Our Ministries
A classroom and a local church.
Two works that reinforce each other: a school that raises up young people who know Christ, and pastors who shepherd the churches they go home to.
Ministry One
T.L. Shalom Academy
Motbung, Manipur — a Himalayan state in Northeast India, about an hour and a half by air from Calcutta.
A haven in a hard place.
Northeast India is in turmoil politically, socially, economically, and spiritually. The academy exists to be a place of refuge inside that.
The area's main communities are the Thadou Kuki, the Meitei, and the Nepalese, with Hindu backgrounds predominating among the Meitei and Nepalese. Students come from all of them.
The Bible is taught daily as Moral Science, and Jesus is proclaimed as the only God. Chapel services carry that teaching to every student, every day.
Through 12th grade
The academy runs from the earliest grades through Class XII, the year of the State Board Examination that opens the door to college and employment.
Boarding for exam years
Class X and XII students board on campus for an intensive study camp — five hours of study a day beyond regular classes, framed by quiet time and evening devotions.
Underpaid, uncomplaining
Teachers are paid the minimum and expected to give the maximum. They do it, year after year, and the exam results show it.
The Current Need
Room for the students who live too far away.
Many children in the surrounding villages cannot attend — not because of tuition, but because of distance. There is nowhere for them to stay.
We are working to upgrade the existing facilities and build additional classrooms for the higher grades, along with dormitory space for students from rural areas.
We estimate the cost of constructing a new classroom and dormer building at $30,000.
Life at the Academy
From the campus.
Ministry Two
National Pastors
Support of national pastors has always been at the heart of Shalom Native Mission.
Men already in the places we could never reach.
These pastors send their children to Shalom Academy. They preach in chapel. They run Vacation Bible School. Most of them farm to feed their families, and support is what lets them put that time into ministry instead.
Persecution has been heavy. Churches and homes have been burned. Four pastors relocated to follow the communities that fled — the pattern of Acts, playing out again. Three Meitei pastors lost their buildings and were made to sign letters promising not to rebuild; they now meet quietly in houses.
Two work the border towns between Myanmar and India with congregations in both countries. Four serve among Nepali Hindus in Nepal and India. Ten remain in Manipur, holding services in the hill areas and in homes in Imphal.
Oversees five church plants; ministers to widows and the elderly.
Recently started a mission plant in Siliguri, Darjeeling, West Bengal.
Lost his church building to fire; continues evangelizing without one.
Relocated to Siliguri, where he reaches several cultures at once.
Driven out of his town; moved to a rural city and started again.
Recently hosted a revival crusade that saw many come to Christ.
Pastors a small church and reaches across the border into Nepal.
Local pastor to Shalom Academy; also reaches the nearby villages.
Led an evangelistic outreach to an orphanage; thirty came to Christ.
Lives in a war zone under curfew, and keeps sharing the Gospel.
Travels several months each year; focused on ministry in Nepal.
Pastors a thriving church that supports a missionary of its own.
Church planter in Siliguri, West Bengal.
Saved out of a Hindu background; planting a church in a Hindu neighborhood near the capital.
Pushed out of a hostile town; now leads a church in a rural area.
Pastors Berean Baptist Bible Church and administers Wintergreen School.
The Churches
Where they meet now.
$100 a month supports a pastor.
It covers a family's needs so a man can give himself to the church in front of him — in a place where prices have tripled and travel is restricted.