Persecution in Indian state of Orissa

From my church in Bozeman, MT I recieve many prayer requests from people who attend there. This pray request is from one of the missionaries that Grace supports and he recieved it from a friend that lives in India. I read it and felt the need to share with you what is happening over there.

Friends and Family,

“I have an urgent prayer request that I hope many of you can bring up in your church prayer meetings tonight. I don’t know how much press has been given to the outbreak of fierce persecution in the Indian state of Orissa, but things are out of control. Yet another well known pastor was burned alive several hours ago, and thousands of Christian homes, crops, and churches have been left in ashes by extremist militant Hindus. Several Christian leaders have been doused in kerosene and burned alive and one of these men was a close relative of my fellow student here named “Pitambur.”

Another good friend of mine named Tezh had had his house back in Orissa burned down for the second time since the last outbreak of persecution and his wife, children, and parents are now hiding in the jungle to escape the murderous radical Hindus. The Hindus have announced a goal of converting 5000 Christians back to Hinduism and they say that the killings and destruction will end at that time.

Unfortunately many Christians are beginning to buckle under the pressure and are converting back to save their lives and homes. This is far away from me and the Hindus here do not approve of this at all, but still no one seems willing to put a stop to it.

The poor and uneducated Christians are being targeted while they have no political voice or other means to defend themselves. Many of my classmates have immediate family who are hiding in the jungle to escape with their lives and meanwhile what little they own is being destroyed leaving them without means for survival.

Please take a few minutes to look up this story online and then post, request and spred the word for our brothers who desperately need our prayers for their survival, deliverance, and grace in the fires of this tragedy.

For our brothers,

Aaron

Heb 13:3 “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.”

Feel free to share this information with your friends and family and remember to pray for these people in this time of persecution. How often we can forget that this is going on all over the world becuase it is not televised or we do not have to experience it on a daily basis as these people do. I feel so blessed to be able to talk about our Lord and express my opinion freely without the fear of being tortured and killed. If you want to learn more about the persecution going on in Orissa, you can go to persecution.com or persecution.org or if you type in persecution in orissa in your search engine it will give you a good list of places that have updates about this and other persections going on around the world.