“Namasthe” from Hyderabad, India! We’ve settled into our home for the next four weeks. I’m currently sitting on a MATTRESS in AIR CONDITIONING, so I already know this will be a great month 🙂
I haven’t done a prayer blog post in a while, so I thought I’d share a bit of what we learned in our orientation. First off, you should know that I was initially not-so-excited about living in a busy, crowded, polluted, hot place. On the contrary, India is an absolutely beautiful country with a rich culture and history–I love it already.
Fun fact: Chess was invented here, and apparently it’s still a big deal because I’ve seen ads for chess coaching.
There are 1.3 BILLION people in India—that’s 1/7th of the entire world’s population, more than North and South America combined. Of that 1.3 billion, 1,217,757,000 (94.9%) are “unreached,” meaning that there is no Bible available in their language and there’s no one nearby who knows Jesus.
Often, when I think of unreached people, I think of the Middle East or remote villages in Africa. And though it’s not illegal to be a Christian in India, it may as well be. India’s culture is based on honor and shame; for example, if I were arrested for a crime, it wouldn’t matter if I was guilty or not, only what everyone else says about me. And that shame immediately would transfer to my entire family.
Becoming a Christian means “I love God more than my family.” To the Hindu majority, it’s saying “I don’t care about the good of society.”
Becoming a Christian means becoming disowned from your family and ostracized from your community. Becoming a Christian means possible arrests or beatings by corrupt law enforcement and Hindu nationalists.
A relationship with Jesus is more valuable than anything this world can offer. But for an Indian, becoming a Christian is a much more serious decision than for most Americans. No one is flippant or wishy-washy when saying they’re a Christ-follower.
Fun Fact: Thomas the Apostle (you know, “Doubting Thomas”) was the first missionary to India in 52 AD, only about 20 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Prayer requests:
- For Sarah’s Covenant Homes, and their 170 children with special needs
- For India Christian Ministries, as they seek to reach their goal of planting 20,000 churches by the year 2020
- That the Gospel would spread throughout India, despite heavy persecution
For more information about our ministry this month, check out http://www.schindia.com/
