Picture a city—a holy city—on the waterfront, filled with churches, complete with a rich history and cable-stay.  It is a tourist destination for thousands, with people flocking to its shores for renewal.  Perhaps Rainbow Row, the Market and the historic Battery of Charleston comes to mind?

Thousands of miles away from the South Carolina shore stands Haridwar, India a waterfront city with temples and bridges and at times, millions of tourists.  And it was in this city Chuck Coward saw a picture of his home.

Coward, Church and Community Ministries Consultant &Executive Director for the Charleston Baptist Association, traveled to India in October 2004 as part of a vision trip for the South Asia partnership.

“I went going with the idea of finding the city [the association] would be partnering with,” recalled Coward.

Edgar Boles, Director of Missions for the Charleston of Association, had been investigating Project Thessalonica, a strategic mission partnership which pairs churches with unreached people groups in South Asia for long-term mission relationships.  Coward’s task was to find the city God picked for Charleston.

“Haridwar is one of the Hindu holy cities and of course that is one of Charleston’s nicknames.  As we made our way into the city, we went across a cable-stay bridge, the same kind of design as the new bridge in Charleston…lots of tourism, just a lot of similarities to Charleston.  I just had sense this is where we need to be.”

Haridwar is one stop of a four city pilgrimage, the Kumbh Mela, which Hindus faithfully travel once every twelve years.  Millions of seekers fill the streets and the Ganges River during Kumbh Mela to ritually cleanse themselves and search for meaning in their faith.

“Haridwar is incredibly spiritually oppressive.  It literally took me a month to emotionally recoup.  The impact of Hinduism is so great,” Coward said of the city.

Right now Coward is planning a trip in November for a small group of leaders to travel to Haridwar to catch the vision of God for the city.  After the trip, the heart of the partnership is to see churches in the association move past short term mission trips to a more meaningful relationship that is fostered and grown between the people of two very different “holy” cities—a relationship that will eventually lead to the Gospel.

“Much of what we see ourselves doing will come as a result of this time in November, when we will spend more time in the city investigating the city better and having a better idea of what can be done within the realms of the culture.”

The church response had been overwhelmingly positive, particularly among smaller to medium sizes churches who would be less likely to enter into a large partnership on their own.  Together, the churches in the association have the opportunity to take the Gospel around the world.  It is a contagious mission focus Coward can foresee lasting a long while.

“People have asked ‘How long is this partnership?’ and my answer has been it is until there are multiplying, indigenous leadership that doesn’t need us any more.  Then we will move on to the next unreached people group.”