India (MNN) — While violence and threats of violence against Christians continues in India, Christians are moving forward with outreach opportunities. India Partners is no exception. They're asking you to help them with their Winter Blanket initiative.
India Partners' Brent Hample says this project is focused on villagers with no protection from the elements. "These are villagers in India in very remote areas. They live in huts that have no heating. No doors. No windows. It can get very cold. One of our partnering agencies provides blankets. In the process of giving the blankets, they share the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
Associates with India Partners have directly been affected by the persecution in Orissa. Hample says a partner in a village in Orissa was threatened. "A couple of men with big sticks came in and disrupted the worship service and threatened everybody. The villagers ran into the jungle. They threatened the leaders of our agency to leave right away or they would hurt them."
While initially Hample says the spread of the Gospel is hindered, it actually strengthens the message of the Gospel in the long term. Hample says, "If the church responds to the hate and responds to the persecution out of love and with prayers, as long as the Christians stick with that, the Gospel will grow even more deeper in the soil of India."
Hample says the Winter Blanket campaign will move forward, but India Partners needs your help. "We're asking for a gift of $40 which will purchase five winter blankets. And then if people also want to help with supporting the persecuted church in India, they can also send us any amount for that."
In the meantime, Hample is asking Christians worldwide to pray "that the church would remain true to Jesus' words and to not retaliate, to pray for the persecutors, and to lift up one another–our brothers and sisters –n prayer."
