God enabled us to organize a Leadership Seminar in the city of Chandigarh. In this seminar we trained around 55 people from Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana & Punjab. Historically, most of the growth of the Indian church has been concentrated in the southern and north-eastern parts of the country and it is true to this day. The Northwest part of the country is often neglected or often considered resistant to the Gospel thus bypassed by many missions and missionaries. It is often called "the North India-Hindi Belt."
Religion Percentage of Total Population
Hindus 92 %
Sikhs 2.5 %
Christians 2 %
Muslims 2.5 %
Nature Worship (including tribal) 1.5 %
Other forms of Worship
Apart from these regular religions, several folk forms of worship are also prevalent in Uttarakhand. Major ones among these are.
Snake worship: The descendants of the Nagas who lived in Uttaranchal in ancient times still worship the snake on Nag Panchami.
Karna worship: Karna (of Mahabharata) worship is widespread in the Jaunsar-Bawar area of western Garhwal.
Sameshwar or Duryodhana worship: Duryodhana (of Mahabharata) is worshipped in the upper valleys of the rivers Tons, Yamuna, Bhagirathi, Balganga and Bhilangana.
Mahasu worship: Mahasu worship prevalent in the Yamuna and Bhagirathi valleys of the western Garhwal.
Religion Percentage of Total Population
Hindus 92 %
Sikhs 2.5 %
Christians 2 %
Muslims 2.5 %
Nature Worship (including tribal) 1.5 %
Other forms of Worship
Apart from these regular religions, several folk forms of worship are also prevalent in Uttarakhand. Major ones among these are.
Snake worship: The descendants of the Nagas who lived in Uttaranchal in ancient times still worship the snake on Nag Panchami.
Karna worship: Karna (of Mahabharata) worship is widespread in the Jaunsar-Bawar area of western Garhwal.
Sameshwar or Duryodhana worship: Duryodhana (of Mahabharata) is worshipped in the upper valleys of the rivers Tons, Yamuna, Bhagirathi, Balganga and Bhilangana.
Mahasu worship: Mahasu worship prevalent in the Yamuna and Bhagirathi valleys of the western Garhwal.
. After the tiring journey in the peak summers, all the candidates had lunch, took rest for a while and got ready in the evening for the first session. So we started the seminar with a word of prayer. We had a few songs of worship and then we handed over to our guest speaker Rev Shane, who gave the seminar a powerful start.
On 26th June, we got some more people in the seminar. The total number of candidates was around 60 who learnt about discipleship and understood the benefits of discipleship. Everybody was so excited after realizing that discipleship is so necessary to spread the light of Gospel.
Everybody was excited and very happy because of the seminar & fellowship time. Even after the sessions in their free time, they were practicing gospel songs.
Everybody was excited and very happy because of the seminar & fellowship time. Even after the sessions in their free time, they were practicing gospel songs.
Everybody enjoyed the spiritual food served by Rev Shane and then we moved to the Dining Room to have the Lunch together. | |
After Lunch we had some extremely good teachings. All the candidates were there before time to learn more about the discipleship. Uttarakhand team lead in Praise & Worship before the session. Uttarakhand team was so blessed that they specially asked us to do the same kind of seminar in Uttarakhand also. Uttarakhand is one of those Indian states where it is not an easy thing to be a Christian because it is a Hindu Dominated state. Evangelism or Discipleship is almost zero in Uttarakhand if you compare it with other states.