Close Call for A Bridge of Hope Director

Some of Saturday's bombs in Gujarat went off in a crowded marketplace like this one.

Jadu Chacko, a Bridge of Hope project director, narrowly missed being hit by one of the 17 bomb blasts that killed 49 people and injured 100 others in Gujarat, India, over the weekend.

Jadu was traveling to Gospel for Asia's state office to deliver paperwork when he was caught up in the orchestrated bomb blasts that ripped through the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.

"A bomb blew in front of the next bus," Jadu reports. "On the way to my home, I saw and heard three bomb blasts, but God saved me."

The BBC is reporting that an Islamic extremist group is claiming responsibility for the bombs, which were detonated in residential areas, marketplaces and hospitals and on public transportation. The Gujarat bombings took place on Saturday, following a day of bombings in Bangalore, a city described as India's internet technology capital.

In 2002 Gujarat was the scene of intense rioting between Hindus and Muslims.

Jadu shares the following prayer requests:

• Pray for all the mourning families. Some of them lost their parents, sons and daughters. Pray that God would be their comfort and peace and that they would find solace in the Lord.
  
  
• Pray for God's peace to protect the people of this city. Pray that God would speak to the people who planned this massacre and that they would stop.
  
  
• The city is under a curfew. Pray for the safety of GFA missionaries and workers as they travel into and out of the city.
  
  
• Pray that the incident would not provoke communal violence and that history will not repeat itself.
  
  

India's bombings killed and injured many people like these who were simply going about their daily business.

Mahatma Gandhi was born in Gujarat, the state where this weekend's bombings took place.

Gujarat has laws that make it difficult to follow Christ. Read about one of them here.