ATLANTA – As a child, Eddie Aldape always wondered what it would have been like to be a part of the early Christian church as new believers mushroomed and began meeting together.
Now as an adult, he and his wife Macarena are helping first-generation Christians in northern India set up churches, train pastors and address the needs of the Banjara people in the state of Maharashtra.
“When we tell them about God’s salvation, they just can’t believe it,” Eddie said. “They’ve never heard of this and they say, ‘I don’t know this God. How could he do all of this for me?”
“It’s rewarding to see new believers come to Christ who have just heard the Gospel for the first time,” he said.
The Aldapes, of San Antonio, Texas, serve as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel in India. They said they have witnessed church leaders shed cultural expectations about leaders.
“It’s really nice to see when these new leaders are committed to their new ministries and to being a true servant to their people and not expecting to be served themselves,” Eddie Aldape said.
The Aldapes, who live about 180 km (111 miles) southeast of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), have been serving in India since 2002. Much of their work aims to equip the church to minister to future generations.
“What keeps us going is if this is what has been done with the first generation of Christians, I can’t wait to see what is going to happen with the future with these children that are now growing up in Christian homes and in the children’s homes that we have,” Eddie said. “Many of them are going to be the pastors of tomorrow.”
But the extreme poverty of the Banjara people, regarded as one of the lowest classes in Indian society, makes it nearly impossible for them to support pastors or to cover the cost of leasing building spaces to worship.”
Part of the Aldapes’ ministry involves partnering with churches to provide financial support of pastors for three years at a time. The Aldapes now support four ministers who pastor 10 churches with a total of 400 members.
Most of the pastors in the Aldapes’ area have little to no formal Biblical training, so the Aldapes started a monthly leadership training program that also gives ministry leaders time to fellowship, pray and fast together. That effort led to establishment of the Banjara Christian Council of Maharashera, which helps Christian ministry groups coordinate their efforts. The Council held its first meeting in July.
Although there are evangelism schools in southern India, there are none in the Aldapes’ state. The Aldapes are working with other members of the Maharashtra Council to establish an evangelism school in their area so that pastors can receive training closer to home.
One of those pastors in need of further training is a young man named Manohar, who moved to Maharashtra from southern India, giving up his scholarship and pursuit of a master’s of divinity degree. His wife gave up her pursuit of an engineering degree.
“He went from having a bright future to making less than $100 a month and struggling,” Aldape said.
The Banjaras in northern India also need a translation of the Bible that reflects the mixture of languages that they speak. While there is a Bible translated into the Banjara language, it is based on the mixture of languages that Banjaras speak in southern India. Some of the southern Banjara words are not understood by or are offensive to Banjaras in the north.
Eddie Aldape hopes to make an audio recording of the Bible in the language that the Banjaras speak in northern India.
Aldape said there is a great opportunity to spread the Gospel in India right now, but fears that the government may impose new restrictions on foreigners in wake of recent terrorist attacks on Mumbai.
“India is a wide open mission field to be in right now,” he said. “We don’t know how long it will last. We don’t want to miss out on a great opportunity.”
CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.