Why Support the Pastors
When I asked Pastor P how to answer questions about supporting the pastors in India, this was his response:
In many tribal and remote regions in India, poor pastors live under extremely challenging and often heartbreaking conditions. Their commitment to serving small, scattered communities usually comes at the cost of their own well-being. With very limited financial support, they struggle to meet even the most basic needs of their families. Many pastors do not receive a regular income and survive solely on small offerings from congregations that themselves live in deep poverty.
These pastors often travel long distances on foot through forests, hills, and unsafe terrain to visit believers, conduct prayers, and offer guidance. The harsh environment, lack of transportation, and unpredictable weather only add to their daily hardships. In many cases, they live in small huts or temporary shelters with inadequate protection against rain, cold, or wild animals.
Access to healthcare, clean water, and nutritious food is extremely limited in these areas. Pastors and their families frequently suffer from treatable illnesses but cannot reach hospitals due to distance or lack of funds. Their children often face difficulties attending school, lacking books, fees, or proper clothing.
Despite all these struggles, poor pastors continue to serve faithfully, offering emotional, spiritual, and moral support to their communities. Their dedication goes unnoticed, and their hardships largely remain unseen by the outside world. Their lives are a powerful reminder of the need for compassion, support, and recognition of those who work silently and selflessly in some of the most neglected corners of society.
Most of the Pastors are unable to purchase new outfits for the entire family and will often own only 1 suit of clothing because of the poor conditions in which they live. Some of the pastors’wives have only one saree. They wear that saree in the day and wash it in the night and again wear that same saree in the morning. In tribal villages, pastors often go starving for two to three days since the people in those areas are very poor and illiterate. Besides that, persecution such as threatening believers and drawing them back to their own religion is happening in all the tribal villages by Hindu activists. Tribal people are always open to believing everything and revert back to their old religions. Many churches in the tribal villages are being closed.
So, providing them new outfits and nutritious food and travelling to the pastors and their wives at the Christmas festival will be a great encouragement to them to go forward in the kingdom work. This isn’t only a gift it’s a necessity especially since most don’t have churches that support them.
Pictured are gatherings of our pastors as well as some worship services. It’s been difficult to get good photos of each pastor in his village.