Over the past 16 years, GlobalFingerprints has grown from serving children in the Democratic Republic of Congo to serving over 4800 children in 11 different countries. God continues to provide opportunities for partnership and growth. We are excited to share the launch of two new GlobalFingerprints sites in Nagpur, India, and Manilla, Philippines.
Nagpur is an industrial city of nearly 2.5 million people in the center of India. One of the fastest growing cities in the world, it’s officially become the greenest, safest, and most technologically developed city in the Maharashtra state of India.
Saul and Adam (*Names changed for security) are the leaders of a church planting movement based in Nagpur. They have trained over 100 church planters, most of whom have successfully planted a church within a 250-mile radius of Nagpur.
Although they rejoice to see church planters fanning out across their state, Saul and Adam have felt an increasing burden for reaching their own city. They feel particularly drawn to a slum area of the city that is filled with hopelessness leading to a surge of suicides among young people.
At Christmas, Saul and Adam held a Christmas outreach that was attended by more than 200 adults and children. Some put their faith in Christ and others wanted to learn more. This is now the core group of a church plant that has begun meeting on Sunday evenings. They have also begun a Sunday School program for the local children.
Saul heard about the ministry of GlobalFingerprints and how child sponsorship is helping to support church planting in other areas of India. They believe GlobalFingerprints can accelerate the growth of the church plant in this community while extending the church’s reach into homes throughout the community. Although Saul was pastoring this church, he recently turned leadership over to another young church planter who they were currently training. This church planter now lives in the community. Adam will be serving as the program manager for GlobalFingerprints.
This site launched on June 1st, with the first 85 children sponsored. Please join us in praying for this church plant and church planting team as they continue to grow and engage in the community.
Our second new site this summer is launching in Manila.
Central Manila looks much like any modern city. However, this modern center is ringed by shanties housing millions of people who came to the city to find a better life and now live in crushing poverty. It is in this setting that God has led GlobalFingerprints to partner with a local Filipino Free church, Redeemed Christian Fellowship (RCF) to reach their community by planting, strengthening, and revitalizing churches through child sponsorship.
Located close to these slum communities, RCF is working with GlobalFingerprints to care for the physical needs of vulnerable children and share the gospel. This helps strengthen the existing church and create new church planting opportunities. As children and their families experience the love of Christ, they become beacons of light that shine into the darkness around them as new communities of believers are formed.
RCF and GlobalFingerprints have identified seven slum communities in which to begin ministry. Care workers from this church, trained by the GlobalFingerprints team, are now ready to begin caring for these vulnerable children and are already equipped to share the gospel. Led by senior pastor Ariel, they will be using the RCF discipleship pathway with the support of the local pastor for spiritual development.
This site launched on July 1st with 50 children to be sponsored. As of this writing, 20 of these children are still awaiting sponsors. Would you partner with us by sponsoring one of these children and by praying for the team in Manila as the begin ministry in these communities? Clickhere to sponsor a child.