“Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start
with what they know. Build with what they have. But with the best
leaders, when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will
say ‘We have done this ourselves.’”
― Lao Tzu
As the name of our ministry implies, our goal is to empower people. We are always delighted when leaders who’ve experienced the New Man, New Woman, New Life seminar decide they want to do another seminar, on their own. We empower them to teach the material themselves, to organize and put on the seminar and invite local couples to attend.
Next month, our partners in India are doing just that. We partner with Evangelical Fellowship of India, an umbrella organization of about 34,000 evangelical and Pentecostal churches. We’re thrilled to have them as partners. They invited us last year, we built on what they had, trained them to teach. And while they are doing much of the work themselves, they still need some assistance from us to cover the cost of putting on the seminar.
Our partners in India, Koki and Johnny Desai, along with Apokla Ben and Ben Longkumer, will be conducting two New Man, New Woman, New Life seminars:
October 9-11 in Manipur
October 13-15 in Assam
Manipur and Assam are small states in Northeast India, a region up between Bangladesh and Bhutan, Tibet, and China. Christians in India are a small minority and facing persecution from the “Hinduization” forces currently in power.
Carrie Miles and Donell Peck conducted a program in the same region last January, and the response was fabulous. During that program, we trained Koki and Johnny to teach the seminar, as it was obvious that demand was high for another presentation of the material. It is life-changing. People are very eager for the program.
The highly-interactive seminar is designed for 30 – 40 participants. The seminar in Assam will host 40 participants, but, Johnny Desai reports, “Manipur friends are coming in bigger number. We could not stop them and will have to accommodate” 60 participants there.
The total cost for both three-day long events is $4,500, which will cover materials, accommodations, meals, and facilitator expenses.
Do the math: it’s only about $45 per participant. The participants gladly pay what they can to attend the program, but cannot cover the whole cost of attendance, as this modest amount is about one-quarter of the average pastor’s monthly income. Most of the attendees at these two events will be pastors and their spouses, who will then take what they learn back to their churches, greatly increasing the impact of this small expense.
So we have an opportunity to help families in India understand what it means to have a marriage of mutual respect, equality, and compassionate love. For $45, you can help one man or woman change their understanding of Scripture, and change their marriage, their church and even their local community, for the better. For just $90, you can sponsor a couple. This investment in God’s kingdom will have a return in many lives in India.
The New Man, New Woman, New Life curriculum looks at what the Bible says about gender equality and reconciliation. But Empower is about much more than gender equality. We are about how gender equality makes good relationships and helps people with their own self-image. As a partner in Ethiopia observed, “Equality is necessary, but the real point is unity.” We have worked mostly in Africa, India, and Haiti, but what we have learned in these “extreme” environments has only made more clear the need in the United States.
To donate now, click here.