India (MNN) — COVID-19 cases have started rising again in India after a tragic wave in the spring. The southern state of Kerala has announced new lockdowns to get ahead of infections.
John Pudaite of Bibles for the World says, “We have always questioned the government’s statistics because things just weren’t adding up. We’re hearing of just tremendous amounts of cremations going on among the Hindu community. We’ve even been hearing about bodies washing up on the shores of rivers. We hear there could be 3 to 4 million dead instead of a little over 400,000 as reported. It’s just staggering.”
The virus completely overwhelmed the healthcare system in India. And lockdowns mean many people can’t work for their daily food.
Effects on Indian Christians
Christians have suffered too, and that could be greatly damaging for the Church’s future. Pudaite says, “Christians are only about 2% of the population. And you just don’t have the depth, you don’t have the resource pool to replace a seminary professor. It could take 5 to 10 years to develop somebody of the caliber of somebody who they have lost. Somebody who has gone through postgraduate and perhaps doctoral training.”
Despite the risks, many Indian Christians continue to help those who are sick. Ask God to protect them, and pray their love would draw many to Jesus.
The header photo shows migrant workers in India stuck during the lockdown. (Photo courtesy of Sumita Roy Dutta, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
