Imagine you are a pastor living in the midst of extreme persecution just for being a Christian in a country hostile to your beliefs. People lose their jobs, because they believe in Jesus, and children are afraid to attend school. Members of the Christian community near where you live are being killed in the most brutal ways. And, to top it all off, the people you are ministering to don’t even have money for Bibles in their own language. Can you imagine living in the midst of all of this and not being able to find comfort in the Word? Many westerners have more than one Bible in their home, but there are people in India have none.
This is a tragic reality for believers all over the world, but in India right now the violence is growing. You may have heard about the atrocities against Christians living in the Manipur area in northeast India where over 190 pastors and others have been murdered, thousands of churches and homes burned, and women are being raped.
We have a friend who is a pastor in a neighboring community where it is still okay to distribute Bibles in a city called Khamman in northern India. This pastor asked us to pray for the people in Manipur and actually sent us some very graphic videos which we just can’t “unsee”. This man is ministering to some of the poorest of the poor, and these people have no access to Bibles in their own language, Telugu. They do not speak Hindi. For his work among them, he is being “rewarded” with death threats and has asked us to please pray for him.
After hearing about the money we raised for a pastor in Pakistan who had no Bibles for the people to which he’s ministering, we happened to have mentioned is on WhatsApp to a group of YWAM mission mobilizers. This Indian pastor immediately contacted us to see if we could help him obtain hard copy Bibles as the people there do not have digital or audio capabilities.
And so, the bottom line is, we are offering you and your church an opportunity to help spread the Word of God in India to Telugu-speaking peoples. Each Bible costs $4.80 USD, and they need 150 of them. We believe this would be a great opportunity for your missions committee or a Sunday school class to perhaps hold a fundraiser as you start the fall season to engage your church with global missions directly. Even if you just ask congregants for a freewill donation for their Sunday morning coffee and doughnuts….when Christians hear of a need, their hearts are open wide.
If you would like to help get Bibles to these people in India, please email margi@thewaitingworld.us. We have set up an account with a non-profit so that you in the U.S. can get a tax deduction.
God bless you in advance for your consideration! Please make sure your mission-minded committees or individuals in your church read this! Let’s give hope to the desperately poor in Khamman, India.
In case you haven’t seen it, here is The Waiting World prayer video about one of the many people groups in India, the Bhil:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k5lr3t6jiqlqiyg/Bhil%20WW%20copy.mp4?dl=0