Based in Southeast Asia, co-mission partner Patrick* works with a local institute that provides training for local mission workers and rural church leaders on topics like discipleship, evangelism, and church planting.

by Asia-CMS

In 2025, Patrick worked with many inspiring individuals, including a woman named Pastor Grace.* She was sent to the institute Patrick works at to attend some training modules, which is how Patrick learnt about Grace’s testimony.

She first learned about Jesus at the age of seven from her grandfather. At 13, Grace was unfortunately hit by a car in an accident that witnesses said was un-survivable. Yet, she walked away with minor injuries, describing a man in a white robe protecting her.

Growing up in a remote, jungle village, Grace faced hardship. She dropped out of school at 14 to help her family farm rice and a few years later, she went to Malaysia to work as a housekeeper. Before leaving, she prayed specifically to be placed with a family of exactly four members.

“I had no control over the agency, but I had control over my prayer,” she shares.

Grace was assigned to a household of that exact number and miraculously, despite the agency she worked for trying to ban her Bible, the Christian family she was placed with intervened, allowing her to keep it!

She worked in Malaysia for several years, constantly growing her faith through reading and prayer. After a while, Grace felt the Lord telling her to return to her country for a new plan. She settled back in her village and attempted to work odd jobs wherever she could find them.

“For the next two years, Grace grew very unsure of her next move. She spent a lot of time questioning what God’s plan for her was and why she had to come back home,” shares Patrick.

It was only when Grace got involved with ministries at her small local church that she understood the reason for her return. She realised how deeply the people in her district needed Jesus and began praying that God would use her!

After spending many months serving among her local community, Grace’s superiors recognised her potential and sent her to Patrick’s training institute, so she would be better equipped to lead others who wanted to follow in her footsteps.

As of today, Grace is now a pastor who is training 25 leaders in her church. Together with her team, she travels to surrounding villages to evangelise and run programmes that benefit the children and youth of those areas.

*Names changed to protect privacy

Pray together

Asia-CMS ask our prayers for:

• safety and logistics for ministry travel and events – for leaders and trainers traveling long distances to training centres, especially given difficult or flooded road conditions
• protection and provision for trainers and leaders – for God’s protection and financial provision for the trainers and leaders who are serving voluntarily by faith with minimal stipends.
• effectiveness and impact of Patrick’s institute – that every training session will be conducted under the Lord’s authority and anointing, and that all current students will finish strong. Pray for God to send new students who have a passion and vision for missions.

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The post From cleaning homes to building churches appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

Asia: Asia-CMS leadership team

Give thanks for very encouraging meetings with the Asia-CMS leadership team in Malaysia recently. Pray for executive director Chan Nam Chen as he prepares to step down at the end of the year and for the leadership team and organisation as they move forward with a new leader in 2026.

The post Asia: Asia-CMS leadership team appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

Asia: Asia-CMS partners

Asia-CMS ask for prayer for the general health and well-being of their partners and partners’ families. Some partners have fallen sick multiple times, seen loved ones hospitalised or even been victim to road accidents. Pray for protection over all those in mission in Asia, and for distractions to be removed so they can focus on their work.

The post Asia: Asia-CMS partners appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

When it’s not safe to go to church – even a house church – what do you do?

Eddie and George (names changed) live in the foothills of the Himalayas about 200 to 250 km from the China–Tibet border. Eddie is a pastor and George works closely with him. Eddie belongs to a high-caste, but generally poor and rural, ethnic group who are scattered over small villages that dot the mountains of this region. Most of these villages are only reachable via four-wheel drive and hiking through the mountains.

Coming to faith at the age of 15, Eddie is instrumental in a grassroots movement that is reaching his people – a previously unreached people group. He helped train 50 to 60 house church leaders who now care for some 4,000 to 5,000 of his people who have come to faith in Jesus.

Eddie’s ethnic group is classified as an unreached people group. In the past, a few of this people group have come to faith. But they usually joined existing churches in the towns that are largely attended by migrants from other parts of India. Eddie’s own people remained unreached for many years.

However, in the last 15 years, disciples of Christ trained by Eddie, George and others have taken the gospel to the villages, planting numerous house-churches. In different villages, groups of believers would meet together in worship and study of God’s word. But in more recent years after the covid-19 pandemic, the hostility from religious fundamentalists has worsened. Christian believers in the villages can no longer freely invite their neighbours to pray together without opposition, which at times has turned violent. Eddie and George could no longer freely visit the leaders and believers in different villages like they used to.

Against the odds: what they did next

Eddie has introduced a new strategy. He calls it “moving house churches.”

No longer able to freely meet, Eddie and George go hiking into the mountains where they are joined by leaders whom they can contact. On these mountain hikes, that last from a few days to perhaps a week, they spend time together in fellowship, prayer, and studying the Bible. In the mountains is where Eddie and George teach, share life together and teach these leaders.

Most of the leaders range in age from their late teens to early thirties. Many of them have gone through high school and college. Each leader is responsible for leading five to 10 house churches; with each ‘church’ numbering five to 15 believers. In total, they number 4,000 to 5,000 believers scattered over a radius of 50 to 70km from where Eddie and George live.

Sacrificing self to serve others  

Eddie and George’s passion to serve in difficult circumstances is inspiring. Eddie holds three masters’ degrees and was invited to pursue a PhD in the USA. His wife and children are already in the USA, but he has chosen to stay – for the sake of his people. In 2017, George left his job as a hospital technician to assist Eddie in the work of discipling indigenous leaders. 

Over the last few years, Eddie and George have faced many challenges – in ministry and in their personal and family lives – shaped by the  sacrifices their work demands. Both of them are in their late 40s and early 50s, yet they don’t plan on stopping their regular treks into the mountains. Eddie says he’ll continue his trips into the hills, “as long as my body allows me.”

Eddie and George are like a modern-day Paul and Barnabas. They take God’s word to the very edges. They share the gospel, pastor, lead and disciple followers of Christ in situations where traditional church approaches cannot work. 

Shared with kind permission of AsiaCMS. 

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The post Church on the move in North India  appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

Following a few decades of relative freedom to share the gospel, Nepali Christians are sensing a net tightening around their liberty. Yet, though they increasingly feel their outsider status, they aren’t giving up, as Naomi Rose Steinberg discovered on a recent trip to the country known as the Land of Truth.

Arriving in Kathmandu, I was surprised to learn that the time difference between Nepal and the UK is five hours and 45 minutes. Depending on who you ask, there are differing reasons for this unusual variation from the standard increments: some political, some geographical, some cultural. A typical response to the question is: “It’s complicated.”

Nepal in many ways is a complex country, facing multiple challenges: economic struggles, political precariousness and a geographically landlocked position between the influences of India and China. All of these and other factors have recently contributed to making it an increasingly tricky place to be a Christian.

Christianity in Nepal

The rapid growth of Christianity in Nepal in the decades since the country became a democracy in 1951 has been phenomenal, particularly since the 1990s. In proportion to population, it remains one of the fastest growing churches in the world. I’m told that in Kathmandu, you can’t walk more than two or three streets without being near a church, many of these being house churches or groups that meet in multi-use buildings.

However, there is a growing uneasiness among Nepali Christians, as anti-conversion laws become more stridently enforced due to pressure from other religious groups.

Nepal is officially a secular country, but many Christians told me that, as a minority religion (less than 2 per cent of the population) followers of Jesus are increasingly and often arbitrarily discriminated against. This is making them more wary of overtly sharing the gospel.

On the outside

The Christians I talked to described how they have been made to feel like outsiders in various ways. This included family opposition, with one man telling me how he’d been thrown out of his house and made to sleep in a field, and a young woman relaying how her mother used to beat her for her faith. I heard stories of funerals being held by families when a relative turned to Jesus.

There is also cultural and societal pressure; Christians are often viewed with scepticism and suspicion. There is a perception that Christians have abandoned their culture for something Western-influenced, even though the church in Nepal is led mostly by indigenous people.

Nepali Christians are sometimes accused of being in cahoots with Western Christians for monetary gain. One local partner told me that this perception grew after the catastrophic earthquake in 2015: “Many well-meaning Christian organisations came to help, but there were reports of Bibles being put in sacks of rice that were given to suffering people and this was viewed as coercive.”

The same partner shared that Christians are being scapegoated for economic and social ills that Nepal is facing. This is partly due to the influence of Hindu nationalism, which has been on the rise in neighbouring India with reports of ensuing violence against Christians.

Growing hostility

Some of the Christians I met have contended with threats of violence from their communities. One rural pastor told me he came out of leading a church service to find 300 people waiting for him, angry and shouting. “They threatened to beat me and smear me with ink,” he recalled.

Smearing ink on someone is a sign of abject shame. The pastor was taken into police custody but later released. When I asked him if this kind of intense opposition makes him think about giving up being a pastor or following Jesus, he said, “The Bible tells if you want to be a disciple you have to pay a price, there is cost involved. Maybe I am just paying the price of being a disciple of Jesus.”

Counting the cost

In the face of growing opposition, Nepali Christians are demonstrating patience, resilience and adaptability.

Some tell me that while they can no longer safely go door-to-door, hold evangelistic events or hand out Christian literature, they are discovering the importance of building relationships and being good living witnesses for Jesus.

They point out that others can see the love they show for people, how Christianity breaks down barriers of gender and caste, and how Christians treat people with dignity. And this is still drawing people to Christ; the church is still growing, though perhaps not as quickly as before.

CMS, alongside Asia-CMS, has long been committed to helping people in Asia deepen and strengthen their faith so they can withstand storms of antagonism and keep sharing the gospel from the margins.

The pastor who had been threatened credited his ability to withstand pressure in part to training he’d received from a CMS partner. In recent years, deep discipleship has become an even greater priority.

Given the increasing opposition Christians are facing in Nepal, and having seen firsthand the difference this commitment to discipleship has made in people’s lives, it seems that maximising these efforts couldn’t come at a better time.

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The post Nepal: a complicated time for Christians appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

During a special gathering, leaders from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and the UK connected across languages and cultures, working together to see lives transformed through the love of Jesus.

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The post “There is life at the edges…” appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

“God is always faithful,” say our partners at Asia-CMS, who share this story of the gospel breaking through caste barriers.

By AsiaCMS (names have been changed to protect privacy.)

Our co-mission partner Brother T and his team in South Asia, work to develop leaders within unreached people groups, establish house churches, disciple new believers with Bible Studies and strengthen local believers through house visits and community support in remote communities.

With the caste system still prevalent in most villages in South Asia, high castes will never marry a lower caste. However, recently, the team, alongside the local leader in a village, conducted a small wedding for two new believers – who were from different castes – all by the grace of God alone!

Anita accepted Christ through this local ministry and her question always was, “who will marry me as I can’t go back to the Hindu belief nor can I marry a non-believer?” The team encouraged her to pray, and last October she became engaged to Krish, a high-caste Brahmin, who became the only believer from his entire family.

They decided to marry but as expected, the groom’s parents and relatives were totally against it. Nevertheless, Krish decided to go ahead and marry Anita. They set the date for the wedding and sent out invitation cards and soon they heard that the groom’s entire village people were coming to stop the marriage. All the while, the church community began to pray for a peaceful ceremony.

Brother T and his whole team made plans to attend the wedding but they were warned to be prepared, as anything could happen. It was quite a risk for everyone but by faith, the team drove to the village for the ceremony. When they arrived, preparations were still underway in the bride’s village, as they all waited for the groom to arrive.

After an hour or so, the groom arrived with his pastor and other believers but none from the groom’s family came. God was faithful in providing for all the needs for this wedding and they were able to conduct the wedding ceremony peacefully in the village – becoming the first Christian wedding conducted in the village.

The ceremony was contextualised for their culture and according to their custom, and everyone celebrated joyfully, praising God for the peaceful union.

A few months after the wedding, the church team received the wonderful news that Anita had been received with honour by Krish’s family, who were once against this union. God is so good. All praise to him alone.

Pray together

Please pray for Krish and Anita, as they start their family life – that they may remain strong in their faith and grow spiritually. They have also recently decided to step into the mission field to evangelise and share their faith.  

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The post Married against the odds appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

Local partners with Asia-CMS continue to introduce people to Jesus and help them grow in confidence as his disciples despite the difficult conditions created by the pandemic…

Our co-mission partner M and his team work in Northern India to develop leaders within unreached people groups, establish more house churches, disciple new believers with Bible studies and strengthen local believers through house visits and community support. He shares this testimony of a young man named R, whom he encountered during the course of his ministry this past quarter. At a time when there is so much hopelessness, this is a hopeful beacon for all of us.

A passionate dreamer

R is a passionate 23-year-old man who studies hard to achieve his dream of becoming an Indian Administrative Service officer, which is considered to be one of the top government jobs. He has three sisters and one brother. It was his older sister who shared the gospel with R; she became a believer through the church ministries that M belongs to. Nevertheless, R didn’t quite have a full understanding of Jesus and God.

One day, M was out trekking with his team and along the way, they had the memorable opportunity to share the gospel in every village they walked through. As they stopped at each village, they also had fellowship with families who already heard the gospel. The young leaders in that region usually do their best to follow up with those they reach out to during visits such as these.

A faithful servant

It was on that fortuitous day that M encountered the enthusiastic R in one of the last villages they trekked to. M and his team visited R and his family, listening to his experiences and why he wanted to become a government officer. The qualification needed to become an IAS officer is a stringent one that requires high intellect and even higher test scores; it certainly isn’t an easy path.

Nevertheless, it was a path that R was ready to walk on and has been painstakingly pursuing. R shared that he needs the internet and books to study, and he has to walk miles to get a strong connection on his phone. He also shared that he is a seeker and would like to know more about Jesus and the Bible.

M found him to be a nice young man with a gentle spirit and a helpful heart. M felt a nudge in his heart that he should help R in whatever way he could. So, M decided to go beyond just regular visitation and opened his home to R so he could stay and have a proper place to study with a stable internet connection.

Future potential

M believes in his heart that there need to be more Christian young officers in high government ranks who will support other believers and can be of great influence and help in church growth and standing up against persecution.

At that time, M didn’t have the chance to talk with his wife about the situation and his offer to R. But he prayed, and when he asked her later what she thought of the offer he had made, his wife did not hesitate; she gracefully accepted to have R stay with them.

R is currently settled in with M and his wife. They are using this time and opportunity to disciple him and train him to be a godly leader. R is studying hard for his exams next year. He is a promising and bright student, with a deep eagerness to learn.

Will you remember R in your prayers so that God continues to work in his life and prepares him to be baptized at the given time. Pray also for R’s faith to increase and be strengthened, as well as for the knowledge and wisdom to prepare for his top exams.

Please pray:

• for M and his family as they continue to disciple R
• for his ministry and team as a whole – as they continue to serve the needs of the people and communities around them
• for the leaders and believers out in the field – many are experiencing and going through depression during this time

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The post Discipling with open hearts and homes appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).