Rounded Rectangle:

Friendship Baptist Church

2008 Missions Conference

Sam and Sharon Dayanand

India

 

Children: Nathan
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Sam was born into a Christian home but realized that he was lost in his sins and that God had extended His grace to him by shedding His blood and dying on the cross, being buried, and rising again.  He understood from Ephesians chapter two that God loved him while he was yet dead in his sins and trespasses and asked Him to be his Lord and Savior.  During his post graduate studies the Lord’s hand in his life was made evident when the bus he was traveling in met with a serious accident.  Sam sustained multiple injuries and was hospitalized.  During this time he realized that only by the grace of God was his life spared.

 

He completed his Masters in Bio-Chemistry and got a job, but a certain emptiness bothered him.  He knew he needed to do more for the Lord.  Then one day during his quiet time, Romans 6:13 convicted him to yield himself as one who was alive from the dead as an instrument of righteousness unto God.  He recognized that the Lord was calling him to serve Him full time.  He felt the need  to systematically study the word of God and be in a position to teach others also as the word of God says in 2 Timothy 2:2.  This brought him to Mysore and the Bible college started by veteran BIMI missionary, the late Dr. Edwin Divakar.  Here the Lord impressed upon him the need for local churches to be established in various parts of India.  He felt a need to teach and train young men and work with the graduates and help them start local churches in the areas of their calling.   Each region of India differs vastly from one another and the students come from various states with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. It would therefore be more effective to place them as local pastors.  With a population of 1.2 billion, approximately 80% are Hindu, 12% are Muslim, 5% comprise Buddhists and other religions, and 3% are Christian with only a handful of true believers,  there is a great need for evangelism and local churches. 

 

Sharon was a missionary kid and was saved at an early age.  She felt the call to be a missionary at the age of nine, and by fifteen the Lord was confirming that call through Matthew 9:37, as there is a great need for laborers in the harvest.   In the year 2000 BIMI accepted her as a single missionary and she started New Hope Baptist Children’s Home that same year.  There are five children at present in the Home and Sam and Sharon plan to continue the children’s ministry along with church planting and teaching in the Bible college.