Uncommon Equations

How is it possible that 4 = 400,000? In every country around the world math is usually the same. I say that loosely knowing that many of us have experienced times when money or time or distance or weight seemed to be different to us than it did to others. Somehow in the deep recesses of my mind I remember hearing detail assignments of the next few weeks of my life and yet when I look at it now, the math has changed.

About 2 years ago the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association came to India and hosted a program called My Hope India. Their strategy was to train home cell group leaders who would invite neighbor families into their home for a meal and to watch and discuss one of the televised Billy Graham movies that was airing on local T.V. Recruiting about 250 coordinators who trained about 4-5,000 trainers who in turn trained about 500,000 cell leaders who turned around and invited friends and neighbors to be a part of the outreach. It was hugely successful. (Please understand that most of this information is from those deep recesses of my mind which can be prone to mistake)

As the success of this project grew and as the cell leaders began asking for other ways to reach out and continue this type of ministry Book of Hope realized the possibilities of reaching out to thousands of children through the same method.

So I'm drafted to go to India. Our job seems simple enough. Step in to take advantage of an already existing network and train a few hundred people to be trainers of cell group leaders. Let's see how this program works and get it rolling for an Easter launch. Then we'll reload and really push a big Christmas outreach. Wait a second, Easter is only a few weeks at the most away. Which is why we got here a lot earlier than we originally expected. Somehow days and calendars are different here as well.

I guess the next obstacle comes when you realize that all of the volunteers are not all in the same city in India. So during the next seven days we'll be traveling to six different cities and training over 1200 people. These people will turn around and train the cell leaders who will each invite about 10 kids into their homes for an Easter viewing of the GodMan animated movie. This is a 50 minute film set in an Indian context explaining the life story of Christ. It will be aired on National Television with the cell leaders there to distribute the Book of Hope to the children who attend their homes.

So how does 4 equal 400,000? When you consider that one is the number of our team here to do the trainings and the other number is the goal for cell leaders we're hoping to have trained by Easter. Now even if this number is only 100 or 200 thousand trained, if each of them invite 10 kids the potential to reach around 1 to 2 million children is possible. Yet when you realize India's population of children is around 450 million you quickly realize you're in an unending race to complete a task that only God can accomplish.

I apologize for the inconvenience of the numbers and amounts I've thrown in this post, but for some reason, in the deep recesses of my mind I keep telling myself this is all possible. Keeping me balanced is the knowledge there are people like you praying and supporting us. Even more comforting is knowing there is a God looking down on every one of the children who are waiting to hear about His love and purpose for their lives.

Thanks for reading...