Three Things

1. Vision Set For Informal Training

HBI has three levels of training – Formal, Non-Formal, and Informal. Formal is the college with masters and doctorate level courses. Non-formal are the village church planters that we speak of so often. Those church planters are under the leadership of HBI though INEC (India National Evangelical Churches).

The Informal training is basically the same training as the non-formal, except these pastors are from other evangelical church networks or denominations. HBI has trained many of these pastors to plant more churches. Because they do not report to HBI, statistics cannot be kept. But we know that the number is quite large (having done this for many years) and is most likely larger than our non-formal training.

From April 2024 to March 2025, the goal is to train 8,285 men and women from 60 districts in 12 states of India via the informal training model.

2. The Story of One

Here is one story of informal training as an example. “Boncy,” not affiliated with INEC, had completed formal training that was available through one of our training centers and had received bachelors and masters degrees. While there, he decided to go through the informal training and learn how to accomplish saturation church planting. As a result, Boncy has gained a vision for his entire state.

He began by targeting an unreached people group in a remote and poor area, teaching uncared-for children while their parents were working the fields, and eventually getting them into schools. Because of the trust he built with this people group by doing this, he led the entire village to Christ. This catapulted him to plant eight village churches throughout the region and train over 200 young men in discipleship and church planting. 

3. Construction Progress for Education Center

The excavation work is almost completed. The next stage is the laying of M-Sand (manufactured sand), plain cement concrete, and water proofing. Please continue to pray for safety and protection of all that are working on site. Pray for God’s provision for this project. Some of you may prayerfully consider investing in this project. This facility will elevate the potential for a broad range of ministry for years to come.