Jossy Chacko

We all know that the world around are changing and perhaps we are living through an extraordinary time in History that happens once in every 500 years or so! Some of this can be very exciting – as we enjoy the benefits of internet, Skype, iPones and internet. But there are other things that can be very scary and challenging.
Check out this video – it will open your eyes!

After I watched it I thought – wow, what does this mean for me, my children, churches, great commission, helping poor and needy people? I don’t have any answers to these questions but I do have one answer – Jesus. Who says I AM not was or will be but I AM.  He is never changing – He is alpha and omega, He is the same and He promised me that He will be with me and will never leave or forsake me.  If you ever felt that you don’t need God I tell you we need God more than ever not only for eternity but for here and now!
I don’t know how we can live in this changing world without an unchanging God? If you don’t have Him with you I pray that you will find Him soon and allow Him to lead and guide you through this life and into eternity.  If you do know Him – hang on to Him – don’t let Him go!
Tomorrow I leave for India and Singapore – thanks for your prayers.
Blessings – Jossy

Most of us in the west have little idea about the cast system in India; even most Indians living in the west and the upper cast in India have little understanding about the evil of cast system. Unless you are one of the untouchables it is very difficult for us to comprehend this outdated system of slavery.  I was ignorant about this until I became friends with some of them and they started to share their pains with me. Let me share with you the story of Ram

Ram was enjoying a glass of chai (Indian tea) at an outdoor road side tea shop when his friend, Jimun, happened to stroll by.The two greeted each other warmly across the crowd, but his friend made a fatal error. Instead of greeting Ram as thus, he unwittingly yelled out Ram caste name.

That name was heard by every customer at the tea shop, and the shop keeper himself. A jovial mild mannered man one minute, and a whirlwind of anger and accusation the next the shop keeper ordered Ram to leave his premises.

“Get out” he roared. You are polluting my shop, my business will be ruined, he added, shaking his hefty fist at an astonished Ram.

You see, Ram might be a young, educated man, but he’s from one of India’s lowest castes  the potters’s caste.  India’s caste system might be outlawed, but the reality is, it’s flourishing. It’s also ensuring that young people like Ram, people with dreams and hopes, never rise above their status.

Ram was frozen with anger, but the shopkeeper’s tirade continued, You will have to pay for the ritual cleansing of my shop to get rid of any trace of you and your low caste presence.

At that time, a dog came by the shop and urinated on the leg of the table. The shopkeeper barely batted an eyelid. Ram dignity cracked; he threw his chai glass on the ground where it smashed into pieces, and fled. Worthless, useless, he was broken with the realisation that he was valued less than a dog.

The leaders of the untouchables are crying for help, one of them said why doesn’t anyone care to notice us, we are also humans like you, they are begging for help to lead their people out of bondage and slavery. I’m a little daunted; altogether, there are more than 700 million people who are in the untouchable group. They cry; will you help our children get education? Can you help us learn a skill so that we can do jobs that will give us dignity? Friends the chains of their caste are so strong unless we help from the outside these precious people will continue like they have for thousands of years.

Will you join with me? Are you prepared to use your time, talents and resources to bring freedom to over 700 million people? If you want to make a difference please let me know, I want to hear from you.

let us join together and change the the plight of 700 million people here and for eternity – Jossy Chacko

Brothers and sisters, I’ve spent the last few days in Singapore, meeting with business leaders and motivating them to lead a life of significance… it’s impressive, probably one of the most organised and cleanest cities in the world. 

Then the contrast – today I’ve woken in Lucknow, North India, it’s noisy, polluted, and it’s SO hot. There’s no air conditioning, but my hotel is still better than 90% of the homes in India.  I pick up the newspaper and its headline grabs me at the throat – “Not Enough Food… So Children Learn To Eat Mud.”

 The mud is laced with silica, it fills their distended bellies so for a brief moment, they imagine they are full. I think of my own four children, especially Joshua and Jasmine, aged 3 and 5. As a parent, how would it feel to watch your children eat mud because they are starving? You are helpless because you cannot feed yourself.

 Yet this is what is happening in one of the fastest growing economies in the world, a country with more millionaires than the entire population of Australia.  The song, “What a Wonderful World’, enters my mind but it’s an irony. How can we live in a world of such contrasts, a world with riches and excess and success, while one billion of our children live, and die in poverty? That’s one out of every two.  Asia, alongside Africa, accounts for the majority of underweight or stunted children. 

This is a huge problem. But not too huge that we cannot offer solutions.  There’s more than enough money in the world to solve all of the problems of poverty and health. But is there enough political and moral will?  Are there enough people willing to share their wealth? It made me think, if I had a billion dollars, what would I do?  Where would I spend it first? Who was most needy? It still wouldn’t be enough… the problems are insurmountable.  It’s all too hard…

But then I realised I was doing what we all do – getting stuck on the big problem, on the macro. We think about the big problem and become trapped… so we reach the conclusion that we can do nothing. The solutions required for such a huge problem are exactly that, HUGE.

Instead, we should be asking, what do I have, and what can I do?

 Today, through Empart’s initiatives, more than 3,500 children are cared for, given education, food and hope. And that’s because there are so many individuals who haven’t been overawed by the bigger problem. Instead they care to give and share what they have, rather than being paralysed by what they don’t have.

 So here’s what I can do – I can ask you for help – for the children who have to eat dirt. Go on, do a stock take of what you have? Take a chance – decided to use your skills, your gifts, your passion to change the world.  Could you tell me now, via this blog, commit in writing, what you’re willing to risk?  With this image of a little girl eating a handful of mud in your mind, what will you do?

Log onto www.empart.org and learn how your skills and your passion can help immediately.  In eternity you’ll be so glad you did.

In India, more than 750 million people live in enforced slavery, by dint of their caste. They are known as ‘the untouchables’ – and 70% of Indians fall into these castes. Eighty percent of them are illiterate, they earn approximately 50 cents a day.

They live with no hope, and resigned to their fate of eking out a living performing menial tasks for the higher castes.  By law, caste discrimination is illegal but it rules every aspect of society. Millions of our brothers and sisters are trapped, and cannot find a way out. Watch my video – it will change how you think.

11 years ago, when I started Empart, I thought I knew my Bible and had all my theology sorted out. How wrong I was! Since then I have been in continual instruction at the best and biggest theological seminary in the world: the Asian Church.

My life has been turned upside-down by my teachers in the Asian Church. Many of them are new believers who have only known Jesus for 1 – 2 years; some of them don’t even have a Bible. But their intuitive and cultural understanding of what it means to truly follow Christ, to be a real disciple, is profound.   Every trip I make to North India is like another adventure of faith. It is like walking through the New Testament. These believers in the Asian Church have not only impacted my life but the lives of hundreds of other people who have gone on short term trips with Empart.

Ironically, most people going on short term trips think they are going to give – but almost all of them return home know they have received more than they had given. They leave Asia grateful for the privilege of sharing in the lives of our brothers and sisters. It is these new believers – the poorest of the poor, who have only just learned about God for the first time in their lives but live as radical disciples – who are powerfully impacting the people from the west.

Kathy, a mum from the US, remembers her experience – “My trips to India with Empart have changed how I view missions forever!  I was unprepared to be as blessed as I visited Empart children’s homes where the children sang for us, recited Bible verses and danced and promised to pray for the children in our church in America.  My spirit was renewed by the passion for God’s Word in the young men from the Training Centre.  I was humbled by the hundreds of Pastors at the pastor’s conference who labor faithfully in the midst of opposition and discouragement that I will never experience.  We were inspired by the young women of the Sewing Centre, and thrilled to present them with their Certificate of Graduation and their new sewing machine.  And I was encouraged by the Indian leadership team who serve with passion, skill, and an unwavering focus on the mission – I will never be the same”

Ian, a business owner, also from the US, has just returned from an Empart mission trip to India. “I now think of my Christian faith from an international perspective. The cross cultural worship gave me a glimpse of the future, with the knowledge that I will worship the Lord together with these dear Indian believers in Heaven. My understanding of worship has been changed”

“I saw a demon-possessed girl and was able to pray for her. I saw firsthand how powerful the Name of Jesus is. I went there expecting to leave a mark but instead a mark was left on my heart. The staff really impacted me – their courageous faith and desire for God. God took me on an adventure! He taught me how to be less of a control freak and instead trust Him for my every day. I learnt how to be bolder and more faith-filled,” said Leonie from Australia.

“My trip with Empart to north India was an adventure of a lifetime! We visited the front lines of Gospel proclamation and saw first-hand what a world without Jesus looks like. It is nothing short of life-changing to worship with people who have truly counted the cost and paid the price to follow Jesus. Most of them have nothing but Jesus, and by comparison, I realized how impoverished I am in my affluence. I quickly realized that these Indian believers had far more to teach me than I had to offer them. It was such a privilege to serve and encourage these superstars of the faith. I pray for these brothers daily, and look forward to God opening the way for me to serve them in person again soon,” said Jeff, a businessman from the USA.

Friends, we can learn much from books and theories but there is nothing like meeting people who are on the frontline, and learning directly from them.  Just going to see the Asian Church will not guarantee your learning – you need to go in humility, with a heart willing to learn. If you do, I know you will be changed forever!
My good friend Ps. Bob Roberts from Northwood Church in Dallas says,  ‘The hope for the western church is to learn from the Asian church… they are gaining ground for the Kingdom and we are losing it…’

If you have been blessed through believers in developing counties I would love to hear from you. Where did you go? How did they bless you? What did you learn? write your thoughts in comments.
For more life-changing information about short term trips, please click or in US visit www.empartusa.org

Have a wonderful day – look out for what God may want to teach and show you from people and ways that you may not expect.  Blessings and love in Christ
Jossy Chacko

A few days ago Empart had a planning session for 2010 and one of our US partner’s said, “Please make sure that we don’t put events on during the American Thanksgiving time!” He then went on to say that Thanksgiving is the biggest family event in the USA and it is almost impossible for people to get away during this time.

This comment made me do some research about American Thanksgiving and I learnt that this special holiday has been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863, becoming a federal holiday in 1941. The first Thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to God for helping the pilgrims survive the brutal winter and the first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days providing enough food for 53 pilgrims and 90 Indians. Although Thanksgiving was historically a religious observation to give thanks to God, it is now primarily identified as a secular holiday that is a time of parades, spending time with family, watching grid iron football games and feasting – especially on turkey!

The Bible teaches us to give thanks to the Lord – not just once a year but every day, in ALL situations. But I think it is a great thing to have a dedicated day to count our blessings and to honour the Lord and thank Him as individuals, as families and as a nation. Along with my Christian friends in America, I pray that the nation of America will re-discover the original intent of Thanksgiving. How wonderful it would be to see people everywhere stopping to say thank you to God.

Why don’t you take a few minutes to think about all the things that you can thank the Lord for? If you can’t think of any – well, if you are reading this means you have life, you can read, you have a computer, internet…so just say, “thank you, Lord!”

India is probably the most “spiritual” country I have ever known. No other country in the world is as spiritually hungry as India is; on the trains, streets and offices you can talk about spirituality. One of my favorite questions to perfect strangers in India is, “So what do you think about God?” Then I just sit back and listen to their ideas about God for the next hour – or day! This also gives me the opportunity to ask questions that make them think (in my view this is the best personal evangelism strategy). I have used the same question all over the world but in most other places the answer is not quite as long as it is in India!!

I would love you to take 3 minutes to watch this video from a Rat temple in North India, where people come from all over the world to worship, touch, stay with and eat with rats. Yes, it’s true. In a country where 340 million people struggle to have one meal a day, there is plenty of milk and food for the rats. And no, this is not from 500 or 200 years ago, this is happening here and now. These people worshiping the rats are not all foolish/stupid – many of them are well educated and some of them very wealthy. They all have one thing in common – they are all lost and in search of truth and salvation.

It is images like this that get me out of bed and compel me to do what I do with Empart. How can we, who believe in Christ, sit back and do nothing?? I am not saying that we should make them all into Christians but I am arguing the point that they should be given the opportunity to hear the truth (the teachings of Jesus) and know their Savior (Jesus). While we argue about postmodernism in the west, we fail to remember more than 80% of the world is still in the dark ages (without the light of the gospel).

What do you think? What is our responsibility? If you are a follower of Jesus, can I ask you what would Jesus do? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

For the Lord and the lost
Jossy Chacko

One of the greatest challenges I have in living in two worlds (Asia and the West) is the constant change between the two cultures, expectations and practices. While an airplane can take me from one place to the other within hours, my mind has difficulty catching up!

In Asia people love relationship; everyone wants me to visit their home and have a meal. They all want to sit and talk about everything and anything and everyone has time for each other. Even if we have not seen, called or written to each other for years, the minute you see each other you are so connected and there is a depth and quality that is hard to express. This is seen and experienced in the families (extended family culture), offices and more importantly in the church (no one is rushing to run out the door when the final Amen is said). The worship service is not a production, rather a gathering that could last for 3-4 hours on Sunday and then continue throughout the week.

On the other hand, when I come to the West I have to make my mind adjust quickly to a different culture and expectation. Here, none of us has time but everyone wants to connect on email, mobile, Facebook etc. (One of my American Indian cousins – caught between cultural expectations – recently said to me, “I feel weird when I got a Facebook request from my uncle saying that he wants to be “friends” with me!”)

The online social media explosion is a good reflection of where the western society and culture is heading. No one has time but everyone wants to be friends with everyone. (And yes, you can be friends with me on both Facebook AND Twitter – jossychacko!!)

There is one thing I find in common around the world, no matter what the culture or language is: people are hungry for contact and connection with people.

I am not saying that one culture is better than the other, but I am troubled by one thing: western society is moving to a culture where we want friendship without relationship. If someone is not happy with your content they can instantly drop the “friendship” and find another friend within seconds! Wow, think about the consequence of this kind of world for the Church and Kingdom. I am fearful that one day people will say – hey, I want to be friends with God but I don’t want a relationship with Him. (Maybe we are already there?!)

Fellow Christian leaders and thinkers, we need to start getting our heads around this very quickly and come up with ways of meeting this challenge effectively. Otherwise we will have lots of friends for the Kingdom and not many disciples!

What do YOU think? Tell me, please write your comments, I want to hear from you. I want to be part of the solution, not just point out the problem!

Thanks and blessings

Jossy Chacko