Nakayama, a senior majoring in Religion at the University of Georgia, accompanied a group of ten students from UGA's Wesley Foundation to four states in Southern India. The whole group stayed for three weeks, and Nakayama and another student extended their trip by a month to work with Christ Universal Missions in the villages located on the southern tip of India.

The UGA group's main focus was holding a VBS in an orphanage for handicapped children, founded 11 years ago by a former UGA student, who has raised them to be strong in their faith.

"We were inspired by the children at the orphanage. They had such joy. We also visited a Catholic Home for dying and destitute women. The nuns had taught the women about Jesus," Nakayama said.

Nakayama stayed in India for an extra month to work with Anand, 26, an English teacher, who founded Christ Universal Missions. The ministry offers a free kindergarten for the village and has also laid the foundation for an orphanage.

One of Nakayama's best memories was participating in a church opening in a neighboring village.

"The walls of the church were palm branches. The inner walls were rice sacks that had been sewn together. Everyone was so self-sacrificing for the church–– it reminded me of the church in Acts. In the village they advertised free food at the church opening, so many people came. All of the kids from the village came out," Nakayama said.

The ministry also held street gospel meetings in villages, with turnouts of 70 people or more. Nakayama noticed that lots of times people would line up for prayer.

"There is such an air of helplessness and despair. Suicide is prevalent. AIDS is rampant. Kids just end up on the street. We were in slum towns with tons of one-room shanties and open sewers on the sides of roads, amazingly impoverished. There are many Indian temples, and idol worship is all that many know," Nakayama said.

The persecution that Nakayama witnessed in India opened his eyes to the anti-Western elements in the Indian culture that have risen out of strict devotion to both Hindu and cultural tradition."

"We saw one Christian church just sitting there unfinished. Hindu militants had threatened the church builders with violence if they continued construction. Pretty much everyone we met had at least been threatened for being a Christian. There is a very active persecution going on. Anand has been threatened many times," Nakayama said.

Even considering the extreme poverty and persecution in India, Nakayama still believes that Americans need missionaries more.

"Brennan Manning, in The Ragamuffin Gospel, said, ‘The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians; who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.' I think the American church has to wake up. We have got to realize what it means to be Christians, that this claim is more than just a label or title or a time commitment. To truly know Jesus and live in His love, you cannot help but be changed into a new creation. We have got to realize who we are and live and love like it. That comes from renewing our minds daily in the Word. It's time to step it up," Nakayama said.

"I was raised in a church and knew all the answers in Sunday School when I was a kid, but I didn't believe it, so it didn't change me. For a while in my early teens, I detested the church and hated the kids in the youth group because I saw them as being hypocritical. That all changed when we moved to Middle Georgia. My family joined Trinity UMC, and the love and support I received from the kids in the youth group at Trinity showed me Jesus' love," Nakayama added.

"We as a church have not given people a more compelling way to live. When it costs something to call yourself a Christian, I think it means more. Ultimately, it all comes back to taking up the cross. We don't get a lot more comfortable or safer than we are in the U. S. But with that comfort also comes apathy, complacency and infighting among Christians. That's something that scares me a lot more than the poverty and persecution I saw in India," Nakayama said.