India Harvest Network Goals

Conduct conferences to provide education, motivation and encouragement featuring speakers from India with a proven record of effective ministry.

Conduct pastors’ meetings, such as the breakfast held on March 17, 2012.

Conduct events aimed at young adults, such as Christian concerts. Participate in events such as the India Independence Day celebration held in Philadelphia each August.

Recruit churches, agencies and individuals as part of the India Harvest Network through the conferences, events for pastors and church leaders, and by providing speakers for churches and small groups, and by personal contacts.

Recruit, organize and prepare short-term mission teams with an emphasis on young adults to prepare and encourage the next generation in mission to India. A vision team traveled to India in November, 2011, to visit and select effective indigenous ministries as sites for team ministry, and a cost-effective, secure place to lodge team members. Among the sites selected were a Christian school established to rescue children from child labor exploitation. The school has 125 students and is growing each year. Other ministries selected were evangelism and church planting, medical ministry, micro-business, ministry to women with children, a foster home for children of Indian gypsies, whose parents had been driven from their camp by a violent mob, a leper colony, and a rehabilitation center for disabled and special needs young adults.

Provide a forum for the exchange of mission opportunities and ministries among churches and agencies.

Develop displays and materials to promote networking with India Harvest Network. (Two videos have been produced in India.)

Long-range plans include forming partnerships between churches in this country and newly established congregations in India to build church buildings, assist them in establishing ministries for women and children, and in establishing micro- businesses such as sewing. (Micro-businesses equip people near the church to earn a better living, which raises their standard of living, allowing them to see God’s love expressed in practical ways, and allows the church to become self-sustaining.) Historically, it has been found that these partnerships have contributed to the growth of churches on both sides of the partnership.