Imagine India

Click here for the current newsletter. Monthly Meetings Third Wednesday 6:30-8:30 p.m. Room 228 Join the Imagine India team in their monthly meetings. Please contact the team leader to let them know you will be coming. HOPE travels Short-term mission trips through Discover the World Reachable and touchable Anyone with compassion for the poor and a passion for education, medical care or economic development can join in lifting the oppression of the Dalits by extending HOPE through Imagine India. Learn more about opportunities here at home, as well as in India. HOPE partners Dalit Freedom Network Operation Mobilization India

The purpose of the Imagine India team is to serve Christ as we encourage, equip and engage the congregation at Cherry Hills in the building of God’s Kingdom in India, beginning in Orissa State and expanding as God leads.

Through extending the hand of compassion in a culturally sensitive way by providing medical care, educational opportunities, economic development and planting churches, Cherry Hills Community Church has the opportunity to represent Christ and present the Gospel to the lost and forgotten in this vast nation. The focus of Imagine India’s involvement in India is to come alongside the Indian church and help serve them in their efforts to meet the needs of the local people and present the Gospel in a way that will be eternally life changing.

Dalits and the caste system

One of the more confusing mysteries of India is her caste system. The caste system, which has existed for more than 3,000 years, was developed by the Brahmin (priest) caste in order to maintain their superiority. Eventually, the caste system became formalized into four distinct classes (Varna) with the Brahmin at the top. Beneath the four main castes is a fifth group called the untouchables, the Dalits.

Datits are not considered part of human society, but something less than human. They generally perform the most menial and degrading jobs. Caste rules hold that Dalits pollute higher caste people with their presence. If higher caste Hindus touch an untouchable or even come within a Dalit’s shadow, they must undergo rigorous series of cleansing rituals.

Given this cultural history in India, now imagine the power of the Gospel that seeks to include everyone—and especially reaches out in compassion the "least of these."

Meeting needs, showing Christ’s love

Imagine India’s goal is to transform villages in India through education, medical clinics, economic development programs, and by supporting Christian church planters.

India is a country with a population in excess of 1 billion people, 250 million of whom are Dalits. Although the Indian Constitution guarantees fundamental rights and freedoms for all Indians, Dalits are systematically abused. Dalits are poor, deprived and socially backward. Their most basic needs of food, shelter, and safety are not fulfilled. They also cannot access decent education and employment. The systematic denial of their basic human rights results keeps Dalits in perpetual bondage to the upper castes.