ANGAMALY,
INDIA (ANS) -- The peace during the Shabri
Kumbh in Gujarat State last
week was broken yesterday when a band of radicals destroyed a church
building and Christian school in Ramganjmandi in the Kota District of
Rajasthan State.
From Angamaly, Kerala, Dr.
Samuel Thomas
of Hopegivers International, said the attack occurred Friday afternoon.
The anti-Christian activists also attacked a Hopegivers bus carrying
students to one of Hopegivers’ 190 schools, and beat the driver and
students badly.
Dr.
Thomas said the police in
Ramganjmandi refused to give protection to the properties, and in fact
arrested the pastor. Thomas asked
prayer that the police would allow bail, since in India accusations
alone are often sufficient to warrant detention.
The church and school are part of Emmanuel
Ministries International, which is known as Hopegivers International
outside India. Dr. Thomas
is president of the organization with offices in Columbus, Georgia, and
is the son of Bishop M.A.
Thomas, who founded Emmanuel
Ministry in 1960 and oversees its outreach in India.
Dr.
Thomas said violence and
threats of attacks have been “all over” Rajasthan. He said a group of
militants had gone to the town of Sojat and attacked the pastor and his
family there, and that others had attacked churches in the Udaipur
area, but details were lacking. Rajasthan is home to the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh
or National Volunteer Movement, an anti-Christian group promoting Hindu
nationalism.
The violence was reminiscent of the brutal
attacks on Bible school students coming for graduation last year, when
some 5,000 students came from Emmanuel’s
Bible schools all over the country for a combined graduation ceremony.
Last year anti-Christian militants boarded trains bringing incoming
graduates before they reached Kota, forced them off, beat them with
sticks and bicycle chains, and robbed them. Some were taken to the
railway police station where they were beaten again. Then, penniless
and without tickets, they were forced onto trains returning to their
points of origin, but forced off and stranded before they arrived.
Last year radicals also stopped a bus
coming from Jaipur, beat the driver and students on it, broke all the
windows and slashed the tires. The anarchy went on for several days
before federal authorities intervened and enforced order.
Emmanuel
was planning another graduation in Kota next weekend, February 25-26,
when some 5,000 students were expected to graduate, but those plans
have now been put on hold.
“The local police [in Kota] have warned us
that a major attack is imminent,” he said. “I have decided to put it
off until the situation is under control. We have the cooperation of
the police in Kota, but not everywhere. So I believe we should take the
advice of the authorities.”
Dr.
Thomas commented from Kerala
at a district graduation of about 3,100 students when news of the
Rajasthan attack reached him. His father was in Andhra Pradesh State
conducting still another graduation for 5,000 more graduates. Emmanuel
has leadership training colleges throughout India, as well as a
theological seminary in Kota.
“We don’t have money to support new
pastors,” Dr. Thomas
told the graduates, “nor can we guarantee any money for church
buildings. All we can give you today is a Bible and a bicycle, and pray
that as you go out as ‘Sisters of Hope’ and ‘Apostles of Hope’ our Lord
Jesus will put a hedge of
protection around you.”
The Bibles and bicycles were made
available by donors in America.
According to Dr.
Thomas, Hindu radicals
promised to halt the attacks only if he and his father were jailed
without bail for three to five years. “They want me and Dad to ask
forgiveness for ever preaching Christ in their
cities, and to say we will never preach again.”
“It’s not going to happen in this
lifetime,” he concluded, referencing Romans 1:16 and 8:28-39.
He said one of the main leaders of a
militant anti-Christian organization had suggested there would be a
great number of Christians killed in the next few days.
Thomas
asked Christians everywhere to pray that revival would break out in
India and that the enemies of the gospel would be confounded.
“Please use your influence to prompt
governments of other countries to say a word to our government leaders
to provide protection for the orphan children in our homes, and for
pastors and their families,” he said. “We need justice for Christians
in India.”
“The believers in Christ
in India are asking their brothers and sisters around the world to lift
us up in prayer, as we face severe persecution. We want to continue to
brag about our Lord Jesus
until our last breath.
“Pray, pray, pray, and pray more for the
persecuted Christian believers and leaders in India.”
Letters of concern may be sent to:
Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
President of India
Rastrapati
Bhawan
Raj Path, New Delhi 110 011
India
Website with e-mail
function: http://presidentofindia.nic.in/
Dr. Manmohan Singh
Office of the Prime Minister
South Block, Raisina Hill,
New Delhi 110 011
India
He also can be e-mailed
from http://pmindia.nic.in/
Ambassador Ronen
Sen
The Embassy of the Republic of India
2107 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20008
Telephone: (202) 939-7000
Fax: (202) 265-4351
Website http://www.indianembassy.org/New_Template/visa_guide.asp
John M. Lindner is a
missionary writer with 25 years experience and now heads World
Christian Ministries with a goal of publishing a new World Christian
magazine depicting the tribulation and triumph of missionaries of the
two-thirds world. He also edits Hopegivers Journal and was
given a Doctor of Ministry degree by Emmanuel Theological Seminary,
Kota, India, in 2005. He has authored two books: God's Special
Agents, depicting the biographies of 12 mission leaders from the
two-thirds world, and The Mountains Shall Sing, the story of
P.M. Thomas and the Himalaya Evangelical Mission.
www.WorldChristianMinistries.org
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