Recent developments in medical science have given people the hope that they will live longer, healthier lives. Unfortunately, no matter how long and how healthy our lives turn out to be, we will all ultimately die. Last week Emmy Award winning actor James Gandolfini died at the age of 51. Whitney Houston, Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, Michael Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln all died relatively young. Other famous people (Betty White, Bob Hope) live to be 90 or older. The key to life is not its length but its depth. It’s not how many days we live, but how we live our days.
Consider the last words of some famous people just before they died: Winston Churchill said, “I’m bored with it all.” Queen Elizabeth I announced, “All my possessions for a moment of time.” By contrast, John Quincy Adams testified, “This is the last of earth! I am content.”
Charles Le Brun [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
At STN we are laboring to be obedient to the Great Commission (Mt. 28:18-20). Since none of us knows how many days we have left we are laboring to fully train men who will fully train men who will fully train men long after we are gone (2 Tim. 2:2). We know it’s not the length but the depth! That is why we are investing in the lives and ministries of church-planting pastors in India & Nepal. We have about 80 men who will graduate from our 5-year training program in March 2014. They are already active in full-time ministry but more than half of them still need financial support to be freed up to reach more people with the Gospel and plant more healthy churches. For $2 per day you could support one of these men so they can take the Gospel to unreached people.
Now that the training of these men is almost completed, STN is at a crossroads. We are getting requests from all over India & Nepal to train hundreds of other men. The STN International Board will be meeting on Saturday, July 6th to seek the Lord regarding the future of our ministry and where to invest our time and resources. Thank you for praying for the men who have been in training. Thank you for praying for each of the training conferences. Thank you for praying for the leadership of STN India. Thank you for praying for the leadership of STN International. Thank you for praying for God to abundantly supply the resources needed to equip and support more men. There is a combined population of 1.3 billion people in India & Nepal and most of them do not know our Savior. It is a privilege to work with you to reach them. It’s not how many days we live, but how we live our days. Thank you for living yours 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.