stories
Ajay Thomas - Advance Initiative
Ajay Thomas was part of Leaders Collective’s twentieth lead pastor cohort (2023-2024). He served as pastor at Seven Mile Road Church in Philadelphia until 2023 and is now the full-time executive director of the Advance Initiative. This is a bit of his story.
About twenty-five years ago, I was attending a worship service on a Sunday morning at Loudonville Community Church in Albany, NY. Only, I couldn’t sing. I was at my favorite church in college, about to hear my favorite preacher, and I couldn’t open my mouth. I stood overwhelmed as I thought about my South Asian peers. I was burdened by these questions: When are they going to get to sing the songs that I’m singing? When are they going to hear the gospel I’m about to hear?
I wouldn’t have known what to call that burden or that moment then, but looking back, I think it was the seedling of my calling. Over time, God nurtured that seedling and in 2009, it blossomed into planting Seven Mile Road Church in Philadelphia. Our dream was to plant a church that could reach South Asians and yet be multiethnic at the same time. Today, we celebrate that God made that dream a reality. But it was just the start.
The reality is that every fourth person on the planet is South Asian. Yet as the least reached peoples, more than anyone else, South Asians have missed out on the good news of Jesus Christ. But, South Asians are also the largest diaspora group in the world. That means that God has sovereignly scattered the least reached to places like Nairobi and New York, Dubai and Dallas, Melbourne and Memphis, where they can be reached, and in turn, reach others as well. Imagine the impact if South Asians were reached with the love of Christ and became a global missional force!
We believe that God has a role for South Asians to play in the global advance of the gospel and so we launched The Advance Initiative (advanceinitiative.org). Our mission is “to catalyze a global movement of gospel-centered, multiethnic churches planted by or among South Asians.” Let me tell you what that means and why that matters by telling you about Boto.
Boto Joseph planted Jackson Heights Community Church (JHCC) in Queens, NY. The New York Times once described Jackson Heights as the world’s most diverse neighborhood. For example, if you go to the local Wendy’s, you’ll find that the menu is not written in English, but in four South Asian languages. But if you go to Jackson Heights, every Sunday you’ll also find JHCC gathering on the third floor of a Muslim-owned restaurant named Kebab King.
JHCC has baptized former Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists, among others. What’s amazing to me about JHCC and Boto is that Boto’s family came to faith generations ago because missionaries from New York came to Nagaland, his home state in India. And now, in God’s unfolding story, it’s a missionary from Nagaland that is reaching people in New York!
It’s not just Boto. I could tell you about my friend Jason who planted New Hope Church in Harlem, NY, or about Isaac planting Center Church in Dubai. I could tell you about Sujith who immigrated from India to the US pursuing the American dream, only to leave it all and go back to plant Cornerstone Church in Mumbai pursuing an even better dream. It’s for stories like these, and to see countless more, that Advance exists.
So our work is to expose people to the gospel opportunity among South Asians, provide spaces for believers to explore their sense of calling, equip leaders to plant as or among South Asians, and empower pioneers to plant. And all of that is ultimately to advance the gospel, by planting churches, all around the world!
To that end, we would love for you to partner and pray with us. Would you pray Luke 10:2 and Psalm 90:17 for us? We need the Lord of the harvest to raise up more laborers, specifically even for Him to raise up South Asian church planters all around the world. And please intercede for us that God would have favor on our ministry and establish the work of our hands!
Learn more at advanceinitiative.org
Operation Christmas Child
For the second year in a row, LH Kids families built boxes for Operation Christmas Child on Build-A-Box Day. The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to provide children in need around the world with gifts and the Good News of Jesus Christ. This is a very tangible way that the children of Living Hope get to be mission-focused by providing love and encouragement to children in need at home and abroad. In addition, it encourages parents to disciple their children, teaching them about loving, serving, and praying for others.
After Hurricane Helene
Billy Glosson was part of Leaders Collective’s fifth church planter cohort (2018-2019). He joined the cohort as part of his ongoing development and preparation to plant a church in Western North Carolina. This is a bit of his story.
Six years ago, my wife and I packed our bags and moved from mid-Missouri to my hometown of Morganton, NC. We came with a simple mission: to plant a gospel-centered church in the growing rural South. It wasn’t long before we felt the weight of that calling. Church planting is tough, and starting in March of 2020 (yes, right before the pandemic) was even tougher. Between navigating a global pandemic and the pushback from cultural easy-believism and rejection of Christianity, it felt like our efforts were just a trickle against the rushing torrent of brokenness. But we held fast, knowing that God does not despise the day of small things. Little by little, we grew. Eventually, we saw His kindness when another local church merged with us, gifting us their building. It was an unexpected and gracious provision.
In the middle of this grind, an old high school friend reached out wanting to catch up. He co-hosted a popular local podcast that often took local pastors to task, and he was an outspoken atheist. Our conversations stretched over months of coffee meetups, but slowly, he softened. One night, in the midst of a personal crisis, he reached out, his life in turmoil. He felt like there might be something to this Jesus I spoke of. That night, he turned to the scriptures, and he became a Christian; God brought him from death to life. A few weeks later, I had the incredible joy of baptizing him, celebrating his new birth in Christ.
The Impact of Hurricane Helene
Mission Church had just started to feel settled. We had installed our first elders, and it felt like we were finally getting our footing. Then, on September 27, Hurricane Helene walloped Western North Carolina. The river basin in Morganton broke, flooding neighborhoods, wiping out businesses, and leaving the town without power or water for days. Downed trees and power lines littered the streets, but the hardest part was the silence. Communication was nearly impossible. Cell service was down, and the only news we received came through word of mouth.
It wasn’t until days later, when I left town to shower, that I saw the destruction in places like Chimney Rock and Asheville. The devastation was staggering—I remember sitting in my car, overwhelmed and weeping.
In the aftermath, we didn’t know what to do since communication was still spotty. I drove to our building that Saturday to try and figure out a way to hold some kind of Sunday gathering. When I arrived, I was shocked—our building had power, miraculously, even with downed trees all around. That Sunday morning was one of the sweetest gatherings I’ve ever been a part of.
People were weeping and hugging, checking on each other. Handwritten directions to homes with pools were passed around so people could flush toilets. We didn’t have open grocery stores, cell service, or running water, but we had power and a place to gather. For the next several days, we opened the building in the morning, providing lunch, a place to charge phones, and some sense of routine for kids and parents. We opened again in the afternoon and handed out water and other essential supplies to our community. Those days were long and heavy, but they were filled with the sweetness of community and God’s provision.
How to Help
Many have asked how they can help. We are overwhelmed by the kindness of churches across the country. Our building is full of needed supplies, but if you want to help specifically, give to local churches that were most heavily impacted, like those in Spruce Pine and Asheville. Most significantly, we ask for prayer. Never before have I seen so much favor for the church in this area. People have been overwhelmed by the response of local churches in the midst of this crisis. Pray that we can walk through this door of opportunity and see many come from death to life.
Teenagers Serving in LH Kids
On any given Sunday, you might find believers middle school age through senior adults and all ages in-between serving together, supporting one another, challenging one another, encouraging one another and problem solving together in LH Kids.
The teenagers of Living Hope are serving the Lord in a tangible way and making meaningful contributions in the lives of other teachers and children. You might find them sitting on the floor reading a book, building with blocks, helping with an art activity or playing ball outside. We are so thankful for the teens serving and for their parents who allow and encourage them to serve. Here are a few thoughts from some of the teens who serve:
“Serving in LH Kids is such a sweet way to connect that grows my faith while I help. I want every child to feel comfortable and loved, especially here at church. I love to be able to help provide that nurturing environment. I always look forward to seeing my little buddies and encourage their love of Jesus while it encourages mine as well”
“I have watched my mom serve in LH Kids for years, and I saw the need and I wanted to help too! I love seeing how the Lord works in little ways to strengthen their faith. I get to be a part of the body of Christ in worshipping and praising the Lord in this way. It brings me great joy!”
From whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. - Ephesians 4:16
May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accordwith Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. - Romans 15:5-6