suresh. He and his wife, Mercy, are passionately devoted to Christ and to seeing India and Nepal reached with the Gospel. Also, if you know of anyone (or any church) that might be interested in finding out more about STN please tell them about this ministry, point them to the STN website, and give us their contact information. We would love to answer any questions they may have and partner with them to reach the unreached.
Thank you again for serving with us in this ministry. Lives are being changed for eternity!
Ryder Kumar is serving as our International Director. As one of the founding members of Shepherding the Nations, it was Ryder's vision to see pastors trained and equipped for ministry that became the foundation of Shepherding the Nations.
Shepherding the Nations has identified qualified and called men who are already working in unreached areas of India and Nepal. We are providing the training to better equip them and the financial resources to support them in their ministries.
Our directors have been equipped to teach our ten-volume training curriculum. These key men are training indigenous pastors and church planters while also providing accountability, resources materials, and support. 
During our training program, we provide our ten volume set of curriculum from the Biblical Training Centre for Pastors (BTCP) in their local language. We also provide essentials resources such as Bible Concordance and Study Bible. We have been able to provide these books to all of our pastors through the generous donations of our donors. These books can be purchased for about $10 each or an entire set for $100.