Drick was an armed highway robber in the Garo Hills of northeastern India. Holding up trucks and buses was exciting and profitable. One evening while holding up a truck with a load of travelers he noticed one man holding a thin hand case. He snatched it quickly, expecting to get a good haul of currency notes. When he reached safety in the woods he excitedly opened the bag. There were no bank-notes inside—only a thin black book.

He was about to set fire to the book when a comrade stopped him. “Keep it!” he suggested. “It might bring you good luck.” Drick took it home and threw it on a shelf. Some days later he came home after a robbery to find his wife reading the book. “This is really interesting,” she shared. “You should read this.” He did. One day he came across the words of John 3:16. “God so loved the world, that he gave . . .” Does God love a thief like me? he wondered.

He began visiting Christian believers and asking Bible questions. Finally he was directed to Sen Marak, an Adventist lay member. “He reads the Bible all the time. He can answer your questions,” they assured him.

After one visit regular Bible studies were arranged. A strange sense of familiarity was on the edge of his consciousness as they studied evening by evening. Then one night Drick understood clearly. “We have met before,” he announced to Sen Marak. “You’re the one I stole this Bible from!” A few weeks ago he and his wife became some of the newest members in the

Southern Asia Division. Now a Bible has replaced the gun in the hand of Drick the highway robber.

The Southern Asia Division has four countries in its territory: Bhutan, India, Maldives, and Nepal. Bhutan and the Maldives are unentered territories. Nepal is officially a Hindu kingdom with a population of 25 million. Our 1,000 communicants there have full citizenship rights, but conversion and proselytizing are forbidden by law.

The population of India’s 32 states and territories has now passed 1 billion. Despite extensive family planning programs, it continues to grow at a rate above 2 percent or about 18 million per year. The Republic of India is the world’s most populous democracy and has chosen a secular polity. Religious freedom is guaranteed to all its citizens, including the right to propagate religious beliefs as long as such activity does not endanger law and order.

India is a deeply religious society. Respect for religious and family values is a high priority for a large percentage of the people.

A significant Christian community of more than 27 million people is an integral part of India’s society. These, however, are a minority of less than 3 percent of the population. This includes 350,000 Seventh-day Adventists. Christianity has been a part of India’s civilization since the days of the apostles. Christian educational, medical, and social service institutions are widely appreciated in the country. Christian believers occupy many positions of respect in government and professional circles.

Seventh-day Adventists began their work in 1893 and have developed strong institutions and a thriving church membership. The values held and taught by this movement are widely recognized and appreciated in Indian society. There is excellent responsiveness to the messages of the three angels in India today. The mission of the church is being energetically advanced by sons and daughters of the Indian soil. Adventist believers and church workers report an increasing responsiveness to the Adventist message and a deep moving of the Spirit among the people of India. The experience of answered prayer is a powerful force.

Answered Prayer
Soman Lakra of West Bengal was very heavy of heart. His wife had been on a bed of illness for 18 years, unable to speak. This Sunday morning he felt he could not go on another day with the heavy burden of her care. Many had prayed for her deliverance over the years, but she was no better. This day he groaned in spirit and cried out to God, “Lord, if You send a Christian to my home today to pray for my wife, I will surrender and become a believer. How can I go on like this alone?”

Meshack Benya, an Adventist lay member, woke up that morning with plans to visit the town of Garubayan for gospel work. But when he arrived at the bus stand, the bus to Garubayan had already left. He remembered a bus that went by another route. He boarded and sat down. But he was uneasy. He did not know why. He got off that bus. It left without him.

He then thought of Soman Lakra and his wife. He had not visited that home for some weeks. Why not go there for a few minutes and pray again for that seemingly hopeless case? He knocked on the door. Soman welcomed him with a broad smile. “God sent you here today. I am so worried about Ashir, my wife. She is in the bedroom unconscious.” Meshack knelt by her bed and prayed. During the prayer Ashir opened her eyes. “I felt something move in my body. I feel so different,” she whispered, the first words she had spoken in many years. Soman and Ashir are now new Adventists in India.

City Outreach
There is a major shift from a rural agrarian society in India to an urban industrial society. There are now 40 cities in the subcontinent with 1 million or more population. These include the six metros of Bombay (16 million), Delhi (15 million), Calcutta (13 million), Madras (10 million), Bangalore (5 million), and Hyderabad (5 million). India’s urban population is now more than 250 million.

I deeply appreciate the vision of Dr. M. E. Cherian, who served as president of the division for the first two years of this quinquennium before health problems brought about his retirement and untimely death. One of his many initiatives was to establish separate evangelistic regions for Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras. Already significant numbers of new congregations have been planted in both Bombay and Madras. Twelve new congregations were developed in 1999 alone in Bombay and 10 in Madras.

An important part of the division’s strategy for self-support and financial stability is the establishment of multiple congregations among India’s growing middle classes in the metros and larger cities. The nation has 3,700 towns and cities.

A combined initiative of the Quiet Hour, Amazing Facts, and It Is Written coordinated by Pastor Jim Zachary has encouraged North American pastors to take vacations in India and assist in city campaigns while there. They have perceived a great spiritual hunger among Indian Christians in the cities that they have visited. In several cities between 500 and 1,000 people have made decisions to become part of the end-time remnant. In three of these cities more than 1,000 have made these decisions.

In recent years several mainline Protestant denominations in India have formed united churches. These include such diverse groups as Baptists, Lutherans, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Anglicans. There is a lot of spiritual hunger that appears unsatisfied by this union. Bible truth has a great appeal to many of these people, whose rural congregations are as sheep without shepherds. Many report that pastors rarely if ever visit them and are not available for their marriages and funerals. They report that they are without spiritual instruction and hunger to understand the teachings of the Bible. Many of these flock to Adventist meetings at which Bible prophecy is taught and Bible truth unfolded.

Three significant Bible truths are appreciated by these people—adult baptism by immersion, the seventh-day Sabbath, and foot washing at the Communion service. When they learn these teachings from Scripture, many are convinced that the three angels’ messages identify the remnant church. Numerous non-Christians also show an increasing spiritual hunger and an interest in the teachings of the Bible.

In the five years from 1995 to 1999, accessions in Southern Asia were 140,000 compared to 55,000 in the previous five-year period—an increase of 154 percent. Annual accessions, which reached 1,000 per month in the early nineties, multiplied to a rate five times higher by the end of the decade.

The Maranatha Initiative
Many Indian Christians come from people groups that have been excluded from worship in Hindu temples for generations. A prayer hall, a house of worship, a community center is a felt need of great priority for such people. However, their economic status makes it almost impossible for them to construct a house of worship for themselves. Presently more than 1,700 congregations in our fellowship in India are without permanent structures for Sabbath worship.

Maranatha International, under the leadership of Don Noble, has established a regional headquarters in India and is working to help meet this need. During a recent 18-month period they have constructed 200 community halls for our believers in India to conduct community health classes, adult literacy programs, and religious instruction. We deeply appreciate this amazing accomplishment in such a short period. We’re thankful to the donors and the volunteers who have combined to make this happen.

Village Outreach
Donors of the Quiet Hour ministries have provided means for Indian Christian volunteers to live in villages for one year, give health instruction, and study the Scriptures with the people. At the end of the year a small house of prayer is also constructed for the new congregation of believers that is developed there. In the first two years of this program 150 new companies of believers were developed as part of the Global Mission thrust of the worldwide church. Scores of requests have come from neighboring villages that a similar work be done for their spiritual benefit.

Ten-Village Instruction Program
Since 75 percent of India’s people live in its 568,000 villages, and since Adventists believe that their message must go to every city and village in all lands, a new strategy was developed by John Willmott, vice president for church growth, and D. Padmaraj, an associate ministerial director. This strategy involves bringing the leaders and elders of 10 villages together for a Bible instruction program for several days. They are then encouraged to invite the gospel workers to hold Bible classes and public meetings for their relatives in the villages.

This is followed by teams of pastors and lay members conducting meetings in 10 villages simultaneously in a given area. Since many of the people in neighboring villages are related through marriage, this multiplies the impact as their relatives in several villages are making decisions to follow the Bible teachings. This has been a highly fruitful method of village outreach. D. Padmaraj reports that 400 new groups of believers were developed through this means in 1999.

Global Mission Initiative
Ten years ago the Global Mission initiative was launched by the world church. Headquarters staff identified those areas in which there were population segments of more than 1 million persons without any Seventh-day Adventist members. During the past five years Global Mission in Southern Asia has focused on 136 target areas. This was increased to 156 targets in 1999. The 312 volunteers working in this program have given almost 56,000 Bible studies and prepared 11,293 persons for membership. Eight hundred two new places were entered and 385 congregations established. One hundred thirty-one community centers were built. Maranatha International was heavily involved in this construction program.

Strength Through Institutions
The pioneers of the Adventist mission in Southern Asia worked diligently and wisely to establish publishing, educational, and medical institutions in these fields. Today we operate 12 hospitals, one publishing house, and 16 residential high schools in the major language groups.  In addition to this, Spicer Memorial College has served as the source of denominationally trained workers for our fields.

In the period under review three new colleges have been opened to provide the needed educational development for our army of youth. These include a management college at Surat in Gujarat, an arts college in North-east India at Jowai, Meghalaya, and a science and computer studies college under Bangalore University in Karnataka.

Andrews University has provided an off-campus program in Doctor of Ministry studies for our pastors through Spicer College, as well as master’s programs in teacher education and pastoral ministry. Southern Adventist University has provided extension campus programs at both Surat College of Management and Spicer College for baccalaureate programs in business management and a master’s in business management. In addition, more than 250 English-medium day schools enable the church to serve the general public in a highly appreciated form of Christian service.

A third school of nursing has been opened to serve the needs of North India at Ranchi in Bihar. Their first graduating class received their diplomas early this year.

During this period a new hospital building was constructed at Giffard Memorial Hospital, a 110-bed hospital, at Nuzvid in Andhra Pradesh. Funds were provided through North American Division Ingathering. This hospital was established in 1925. In the intervening years the staff of the hospital has been instrumental in planting 55 church congregations in the villages and towns around the hospital.

The Adventist hospital in Pune, directed by Dr. Philip Virathajenman, has developed a unique prayer ministry in the community that it serves. Scores of persons have accepted Christ and been baptized through this hospital-based healing and prayer ministry.

New Conferences Organized
As of December 1994, there was one organized conference in Mizoram. Now there are four more: North and South Tamil, Gujarat, and Khasi-Jaintia conferences in East Meghalaya.

We seek the prayers and support of the world church to help fulfill the great spiritual hunger of the multitudes in Southern Asia in time’s last hour.