India Mission Update

I'm writing this newsletter around 4:00am. I have been up most of the night praying for the believers in India and our upcoming mission trip there and just felt the need to reach out to those of you who receive our newsletter to ask for your continued prayers as well.

Tonight I’ve been praying for the Christians in India who are facing on-going persecution and what many expect to be a much greater persecution in the future. I have read several online reports tonight with the details of how believers are being threatened, beaten, and arrested. We will spend a week of our trip in Hyderabad. Although this state is not controlled by the Hindu extremist party, there were around 40 hate crimes reported against Christians in this area last year. Please join me in praying for them.

Join me in also praying for the Hindus to whom we will be sharing the Gospel, that God will open their hearts to the reality of who God is and the truth of His Word. Every worldly religion is emptiness behind a mask—There will always be a void in the life of any person, regardless of what they believe and no matter how devoted they are to it, until they have the relationship with God through Christ that they were created to have. While we are in India we will be sharing a lot about how people are deceived from understanding the truth, how there is one Eternal God and Creator of all who knows them by name and created them for a purpose, how there is eternal life only through Christ and of course everywhere we go we will be sharing the story of the cross and the plan of salvation. We will be challenging the lost to give their lives to Christ and encouraging believers to reaffirm their commitment to the Lord.

Finally, I have been praying for those will become followers of Christ during our trip. Those who become Christians will undoubtably face pressure from friends and family. These people could lose relationships, jobs, benefits, and face suffering for their faith in Christ. In time, if persecution in the southern part of India heats up the way it already has in the north, some could even lose their lives.

While in India (February 1-19) we will be unashamedly proclaiming the Gospel in three areas: Hyderabad, Guntur and Chennai.

Our first week in Hyderabad we will be sharing in the city and surrounding areas, preaching in schools with 5th-10th graders and leading evening evangelistic services in different places.

We will then travel to Guntur city for two days where we will be training ministers during the day and leading open air outreach services at night.

Our final stop will be in Chennai where we will be sharing in schools during the daytime and outreach events at night both in the city and the surrounding areas.

We will also be sharing in churches in some of these areas as well.

A few final prayer requests in addition to the ones above:

(1) Please pray that we don’t face any obstacles that would hinder us from entering the country or that might hinder us in the mission that we have there. I recently heard about a U.S. pastor who was detained entering the northern part of India in October. He was arrested concerning the cash he was carrying into the country and he was specifically asked if it was going to be used to support and help Christianity. Last I heard he was going to have a hearing in December.

(2) Please pray for our main contact for this trip. He is a pastor from India who is currently living in the United States and serving at a church in New Mexico. He has let me know that he might not be able to join us on the trip because he is having trouble with his U.S. visa and is concerned about not being able to get back into the U.S. He was going to be our main translator. We have three other pastors that we’ll be working with in India but our preference would be that the Lord will work out these issues so that he can join us and help.

(3) Please pray for our health. We have had a head cold that has been running through our family since before Thanksgiving. I have been coughing for five weeks and it’s still not completely gone. Please pray for a quick resolution to any illnesses that we currently have and protection from sickness as we travel. My experience has been that after about 3 days in a foreign country that my body realizes that the time is different, the air is different and the food is different and I spend about 48 hours not feeling well. This doesn’t stop us from ministering but it can be miserable. In Mexico I once ate food without realizing that there was lettuce on it (which is high in water content and you always want to avoid any unbottled water in foreign countries like this). I spent a day feeling the sickness from that one and while we were in Venezuela in 2010, I became extremely sick for 24 hours, which to this day might be the worst I have ever been sick. Because of these experiences, I’m ask you to specifically pray that all five of us will be completely well the entire time that we are out of the United States.

(4) Pray for protection for our family. There are always risks when traveling internationally and sharing the Gospel. In Cambodia our van was stopped by a policeman carrying an automatic rifle who wanted us to pay toll on a public road. In Venezuela we entered the country through Caracas, which is probably one of the most corrupt airports in the world and had more than one unique experience there. But we belong to the Lord and we go where He sends us. We don’t have any great concerns for our safety on this trip but prayer is powerful and the Lord is great and mighty and He is a shield for His people.

(5) Pray for future opportunities: We currently have a 5-year visa and would like to be able to return and minister there again if the Lord leads. Please pray that we have wisdom about where to go and share internationally in the future. If the Lord leads us back to India, I know that He will prepare the way.

While we are in India we are going to talk to the pastors about ways that we can help them without being in the country. Through technology we have learned that we can minister in countries and provide ministry tools for them without ever even leaving home. Through videos, apps and websites we’ve been able to share the Gospel in over 180 countries in the past 5 years. A few years ago we advised on a project of creating an app for believers in one of the most persecuted countries in the world. If they are arrested and the police look at the app, it will appear to be a secular app but believers know how to access the hidden evangelism and discipleship resources inside. In today’s world, we no longer have to smuggle Bibles and literature across borders because through technology these resources can become easily available and can be easily shared.

The hard part is that because of the sensitive nature of the situation in India we can’t openly share what we have shared in this newsletter on our website or on Facebook. This makes it difficult to share prayer requests and to raise funds which is one reason that we appreciate your support so much.

Finally, we are still raising funds to pay for the India mission trip and some of the costs have increased from what we originally shared a year ago. While in India we will have costs for accommodations, in-country travel both by train and with paid drivers, rental expenses for the open air events, emergency insurance, fees for exchanging money and on and on. On top of all of this, as a church staff member, when I went on a mission trip, I always had a pay check when I came home. For a full-time evangelist, a day on the mission field is usually a day without pay with no guarantee of a paycheck when you return. The Lord knows what we need and our trust is in Him. God has a royal way of paying for His ministry.

If you would like to join us in sharing the cost for this mission, we would greatly appreciate your gift.

You can make tax-deductible donations online at www.threethirtyministries.org/give.

Or by mailing a check to:
330ministries
PO Box 7611
Moore, OK 73153

Your gifts allow us to continue sharing the Gospel.

And thank you to those of you who have already given generously to help us share the Gospel in India.

Jesus Lives!
Kolby King