By Mark Ellis
A
man from the Korwa people group in Chhattisgarh state put his faith in
Christ after church prayers healed him. (Christian Aid Mission)
In one of India’s most remote areas, among one of its most primitive
tribes, Pratik* wandered aimlessly among the predations of the jungle
and the tangled muddle of his own mental illness, seemingly lost for
weeks at a time.
He periodically came back to his senses and returned to his wife at
their home in an area of Chhattisgarh, one of India’s poorest and most
illiterate states, according to a report by Christian Aid Mission.
For six years he fluctuated between sanity and insanity, wandering
between his home and the jungle and its perils. His wife feared for his
life.
This cycle might have continued indefinitely if a missionary named
Siddharth* had not been gripped with a passion: to reach thousands of
people groups in India yet to hear the message of salvation in Christ.
Siddharth began his outreach with the Gonds of central India, idol-
and nature-worshiping animists who suffer daily from hunger and poverty.
With the power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit, he and his team of
indigenous missionaries gradually saw Gond villagers’ addiction to
alcohol turn into zeal for the Lord, according to Christian Aid Mission.
Then he and his team went to unreached areas among the Sahu, Oravan,
Khadia, Kanwar Chamar, and Korwa people, and 50 churches were planted.
Former animists from the Korwa people group worship Christ in Jharkhand state, central India. (Christian Aid Mission)
One of the new converts among the Korwa was a friend of Pratik. This
new believer ran into Pratik early last year during one of Pratik’s
periods of sanity – a reminder of God’s sovereignty and providential
care.
“He heard about the Lord Jesus Christ through one of his friends, and
he wanted to know more about the Lord,” Siddharth told Christian Aid
Mission. Amazingly, Pratik walked 31 miles on jungle paths and dirt
roads to reach the Korwa church.
Once he was there, the power of the Word and the Spirit began to
touch Pratik’s heart and mind. The church surrounded him in prayer
and God moved powerfully to bring healing.
“The Lord delivered him from the mental illness, and he has become completely normal!” Pastor Siddharth exclaimed.
Pratik put his faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and he became a new person in Christ.
“After tasting the love and deliverance of our Lord Jesus Christ, he
started visiting the villages in a 15-kilometer radius and preached the
gospel, telling what the Lord had done in his life,” Siddharth reported
to Christian Aid Mission.
“Within six months he has planted five congregations in five
villages, and in a few other villages he has brought one or two families
to Christ. During my last visit to his village, the Lord enabled me to
baptize more than 50 Korwa people.”
In that area, more than 400 Korwa have come to Christ though the
ministry of Pratik and an indigenous missionary, one of the ministry’s
60 indigenous workers, he said.
The Joshua Project describes the Korwa people of India as unreached,
defined as evangelicals making up no more than 2 percent of the
population. The Korwa of India (they are also present in Bangladesh) are
1.02 percent “professing Christian,” and the percentage of evangelicals
is “unknown,” according to the Joshua Project.
“The Korwa are the most primitive tribal people in central India,”
Siddharth said. “As far as we know, no other mission is working among
this people group in this part of central India. Their villages are
usually on hilltops or covered with thick forest. They are animistic,
and they also believe in magic and witchcraft. Witchcraft plays a very
important role in their social life.”
Nearly all Korwa people, including some children, are addicted to
liquor made locally from rice powder and a jungle flower, he noted.
“We are the pioneers to work among them with a special concentration
on them,” said Siddharth, whose ministry also works in neighboring
Jharkhand state. “The Bhuiya people group is also unreached in the area
where we work. The Munda and Oravan people groups have strong churches
in three districts of Jharkhand, but in one district of Jharkhand they
are mostly unreached, and therefore we concentrate our ministry among
them.”
From September through November of last year, the ministry reached
4,050 people who had never heard the gospel in 135 villages; they were
from the Korwa, Gond, Bhuiya and Khadia groups, he said.
Of these people, 1,196 placed their faith in Christ for salvation and
seven churches were planted. During that period, 271 people joined the
fellowships and another 287 people were “ready to join the Lord’s fold,”
he said.
“There are so many young believers, both young men and women, who
have turned to Christ from the Korwa, Munda, Oravan and Bhuiya people
groups,” Siddharth said. “We teach them the Word of God and train them
in techniques of church planting in the mission field context at our
satellite school. We Praise God for what the Lord is doing through the
life and witness of these very simple new believers.”
*Names changed for security reasons
For more information about Christian Aid Mission’s work in India, go here
Source: Godreports