Churches in Trinidad Connect with Unreached People in India

AIMS News: Posted 6/1/2005

Off the coast of Venezuela, the island of Trinidad offers freedom of religion to all its citizens. Although the majority are Christian, "the Christian Church is very fragmented," according to Patrick Johnstone of Operation World. "A cross-cultural vision is lacking among most churches -- there is little cohesion with common spiritual goals, outreach or missions involvement" (1). With almost half the population from North India, Trinidad has the largest non-Christian community in the Caribbean. This year, some local churches are ready to make that change.

Since 1993, "Isaac" has had a passion to mobilize the Caribbean nations to reach others with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As the Caribbean Coordinator for AIMS, Isaac began working with a group of churches in Trinidad. In November 2004, the churches began to respond.

"When they learned about the many people groups who are still unreached with the Gospel, they began to financially support ministry in India," said Isaac. "One home group sent money to build a village church and is supporting national church planters working in India. Several others gave one-time offerings or began supporting nationals monthly."

In March, Isaac returned to Trinidad to lead a pre-Equipping for the Harvest seminar to introduce them to the AIMS training model and determine their interest in networking with us in the future. Leaders from several national organizations attended.

During a working luncheon, they decided to get a feel for how a partnership would operate. They chose to network together to brainstorm how they could reach people from Afghanistan. The exercise interested them.

Isaac plans to return in June to train them how to network, develop partnerships with each other, and adopt an unreached people group. During the training, he will also certify leaders to take the Harvest Connection seminar and train other churches throughout the island nation.

(1) Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk, Operation World: When We Pray, God Works, 21st Century Edition (Waynesboro, GA: Paternoster USA) 2001, p. 629-630.