The students were conducting a cottage prayer meeting like this one when the extremists interrupted.
|
A team of Gospel for Asia Bible college students in Maharashtra, India, was forced to leave a village where they were doing ministry during their Christmas break. Pastor Manish Jaiba, a GFA missionary, received a phone call from the students after the incident took place.
The student team was leading a prayer meeting in a believer’s home when eight anti-Christian extremists came inside and told them to stop the meeting.
“Their words were very rough and interlaced with a lot of filthy and abusive terms,” our correspondent wrote. “They told the team they did not want their Gospel to be preached in their area.”
The extremists took a Bible away from one of the Christians. They also took the musical instruments the group was using for worship, accused the students of trying to spread a foreign religion and told them to leave immediately.
The students called Pastor Manish, who came the next day with several other pastors. They found the eight extremists and tried to reason with them. The extremists returned the stolen Bible and musical instruments and gave the missionaries an ultimatum: leave the village within half an hour. The situation seemed grave, so the team had to leave.
“They later learned that the extremists were planning to cause them great harm if they had not moved on,” wrote our correspondent.
Pastor Manish and the students ask for prayer that the Christians in that village will not be intimidated, and that the Lord will encourage and protect them. Pray also that the students and missionaries will be able to continue sharing the Gospel in this area, and that those opposing their work will come to know Christ.
Read about the man who said, “I sinned by persecuting Christians.”