Living the Dream

John the Missionary - Taking the Gospel Overseas

John and Sarah have been married for nearly 34 years. They have three married children, three grandchildren, and their family also has a foster baby, Caitlin, that they are raising. Both John and Sarah are missionary kids: John in Argentina and Sarah in Kenya. They are growth group leaders and are on the counseling team. They help in leadership training, evangelism, and disciple-making. John is employed with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. He is the strategy coordinator over the Triangle where he mobilizes and partners with churches to reach the lost. Sarah’s parents had a little clinic in Nairobi and this experience has led her to study nursing and become a registered nurse. They talked about their struggles as parents and how their eldest son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and their second son was diagnosed with cancer at 10 months. This derailed John and Sarah and they started to question God. It was years later where they had actually come to a point where they thought that maybe the Lord was just asking for their obedience. The Lord used that experience to shape their characters and caused them to yield completely, and allowed them to grow in their marriage. They believe that that experience prepared them more for harder things later. John and Sarah also shared their experiences as missionaries in South Asia. John had the privilege of bringing together people from five or six different people groups who loved the Lord. He also brought in a music missionary and ethnomusicologist and they did a workshop to teach them to write songs in their own language with their own style. They coached their own teams and personnel on the field of what it looks like to involve churches more effectively. Sarah, on the other hand, used her knowledge as a nurse to implement health strategies to get into villages and to demonstrate the love of Christ. So she became the health strategies coach for their personnel to help more and more teams to do that in the fall.John believes that God is still calling people out to go and take the gospel overseas. There are many world religions that are working out their faith. And yet we as Christians have been given an incredible gift of grace by our salvation and grace. Recent research has shown that one of the fastest-growing segments of the Christian faith is among Asians because they are getting exposure now. John shared that one exciting thing for him is the opportunity to work with a lot of different churches from a lot of different ethnicities. He saw the challenge to go out to more churches of other languages and intersect with our traditional brothers and sisters. If you are in the Triangle area and want to contact John and his team, just click on this link____________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Living the Dream Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Living the Dream Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail GHI

Pastor Jeff - Christianity is Global

Pastor Jeff has been the pastor of Hilltop Church in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina for a whopping 33 years. He and his wife have 2 adult children. Pastor Jeff holds a Bachelors of Science from Southeastern Free Will Baptist College and a Masters of Ministry from the Seminary of Bob Jones University. He is the chairman of the board of the Free Will Baptist North American Missions. He is an avid UNC basketball fan. He's taught homiletics for 19 years. In 1995, he worked diligently to change the church environment and turn it into a missions-minded church. When he was elected as a pastor, he initiated the policy of allocating 10% of every dollar that comes into the church for the mission field. And this has been an ongoing practice ever since. In his 52 years of existence, Pastor Jeff watched the church in America come a long way in measuring diversity in the mix of blacks and whites and making some very tough decisions that they knew were honoring God. But they also knew these decisions were going to make people conflicted and even very uncomfortable. He talked about specific instances where diversity became a challenge for his church. But he was steadfast in not letting that become a conflict because he wanted a church where everyone was welcome. And they made a major change in the DNA of their church back in those days. He is a witness to the church coming a long way and lowering its resistance and its conflicts between blacks and whites. They are now advocating for the millions of foreign-born internationals moving into the US. Pastor Jeff really believes that God and his sovereignty are bringing them to the US absent to the gospel in order for them to become ambassadors for the gospel; so that the church of the USA would partner with them and fulfill in the great commission. We can do a much better job in fulfilling the great commission together than we would apart. The dream is for every pastor, every church leader in America, every believer, to have a very strong brother or sister in Christ of another nationality, another skin tone, another language. Pastor Jeff believes in reaching every people group with the Gospel and his church are committed to doing their part. He thinks we can always do more. But his ultimate desire is to propagate the gospel to the world, and that's something that drives him. Christianity is not American. Christianity is global. It's the world. It's why Jesus came and he wants Hilltop Church to reflect that. He does not care what the color of a man's skin is. He does not care what language he has. According to Pastor Jeff, if he has the power to tell that person about Jesus Christ, he would want to tell him and the world about Jesus Christ. ____________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Living the Dream Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Living the Dream Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail GHI

David Opoku part two | Returning to Ghana to Spread the Gospel

Immediately after realizing his purpose was to take the gospel back to Ghana, David jumped on a flight during a break at school and got a speaking engagement at his high school where he was kicked out of a student. He prepared his talk on the plane on the way over, but as soon as he started speaking, he felt the Holy Spirit take over. He gave a gospel presentation, and 300 out of 1500 students said they wanted to give their lives to Christ.One week later, he got an opportunity to speak at a Catholic school. He was just supposed to give a motivational speech and had about 15 minutes to talk. At around 7 minutes in, he felt the Holy Spirit tell him he was not a motivational speaker, and he used the remaining time to share the Gospel. Six hundred eighty students decided to give their lives to Christ. With tears in his eyes, he realized he had found his calling.After returning from his trip back to Ghana, he felt discontentment about his life in America that he knew he was called to be a missionary. He knew he needed to get back and preach the Gospel to students who were living just like he was living before Jesus changed his life.After years of ministry in Ghana, this one man who came to the US and received the Gospel has gone back to his home country of Ghana and the seed that was planted in him has produced over 60,000 people in Ghana calling Jesus Lord.But after seeing so many decisions, he felt like God was calling him to get involved in discipleship. For many, the decision to follow is easy, but discipleship is a harder journey. So he set out to this task. Pastor Kevin and David discuss why there is no one better to share the Gospel with people than people who are similar to them. Walmart went to Germany to set up Walmart, and it didn't work? Why? They did it the American way. The moral of that business case is that they should have relied more on the locals. You've been blessed to be a blessing. The proper response to the Gospel is generosity. We have an opportunity to respond in love and grace the same way God has treated us."You cannot tell how many oranges are going to come out of one seed." - David Opoku____________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Living the Dream Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Living the Dream Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail GHI

David Opoku part one | Coming to America to find the Gospel

David Opoku is a native of Ghana. He and his beautiful wife have five lovely children. David holds a master's in business administration from UNC-Chapel Hill. He attends Elevation Church, the Morrisville campus. He works at Ecodyst as the marketing and business development manager, he is known for his million-dollar smile and his favorite saying, "it is well." When you meet him, you want to make sure you ask him about the pet lion he had as a kid.David grew up in a neighborhood in Ghana that was very underprivileged, most of the people in his neighborhood were prostitutes and drug dealers. He went to church but was not a Christian. He got kicked out of high school and somehow made it to college. His first three years of college he only went to church once, and that was to chase a girl.He moved to the US after college and had big dreams and $150 as a camp counselor. David shares his incredible journey of his early days in the US. Achieving dreams he felt were unattainable in Ghana like owning a car and getting a job. He moved to Atlanta and described the way he felt was in the party mode, like a freed slave, he was working and making thousands of dollars. Getting his permanent residency ended up taking seven years. It came to the point that he knew it was only God who could do it. He had big plans after he got his greencard to travel and party. There was a part of him that realized it was God's way of calling him to get right with him, but another part of him just wanted to keep partying.One night in 2008 he was sitting in a night club and he heard a voice ask "Why do you keep coming here?" He prayed a prayer at the bar and asked God if he got him home safely he would give his life to him. He went to sleep drunk, but for some reason he knew he was born again. He poured out all his liquor felt completely changed.The next time he was up to get his green card it was so easy. Looking back he feels that it was God's plan to keep him from getting his green card until he gave his life to Christ to help save him from himself.He found a church in Atlanta and became "on-fire-for God" and his church was big on finding your purpose. So he asked God to reveal his purpose in life."When I look in my life, where I would have ended up if I had stayed in Ghana versus being here, I knew God brought me here to become a born again." - David Opoku____________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Living the Dream Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Living the Dream Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail GHI

I-Sah Hsieh - Step Beyond Simply Believing

I-Sah Hsieh was born in Taiwan and is a preacher’s kid. His father was a pastor and they moved to Cary, North Carolina when he was just 5 years old to find a better life. His father’s name in Chinese means “God will provide” and this is exactly what I-Sah’s parents made sure of even if they had to work multiple jobs in order to provide for I-Sah and his siblings. His parents are now missionaries in China. I-Sah is married and has 5 beautiful children - 1 boy and 4 girls. He met his wife while he was touring with a singing group and married her 4 years later. I-Sah worked with the United Nations for 12 years and is currently employed at SAS as a program manager for data. I-Sah talked about how thankful he is with his work because he can use technology to help people. He was able to bring analytic resources and people alongside amazing causes such as gender equality, poverty, environmental issues, and other causes that work towards making the world a better place. I-Sah was able to help them with the important work that they do by giving them insights based on data and doing some analysis for them that they otherwise do not have time for or could not afford. He remembered how the Lord asked him to open his home and how he wrestled with the idea at first. But he eventually realized that it should not be a hard decision if he trusted and loved God as much as he proclaimed that he did. It has been 3 years now and he has kept his home church’s door open for people from different races and nationalities. If he initially did not want to give up his comfortable lifestyle, he is grateful for the realization that he would rather be where God wanted him to be and where God was than stay in the comforts of what he knew. I-Sah talked about the beauty of seeing God reach people in their own language and space. And how he has been seeing God ask people to step beyond just being believers. And how one other thing that churches need to do differently is to adapt to change. When you bring a lot of people from different cultures, there will be change. And that’s not always bad. In fact, that is so good. These are people who have seen true persecution, true life, and society without the Lord. And they appreciate and worship so much more because of that. We just need to be open to what God would want to do differently. Meet I-Sah:  I-Sah is from Kaohsiung, Taiwan. He grew up in Missouri, lived in CA, moved to NC in 2007. As part of his job with SAS Institute in Cary he has been one of SAS’s representatives to the United Nations where he works with a task force on their 18 global goals. He is the Program Manager for SAS's Data for Good projects. I-Sah is a pastor’s kid. His Taiwan national parents are missionaries in China right now in the midst of the Coronavirus. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as they share the hope of Jesus in the midst of real human need. I-sah and his wife have 5 children. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. In addition to his corporate life I-Sah also pastors Steadfast Bible Fellowship (a home church) in Cary, North Carolina. He is building a house with his family. He says it's been 3 years of swinging the hammer on the weekends.  I-Sah says he would travel the world just to eat and collect musical instruments. ____________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Living the Dream Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Living the Dream Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail GHI

Pastor Matt on Growing the Global Movement of God

Pastor Matt lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife Sarah and their 2 kids. He has degrees from the World Harvest Bible College and Southeastern University. He became a youth pastor right out of college but was then recruited by ExxonMobil where he worked for 10 years. He had always felt the calling for ministry and felt that call even stronger when he heard Pastor Steven Furtick on Twitter. He knew that he wanted to be a part of the Elevation Church. So he quit ExxonMobil, uprooted his life, and moved to Charlotte, and has been a part of Elevation Church for 9 years. He got the opportunity to come back to Raleigh and has been the outreach pastor and associate campus pastor. Pastor Matt is a member of the Elevation Church’s launch team and has been instrumental in growing the church. God took Pastor Matt through a transition in order for him to be a part of the great commission, ministry and a worker of the Gospel. He started the eFam group which currently has more than 30,000 members all over the world. The eFam uses social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube as an opportunity to grow the global movement of God. They set up watch parties for people all over the world to make them feel like they are part of the church. This is especially important for those who feel like their churches are not there for them, or they are in a place all over the world where the Christian church is not available for them at all. Pastor Matt is seeing a lot of people not just being saved, but also being baptized.Outreach has always been his bread and butter from the very beginning. Pastor Matt talked about Love Week where volunteers serve for 1 hour every week. To date, they have already served 100,000 hours to communities all over the world. They looked to see who has a passion for the lost, the homeless, and see if they are not profitable. So they go and help them, work alongside them, and try to grow with them. 12% of every $1 is given back to outreach and this makes the Elevation Church almost somebody’s budget line as they can come in and help them financially as well. As a result of the Love Week activities, Global Hope India (GHI) has been able to provide thousands of hygiene kits to communities in India. All of that has been given in unconditional love and done with no strings attached. This is an expression of the Lord Jesus Christ and is something that they continue to love and grow. Seeing thousands of foreign-born internationals moving into the community is a great opportunity to see God at work. Just bringing people from all around the world that may have very limited exposure to Jesus and see them become an ambassador for the Gospel by the grace of God has been an amazing experience for Pastor Matt. Every year, he picks a word. And his word for 2020 is “Awaken”. He feels like he’s awakening a lot of gifts that God has put inside him. He feels the burning passion to take the Gospel out so that the people far from God will be raised in a life with Christ. That’s what he wants to do and will continue to do whatever it takes. ____________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Living the Dream Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Living the Dream Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail GHI

Ayo on the Value of Survival Faith

Ayo’s immediate family is originally from Nigeria. He went to the United States in 2003 to obtain his masters in civil engineering at the University of South Carolina. His wife, whom he met while they were in college in Nigeria, went to the United Kingdom to study her masters studies as well. When she finished grad school, they got married and went back to the United States. They believe that meeting Pastor Kevin was divine providence. Ayo was no stranger to Sunday schools as his entire family went to church on Sundays and he was brought up in a Christian family. But his personal relationship with Jesus Christ did not start until the final year of high school when he got invited to a revival, and he began to understand and accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Going to the United States in 2003 helped him grow his relationship with Christ. He joined a fellowship on campus where he formed relationships and made friends. This helped build a good foundation for his faith. He believed that God has chosen to plant him and his wife in the United States so they can reach out to other foreign-born internationals. They are more responsive to Ayo because they share similar experiences. He has experience with the word “foreigner” that a lot of Americans do not have. The bible makes it clear to welcome the foreigner. And you can’t appreciate that if you’ve never made yourself a foreigner. God took Ayo from his homeland - Nigeria - and made him a foreigner for the gospel. So that he can be sensitive to other foreigners. And he is bearing witness to God’s sovereign work of fulfilling the great commission to reach other foreign-born internationals and bring them closer to Christ. Ayo’s passion has been to reach people far from God, especially foreign-born internationals. He believed that God brought them to the US to go full-throttle on their faith and take advantage of the good opportunities they have. Whereas if they were in another country, they were praying for basic things - food, shelter, security. But when they already have those here in the United States, that’s the time to go for something bigger and exercise their faith. Looking outwards instead of inward has allowed him to see the hands of God move in a greater way. This enabled him to feel fervency for the Lord. Ayo and Pastor Kevin talked about how blessed they are to be part of a church that reflects Revelation 7. Where we read that in front of the throne there was the vision of a crowd of people that no one could count. It was endless. And there was representation from every tribe, every tongue, every nation, all worshipping Jesus. That’s what Heaven is going to be. Anyone and everyone. ____________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Living the Dream Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Living the Dream Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail GHI

Pastor M from Mumbai, India on Bridge Events

Church planting is the most effective means of evangelism. The best way to start a local church planting is through a bridge event. A bridge event is a valuable way of spreading God's word and love. A bridge event is incomplete if church planting is not considered as one of its end goals. Using bridge events, we can reach out to places that a typical church could not, opening doors and opportunities while creating and improving connections with the community. Even in your current church, bridge events could be held for the community of foreign-born internationals near you. A church that simply says “we welcome you” but does nothing is not the best expression of the gospel. Bridge events will help in reaching out to the community within arm’s reach. An example of bridge events is free medical clinics. After registering, we ask permission to pray with them while checking their weight and height. From past experiences, people usually agree to prayer. By asking permission to pray with them, we do not hide our motive but that is not our sole agenda. Regardless if they agree or not, we will still continue with our medical check-up because we love them unconditionally. Actually, we don't need their permission to pray for them. We pray for everyone! The permission simply allows us to praying with them. This clinic points them to Jesus Christ and we are there to watch over them. We do not hold theological lessons but simply open the door that will lead to Jesus Christ out of their own free will for He has said “I will build my church” not “you will build my church”. Salvation belongs to Our Lord only and we are here as witnesses. Bridge events connect us to the community because it is a holistic approach. This is a solid example of both “People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care”, and how actions speak louder than words. Of course, we would still include evangelism in the events but the important point is to ensure that there is a balance between preaching and caring. We love, we care and we evangelize. The best kind of bridge event is the kind that reminds us of a railroad: two parallel lines that must be balanced at all times. If both lines are not balanced, the train will not be able to go through. It is the same with bridge events. We must maintain a balance between proclamations and demonstration of God’s love because that will be what will be engraved in the minds and hearts of the community for which we are caring. As Pastor M has said, the church is the epicenter of God’s love on this earth. His calling is the creation of a church without walls. Just like all the help Pastor M has done to the Red Light district of the city of Mumbai. They had spent years supporting and providing aid to the people of the Red Light district. They were mistrusted at the beginning but they persisted, they showed the unconditional love that God has through their actions. Now, many people in the Red Light district can be seen as part of a church with Pastor M as the spiritual authority of their life. Through hard work and love, they were able to plant a church in the Red Light District of Mumbai.   Just as Jesus Christ established rapport with the people, so too we need to interact and deepen our bonds with the community. Some believed Him and some did not. He loved and died for those who have accepted Him and, just as equally, He loved and died for those who have rejected him. This is the same with our unconditional love. Not all may accept Jesus Christ but we will care and love them regardless. We are all equal in the eyes of God and The Church is God’s body on this earth. This would mean that these bridge events are our way of showing Christ in action.____________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI. More about Living the Dream Podcast. Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Living the Dream Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin. GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail GHI

Vibhu Kapoor on Patiently Waiting for Partnership

Pastor M’s greatest dream is the creation of the City of Hope, a city that accepts all - even the abandoned and the people rejected by the world. It is here in this City of Hope that all can experience the love of God and their life will be transformed for the better. His vision of this dream is that this will be everyone’s home, a place where everyone is welcomed to receive His grace and blessing.He started his dream by building a children’s home in 2002. In 2006, he started to plant the seeds for his dream of the City of Hope. Looking for the land where the foundation could be built, he learned that an acre of the land that he felt was the one, cost as much as $60,000. The week after, he met Mr Vibhu Kapoor. It is nothing short of divine providence that Pastor M was able to meet with Mr Kapoor during a time where he had been unsure of how he could make his dream come to fruition. He strongly believed that the Lord had connected them, for such a meeting would not have normally happened. On the 10th day of November 2009, they met on the streets, which was a blessing to Pastor M and his team. They looked at different properties, saw different lands until they returned to the very same land that Pastor M had originally chosen and Mr Kapoor donated 10 acres of land for their dream. That 10 acres turned to 30 acres. Now, it is 9,000 acres and has become the seed of hope to become India’s premier smart city.It is true that with patience and unwavering unconditional love, the seed of hope has begun to bloom in Khalapur. Their clean water project had gone through lots of hardship, going as far as 5 years. People were reluctant to accept anything, not even toys for the children. But still, Mayor M, Mr Kapoor, and their team persevered. They remained patient and gave their unconditional love. The pipes needed for the water filter may have been sitting unused for years but they were accepted because of the aid they provided and through the health camps they have organized. They were accepted because they patiently waited for God’s timing. This was a partnership between them and the people of this land. Their patience paid off because the people eventually realized - “It is when you stayed that we knew that you really cared about us.”Many would have left, would have returned to their homes, and just tried again later but they didn’t. They stayed to help and provide support. And it is because they stayed that the clean water project became a success. Now, the city of Khalapur has easy access to drinkable water. No longer do they need to travel far to get water from the river. And this is all thanks to the partnership they had built with the community. It is because of their patience and unconditional love. It was God’s wish that they all come together and they nurtured that wish, letting it flourish and bloom with care.   “People don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care”Check out the Khalapur Smart City Project:http://khalapursmartcity.com/smart_city.html
https://youtu.be/bzC8YoI_zyA 
On the episode Pastor Kevin also references the help GHI has received from the book, When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. We highly recommend this resource!_____________________________________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI. More about Living the Dream Podcast. Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Living the Dream Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin. GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindia

Blaine Vorster from the International Church of Grenoble

Blaine and his wife, Olivia, felt a call to missions but thought it would be to French-speaking Africa because they are from South Africa, but felt God directing them to go to France. They knew they were called long before the opportunity arrived. They were so convinced of God's direction that they used the French spelling of both of their kid's names. After praying for France and the name Grenoble jumped off the map. They started to pray for them long before they were approached by a church in Grenoble to be the pastors. In France, it is possible to study your postgraduate courses in English. This means they see people from every corner of the globe. Grenoble has just over 50,000 students in the city, of which 7,000 are international."We didn't set out specifically to target internationals but we find that's the most effective place in sharing the gospel.We often say English is not our target group, but English is our strategy." - BlaineIn France, the population is only 1.6% evangelical Christian so most people have not met another Christian before.Blaine shared one of their strategies to reach foreign-born students is to have meals regularly as a congregation. "They're coming for food, but they're finding love and they finding acceptance. And it really feels like a family, which is really what I think we're supposed to be as the church.""We have been made richer by the ability to have people from all over the globe as a part of our church."Blaine talks about the great strategic advantage of having people come into their church for 1-3 years before returning home to spread the gospel in their home country. Blaine encourages church leaders to "cross the road" to meet and start relationships with those that look and act differently than you. It can be that simple. Asking them where they are from and learning to greet them in their native language and inviting them to share a meal.____________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower The Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.Living the Dream Podcast: The Living the Dream podcast is where Church staff and volunteers get comfortable and aligned with the reality that God is moving millions of foreign-born internationals into our communities. We focus on this incredible opportunity God is giving us to change the world! We know how this story ends! Rev 7:9-12 shows us a Church filled with EVERY nation, tribe, & tongue gathered together worshipping Jesus. Welcome to Living the Dream podcast where we help The Church be on earth as it is in heaven. More about Living the Dream Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Living the Dream Podcast. He's a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this... He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he's got to be close. He's flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He's taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail Us