Untouchable No More: The violence is spreading

9.16.2008

The violence is spreading

The violence continues in Orissa on India's east coast and has erupted in the Western state of Karntaka as well. There have been disturbances in Delhi as well. Pray for the Christians in India.

"India is in a scary situation," says Gospel for Asia President K.P. Yohannan. "While violence continues in Orissa, on India's east coast, anti-Christian extremists have unleashed another wave of attacks on Christians in Karnataka, a state on India's west coast.

"At the same time, churches are under attack in Jharkand and other states, and Muslim extremists have set off bombs in Delhi.

"But we know that, in the end, the future is bright, because Jesus is with His church."

On Sunday, Hindu mobs rushed into churches and prayer centers of many different denominations in Karnataka, attacking Christians during their times of worship. The extremists then destroyed the church buildings and their properties. At least 11 churches were destroyed, including at least one led by Gospel for Asia missionaries.

Christians responded with protest rallies, and more than 60 extremists have been detained by authorities as a result of Sunday's attacks.

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Prayer

Here is how you can be praying for us.

- Pray for the Freedom of those oppressed by the Hindu caste in India.

- Pray for the continued support of the school. It is growing rapidly and despite all the expansion they've seen in facilities they're quickly outgrowing their facilities. They have big dreams to expand, pray for the support and funding to make it happen. It won't be on their own, they'll need a lot of help, but God has been faithful to provide thus far.

- Pray for the continued advance of the Gospel in an ever increasingly oppressed land.

Praise

Here is what we are praising God for

- We came together as a team. Held together by our Creator, we became a close-knit bunch.

- The school continues to grow! And there is no student in India who is getting a better education. (We may be a little biased but after seeing it first hand, I wouldn't doubt if it were true.) They continue to add students and teachers and have been able to expand the opportunities to teach and educate. And their dreams for the future are big!

- The Gospel is advancing!

much more to come...

Who we are

We are a group of adults and students from Nebraska who have been introduced to the idea that we are involved in an invisible world called the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ invited us to join Him on this narrow road that leads to a greater joy and fruit. Consequently being ruined for 'normal' living!

In 2003 we learned that there were millions of Indian Dalit who were cutting social and religious ties with Hinduism. The Christian Church offered what help they could. 'Educate our children' was the request. 'Even if our world-view is Biblical?' was asked. 'Yes!' was the response. So a group of Christian organizations committed themselves to operating schools for Dalit children. Our group knows a good challenge when we hear one. And this was big. More than 200 high school and college kids raised the money to build a school in 4 months!

The following summer it was decided we should go see where the school would be built and become acquainted with the teachers and students who were studying in a rented cattle barn. Hearing the teachers and leaders tell us that we were the first Americans they had met who 'followed' their money made us see this relationship differently. God had prompted us to send some money, but He was also very interested in us having our own lives change.

Each year we have taken a team of 10 or so to be in the school for a week. We plant ourselves in the classrooms to watch the teachers creatively educate these swarms of beautiful and unruly children with very few props. To watch the children grow and become brilliant and bilingual!

We return from our time there with our value system tweaked. We are more grateful for what we have, less consumer-oriented. We find that we are really impatient with ourselves for being petty or self-absorbed. India haunts us because we find that the same Spirit that is growing us up in Him here is at work there wrestling people away from death and slavery.