My wife’s cousin Ruth and her husband Nitin, who is from India, sent out this request for prayer in the volatile religious, political and cultural tensions in their area. Please pray for the whole community, as well as for our brothers and sisters in the Lord who face unbelievable conflict and threats for the name of Jesus. — Norm
Dear faithful friends and prayer partners,
Greetings to you in the name of the most High God.
On Sunday, 19th of April there was an attack on a church about 40kms away from Nagpur. The name of the village is Saoner. The church is in the center of the village. A fanatic Hindu organization first made a police complaint saying that forcible conversion is taking place. Ten minutes later they attack the church wielding swords and guns as well as knives, sticks and stones. They verbally and physically abused the women and children. They vandalized the churches instruments and a school bus. They pointed the gun towards the pastor and threatened that he would be killed if they continued having church. The attackers brought a TV camera and showed it on the news just to please their leaders and bring terror to the minorities. As elections are going on they want to use this to consolidate Hinduhood. They also aim to get political party ticket to contest election. This 150 year old church has only 60 members. There was no conversion going on at all. To get famous, to get Political ticket and to prove their patriotism and to satisfy their nationalistic pride they do these evil things.
We were involved in bringing the Minority commission and bringing the Buddhists, Muslims, OBC and Christians together to bring peace, protection and demand arrests for about 25-30 from this organization. Brahmans planned and were behind this attack. OBC’s were used to carry the attack. All OBC secular leaders realized that Brahmans used OBC to attack Christians, Tribals , Muslims and Buddhists. There is a need to educate the OBCs so that they will understand that we are brothers and that they should not be dictated by Brahmans. 75-80% of the population are OBCs. We need to regularly invest our time to build bridges and develop relationships with OBC so that prejudice, deception and ignorance may be wiped out. Nearly 200 leaders came together including Minority ministers, Member of Legislative assembly and Members of Parliament and 20 non-Christian organizations as well as the Muslim Welfare Society.
Our primary focus is to see peace restored,the church continued, OBC withdrawn from RSS work and our attackers become a minority. We would like that those who conspire to divide the community put behind bars. There are regular attacks in Gujarat, Orissa, Karnataka, and Madya Pradesh. Sometimes it looks as if they want to experiment. A sad example was that people who attacked the churches got Parliament election ticket and were considered heroes. Hindu organization will back them financially. Although they will claim in the papers that they are not involved they will put money into Court guarantees etc.
By the grace of God for the first time in Nagpur’s history non-Christians are taking lead to protect the church and bringing peace. After having 4-5 meetings with business people, temple priests and secular political leaders they arranged a peace meeting tomorrow at 5:00 in Saoner assuring the church people that they will make sure the church continues and will be protected. Every time an attack comes Christians demand justice. This time Christians are attacked and it is OBCs, Muslims and Buddhists are standing up for the church. We strongly feel the messages brought in the meetings by the non-Christian leaders show that they do believe and love Christ. One of the great OBC leaders called himself a friend of Jesus and Christian. He didn’t want to be referred to as an OBC leader. If this is successful I feel this is a new day for India. The Indian Church needs to learn a lot. Our God is a big God who can do big things beyond our imagination and what we can do with our own strength. May Jesus be glorified and lifted high.
The prime accused are not yet caught by the police. They are protected by Brahmanical system and authorities. Pray that the church will be United and open and humble before God and before others. The people outside of the church are God’s children too and we must understand that. I feel church pastors and believers need education on how to relate with, how to see the rest of India with God’s eyes. If we don’t change our attitude and heart what a disadvantage we are for the Kingdom of God. We thank God that he is bringing new things. Please pray that God will anoint the lips of all the leaders and bring deep repentance to those have attacked. Our cry is for reconciliation and peace. Please continue praying. May your prayer be answered in the newspapers and t.v. news.
With Love,
Nitin