Asia presents a fast growing, dynamic challenge for the provision of Biblical teaching and preaching materials.
Demand is on the increase in both the poorer areas of the major cities and in the more rural, hard to access, outposts.
With the widespread use of mobile phones here (and in other parts of the developing world), there will be opportunities to present more information in digital formats.
Challenges
There can be persecution in some areas
There are many ministries combining evangelism and church life with education and welfare provision. These are costly to run so there is a need for teaching on social responsibility by the wealthy
Second generation Christians often lose their spiritual fervour; nominalism can be a problem
The caste system presents a myriad of challenges
Positives
In many parts of India and other Asian countries, English is spoken
In some areas, Christianity is accepted because of the positive benefits to local people: education, welfare, orphanages
Sovereign World Trust is increasing its visibility in Asia and news of our work is spreading
Education is a higher priority here than in many developing countries
Strategies
We work with ministries that combine Biblical education with other practical forms of help
We look for those pastors and leaders with a proven track record of effectiveness
We have translated teaching material into Hindi for rural communities
We work with leaders of leaders who use literature to augment and complete their mentoring and training programmes
Opportunities
We are developing resources for sharing in rural
communities
Books formatted in the form of laminated sheets are planned; these are robust
and withstand heavy use
This type of resource is more expensive than printing books but will prove more long-lasting and cost effective long term