Indian Project
In a strategy discussion with our board over a year ago, two of our board members mentioned their interest in a particular church planter in India - C.T. Abraham. CT has planted churches successfully in Kerala state in South India, including the capital city. He also served in an executive role with Kerala Christian Mission - overseeing other church planters. Our board members had met him and were impressed with him. They believed he could come to New York and be effective here.
Brent Storms visited Rajan Ipe (director of Kerala Christian Mission) and CT in India last August. He, too, was impressed with CT's ministry, character and vision. Rajan has dreamed of seeing a new church planted in New York for some time. He generously endorsed the idea of sending CT here, as he considers him to be the most qualified of all the church planters he has helped.
We initiated the process of applying for a religious workers visa for CT. After several months of work, CT received a 5 year visa. He arrived here in New York on May 23rd and will be here through June 29th to investigate neighborhoods, make contacts and prepare to relocate his family. His family will return to New York with him in late July.
There are 500,000 people of Indian descent living in metro NY. Many of them are from CT's home state. Kerala is one of the most literate, highly-educated regions of India. Many of the people who have come to New York from Kerala are doctors, engineers, and managers. Initially, CT's target audience will be the newly arriving immigrants from Kerala.
The first new church will be started in Queens or Yonkers. Within three years from the official start date, the church should be self-supporting. The goal will then be to plant other churches to reach into the Indian communities in other areas in and around the city.
Claudio Divino, who planted a Brazilian church in New York with us in 1998, and currently oversees an additional new Brazilian church, will serve as a cross-cultural ministry coach for CT. Claudio is extremely qualified due to his own church planting experience and his current role as a professor of cross-cultural missions at Crossroads College in Minnesota.
While our initial goal is to plant a new church to reach the new residents from India, our dream is to see an "orchard" of new churches bearing fruit among all the people groups of New York!