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Dear praying friends:
We are writing with heavy hearts asking for urgent prayer. While
the USA is in election fever, wars are waging across our planet
that our news seems to have no interest in covering. Little has
been said of over 3000 Christians who have been burned out of
churches and homes just in the last few days since Monday in
Orissa, India. The catalyst was the killing of a Hindu extremist
leader by Maoist rebels. Police and rebels acknowledged openly
who was responsible for the hit, but radical Hindus promptly
used the killing to call for mass reprisals on Christians, which
in the last few days has far surpassed what did hit the US news
on Christmas Day. A Catholic aid worker was burned alive
when her orphanage was torched with her in it. Many of you
prayed for our BCM pastor Dasarath Digal and his elders who were
jailed Christmas Day for murder when a Hindu extremist fell to
his death from the roof of their church while tearing down its
cross. This morning we received word that Pastor Dasarath's son
has been murdered by the Hindu extremists. He has quite young
children, so we aren't even sure yet of the boy's age.
ALL BCM churches in the region are now destroyed, every pastor
scattered. We have currently not been able to locate more than
one or two of them. After Pastor Jonathan was beaten and left
for dead last week, we received word of four more BCM pastors
attacked, all by the same radical Hindu group. The police know
exactly who is involved, but refuse to arrest them.
Pastor Nayak, our area
supervisor, is in hiding with his family. He has been listed at
the top of a local Hindu hit list. As soon as the curfew lifts
we will attempt to smuggle him and his family out before the
radicals locate and kill him. We are trying to gather resources
to take our remaining pastors and families to a private location
where we will keep them hidden and safe there temporarily,
regroup, and help them recover.
40,000 Christian schools
and colleges across India closed their doors Friday to
protest the violence. Representation has been made to both
the Indian government to intervene and the US government to
speak out for religious freedom. Right now there seems
little interest on either end. A curfew has been imposed.
and police have been given shoot-to-kill authority, but
since the state government itself is radical Hindu, they
have simply encouraged the mobs.
At the moment it seems as
though all BCM Orissa ministry has been swept away by the
violence. But though Satan may think he has won, God IS
in control. Churches can be destroyed, but not the Body
of Christ. Time and time again our BCM missionaries and
pastors have picked up after attacks and insisted on going
back to continue speaking God's Word and bearing a Christian
witness in their community, as have other Christians as
well. In Revelation 3:8-9, Jesus Himself gave witness to
another body of believers suffering great persecution, the
church of Philadelphia, "I know you have little strength,
yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. I
will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan . . . come
and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that have loved
you."
In the stronghold of evil
forces committed to blotting out any message of God's love
in India, please pray together with us for these brave, dear
brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. Scripture tells
us that when one part of the Body in Christ suffers, every
part suffers. Right now part of our body is in deep pain,
and our own hearts ache deeply with these wonderful people
we have come to know and love. Pray that they will truly
experience God's love holding them close in the midst of
man's hate. Pray for wisdom to know what to do next, and for
resources to cover basic safety and life necessities. And
above all, pray for Pastor Dasarath's family who after
enduring the six months he spent in jail are now grieving
the murder of their son.
Serving together with the Body of Christ,
Marty and Jeanette Windle
BCM International
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