Tuesday, August 16, 2005
URGENT PRAYER REQUEST FOR INDIAN BELIEVERS
BEATEN IN RAJASTHAN
By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries
RAJASTHAN, INDIA (ANS) -AUG 16/05 - Dr. Joseph Chavady, of
the Canadian based One to One International Ministries has issued an
urgent prayer request for a group of believers in India.
In a message to ANS, he said, “On Tuesday, 16th of August at 7:30 pm, I
received a very emotional call from Pastor Mathew in Rajasthan, India. He
reported that last night there was a meeting of about forty new believers in the
house of church elder, Br. Bather, in a town nearby. They had gathered to thank
God for deliverance from bondage and for the blessings of new life in Christ.
“At a certain point, about twenty suspected Hindu extremists walked into the
house and closed the door. They announced that, 'now, we are going to thank OUR
god.’ Armed with stones and heavy sticks, even an axe, they started beating up
the gathered people. About twenty people were severely beaten that evening, and
the following people are seriously wounded: Br. Bather and his wife, Suresh and
his wife Asha, Bhura, Prabhu, Banjaj, Lakshmi, Shanti, Huniji, and Dhandy.
“Our pastor has filed a complaint with the local police, and the matter is now
being investigated. He himself was badly shaken by this event, and he asked us
to pray for this situation, especially for those who are wounded, and for
courage for the new believers.”
Thursday, March 3, 2005
Hindus afraid to let People think for themselves, Attack Christians in
Censorship Attempt
CHRISTIAN WORKERS ATTACKED
AND THREATENED IN INDIA
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
RAJASTHAN, INDIA (ANS) -- Pastor Mathew has been preaching
the Gospel and planting churches for almost 30 years in Rajasthan, India.
One night around midnight recently Mathew called Dr. Joseph Chavady of www.121intl.org
to report that 10 Hindu fundamentalists interrupted a worship service at the
prayer hall and severely beat eight ministry workers.
There were no permanent injuries, but the men were very shaken up, he said.
Last week an orthodox priest, who is known in the
village for his kindness
to the poor, visited pastor Mathew's house.
On the way home, three extremists attacked him from behind with bicycle chains.
He was admitted to the hospital with a broken skull and
severe head wounds.
Shortly after this incident, several Hindu fundamentalists came to pastor
Mathew's house when he was absent, and questioned his wife about his
whereabouts.
This is the first time that persecution has come so close to Mathew's home, even
though the Hindu fundamentalist government was ousted a year ago in India.
Pastor Mathew is asking for urgent prayer for protection for him, his family
(his wife, one daughter and one son) and all the workers involved. All of these
servants of the Lord are putting themselves and their families in extreme danger
on day-to-day basis.
The vision of the Asia Focus Ministry is to reach the unreached people of Asia
with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, through training and supporting native
missionaries.
The region has one billion people, with more than 4,000 people groups, 17 major
languages, and hundreds of dialects. Just about every imaginable religion is
represented, with relatively few Christians.
Tuesday, February 24, 2005
“WE HAVE FACED MORE PERSECUTION FOR PREACHING THE GOSPEL IN INDIA DURING THE
LAST 10 YEARS THAN IN THE HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY SINCE INDEPENDENCE”
K.P. Yohannan talks about the dangers his missionaries face in India, the latest
of which is the kidnapping of six of his team, and his controversial views about
American TV preachers
By Dan and Peter Wooding
ANAHEIM,
CA (ANS) -Feb 24/05 - “We have faced more persecution
for preaching the Gospel in India during the last 10 years than in the history
of the country since independence from Great Britain in 1946.” (Pictured:
K.P. Yohannan).
So said K.P. Yohannan, the Indian-born founder and president of Gospel for Asia,
a mission organization involved in evangelism and church planting in the
unreached regions of Asia, in an interview during the recent NRB 2005 in
Anaheim, California.
Yohannan began by explaining more about his ministry. “The name, Gospel for
Asia, kind of tells what we are. We serve the Lord in 10 Asian countries, which
is the mission work horse -- the 10:40 window -- like in India with over a
billion people, half of the nation never heard the Christmas story yet, and
we’ve been doing it for the last 25 years.
“Today we have over 14,000 full-time missionaries, pastors, evangelists doing
the ministry, and seeing millions of people impacted with the Gospel, and of
course you know we have international offices. The U.S. headquarters is in
Carrollton, Texas, which is near Dallas, so I’m here at NRB to visit with
friends like you and to talk about what God is doing.”
SIX MISSIONARIES KIDNAPPED
He then revealed the latest bout of persecution his co-workers are facing in
India. “This morning, at about, I think two in the morning or so, the
telephone rang and I answered it,” he said. “The call came from one of our
leaders in India, saying that six of our missionaries were kidnapped by force.
They were taken to an isolated place, and they were beaten and left for
unconscious, and by the grace of God they were not martyred, but they are now in
very critical condition lying in the hospital.
“They were kidnapped by extreme anti-Christian fundamentalists that actually
are trained in certain martial arts to strike people with bamboo poles in a way
externally you don’t see any bruises, but the internal organs are damaged so
badly that most eventually will die. This was one of the more severe attacks we
have faced recently, and it just happened. As a matter of fact, we are praying
that the Lord would strengthen them and heal them. But one of the neatest thing
I heard was from one of the missionaries who, as he came to himself, the first
thing he said was, “Thank God for the privilege the Lord gave us to suffer for
Jesus’ sake.”
Since the interview, ANS has learned that Police have arrested five men in the
wake of Sunday's vicious attack against six GFA Biblical Seminary students. The
attackers were arrested after a raid conducted by the Deputy Superintendent of
Police. The police also seized the three-wheeler taxicabs used in the
abductions.
The Hindustan Times reported that those arrested were affiliated with the RSS,
an armed militant Hindu group hostile to Christianity and other religious
minorities. Formed even before India's independence, its leaders call for
"national reconstruction" and seek to establish "uncompromising
devotion" to a purely Hindu nation.
The seminary students had been regularly visiting a community of laborers on
previous weekends, praying for the sick, caring for the needy, sharing the love
of Christ and offering hope. Seventy percent of the family problems in this
community are directly related to poverty, drug use and alcohol addiction. As a
result of their regular visits and compassionate outreach, people's hearts were
beginning to respond.
"The ministry there was bringing fruitful results due to our students'
continuous visits," reports a GFA field correspondent.
TRAUMA OF SEEING THE TSUNAMI SURVIVORS
K.P. Yohannan then spoke about a recent visit he made to Sri Lanka to minister
to the Tsunami survivors there.
“Like
all of us and you and anybody else, I also saw the Tsunami stories and pictures
and all those things and I cried enough tears, but honestly, I was not prepared
emotionally to actually be there on ground zero and watch the pain and the
aftermath,” he said. “I took a flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and traveled 10
hours by road to the area where I was told all 10,000 children who either lost
both parents or one parent are in camps. As the dead bodies were being drawn to
the shores kids were running all over the place looking at these dead bodies
crying for mommy and daddy. After weeks still they wake up in the night, many of
them, weeping and crying, and then meeting thousands of people living in these
camps that we are preparing food and things to help them, you know, the despair
on their face, the hopelessness is something that I never imagined that I will
witness. (Pictured: Survivor
of the Tsunami in Sri Lanka - picture by Gospel for Asia).
“It reminded me of Matthew’s Gospel chapter 9, verse 36, you know Matthew
wrote, seeing the multitude, he was moved with compassion for their, NIV says
“helpless,” they just don’t know what to do, and I was told there were so
many people that attempted suicide having lost all hope, and this is where
sharing about Jesus and praying for them and reading God’s word to these
people becomes so significant. And by the way, Gospel for Asia, one of the
unique things about our ministry at this time, the tsunami hit within hours we
were the first people to go and start ministering to these people and giving
them help, because for 25 years we’ve been serving in the Andaman and Nicobar
Islands in India, as well as other parts of India, and also Sri Lanka. So we had
the churches and the missionaries. Right now we have over a thousand of our
workers 24 hours around the clock ministering among these people. It’s going
to be a long, drawn out, year-long work just to bring some hope to these people.
“I met missionaries who are emotionally completely drained, and we had to ask
quite a good number of them to please go home and rest for a few days. I met in
one camp seven of our missionaries who actually did not sleep for more than five
days because of the demand. The need was so huge that they couldn’t leave, and
of course, something like that, will basically drive people to desperation, so
we are seeing the emotional drain and the pain that the workers themselves are
facing. So what we have done now, people are taking turns to work instead of
someone going non-stop. I don’t think anybody really understands unless you
are among these people. It’s just quite painful.”
K.P.
then spoke about the multi-media facets of his ministry. “Well, as a matter of
fact, I have written 230 books and six or so in the United States. The first
book I wrote for western churches was called ‘Revolution In World Missions,’
which is now in 1.5 million copies in print, and it’s all about just reaching
the lost world,” he said. “Our life on earth is very brief and 24 years ago,
the Lord spoke to my heart and said, ‘Son, a hundred years from now what does
it matter? You are living for the American Dream: the house, the cars, and the
reputation, honor from people, degrees. Son, walk away from all these things.
These are all superficial plastic Christianity and, you know, my life was
radically changed when I realized that I have a few years and I must follow
Jesus and not traditions and not what other people think. (Pictured:
K.P.
Yohannan delivers an aid package to a mother and her child).
“Now, by the grace of God, I can say that tens of thousands of people, have
had their lives impacted as they read that book, and today we are able to see
some 21,000 churches established on the mission field, 54 Bible colleges, and
radio broadcasts in 92 languages, and all this is possible because there are
people who took the words of Jesus very seriously: Love me more than your
father, mother, son, daughter, even your own life. And this is an important time
in history that I pray that the people of God would look at the tsunami
situation and take warning and lesson from it: time is running out, our life is
fragile, and there’s a world that we need to reach with the Gospel, and do
anything and all things we can because it’s a privilege.”
He then revealed that his ministry is now launching what is believed to be the
first Christian TV station in India.
“Yes, this is terribly exciting. There is Christian TV there already which
comes into India from outside, but GFA TV may be the first Christian television
channel launching from within India which has the potential audience of over a
billion people as we, get into more languages. It’s a fantastic thing, and I
ask for people to pray for us that the Lord will give us wisdom and
understanding as we go about doing it.
“Media, and now television especially, as well as radio, are the most powerful
things in the world, but something I think about -- I don’t know about Europe,
but I can tell you about at least America as I’ve been here 30 years and that
is that Americans are a most strange breed of people in the whole universe; that
is, we as a people in America think because we think a certain way everybody
must think and bow down before us. This is stupid thinking. You know why I am
saying that? You know all the Christian television now coming to India and
China, all these places, are the typical American preachers preaching to
Americans.
TRAUMA OF SEEING SOME AMERICAN TV PREACHERS
“Maybe I am off the wall here, but one of the saddest things we have to live
with is the American preachers bringing the American Gospel, which is totally
destructive and nothing to do with the Bible. And how important it is? I pray
that somehow more American preachers will start preaching about Jesus, sin, and
repentance, and Hell, and judgment of God, and the fear of God, and call people
to repentance as the disciples did, as the early church fathers did, and stop
talking about how Jesus can be used to make money and how wonderful life is on
earth.
“And this is the problem, it is extremely important and crucial we preach the
Gospel, but the Gospel of the New Testament, and I wish we don’t have to
launch a TV channel in India for the sub-continent, but the sad thing is what
is coming from overseas is damning, it is not benefiting. Some of those
things are wonderful. I am grateful for Dr. Billy Graham Classics and Dr.
Charles Stanley and a bunch of things are really good, but you know 98% of the
people are unconverted, they do not know Jesus; they’re Hindus and Buddhists
and Muslims and the tribals. They need to hear the salvation message through
Jesus Christ, but that is not preached.”
ABOUT K.P. YOHANNAN
K.P. Yohannan was born in a remote village of South India, and his personal
journey toward spiritual reality began at the age of eight when he gave his
heart to Christ. While he was still a young boy, his mother began fasting each
week, praying God would call one of her six sons into full-time Gospel ministry.
Her prayers were answered in 1966 when 16 year-old K.P., her youngest,
volunteered to serve in North India with Operation Mobilization.
From 1974 to 1979 K.P. attended Criswell Bible College in Dallas, Texas, where
he earned his B.A. in Biblical Studies. He was also awarded an honorary doctor
of divinity degree from Hindustan Bible College in Madras, India.
During the time he attended Criswell, he pastored a local church in Dallas.
However, he was unable to forget the millions still lost without Christ in his
homeland of India, and knew God was calling him to reach his own people. In 1978
K.P. resigned his pastorate and he and his wife, Gisela, organized what is now
Gospel for Asia.
GFA has grown rapidly and has quickly become one of the most effective mission
forces in Asia today. The ministry has expanded beyond India to support native
missions in Nepal, Myanmar (Burma), and many other Asian nations. At the 54
Gospel for Asia missionary Bible colleges, over 8,000 church planters are being
trained to reach the unreached.
In addition to traveling and speaking in North America, K.P. spends half of his
time in Asia, consulting with Christian leaders and speaking at missionary
gatherings. He's also heard throughout India by millions of people on a daily
Christian radio program.
He lives near Dallas with his wife Gisela. They have two grown children, Daniel
and Sarah, who are serving the Lord.
Wednesday, February 2, 2005
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR:
 | God to comfort Christians who suffer violent and distressing
persecution, and strengthen the faith of Christians who suffer pressure to
convert to Hinduism. May God raise up more workers to build up the church
and spread the message of salvation amongst the peoples.| wisdom and courage for PM Manmohan Singh and Congress leader Sonia
Ghandi, and that God will be pleased to use this government as an instrument
for harmony. May God turn people's hearts to a deep desire for peace and
harmony, for the sake of the gospel and the kingdom of Christ. | God to intervene in the state Assembly elections in Haryana, Bihar and
Jharkhand, turning the hearts of the people towards leaders who will deal
decisively with lawlessness, corruption and evil, and promote righteousness,
religious freedom and peace. | |
=========================================================================
mpst. Hindu extremists within the umbrella organization “Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh” (RSS) believe that Christianity and Christian conversions undermine the caste system they are trying to maintain. They fear for their privileges as members of the highest social class (Brahmans).
Christianity is based on the fundamental equality of all people before God. The caste system, on the other hand, places individuals into different social classes. After the declaration of Indian independence in 1947, the centuries-old caste system was allegedly abolished. Still, the Dalits (members of the lowest social class, almost a quarter of the Indian population) are completely unable to raise their social status.
Nothing has changed; at birth, it is already determined to which social class an individual belongs. The Dalits or “untouchables” have specific responsibilities in this lifetime. They have to clean up human and animal waste, clear the streets, skin butchered livestock and bury the dead. The belief is that the rich Brahmans are rewarded for their good conduct in a former life and the poor Dalits are being punished for their evil conduct in their former lives. Within the Hindu caste system, a Dalit can only hold on to the hope of being rewarded in another life, to be reborn into a higher caste.
Some Dalits are enjoying Christian educational facilities, some of the best in India, which jealous Hindu extremists will even admit. The encounter with Christianity presents the Dalits with an incredible hope: the advancement of one’s social status in this very lifetime.
Only 2.5 per cent of the population are Christians. In contrast, the surge in Hindu extremism is becoming widespread. Hindu extremists are pushing for laws that forbid conversion from Hinduism. For the first time in India’s history, such a law was established by the parliament of the federal state of Tamil Nadu on October 25. Also in the federal states of Pondicherry and Gujarat, Hindu extremists are close to forming majority governments. The developments in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry suggest what the effects of such laws would be in the future:
– The police in Tamil Nadu stopped a celebration organized by Christians and Buddhists, where thousands of Hindus were allegedly given the opportunity to convert to Christianity or Buddhism on December 6.
– At the beginning of January, again in Tamil Nadu, a Hindu extremist reported the Evangelical Pastor Paul Manickam to the authorities. He accused the pastor of opening a church without proper governmental permission and luring people into Christian conversions by giving them gifts.
– At the beginning of 2003, six Hindu prisoners accused G. David, a Christian prison director in the federal state of Pondicherry, of forcing them to convert to Christianity. The goal of the accusation was to try to prevent their impending transfer into another prison facility. Legal proceedings against David are still ongoing.
Over two hundred attacks by Hindu extremists on Christians have been launched within the last three years. Some recent examples: A cemetery in the federal state of Jharkand was vandalized on November 1, 2002. The attack took place on All Saint’s Day, when many Christians were remembering their deceased. According to witness’s testimonies, the 300-year-old cemetery was devastated, gravestones and even human remains being removed in the process. On November 2, the Franciscan monastery “St. Mary of the Angels” was the object of armed robbery by Hindu extremists.
The monastery is one of the oldest Christian buildings in India, found in Madras in the federal state of Tamil Nadu. The guards were left unconscious, the guard dogs sedated and telephone wires cut. The monastery’s nuns escaped from being raped by barricading themselves in a room. On November 10, a Hindu mob stopped a Christian gathering in Ryan International School in Mumbai (former Bombay). The over one hundred attackers revealed themselves as members of the "Vishwa Hindu Parishad” (Hindu World Federation) and claimed that Christians in the school tried to convert Hindus to Christianity.
Three extremists were arrested, but released only a few days later.
This incident had drastic consequences for churches without official church
buildings within the area of Mumbai; before the incident, they were able to use
Christian school buildings for church services, but now the doors are officially
closed outside of school hours. The attacks continued over Christmas. During a
midnight mass in West Bengal, Hindu extremists fired into the church. Six
Christians, including a ten-year-old girl, were severely injured. The Christian
minority in India lives in the shadows of the unjust laws and unpredictable
violence. The Gospel of Jesus produces justice, love and hope in the lives of
people facing extinction. 
Source: http://www.csi-int.ch/csi-art_030406.html (2003)
1860 Hindustani New Testament 1860
URDU NEW TESTAMENT - India/Pakistan/Northern India - 1860
Consequences of Futher Non-Christian Paganization in India - Hollywood Values Impact with Chaos
'Odds stacked against Indian women'
Men behaving like barbarians, the sex explosion in the media, humiliating judicial rules for women - it's all too much
Full Story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3572553.stm
INDIA: Al-Qaeda (Al Caida) luring Northeast militants with money
Guwahati, June 27/04
Pro-Al Qaeda groups based in Bangladesh are holding out a Rs 2,000-a-month bait for Muslim militants in the Northeast to pursue the 'Islamistan' dream in the region.
Confessions made by one Mohammed Yasin Ali, a district commandant of the militant Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Asom (MULTA), have revealed that pro-Qaeda armed groups in Bangladesh have been "talent-scouting" among Muslim settlers in Assam.
Ali, hailing from Bilaspur in Bongaigaon district of Assam, had surrendered to the army's Jat Regiment after being cornered during a counter-insurgency operation recently.
Full
Story Here
Oil rekindles Indo-Russian affair
Russia stirs up Sakhalin projects
Putin's push for a strategic triangle
THERE IS
NOT ONE
CHRISTIAN NATION ON EARTH WHERE
HINDUS
ARE PERSECUTED.
Yet in most nations where the population are Hindus, there is frequent persecution of Christians.
"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."
--Article 18 of the Universal
Declaration of
Human
Rights--
Christian Conversions - According to the Bible - Can NEVER be forced.
Any Conversion to Christianity which would be "Forced" would NOT be recognized by God. It is in
His True and KIND nature, that those who come to Him and choose to believe in Him, must come to Him OF
THEIR OWN FREE WILL.
Don't Let anyone tell you that Christians support Forced Conversions.
That is False. True Christianity is NEVER forced.
Core Universal Rights
The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one's belief or religion
The right to join together and express one's belief