Pastoral Leaders in India

“The lack of knowledge of the Word of God is unfortunately being passed on to the next generation of believers. Therefore, the training of pastors is an urgent need.” These are the words from Biraj, a marine engineer and layperson in West Bengal, India. Rev. Shant Manuel, part-time Pastor of Hammonds Plains First Baptist Church, NS, has heard this cry and is seeking ways to answer it. Shant has been involved in pastoral ministry within our Convention and has also been deeply impacted through mission opportunities to places like Cuba, Indonesia, Nepal and India.

Throughout his ministry, Shant has continued to hear God’s call to train leaders in places such as India. And it was out of this calling and continuous requests for training from national church leaders in India, that Far Corner’s Ministry was birthed. “Presently, the emphasis of Far Corners Ministry is to provide educational opportunities for national church leaders through teams from Canada,” says Shant. “This will probably expand to include conferences and fellowship opportunities for laypeople, womens retreats, and ministries to children.”

In February of 2009, Shant led a team from Nova Scotia to India to conduct pastoral training seminars and seek out new ministry opportunities. One member of the team included Rev. Edwin Allen, Pastor of Barrington Temple United Baptist Church. He became interested in Shant’s ministry after a conversation with him at Oasis 2008. It was here that Edwin was invited to go to India to help train church leaders. “My greatest challenge was facing the poverty I found there, which was in such stark contrast to the new cities being flooded by technology and the young and affluent. My heart was touched by the desire of the lay leaders in Baptist work and other evangelical denominations, who reach out in so many ways to those whose needs stretch to all facets of life, in the old cities and rural areas of the places we visited.”

In an effort to bring training opportunities that the local churches are so thirsty for, Shant will also be leading a team of ten (which includes Pastor Phil Williams from Calvary Baptist, Woods Harbor, NS) back to India in November 2009. Shant and Edwin are planning to lead a team in February, 2010. If you are interested in joining Shant or want more information, please contact [1] him.