INTERNET CONNECTION SEEKS TO HELP URBAN MINISTRY TEAM

AN INNOVATIVE "ADOPTION" program has been launched to help fund missionary programs in Madras.

Youth With A Mission leaders have turned to the Internet to find Christians interested in supporting workers in the city who are involved in a wide range of evangelism, discipleship and practical care projects.

Along with testimonies and reports of ministry successes, opportunities and prayer requests, the group's home pages on the worldwide web include profiles of individual staff who need backing to be able to continue in their work.

Among them are: Daisy, reaching out to the city's street children; Alex, providing computer training for the unemployed; Navin and Ayang, running a coffee house for befriending students; and Trevor and Mary, providing medical care for slum dwellers.

Like all YWAM staff around the world, the 70 Madras workers - most Indian nationals - are volunteers, expected to raise their own financial support. But many find it difficult to secure adequate backing to meet even their basic monthly needs, said city director Tim Svoboda.

"It can be very hard to raise support here in India, for a variety of reasons," said Svoboda, an American who has served in Madras for 16 years. "Some people think we are a Western organization and so have lots of money, but that is not the case; most of our staff are nationals."

While trying to develop business projects that will generate money to support ministry, YWAM leaders in the city want their staff to have personal connections with other Christians so that there will be the important investment of prayer, as well as finances. So they have turned to cyberspace and started a series of sponsorship links.

"The Internet gives us a great opportunity to develop relationships around the world in ways that were not possible before," said Svoboda. "We believe that there are Christians who would value the opportunity to be part of our ministry by helping meeting the needs of individual staff whose ministry they can follow through the worldwide web."

YWAM workers in Madras are involved in 19 different ministries across the city. As well as running discipleship training programs in English and Tamil, they are also starting new churches, running evangelistic outreaches and caring for AIDS patients.

Web - http://www.angelfire.com/hi/ywammadras/

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