Soft Loans May Hold Key to Church Growth in India

New Delhi – A new partnership between Farms International's and Voice of the Martyrs, Canada is giving strength to the persecuted church in India. According to Farms' Joe Richter, the main aim of partnering is to help “Christians that specifically have suffered economic loss due to their conversion to Christianity.”

“Once these people are identified, Farms, India, provides them will low interest loans to help them start farms or small businesses,” he said. And, according to him, as most of the borrowers are believers who are connected with the local church and give back a part of their profit in tithe, it ultimately helps the local church.

As the church becomes financially strong, Richter says it will have a positive impact on evangelism. “We really believe that the church is the base for evangelism. And, when there's money available to do evangelism, that's when evangelism occurs. We're excited because evangelism will bear fruit as a consequence of the tithe that many churches will receive from the families that take part in the Farms program,” he said.

Richter hopes that those who participate in the program will testify the glory of the Lord to their unbelieving family members. “We've seen this happen many times, those that have been persecuted are the ones that will turn around and embrace the Gospel when they hear it.”

Richter assured that the program has been created to help alleviate people out of poverty. And, since that is a goal of the new secular government, Richter believes that their program will not be opposed.