From Animism to Ministers of the Gospel

At least four times a year, two young women ride 300 miles through the South Asian jungle on an eight-hour bus trip. Why? They both know what life is like without Christ.

Sindu and Deepa’s long day is spent traveling between their home villages and CHL Women’s Bible School—their only opportunity to be trained in the Bible and Christian ministry. As female followers of Jesus in a Hindu-majority country, they’re grateful to be completing the second half of CHL’s two-year training program. And they’ve persevered through the challenges of their education so they can share the good news of Christ among their least-reached tribe.

Touched by Christ’s Truth

Sindu’s family once regularly visited animistic temples, offering sacrifices and looking for relief from constant health struggles. But nothing changed. A decade ago, when a priest told Sindu’s father that the whole family was going to die, her father secretly started attending a church. After he learned about the true God and prayed to Him, the Lord healed everyone completely, leading to the salvation of the entire family. Last year, Sindu chose to get baptized, demonstrating to her community that she will not turn back.  

Deepa and her family also came from an animistic background. Her father took his wife, who had been sickly from the time Deepa was a young girl, to many shamans trying to find a cure. Despite paying for many rituals, nothing helped.

But about seven years ago, a visiting pastor came to their village. As he talked with the family about the true God, the Holy Spirit impressed Deepa’s father to ask the pastor to pray for his wife. Within a month, Deepa’s mother was completely healed. As a result, her whole family turned to Christ.

Opportunity Amid Challenges

This faith has come at a steep cost for both families, both of which have faced rejection in their communities for choosing to follow Jesus. Sindu’s family’s fellow villagers didn’t talk to them for over a year. Despite this, God gave them hearts to learn more about Him and to share the hope of Christ in their communities.

Sindu desperately wanted to know more about the Bible and asked God to make a way for her. But, at 18, she had never attended school and didn’t know how to read or write. There were no colleges for women, especially not for illiterate women. Deepa, at 22, had only a fourth grade education, and her prospects for biblical training were equally bleak.

But God used Asha, who completed CHL’s program more than 20 years ago, to tell Sindu and Deepa about an opportunity to learn made just for them—one designed to give South Asian women a strong foundation in God’s Word and practical ministry skills. Donations from believers around the world keep the cost of education at CHL low for students, making it accessible to women like Sindu and Deepa. But accessible hasn’t meant easy.

Sindu’s first task at CHL was to learn to read and write so she could study the Bible. Likewise, Deepa, though she was literate, needed to learn the language in which classes are taught so she could participate. But they pressed on because they wanted to be able to share the good news of Christ among their tribe, which has no Bible in its heart language.

Ministering Now, Looking Forward

Sindu and Deepa don’t take the investment they’re receiving for granted: They plan to minister to children and women in their home areas and have already begun to teach children when they are home. During a recent school break, each of them gathered small groups of boys and girls, most from families who had not yet believed, and shared the gospel with them through visual aids and songs.

Their developing outreach imitates what they’ve seen in practice among local women at CHL. Deepa plans to model her future ministry on the same pattern: gathering women to share about their needs and desires, then forming a team to meet those needs as well as share the good news.

Deepa and Sindu’s training at CHL has become even more important in light of a police ruling that visiting pastors can no longer come to their villages regularly. Without lay people like them who are receiving Bible training, the Word of God may not be shared in these rural, least-reached areas.

Both young women are aware of the weight of responsibility they’ll carry once they complete their studies at CHL in June 2026. But referencing the various hardships, Deepa says, “Satan is trying to prevent me. But I am burdened to do as Jesus said, to deny myself, to take up my cross and to follow Him.”

Participate Through Praying:

• Lift up Sindu and Deepa’s least-reached tribe, praying that the Holy Spirit would open many hearts through their ministry.
• Pray that Deepa, Sindu and other CHL graduates would not rush into marriage, but that God would provide each one with a Christian spouse who is also burdened to share Christ with others.
• Ask God to grant favor to the Christian villagers in the eyes of their neighbors and the police. Especially pray that both Sindu and Deepa’s families would have a fair chance to hire laborers for their farms.