India - Facts
- Country with 1.21 billion people
- The fastest growing nation in the world
- Over the last 10 years--an increase by 181 million people.
- About 2600 people groups and millions never heard the Gospel.
- More than 1600 languages and dialects
- About 25% of school-aged children are not attending school
- 72.2% of the population lives in some 638,000 villages
- Due to cast system about 300 Million are called the ‘untouchable' or 'dalits'
- Over 70% of people live with 1-2 dollars per days.
- 8 Indian states poorer than 26 poorest African nations combined according UNDP backed survey.
Why our main focus is North India?
We are mainly focused in North India and Nepal where Christians are less than one percent. Out of the 3.5% percent Christians in India, about 70% percentage of them live in South India. That's why North India is the most unreached place in the whole of India. Even though Christians do not have a strong presence here, the number of attacks on Christians is escalating. Presently, there are still thousands of villages and millions of people that have not been reached with the Gospel. It is estimated that there are more than 2500 unreached people groups. The vast majority of the unreached groups are found in the Hindi speaking areas of Northern India where the literacy rate is less than 60 %. The harvest is truly great.
Poverty
According to a UNDP backed survey of July 2010 there is more acute poverty in eight Indian states than in the 26 poorest African nations. Statistics indicate there are 421 million poor people in the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal while there are 410 million poor people in the 26 poorest African countries. None of these states are in south India. The new measure, called the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), was developed and applied by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) with the United Nation Development Program's support. Only Jesus can change this situation. Pray that the Lord may touch these states. HMU has ministry among 5 of the above states.
Reaching the Unreached
It is estimated that there are more than 2600 unreached people groups. The vast majority of the unreached groups are found in the Hindi speaking areas of Northern India. There are 28,000 postal code areas in India. Out of these only approximately 10,000 postal code areas have any evangelist or missionary working among them. Most of them are in the South and the East. A postal code area on an average represents a population of 35,000 and about 30 villages. Only 2% of mission efforts focus on Muslims who constitute over 13% of the population.
Nepal - Facts
Nepal is small country north of India located in the Himalayas. Population is about 30 million. The majority of the Nepalese people follow Hinduism and Christians are less than one percent. There are many mountains in this country including Mount Everest. We have 25 full time missionaries working in this country and many of them are in the mountains.