UPDATE: 06/02/2010

The village leaders refused to protect GFA-sponsored missionary Bhaskar Pillai and advised him to move out of the village. The leaders told him that if he stayed, he would certainly be severely beaten by the anti-Christian extremists who had threatened him.

Bhaskar has since moved to a neighboring village. The Christians who worship in his church have asked him to start having services in the new village. Right now, he is looking for a rental home that will accommodate the worship services.

Bhaskar and the leaders serving in this area ask for prayers that the Lord would provide a suitable place for the people to worship in this new village. Also pray that the extremists who drove Bhaskar out of the previous village would come to know Jesus as their Savior.


Original story: from 05/25/2010

GFA-supported pastor Bhaskar Pillai and his family need your prayers at this time.

Gospel for Asia-supported pastor Bhaskar Pillai was threatened with harm unless he left his village within 15 days. Today his time is up, and local leaders have called a meeting in the village to decide what will be done.

The group of local politicians that gave Bhaskar the stern ultimatum had noticed the growth of his ministry, and they became fearful that everyone in the village would leave their traditional religion and become Christian.

They interrogated Bhaskar and accused him of bringing disharmony to the village by converting people to Christianity.

"Our pastor is quite nervous that some unfortunate incident may happen to him or to the believers today," GFA's correspondent writes.

The politicians have threatened the believers in Bhaskar's church, ordering them to stop attending services. But the believers are standing strong with their pastor and assuring him of their commitment to face any difficulties with him.

If the decision is not in favor of the pastor, then he must leave the village immediately.

Bhaskar has been ministering with the love of Christ in the area since 1997. There are 48 committed believers in his church congregation.

  • Pray for our almighty God to intervene and work in the hearts of both the politicians making accusations and the local leaders, who will make the final decision concerning the pastor.
  • Pray that, by God's grace, the pastor and his believers will stand strong in Christ and not lose heart in this situation.