In addition to other ministry, every Saturday evening, special Bible study classes are conducted for school children in one village. Praise God for the church under construction (right). Praise God for Gospel preaching and distribution of tracts where people were gathered to buy cattle. Praise God for one woman healed from chronic ailments. Please pray for a man who accepted the Lord as Savior. Also, many have been affected by malaria, typhoid and dengue fevers. Pray that these won’t spread, that lives will be spared.
Archives for 2012
Meet These Pastors In India – Part 2
John and Jose Simon in the North
Pastors John and Jose attending the recent STN Conference
John and Jose (and 2 other men) come to our seminars from the state of Uttar Pradesh. The particular village where they live and minister is remote. Several years ago John planted a church which has been growing ever since; its members are all from a Hindu background. John and Jose are not only quick learners but their eyes and ears are attentive to the Truth. They have been watching the lives of the STN staff and have seen the Lord working in their own lives in amazing ways. Yes, God answers your prayers more than what you ask or imagine!
Bodh Gaya is the place where Buddha supposedly received enlightenment. There are many Buddhist temples and places of idol worship. People from all over the world visit this place, some as tourists and some to worship the idols. There is an eighty foot tall idol of Buddha which is one of the attractions of this place. Jose says, “When we go in to these temples we sense that the evil spirits have a strong clutch over the place. But as the Church began to grow, we started to delegate the responsibilities of the ministry among the mature believers. They started to reach their own villages first and then the neighboring villages. The number of believers began to increase rapidly. Last year the number grew to 200 believers in Bodh Gaya and around.”
- There are about 20 young people who offer their time after work to visit and conduct worship in villages. Jose began to train seven men from this group so that they will be equipped to teach others. John and Jose have undertaken the responsibility to teach the very BTCP courses that they have been taught at the STN Conferences! Thirty six from Hindu background witnessed in the waters of baptism! One of the believers, a lady about 40 years old, fell sick and was prayed for. Later that night she was taken to the hospital, but died early the next morning. When the non-Christians heard about it, they began to accuse the believers, blaming her death on the believers who left the Hindu gods. But the believers stood firm on the Truth in the midst of opposition and planned to conduct a Christian burial. The Hindus were furious and prevented the believers from participating in necessary affairs in the villages. This persecution did not discourage these simple believers but became motivation to approach the pastor and ask him to baptize the Christians in the community. One of those who got baptized was the widower of the lady who died. Clinging to his faith in Jesus, he witnessed in the waters of baptism only three days after her burial.
Meet These Pastors In India Part I
It is our joy to share the following profiles on three particular pastors in India as well as various updates from the field on the following page. These represent but a few of the many, many pastors whose lives are being impacted for eternity. Only the Lord truly knows the number of individuals, families and villages these men are influencing! We rejoice and praise God for what He is doing through the STN Training Conferences!
Vinay Kalapala in the South
Pastor Vinay preaching in the village of Gangur. Over 1,000 people were in attendance and 58 made decisions to give their lives to Jesus.
“My intention was different when I first attended the STN seminar in 2009. I desired to seek some financial help but my intention dramatically changed to give me a goal that I now long to keep as my vision.” Vinay’s vision is to teach the whole Bible in his lifetime! He holds a university degree and is employed with the State Government for his livelihood. But his calling is to be a pastor and teacher. Along with his father, a senior pastor, Vinay preaches and teaches at his local church. “The STN team teaching of the BTCP courses has not only been equipping me but transforming me with insights and enlightenments. I am learning the orderly pattern, how to study in depth and have a passion for ministering the Word,” says Vinay with a grateful heart. Vinay’s church has an attendance of 80 to 110 people and reaches out to about 125 villages every year. Along with the responsi-bilities of the local church, Vinay is responsible to train and shepherd 26 other pastors, provide administration and spiritual admonition for 32 churches under his care, partner with 40 evangelists and train 30 other pastors to teach BTCP.
After attending the first seminar, Vinay was so blessed that he couldn’t keep it to himself but recruited his younger brother who is a youth leader in the church. Vinay and his brother, Isaac, regularly attend the STN Conferences and are a con-stant challenge to the teaching staff to be well prepared to impart the Scriptures.
2012 Fall Conferences
We are looking forward with eager anticipation to the upcoming training conferences.
Lord willing, here is the schedule:
- Oct. 22-26: David Nelson and Ryder Kumar will teach Book #1 in Vijayawada/Southern India to 30 new participants
- Oct. 29-Nov. 2: Randy Leinen, Ryder Kumar and Jeff Forbes will teach Book #7, Church Ministry, Administration and Education, in Hyderabad (regular ongoing training for these pastors)
- Oct. 30-Nov. 1: David Nelson and Ryder Kumar will lead a Teacher Training Workshop for Christian leaders from all over India.
- Nov. 5-9: Randy Leinen, Ryder Kumar and Jeff Forbes will teach Book #7, Church Ministry, Administration and Education, in Lucknow (regular ongoing training for these pastors)
The team will also preach in church on all Sundays in India.
Please pray for the team as they prepare to teach and for all travel arrangements. Praise: Jeff Forbes’ Visa came through quickly! Please also pray for the Indian pastors as they prepare and attend the upcoming conferences.
World’s For Sale! Update, May 2012
Thank you to all of our generous participants for your abundant donations. More “treasures” than ever were collected in two trailers throughout our Spring collection days. Our sale profits were over $5000 this year! Praise God for all of you who donated, helped, shopped and prayed.
These bargain-priced goods were turned into priceless treasures as money was raised for the spread of the gospel in India.
How many World’s for Sale Volunteers does it take to help one shopper? (As many as can fit in the shade!)
Our shoppers were blessed with mountains of gently used clothes at bargain prices. I think we had enough to clothe all of Reseda!
Our STN President has found a comfy chair for a phone call and a little rest. (Sorry, Paul, I think that chair is sold!)
The Gideons were on hand this year passing out New Testaments in both Spanish and English. Please pray for the seeds that were sown.
For the first time, our World’s For Sale Fundraiser was held at TBBF on our school field. It was a great location!
2012 STN Spring Conferences
by Ryder Kumar
It is my honor to present this brief report to show my gratitude to the Lord Who allowed these Conferences to take place and to express appreciation for the support of your prayers. Without these, our short term mission trips to India for the 9th consecutive year would have been futile. My heart is filled with thankfulness to God for His great faithfulness and appreciation toward each of you for your faithfulness. The equipping of pastors in India and Nepal continues! Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and financial support that made these Spring 2012 STN Conferences possible!
Ministry in the Local Church
For the past couple of years I have been visiting a church of about 200 people called El Shaddai in Hyderabad city in which I had the privilege of preaching the Word in an evening service. David Nelson and I both preached in that assembly the following Sunday. The pastor’s name is Paul Gideon, a humble man of God. Soon after leaving the city, the whole state was in chaos due to the arrest of a political leader. There were strikes, transportation vehicles burned and turmoil in the city. By God’s sovereign design, we evaded all these as we left for Delhi. Is this not an answer to prayer and a demonstration of the fact that God, who held back all these disturbances until the conference was over, is in control?
Hyderabad Seminar (South)
There were 41 participants who learned much about the doctrine of eschatology or future things! One pastor said, “My father who is a senior pastor could only teach about the second coming of Christ by referring to His appearance in the clouds and didn’t proceed further from there but now we are able to understand the chronological order and events of second coming – we are so blessed.” There was a keen interest in most of them as they not only listened to the topics of the final section of Bible doctrine survey but also asked questions.
It is my honor to present this brief report to show my gratitude to the Lord Who allowed these Conferences to take place and to express appreciation for the support of your prayers. Without these, our short term mission trips to India for the 9th consecutive year would have been futile. My heart is filled with thankfulness to God for His great faithfulness and appreciation toward each of you for your faithfulness. The equipping of pastors in India and Nepal continues! Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and financial support that made these Spring 2012 STN Conferences possible!
Lucknow Seminar (North)
There was a unique challenge at this conference due to temperatures as high as 113! Due to the heat, we adjusted the schedule to move the afternoon sessions to late evening; this change was helpful to everyone. The teaching was eye opening for many and insightful to all! One participant said, “I was struggling with the topics of the Lord’s Table and Baptism but I am now going back home without doubts.” Another participant testified saying, “I am from a tribal community which is known for lack of understanding and knowledge but I am so blessed to be here in the seminar to understand so many truths.” Two of the participants are now reaching out to another state in India to teach the BTCP courses and also desire to partner in ministry in Nepal. A couple of the pastors were pleading with us to visit their areas to start BTCP courses.
Future Plans for Suresh Mathews
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.