Christian clerics from northeast India are traveling to foreign countries to help revive the faith and fill shortages within Baptist and Presbyterian churches, the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) reported. The demand for these leaders comes as a result of a sharp decline in ordained ministers to perform traditional ministry duties such as marriages and funerals. “We have about 150 pastors from the northeast preaching the gospel and assisting dying churches in countries like the U.S., China, Thailand, Cambodia and other countries,” said the Rev. Ngul Khan Pau, general secretary of the Council of Baptist Churches in Northeast India. According to IANS, many of India’s clerics believe the influx of ministers to foreign nations such as the U.S. is a “thanksgiving gesture,” acknowledging Americans’ missions work in India. “It is an irony that our Christian ministers are now spreading the message of Jesus Christ in a country whose missionaries sowed the seeds of Christianity in the northeast [of India],” Pau said.
