Ministries
Committed to enlist, educate, encourage, equip, enable, and empower
Asian Indian Ministries, Inc. is committed to enlisting, educating, encouraging, equipping, enabling, and empowering Indian nationals for evangelism and church planting in the Telangana and the Andhra States, South India, through US partnerships and participation of individuals, Sunday Schools, churches, networks, and foundations of similar like-minded organizations.
Watch our video presentation below or click here to read about our ministries.
Our Story
A ministry training center located in Hyderabad, India, provides a place for men and women’s training for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Men and women, usually married couples, are enlisted for training or recommended by other graduates, pastors, and local churches. The training consists of a 1-2 year program based on educational background. Students are trained in one local language (Telugu) so that they can go back to their villages to engage in evangelism and church planting. Men are trained as pastors and evangelists, while women are trained as seamstresses, an occupation which is sustainable and very stable given the many festivals in India that create a high demand for nice clothing. Upon returning to local villages, the women then establish “Sewing Training Centers”, where other women are taught to sew, and the men work together with their wives to start a church.
Each year about a dozen men and women train for ministry. To date, 100 people have graduated and are serving the Lord in various villages.
Sewing Center Training
After completion of Bible College training, couples return to villages to engage in evangelism and church planting. The wife gathers women in the community to teach them sewing for an hour every day, five days a week. During this training, she and her husband will play Christian songs and tell Bible stories as they share and discuss the Christian faith. In about 2-3 months, family and community members begin to notice some change in the women as a direct result of the training. After six months, a big graduation celebration is held with family, friends, relatives, and the entire community in attendance. Students receive their own sewing machines, a certificate of their training, and a Bible. By this time, a handful of people have become followers of Christ in that village. A new church community is born that generally consists of about 2-5 families or 10-15 adults. Thus, the center directors are the key players in giving birth to a new church that their husbands can serve as pastors.
Six hundred women have been trained as seamstresses. Each year, an additional four centers are established with 20-25 women in each class.
Medical Camps
In the same village, local male and female doctors conduct free medical camps. People are served equally and without regard for caste, creed, culture, and community. Services include health screenings, first aid treatment, and referrals for further treatment.
Sewing centers and medical camps are the major platforms to build bridges and relationships with men and women, boys and girls, young and old. A high success rate has created an increased demand. Now local and state officials are requesting these programs in their communities.
AIM holds about two medical camps every year.
Churches
The result of these efforts is the construction of a new church building in the community. Generally, this occurs within about 2-3 years after the start of a new sewing center. New believers are able to gather in their own building in a context in which Hindu temples and Muslim mosques dot almost every street corner. Once again, a steeple with a cross sends a clear message to the community of the presence of Christ in that place.
A dozen churches have been built so far. Plans are to add two new churches each year.