City Vision College Graduate Spreading the Gospel Through Holy Hip Hop

I am extremely glad to write to you on behalf of BHARATIYA SUWARTA MISSION, as their Secretary, and I greet you in the precious name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ ! Let me introduce myself, I am Arvind Mantode, a Pastor serving with the Free Methodist Church in Mumbai, India. I am proposing to give below an account of a ministry which my father has put together and which bears the name of BHARATIYA SUWARTA MISSION and since many of my beloved readers may not be familiar with such typical Indian vernacular pronunciation, I would like write it's meaning, viz, "INDIAN EVANGELICAL MISSION". This is a Trust, registered with the Government of Maharashtra, INDIA, since December 22, 2003. Among the many goals of this trust, one of them includes the publication of THE THOMPSON CHAIN-REFERENCE STUDY BIBLE IN MARATHI LANGUAGE. Marathi is one of the prominent Indian vernacular languages spoken by the people belonging to the third largest State in India, the State of Maharashtra. THE PROJECT : After my father, Madhukar S. Mantode retired from the Government service, where he served with the Indian Railways for a period of 33 long years, he was inspired by the HOLY SPIRIT to contribute his talents and the remaining part of his life for the glory of the Living God. Mr. Mantode is a graduate of Civil Engineering and specialized in R.C.C. Steel and Structure, being a wrangler in Mathematics and extremely good at numbers/figures. So while seeking the Lord's guidance for his future career preferably in the service of the Lord as a thanks-giving offering for having settled all his children in good jobs, and upon being urged by a devout man of God, my father took up the work of translating THE THOMPSON COMPREHENSIVE BIBLE HELPS, containing "A Complete System of Biblical Studies" in Six Departments: 1) Text Cyclopedia; 2) Bible Readings; 3) Outline Studies of the Bible; 4) Studies of Prominent Bible Characters; 5) Bible harmonies and Illustrated Studies; 6) Colored Bible Atlas and translated it from English to Marathi language. Why was Marathi language chosen for translation? For one thing, Marathi is our mother-tongue. Secondly, it is spoken by a huge population of the people belonging to the State of Maharashtra. THE THOMPSON CHAIN-REFERENCE STUDY BIBLE IN MARATHI LANGUAGE, is being printed and published by our TRUST bearing th name, BHARATIYA SUWARTA MISSION, located in INDIA. We have completed the translation of this Bible from English to Marathi language which is one of the more prevalent Indian vernacular languages being the native language of one of the biggest States, the State of Maharashtra. Here majority of the people worship one or more of the 33 millions god or goddess. The Bharatiya Suwarta Mission has pledged to propagate the WORD OF GOD in a more masticated form for the locals/natives to understand it and be delivered from the consequential curse which has overpowered them to the extent of making their lives unbearable. This was the result of worshiping false gods and loathsome idols. We desire through a website: http://gospelnewsindia.synthasite.com , to attract Believers all over the world to join hands and make this huge project a great success by faithful contribution of their prayers and by sharing the financial burden also. Please read the entire history of how this great project materialized under the section " President and his wife" in this website, and read about the factors responsible for the project to gain momentum and mobilization against formidable barriers that came across the way during it's progress and while reaching it's completion stage. You can very well see that unless the Lord had initiated this project and sustained it through His gracious provision, this project would have hardly been accomplished. It's after our experience with such kind of God's sustenance that we were more and more convinced of the saying so often quoted that, " When God gives a vision, He gives provision too!" The Bharatiya Suwarta Mission is granted formal permission by Mr. David Gage, President , B.B. Kirkbride Bible Co., Inc. to print and publish this Bible. After reading about the complete project we are sure that the Holy Spirit will definitely prompt you to give grant for publishing this Bible and help with your contributions to facilitate printing of thousand copies of this study Bible. The Bharatiya Suwarta Mission, is a registered charitable (Non-profit) organization, registered under the Government of Maharashtra State, in India.The amount that The Bharatiya Suwarta Mission desires to make request for is US$ 125,000. This amount is proposed to be used for printing 5,000 copies of The Thompson Chain-Reference Study Bible in Marathi Language, and within a month of receiving the Grant, we shall print these many copies. This is because the complete DTP of the Marathi Thompson Bible is ready for printing. Looking forward for an encouraging reply, Sincerely, Pastor Arvind Mantode, Email : arvindmantode@yahoo.com Mobile No. 9323125986

It is great to see people witness to others about Christ. I will say though, that the intermixing of "secular things" with Christian ideals is prohibited in the Bible. Many "new" religions have come about due to the mixing of spiritual things with the secular world. Hip Hop music, as well as country, rock, pop, grunge, and rap is totally a worldly (secular) view on life. Intermixing secular and Christian views certainly confused new Christians. We are called "out of the world." We should leave behind our secular shells. I am sure the message is good, but you are agreeing with "hip hop" by mimicing it in your music. All secular music motivates us to look inwardly, the opposite of where God wants us to look. The industry promotes sex, disobedience, and manipulates the individual to look for "personal glory" and "power" which Christ is strongly against. Adding the word "holy" to hip hop doesn't negate these goals or help someone find Christ. It instead makes them think hip hop is okay, which is totally 100% the opposite of what Christ said. Again though, it is great to see people witness to others about Christ. My advice: the world needs more Christians to witness the 'pure truth," not a compilation of truth and culture.