John Cook, Author at Indigenous Ministries

The GBC Library is Complete!

On August 24 the book shelves arrived on the GBC campus and three days later were fully assembled. For the next six days the faculty, staff and seniors worked tirelessly until midnight to shelve the books. We are so excited to share this news with you, our Indigenous Ministries Family! We want to express our deepest appreciation to so many who have donated books, prayed and given financially to this building and project. Thank you to all who sorted and catalogued 20,000+ books in Red Bluff, California last January. Want to see it for yourself? Join us in India, February, 2019. Call our office more information. We praise God for his blessing and provision for this amazing resource which is now available to the students, faculty, staff and local pastors.

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HOW TO PRAY FOR GBC STUDENTS

By John Cook Leave a Comment Sep 12

Principal Tantarpale’s daughter, Gloria, right, leading the daily evening GBC women’s Bible study.

Even after a full day of Biblical studies, chapel, study hall and meals together, each evening the men gather in front of their dorms outside for a time of praise and worship. Three miles away the women get together in their apartment for a nightly Bible study led by Gloria.

Your prayers for these young people make a difference. Pray for their ability to understand English, because most are from villages where they only use English occasionally. Pray for their adjustment to life on campus, for strength, courage and stamina. Pray for their new friendships and a deepening relationship with God.

HOW TO SPONSOR A GBC STUDENT

By John Cook Leave a Comment Sep 12

There are 19 students waiting for a sponsor. Would you pray about helping one of these young scholars earn a quality Biblical education? Most will enter full time ministry, the rest are looking to be teachers, nurses or work in business and use their education at GBC as a solid foundation for their lives. Each month we hear from several GBC alumni who check in on social media sharing their ministry or business and how they are sharing Christ within their circles.

A full sponsorship is $100/month. Choose a full or partial sponsorship – any monthly amount helps! You’ll receive a profile card of your student; we encourage you to pray for and communicate with your student. If you’re already one of our amazing, faithful sponsors (we have the BEST sponsors!) – thank you!! To sponsor now, visit our website and in several minutes you’ll be all set. You can also call our office or use the card on page four.

Iraq Ministry Outreach – Van Project

By John Cook Leave a Comment Sep 11

PROJECT: 15 passenger van for IM work in Northern Iraq

Amount needed: $25,000. Already raised: $6,100

There is more info available online about this vital project. If your church would like a bulletin insert, contact our office and we’ll email you one. Thank you for being the hands and feet of Christ to these hurting children and their families! You can donate on our website to this fund on the right side under “Donate.”

2019 India Ministry Trips: Register Now

By John Cook Leave a Comment Sep 10

February 2019: INDIA

Join us on the beautiful Grace Bible College campus for IM’s annual Winter Teaching Module and Beautiful Int’l Women’s Conference. Meet the faculty, staff and students and see the new GBC Library! Walk among the shelves of the brand new library…pray over this vital campus as these young people study and prepare to serve the Lord. You’ll watch the seniors graduate at the 2018 graduation ceremony.

Ever wished to go on safari or stay in a safari tent? Done! You’ll see a lot of wildlife at the Pench Tiger Preserve and leave with a box checked off your bucket list.

Pastor Craig Miller teaching at the 2017 GBC Winter Module

Pastors: Register now to teach at the GBC Winter Teaching Module above or one of the conferences below and invest yourself in national students and pastors for a lifetime!

Phil Bairrington teaching at the 2017 Winter Module

Ladies, bring a group from your church and engage with Dee with a Beautiful Int’l Women’s Conference.

2019 Trips – visit our website for more information:

February 2019: India

September 2019: Egypt

November 2019: India

Contact our office for dates and details. Most trips cost $3850 and last 12-14 days. Accommodations are clean and comfortable and you won’t need to eat spicy food! We have over 20 years of experience bringing teams overseas with us. All travel arrangements are made through our office.

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PRACTICAL WAYS YOU CAN REACH NATIONALS WITH THE GOSPEL

By John Cook Leave a Comment Aug 13

It begins with a transformational relationship with Jesus Christ. Generally someone comes to Christ overseas like we do here…someone cares enough to share that they can have eternal life. There is a natural care for their family and neighbors to be saved also.

Next comes training and education. Training for a lifetime of ministry should include:
* a foundation of biblical training for 2-4 years in a qualified school
* well-trained and godly faculty who have genuine concern for the students
* excellent curriculum and spiritual content
* practical ministry on the field so students practice what they learn in the classroom

Grace Bible College in Central India is currently training 55 students per year. There are one year certificate and two year Bible diploma tracks, and the more popular three year BTH which thoroughly equips a young person for full time ministry.

We encourage you to engage in providing scholarships to young Bible college scholars.

1. SPONSOR GBC STUDENTS IN TRAINING FOR MINISTRY:

Sponsor a GBC student for $100/month: 25 GBC students need to be sponsored at $100/month each, or $50/month for half a sponsorship. Visit our website or use the form on page 4. It’s not just your financial support, however, that we find valuable. As important as that is, your prayers for your GBC student hold a very important role in his or her development and future impact for the Kingdom.

2. SUPPORT A NATIONAL PASTOR WHO IS ALREADY MINISTERING:

John & Dee with an IM national pastor and his family in the Middle East who are in the Global Church Planting Initiative and have planted two churches

Through our Global Church Planting Initiative, we bring support for a period of time, accountability and ongoing training for national pastors. Trained, effective and passionate about reaching

their OWN people for Christ, these pastors are committed to their own people for a lifetime. The cost to support a national pastor on average is 1/10th that of a Western missionary. Typical support is $500/month. Take on a portion at $100 or $50/month.

Go to IndigenousMinistries.org and select “Support a Pastor” on the righthand side.

IM Egypt Holds 2nd Annual Children’s Bible Conference

By John Cook Leave a Comment Aug 13

Last month, the children in our Egypt Child Sponsorship Program were together for their 2nd annual two day IM Children’s Bible Conference. Our Egyptian ministry team shared this was a time of great encouragement and blessing to the children and staff. Many children shared that they personally felt encouraged and learned more about the Lord through this special time. It was also a time for the children to enjoy being kids again. Away from daily cares, the kids swam, made crafts, played games, told jokes and attended Bible sessions.

Throughout the conference, the overall theme was the Gospel message. Many of the children come from a nominal Christian background and don’t know the Lord well. The staff also shared messages on the subjects of obedience to the Lord and parents, the value of our identity in Christ, and how precious we are in God’s eyes. Our team put on a play for the kids focused on the life of Samuel and serving the Lord. The mothers of the children came and enjoyed a time of fellowship and prayer together. At the end of the conference, the families each received their monthly food bag.

This whole conference was made possible because of our generous and loving sponsors’ giving and prayers. Thank you! Our team in Egypt sends their many thanks to you for making this big investment into the lives of the children and their families. No one else is helping in this way in this part of Egypt except for each of our sponsors, which makes this partnership all the more important. I pray that the Lord adds His many blessings to you as you make such a difference in the life of your sponsored child in rural Egypt.

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Salvation in a Refugee Camp

By John Cook Leave a Comment Aug 9

Kurdistan Iraq – The day broke with clear blue skies and the 111 degree heat soon followed. That afternoon in the week of July 23rd, the IM Iraqi team arrived at a refugee camp for a time of worship, songs and a message from the Word.

Since 2014, the relationship between the church and the camps has been growing. IM has partnered with them both, bringing them together through many relief supplies over the years to several camps including this one. With so many families’ fate still in the balance and nowhere to go, they welcome the friendships, encouragement and the help for their children through the Refugee Child Sponsorship Program.

Pastor Sabri shared about the feeding of the 5,000, and how the faith of the little boy was used by Jesus to bless many. Our faith must be like that of a child, he explained, and then after sharing the Gospel, asked for those who wanted forgiveness for their sins and ask Christ into their lives to stand. Every one of the approximately 125 in the room stood. Men, women and children who live together in this refugee camp found salvation that day.

An hour later as the team called the IM Colorado Springs office to share this news, we were overjoyed! What a day of rejoicing and praise at seeing so many respond to the message! Would you pray with us over their new spiritual journey? The church team is working on meeting with the new believers in Bible study as often as logistics and resources will allow.

This is exactly why we felt God was leading us to start this Refugee Child Sponsorship Program: to engage the national pastors and church in a relationship with refugees together in the Lord.

Are you sponsoring a refugee child? You’re part of this Day of Salvation! Have you contributed towards a Trauma Kit of a plush animal and a solar powered player with the Bible in their language on audio? You’re part of this Day of Salvation! Now these families will be able to listen to the Bible in their own language. Are you sponsoring a national pastor? You’re part of this Day of Salvation!

Jesus Christ came to bring healing and hope to a hurting, broken world. God uses people like you and our teams in Iraq to be the hands and feet of Jesus to these refugee families. Listen, we all enjoy eating out…the cost for two people at dinner now is about $40…or, what it costs for one month of sponsorship. Why not cook at home just one night a month and change a life? The heat is on…we have 160/1000 children sponsored!

New 2018-2019 School Year at GBC Much to be Thankful for!

By John Cook Leave a Comment Jul 18

John Cook with GBC students from Myanmar

Praise God! The funds needed to furnish the Grace Bible College Library in India have all come in! Thank you to so many of you, our IM Friends, who responded so generously to this appeal that went out recently. The joy and excitement is pretty high on the GBC campus…and once the waters recede (monsoons are in high season), the bookshelves, desks and chairs will be on their way!

Because of your generous gifts and prayers, we are seeing the fulfillment of a dream decades in the making! The secret is out, however, and the evil one does not want this resource available for these eager young students. Please keep on praying; prayers are powerful and effective and the Lord listens.

John Cook was on campus the week of July 2 and brings us this report and challenge: I had the privilege of being at GBC for the opening of the 2018-2019 school year, and I am so thankful for the direction and impact the school is having both nationally and internationally. I met with a number of the new students including three young men who had just arrived from Myanmar (right). We have had the privilege of working with a ministry in Yangon for a number of years. Two of these young men are brothers of a Burmese pastor, and the third is from Mizoram in Northeast India, a people group that my grandparents ministered to in what was known as the Assam Territories under British India in 1935.

Others who have arrived for the new school year at GBC are from the tribal groups of Ghondi, Karnataka, Banjara and the Korku people. This is in addition to young people from larger villages and cities with populations in the millions.

The Word of God reminds us in Revelation 7 that when we stand before the throne, there will be those from every tribe, language and people group. In Matthew 28:19 our direction from the Lord is to “Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” The emphasis of this verse is on making disciples with intent and attention. Standing next to these new GBC students I knew this was a direct answer to the prayer that the Lord taught us to pray: “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” As we continue to serve the Lord, would you be willing to pray about sponsoring a Bible College student?

GBC’s Effective Strategy in Ministry to Nationals

By John Cook Leave a Comment Jul 17

When you support a Bible college student, you multiply your impact for the Kingdom of God. Your gift of three years of training and education will impact the areas most in need of the Gospel.

This is the reason Indigenous Ministries offers the opportunity to sponsor a Bible college student; an effective means to participate in the outreach of the Gospel globally. GBC’s alumni are impacting India and Myanmar with the Gospel of Christ. Thank you, sponsors!

As the heavy monsoon rains poured down outside, GBC’s principal Dr. Tantarpale and I sat talking about GBC’s mission of training students to reach their own people with the Gospel. He shared with me that in point of fact, apart from the national being trained for outreach, there is NO WAY that the Gospel can advance in India. Why? Because as the government has closed (and continues to do so) the doors to any westerner sharing the Gospel, even nationals are on notice of the hazards of doing so. The only way is the platform of nationals reaching nationals for Christ.

Years ago, Dee and I were in the back country in a very remote place in Central India. As we paused at an intersection in a village, all of a sudden, a face appeared in my window, and there was Rahul, one of our own GBC graduates! We pulled over and went into a shack that sold good, hot chai (this is the chai that the powered packets here in the US got their recipe from). We heard how the Lord was using Rahul to pastor 10 small village house churches. He begged me to come and help him baptize 12 new believers. As we parted company, I was reminded of Rahul’s struggle in school…how the faculty worked so hard to help him increase academically and although he did graduate, his grades weren’t high. Yet here was this young man the Lord had chosen to use. He was thrilled and passionate to be serving the Lord and his people in ministry.

Today we have a big challenge: 25 GBC students need to be sponsored at $100/month each. Dee and I support ours and have done so for over a decade. Would you prayerfully consider joining us? If $50/month would better suit your budget for half a sponsorship, you would be such an encouragement. You can go on our website to sponsor a student. Thank you, and may God bless you.

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SUPPORT A NATIONAL PASTOR

Help plant a national church by supporting a national pastor and his family monthly. Our national pastors are trained, effective and passionate about reaching their OWN people for Christ! The cost to support a national pastor on average is 1/10th that of a Western missionary.