CALCUTTA {Kolkata} -- Where do we even begin?

‎The first few days of my India trip have been spent in Calcutta, India which is a city of 16 million.  I flew from Grand Rapids to Detroit, 8 hours to Amsterdam, 5 hour layover, 8 hours to Delhi, India, 8 hour layover, and then nearly 2 hours to Calcutta. 

The traffic is incredible … how a gazillion cars can all maneuver here … it’s like ants streaming toward or away from a picnic.   

I have been at the GYI Forum listening to discussions and reports on church planting, movement building, and leadership development from around the world.  Today we take several hour bus ride only to then get on boats and take a several hour boat ride up the river to take part in church planting --- Indian village style.  I will be very much like the book of Acts lived out and experienced.

Here’s a brief snapshot of India today:

·         It is the second most populous country in the world, with over 1.21 billion people (2011 census),

·         One in six people on the planet live in India

·         India is projected to be the world's most populous country by 2025, surpassing China with its population reaching 1.6 billion by 2050.

·         India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% hovers below the age of 35.

·         It is expected that in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan

·         Only the continent of Africa exceeds the linguistic (2000 language groups), genetic and cultural diversity of the nation of India.

·         India is the most populous country of Sikhs, Hindus, Jains and Bahá'ís.

·         India contains the majority of the world's Zoroastrians (even ahead of Iran),

·         India is home to the third-largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan.

The following comments are from Steve Addison, an author on movements of God, on his observations of India.

·         Christianity is an Indian faith - Christianity made it to India during or soon after the apostolic age. There is good reason to believe it was the Apostle Thomas who brought it there.

·         There have been followers of Jesus in India for 2,000 years.  Today Christians account for less than 3% of the population, but they are directly involved in 20% of primary education; 25% of care for widows and orphans; 30% of work with the handicapped, AIDs patients and lepers.

·         In Calcutta we are told that the largest church is 4000 people. The second largest is 400 people.

 70% of India’s 1.2 billion people live in its 600,000 villages, the rest live in the 5,000 towns and 380 cities.  The question from a Christian perspective is … “What will it take to see communities of disciples multiplied throughout every village, town and neighborhood?”

 And that is why I’m in India this week … to learn what we can do to reach the people of India one person at a time.