About

ABOUT

Bridging the gap between the Church in the States and South Asia,

HOW IT ALL BEGAN...

By God’s providence, Harvest Bridge founder, Dr. Tim Mech and Pastor Jairaj* met in Chennai, India in 2007. Noticing Pastor Jairaj and his coworkers had very effective ministries among the poor in spite of serious material constrains, Mech realized that assisting local ministries would be a highly effective model of ministry. He initially attempted to connect his Indian partners with existing mission organizations, but he found this wasn’t feasible because poorer Asian missionaries lack the requisite English skills, Western accounting standards, and projects of sufficient scale. He realized that these barriers could be overcome by creating a network of small Asian ministries with English-speaking regional coordinators, so that resources and needs could be combined and shared. In 2008, Mech and Pastor Jairaj implemented this strategy, giving birth to Harvest Bridge.

Now, we come alongside men and women who demonstrate and share the Gospel in many of the most impoverished and persecuted places in the world.

In 2020 alone, through our network of about 215 pastors and missionaries in eight countries, 1,320 men and women made earnest commitments to follow Jesus. Several hundred pastors and church leaders were trained in ministry. Nearly 1,000 children received access to education. Dozens of women received funding for small business or vocational training. In the face of both COVID-19 food shortages and severe flooding, over 4,280 families – about 21,400 men, women, and children – received life-saving food and personal protective supplies through distributions led by our local leaders.

WHERE WE SERVE

Bhutan

Kashmir

Nepal and Tibet

Myanmar

Bangladesh

Pakistan

Andaman Islands

India

WHAT WE DO

We have one goal: To come alongside local ministries in South Asia.

Harvest Bridge does not create local ministries, but equips ministries that already have proven themselves to be effective. We join our brothers and sisters who have done much with little.

Local country leaders identify those who are doing the hard, often thankless, unpublicized work of reaching their villages and cities with the love of Jesus. In many ways, we act as a bridge between South Asian ministries and the Western church, including other nonprofits and individual supporters. This bridge is needed because wise, effective, experienced missionaries often do not receive needed support or training because they don’t speak English – or because they serve too small a demographic – or because they are not equipped to articulate the importance of their work.

We believe that local ministries should and can be self-sufficient. We also recognize that some missionaries operate under extremely adverse conditions and can accomplish much more with some help.

These men and women not only know their communities best – they also know what it means to give up everything to follow Jesus, and they can affirm that He is worth it. We help them accomplish their goals.