India Church Confronts Anti-Christian Violence, Vandalism
by Allie Martin
July 20, 2005
(AgapePress) - A church planted in India by missionaries with Gospel for Asia has weathered yet another attack. Previously, angry mobs have descended on "The Believers' Church" at Lamding and dismantled its construction. And now, the Christian sanctuary has recently been struck by vandals for the fourth time this year.This latest attack on the Believers' Church is being blamed on members of India's upper caste, known as the Brahmins. K.P. Yohannan, founder of the evangelical ministry Gospel for Asia (GFA), says these frequent assaults against India's Christians have only increased local believers' faith. "After all these things," he notes, "the believers decided that even if the police and the government will not give them protection, they will camp at the [church] site day and night and rebuild."
Yohannan says it is only by God's grace that nobody got killed in this latest attack, because "the news reached the believers and the pastor that this was going to happen." He adds that the enemies of the church, reportedly, "were actually coming to kill everybody, and [the church members] moved out of sight."
The GFA spokesman says the Christian congregation is determined to stand for Christ, even in the face of violence. "By the grace of God through our work among these people," he says, "a good number of these people have come to know the Lord, been baptized and joined the church." He believes they are firm and fearless in their resolve to go on spreading the gospel.
These believers are "so radically in love with Jesus," Yohannan continues, "they began to build their own church with their own labor, and of course, we were helping them." He compares their struggles with the biblical story of the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls in the Book of Nehemiah.
Just as the biblical prophet had to set up a guard against enemies bent on destruction, Yohannan says so must "The Believers' Church" members in Lamding guard against the Brahmins and other attackers. "I think these people come -- the anti-Christian gangs, who will come in the middle of the night to tear down the whole thing down," he says.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
