Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, is situated on the coast at the north east of India, is the home to 14 million people. The city area itself is the home of 4.5 million of them (of which a third live in slums). The other 10 million or so people live in the surrounding suburban villages.

The city Churches here in Kolkata are doing ok, they do not have a hard time attracting support. By their very nature they are positioned in the most public area. One of the real weak spots in the Christian body is the villages, ‘outside the gates’ as some have called it.

There are a mass of small churches scattered across the landscape of Bengal. As I write this I have just returned from visiting the nearby Malda district, which at last count is the home of 68 house churches. These have been started in various ways, from a larger denomination outreach event to the more common: simple sharing of faith between one man and his neighbour. But all share the same fate. The are left to struggle in the wilderness largely cut off from the rest of the Christian Body.

In these areas it is a hard life for most pastors who on average earn around $30USD a month. No matter what country you come from that is not enough to live on, let alone trying to send your child to school. But yet many of them still walk each week to their neighbouring villages to share to love of Christ with more and more lost souls.

They meet in small houses and dusty school halls. Their fire’y hearts crying out from these dark, poor places for Justice to arrive, for Truth to be known and for Salvation in their communities!

This ministry recognises their valiant efforts and stands with them. We focus on supporting these small village churches who struggle for support among their poor neighbourhoods. With these men who simply proclaim, in this openly idolatrous nation, that there is only space inside the heart for one…