Youth With A Mission (YWAM) is a massive missionary organization based out of the US and now spans across continents. It has huge presence in India as well. YWAM trains young missionaries like the Bible School—for more information, see this report. They have Discipleship Training School(DTS) and offer “courses” in Summer, Spring, Fall and Winter.
The trained missionaries then go out into the world and embark on conversions. Every year, a lot of Americans come to India on mission trips from different branches of YWAM USA. The deception right there—officially, they use the word ‘outreach’, but it is actually a mission trip.
India is a hot destination for missionaries. Here is the pattern these young missionaries follow: “Graduate” from a Bible School like YWAM, raise funds for travel, come to India, preach gospel and convert using deceptive techniques (both morally and legally), spread hatred that Hinduism is a false religion, express solidarity with Indian missionaries (who get funds from countries like USA), go to the USA and brag about how many accepted Christ. They then become heroes in their circle of friends and relatives.
A group from the DTS Fall program, YWAM Orlando came to India on a mission trip early this year. The group comprised Joshua Miller, Hannah Willis, Courtney Hellman, Courtney Ryan, Maryrose Herr, Whitney Biggers, Hannah Kay, Emma Farr, Anna Slim, Ally Summers and Kristine Ranie (Kristine is an American of Indian ancestry). They preached gospel and converted several Hindus in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
Indian missionary enablers in India
Mahesh Nathan who works for World Vision India and his wife Beena Nathan hosted this group in West Bengal and were “taught so much”. We are not sure what they were “taught”. There were hosted by others as well. In Tamil Nadu, they were hosted by Chandra Bose Govindan who works for YWAM.
Here is an investigation into the onsite-offshore model of missionary organizations. Many foreign missionary organizations have their own subsidiaries like Gospel for Asia, World Vision or YWAM. And they partner with other missionary NGOs and churches locally. Their reach, influence, network and PR management would put leading MNCs to shame. Also, World Vision works as a liaison in many government programs in India. If a foreign missionary wants to come to India and see the conversions for himself/herself, there is no dearth of Indian hosts.
Prayer Walk at Hindu temples
Joshua Miller posted on Facebook in Feb 2014, “we will be doing prayer walks at the local temples”. Here is his “prayer walk“.
Miller does not even have the heart to appreciate the beautiful artwork in the temple (See how he pauses before saying “exciting”). It does not matter whether a Christian fundamentalist appreciates art or not. The real issue is his wanton condemnation of Hinduism and Hindus.
As is the case with Christian conversions by almost every denomination, Hindu-hatred is a key factor in every such effort. Let it be said bluntly that conversions spread hate.
Here is Joshua Miller and his team again, doing another “prayer walk” at a temple in Durgapur, West Bengal.
Visiting a village and praying Christian songs with school kids
Next, the team also visited a village. In this video, Joshua Miller claims they were not allowed to do missionary activity in this village but they went anyway. They went to the village school and sang Christian songs with the school kids. So when you are a “tourist” in a country and the hosts specifically say they do not want to be converted, why can’t you leave them alone?
Aggression, Hatred, Denouncing other religions
Aggression and spewing venom against Hindus, Hindu Gods and Hinduism is yet another common theme in missionary activities. The focus of this report is YWAM. The aggression shown by Joshua Miller team is not a one-off case. It is the norm. See what Jason Nettles from YWAM Orlando did last year. Here is Elisa Dawson, from YWAM Orlando, after serving a crippled person, gloating about how she converted him using a Hindu translator. To convert, you have to denounce Hinduism and “cast away other gods.”
And then here’s another YWAM team preaching near Buddha Stupa, Nepal. They wanted to preach inside the Swayambhu temple but did not do it to avoid attention.
Summary
A lot of young people, often without proper education, go to Bible schools, Discipleship programs in the USA, UK etc., and come to India to convert people by applying what they learn in their “courses”. Even as you read this, a lot of YWAM groups are busy raising funds for their India trips. Their hatred and fundamentalism is truly stunning. If you try to raise objections to their hatred, they cry persecution; they say their religious freedom is being violated.
Damning other people’s religions, traditions and spreading hatred is their definition of religious freedom. Per their declared goal, they will not rest until the whole world is converted to Christianity. Equally, they get excellent support from Indian evangelical NGOs which are in turn massively funded by foreigners. Mahesh Nathan of World Vision hosted Joshua Miller’s team and “taught” stuff. When Joshua Miller posted about the re-conversion of some tribal people to Hinduism, Mahesh Nathan says “Discipleship”.
More importantly, there are huge numbers of discipleship schools like YWAM in India, most of which have sprung up in the last decade. Many of them are run by foreigners themselves. Bible Colleges run by Indians are funded by foreigners.
Watch this video in which the missionary gives the numbers in dollars to foreign clients. Many evangelical NGOs like Harvest India run Bible Colleges. Graduates of these Bible Colleges become pastors, church planters, and so on. The Fundamentalist belief that non-Christian religions are false and other traditions are false lead to nothing but hatred. These colleges work as hate-factories.
Note: Some of the videos may have been removed.
IndiaFacts Staff articles, reports and guest pieces