For millions of Americans, Sundays are set aside for church attendance, family time and fellowship.Although the Christian church experience may look much different in India, Sunday is also a day set aside for the Gospel and the hope of Christ for many believers. For four decades, The Tide® has been recording and broadcasting messages about the Good News of Jesus in India. And many of these programs air on Sunday, when Christians in India come together to worship, pray and get into the Word of God.
The Tide Director Don Shenk is currently traveling in India, Nepal and Pakistan to meet with leaders there, learn more about the culture and immerse in the languages of these beautiful countries.
“We praise God that Sundays are also a day that seems to be set aside for God in India,” Shenk said. “During our travels to India, we look forward to meeting those listeners to The Tide Gospel programming that serves as a way to lift up listeners and provide the hope of Christ.”
The Tide ministry offers programming in eight languages, reaching people groups that are heavily influenced by strong Hindu beliefs, traditions and rituals. A key component is that these programs are recorded in the languages the people of India were born to speak.
The Tide partners in India report that people routinely gather in India to listen to the “Shanti Data” program in the Odia language as well as the “Ehpa Gatanju” program in the Kui language. Groups come together in community halls, villages or homes.
“They all were blessed and interested to know more about God,” one partner reported. “Most of them are non-Christians but they listen to the program with great interest. Every week I go to their place and conduct Bible study. Pray for the new believers and the radio listeners.”
One listener also shared that he listens to the “Ehpa Gatanju” program regularly and now has “peace and joy in my life.”
“Every Sunday evening, we invite our neighbors and listen to the program with them,” he wrote. “Thanks for broadcasting the program in our language, Kui.”
Over the past 40 years, The Tide ministry has in India has grown from a single Hindi language broadcast to include radio programs in eight Indian languages, and plans are in the works to reach even more people groups in the future. Programs are produced in The Tide ministry’s studio in India using indigenous ministers who can effectively communicate the message of Christ to their own people in their native tongue.