(Photo courtesy His India Kids)
India (MNN) — Loving people who aren’t like you can be tough. But that love could eventually lead them to Christ. That’s the hope Help India Kids has for their hospital ministry, which is making strides with Hindus.
The ministry’s hospital was started about 70 years ago in a building around 100 years old.
Work has been ongoing to bring the facility up to code. A new surgeon was hired recently, and a new surgery room was completed.
“Good things are happening as the hospital is beginning to rekindle its ability to reach out into the community,” says Jonathan Bollback of Help India Kids says.
The community surrounding the hospital is a poorer, Hindu-majority village, so it’s been a bit difficult to connect and create lasting relationships.
“India being a Hindu nation, there is some conflict between the Hindu and the Christian communities. So the hospital, being a Christian hospital, is able to give just a tangible evidence of the love and concern that the Christian community has represented by the mission into the broader community as a whole,” says Bollback.
One of the ways the hospital shows the love of Christ is by offering their services for less than other clinics due to the poor community in which they work. Meeting tangible physical needs is an open door to share the Gospel with patients.
“We see the way that people then respond not only to the hospital but to the mission; they are more tolerant of the Christian community because they know the Christian community cares for them.”
They are careful, however. “Because of the sensitive nature of many of those families coming from other faiths, they are not always as open with that response,” Bollback explains. “There’s not that big sense in these remote villages of being able just to whole heartedly engage in spiritual conversation.”
That’s where you come in. Prayer Warriors are needed for Help India Kids.
“We sincerely believe that as God’s people pray, God answers, God moves. People’s hearts and lives are touched and transformed. So we unashamedly say that prayer is the prime thing that we seek out of folks that partner with us and stand with us.”
Pray for patients to have open and accepting hearts. Also pray for the hospital, which has a dream to add 20 more hospital beds in order to reach out to neighboring communities.
They’re also looking volunteers to help at the hospital. Click here for more information.
