camp inlineThe New Testament Baptist Church Association in Manipur, India, has developed the first Bible camp in Manipur and dedicated it to the Lord. “This camp property is an answer to our prayers,” says H. C. Stephen, president of the association and chairman of the IPFBM Council of Eight. “We had been praying for this for about 10 years.”

After much prayer, Stephen and staff members named the eight-acre camp En Gedi. They recently officially dedicated the facility to the Lord, “though it had been used several times already!” he says. The dedication, he says, “was a time of thanksgiving to the Lord for His manifold blessings. Over 200 friends, relatives, well-wishers, and leaders of our church attended.”

In developing the camp’s philosophy and property, Stephen reached out to the leadership of Lake Ann (Mich.) Camp for counsel. He also received help from Grace Baptist Church, Batavia, N.Y., which sent a construction team that put up the shell and roofed the dormitory. This was not Grace Baptist’s first trip to Manipur. In 2014, Pastor Donald Shirk and three members of the church helped build Stephen’s home and ministry center.

“H. C. Stephen is the real deal,” Shirk says. “He is a man surrendered to Jesus Christ and is faithfully laboring for Him on a wide and effective ministry platform. He is a man of vision.”

“God uses camping profoundly as a tool for evangelism and discipleship,” says Chris Hindal, director of Regular Baptist International. “Opportunities to invest in the work of the Lord are available around the world.” If your church would like to develop a relationship with a ministry in another country as Grace Baptist Church has, contact Chris Hindal, who can help make that connection happen.