URGENT prayer needed for Pastor Paul and team

Pastor Paul traveled early last week with a small team to a remote area in North India and now, with two other pastors, is in extremely serious danger. A mob of Hindu RSS militants burst in during a gospel meeting, brutally beat them and now hold them captive. (The RSS, a violent right-wing organization closely affiliated with the Indian government, promotes Hindu supremacy.)

Those witnessing the attack say Pastor Paul, along with Bibles for Mideast junior pastors Abishek* and Nasar*, have been very seriously injured. They watched in horror as Pastor Paul, his clothes torn, left a trail of blood across the road as they dragged him and the others away.

All we know at this point is that they remain locked in a room in the area, likely without food. No one is allowed near them. They had been ministering among the locals in the Keonjhar District of Odisha, not far from where Australian missionary Graham Stains and his children were burned alive by militant Hindus two decades ago.

Map of India showing Keonjhar District of Odisha

Pastor Peter Haneef and others have complained to police, but local Hindus had already lodged a complaint about the pastors’ attempting to convert people and ‘innocent children’ to Christianity. In increasingly radically Hindu India, converting others is a crime with serious consequences. So police are on the side of the RSS. And too often, RSS and others’ form of ‘vigilante justice’ means torture and death.

Obviously our only help here is from on high. Please join with us in praying our Almighty God releases ALL the heavenly back-up needed to protect and save the men. All our church members are praying and fasting to this end. Don’t forget to pray for the captors as well.

Please keep up your prayers for them, and we will keep you posted.

_______________________ 

* Names changed for the safety of the young pastors and their families

International Christian Concern published a story last year on the findings of the Indian branch of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF): Over 200 reported incidents of anti-Christian violence in India in 2019 (but there are many, many more unreported).