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Nagpur is a very large town, situated right in the
center of India. It is equidistance from all the four sides - from Delhi
(north), from Calcutta (east), from Madras (south) , and from Bombay (west). It
is famous for oranges, which are exported to other countries.
Nagpur is also the religious belt. It has the
Headquarters of R.S.S. (Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh) - the fundamentalist
staunch Hindu organization which believes in Hindi (national language of India),
Hindu (religion), and Hindustan (land of only Hindus). Apart from them, we have
other Hindu sects, Moslem organizations,Buddhists,Parsis (Zoroastrians), Jains,
Sikhs, and other religious groups.
All mainline Christian denominations are also in
Nagpur, totalling about 110 at present. Most powerful ones are the Roman
Catholics, the Anglicans, Presbyterians, the Methodists, and the Lutherans.
Charismatic and Pentecostals are also increasing fast, like World Missionary
Evangelism, Charisma Family Church, etc.
In India, church of Christ has a very new foundation,
which goes back to about 20 years. In the beginning, two places were opened -
Madras (in south India), and Delhi (in the north). South India congregations
have grown tremendously because a lot of effort and money was invested by the
American missionaries.
Today, Madras has a Bible College, NATIONAL BIBLE
COLLEGE; a primary and a secondary school, and other vocational training
facilities. These give a strong base to the church for future development and
the building up of the local congregation. The Madras congregation has about 400
members and three worship services are held on Sundays.
In the north, Delhi was opened up at the same time like
Madras, but it could not develop much. It remained mainly a publishing house,
printing tracts and other literature, and distributing it to other people and
organizations. Even the number of the congregation is about 40 to 50, it is
believed.
The main reason was that the north India has not been
receptive to the Christians, more specially from Europe or America. They are
looked down upon as CIA agents, and the colonialists, who are trying to spread
neo-colonialism, in the garb of being Christian missionaries, through the means
of colonizing the minds of the Indians. They have learnt lessons from the
British history that flag followed the trade and religion. The north is very
staunch Hindu, as well as staunch Moslem, and Sikh. That is where you hear of
many riots and loss of life. South has been relatively peaceful, because all
foreign intrusions into India has been only through the north. So, the north
Indians are very much skeptical about the foreigners of any origin . Given this
background, there is a great need of preaching the gospel in the north. India
has 14 different officially recognized languages. South has only 4 major ones -
Tamil, Telegu, Malyalam, and Kannada. Tamil speakers are in majority, found in
Madras and surrounding areas. The Bible College in Madras is also conducted
either in Tamil or in English. Majority of people of South India understand
English. HINDI is the national language, but the south has always been reluctant
to learn and speak it, being the language of the North. Thus, linguistically
also there is a great division between the north and the south.
NAGPUR is a centrally-placed town in India. It is the
third green town of India, with a moderate climate, situated in the State of
Maharashtra, the most developed State of India. The population is about 5
million. Marathi is the language of this State, but people also know and speak
HINDI as it is similar to Marathi.
As stated earlier, there were several attempts by the
church of Christ missionaries to establish the Lord's congregation in this town,
but they could not succeed due to staunch Hinduism, and rival mainline
denominational Churches. It was in 1992, that a group of Christian missionaries
visited Nagpur. At that time, Dr. Raja J. Singh was the President of an Anglican
College, Hislop College, 150 years old, established by the Church of Scotland
missionaries. The College has today 4000 students and 300 staff with three main
faculties of Arts, Sciences and Commerce.
In 1991, Dr. Singh had separated himself from the
Anglican Church and had established his own indigenous Indian church, by the
name of "House of Prayer" (being the name found in the New Testament,
and spoken of by Lord Jesus Himself). This happened without the financial
support of any foreign missionary organization. Being a research scholar
himself, in his own Bible readings, he himself found that there were many
contradictions in the teachings and preachings of the mainline Churches.
Therefore, he separated himself from the mainline churches to impart the TRUE
Biblical teachings to the people. For doing this, his family and himself had to
pay a very big price. The Anglican Bishop of Nagpur and the Nagpur Diocesan
Council removed him from the post of the President of the College. He was left
alone without any means of livelihood, only with the Gospel and the Lord. But
the Lord has kept him going ever since.
As stated earlier, in 1992, a group of Christian
missionaries visited Nagpur and they heard the above story from the local
Christians, that the President of Hislop College, Dr. Raja J. Singh, became a
belligerent against the Anglican Church in India and established his own
congregation. These missionaries got excited to meet him. Thay came to his
residence, at 41, Red Cross Road, Civil Lines, Nagpur. They listened to his
theological arguments as to how he found flaws in the Anglican teachings and
practices, alongwith other mainline churches. They found that his own
re-searches from the Bible were similar to what the churches of Christ preached,
except for a few issues, like the non-use of instrumental music in worship,
offerings to be taken only on Sundays, Lord's Supper to be taken ever Sunday,
and a few others, about which he had not gone in much depth.
However, with a three-day session of in-depth Bible
Study with these missionaries, he got convinced on the abovementioned Biblical
Doctrines and corrected himself. He and his family obeyed the Gospel and became
Christians in the "true" sense of the word. Since then, Dr. Singh
started the preaching of the Gospel according to the Biblical teachings only,
renamed the congregation as the NAGPUR CHURCH OF CHRIST, started having Worship
Services on the Biblical pattern. Gradually, in a period of about two years,120
people obeyed the Gospel who are currently on the roll of the Lord's church.
The church conducts Bible Study classes on Thursdays
and Ladies' Bible Class on Fridays. In India "House Prayer Meetings"
are very popular. So, every week, house meetings are held in one of the member's
house.
II. PROPAGANDA AGAINST THE LORD'S CHURCH
In 1993, International Preachers' Seminar was held at
Nagpur, organized by the Nagpur church of Christ. Preachers of the churches of
Christ from all over India,and abroad, attended this seminar. There were over
200 preachers who attended this 3-day long seminar. Dr. Singh also read a paper
on Romans chapter 1. In his comments, he talked about the teachings of Apostle
Paul. At one juncture, he explained about the Catholic church which sparked off
a great controversy and created high tensions in Nagpur. All the Roman Catholics
became against Dr. Singh. The media also gave it a wide publicity with the
remarks that "Dr. Singh says Catholics were not true Christians".
There were big demonstrations by the Catholics and other denominations in front
of his residence. The Government started Central Intellgence investigations
against him and accused him that he was trying to spark off the Third World War
! All that went on for a couple of months but, being a true Christian, the Lord
was always with him and his family. Nothing adverse happened either to them or
the church .
III. ESTABLISHMENT OF CONTACTS WITH THE LORD'S
CONGREGATIONS IN THE U.S.A.
Later, in 1993, the Preacher of Belgrade church of
Christ, Montana, Mike Shrader, came to India, alongwith Mark Morgan (now Dr.
Singh's son-in-law). In Madras, they heard about the Nagpur church and wanted to
meet Dr. Singh and the family. At that time,their eldest daughter, Kim Lolita
Singh, was studying in Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India, in her
last year. When they visited Nagpur, Mark liked Dr.Singh's daughter, and after
returning to the U.S. sent a proposal to marry Kim. Since all the children were
born out of India, they did not find it strange to marry a foreigner. Kim also
agreed to marry Mark. After completing her studies, Kim was invited to the
U.S.in July 1993 by Mark and, later, she married him in September 1993. Mark and
Kim, later, invited my wife, Indira, to visit the U.S. in Sept 1994, when their
first child and our granddaughter, Lolita Renea Morgan was born. In June 1995,
the second daughter, Rajni Nadya Singh, a Biochemistry graduate from Nagpur
University, and I visited the U.S. Rajni, later, married the cousin of Mark,
named Travis W. Keil, on April 06, 1996. in September 1995, Rajesh Adrian Joyce
Singh, the only son of Dr. & Mrs. Singh, came to the U.S.for studies.
Currently, he is doing Business Management Studies at York College, Nebraska.
IV. ROADBLOCKS TO THE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE
CHURCH AT NAGPUR
The Church of Christ in Nagpur is growing
slowly, because it faces many hardships, which are stated below :
1. LACK OF TEACHING AND PREACHING MATERIALS IN HINDI
AND OTHER LANGUAGES OF INDIA :
Dr. Singh himself has written a few tracts in Hindi,
and translated others from English into Hindi, but financially the church is
handicapped. He translated Charles Scott's pamphlet in Hindi titled "Things
Eternally Important". He further translated the book of Leroy Brown titled:
"Why I am a Member of the Church of Christ". It is under print now.
Most of the material which is received is in English language, which the local
people do not understand well. All these are to be translated into Hindi or
Marathi, so that they could read and understand them. Therefore, the main need
of the church is to raise enough finances, to engage someone on a fulltime work
of translation of the materials in local languages, and then print them.
2. ACCREDITED HINDI LANGUAGE BIBLE COLLEGE :
This is the greatest need not only of the Nagpur
church, but also for the whole of North India. As stated above, there are two
church of Christ Bible Colleges in Chennai (Madras), in Tamil and English
languages. The people from the North do not go there, as they speak Hindi, and
do not know Tamil or even English. Since 1995, the efforts are being made by the
Nagpur church to raise funds for establshing a duly accredited Hindi-language
Bible College for the whole of North India, but no success has been achieved
since no one seems to understand this cause of the people of North India, that
there is a desperate need for a Bible College, where instruction can be given in
Hindi, and properly-trained preachers could be produced for whole of North
India. We need someone to take up this project, financially.
3. CHURCH TRANSPORTATION:
This is another requirement of the church. All our
members are middle class, lower middle class, and poor people. They are
financially weak but spiritually strong. They cannot afford even the bus fare
for two sides for the entire family. In India, an average family has about 5 or
6 members. The per capita income is very low. Some people earn as low as US$
20.00 per month, which is barely enough for the maintenance of their family.
They cannot have even two meals a day. Therefore, most of the familes do not
attend the church regularly, because they cannot afford the bus or cab fares for
the entire family. The Nagpur church has been looking for some donors, who may
be willing to donate a mini-bus to the church, which can be used to pick up
people on Sundays for worship and drop them back. Hope, the Lord will hear this
prayer one day.
4. CHRISTIAN SCHOOL :
There is only one church of Christ school in Madras. It
is a perpetual source of income for their congregation. But, in whole of North
India, there is no Christian School. The church needs a donor for making an
initial investment to start the school, where Christian teachings could be
imparted. This may also bring in some income to make the church to stand on her
own feet, financially. The entire project to start a Christian school for whole
of North India needs an investment of about US$30,000.
5. PRINTING PRESS :
Since the translation and printing work is perpetual,
alongwith a Bible College, it will be cheaper to establish a printing press
affiliated with the church. Apart from doing the church work, work can be taken
up from outside too, which may give some income to the church for other
projects.
6. CHURCH BUILDING :
At present, the church does not its own building.
Currently, services are held in the residence of Dr. Singh's living room. Due to
the lack of a building , the church finds it difficult to increase the
congregation. Many peope do not feel that it is a proper church, since they are
used to denominational lofty structures. Secondly, the residence of Dr. Singh
belongs to the Anglicans, since the time he was the President of the College.
There will be a time in the near future soon, wen he will have to return this
residence to the Anglicans, and then the present congregation will face a
tremendous difficulty of conducting worship and other services. Therefore, a
church building is desperately needed. If a Bible College is built, with an
auditorium, the church could meet there on Sundays.
7. OUTREACH WORK :
Nagpur church is fully involved with the outreach work
within Nagpur District, and the surrounding suburbs and rural areas..During his
travels within India, Dr. Singh always make a point to preach the Gospel in
unreached places. He has been able to teach people in 3 towns of North India, in
the State of U.P. (Uttar Pradesh): Bareilly, Pilibhit, and Farrukhabad. However,
there is acute shortage of finances to pay salaries to the preachers in these
new congregations. There are some dedicated persons for the Lord's work, but how
to pay them, is our greatest problem? In order to survive, they at least need
$100 a month, each.
The above-written details give a brief history of the
beginning of the Lord's church in Nagpur and throws light about the progress of
the church in North India. The harvest is ready but we have no labourers, and no
finances, to reap this harvest. The church has been trying very hard to raise
some support, since 1995, but always failed. In 1996, a generous American
Brother raised about US$30,000 for the Nagpur Bible College, but, unfortunately,
te amount was hijacked by another organization for Andhra Flood Relief.
It is hoped that you have got the picture of the church
in North India. Please pray "without ceasing" for Nagpur Church of
Christ, and its needs, which the Lord should provide. If you wish to know more
about the church, or about any aspect of our activities, please do not hesitate
to contact us. We will be glad to hear from you and share our spiritual
experiences with you.
YOU ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE LORD AND TO US !