India (MNN) — Seven bomb blasts ripped through train cars in Mumbai, India during rush hour killing more than 150 people and injuring hundreds more. The blast is a common tactic employed by Kashmiri militants who are upset with Indian rule in the Kashmir region.
Founder and President of Gospel for Asia KP Yohannan says they have 250 workers in the region. Their workers report, “The whole city is in shock and traffic is completely blocked. All the trains stopped. The report is over a 100 people died, but I’m telling you that is not true. From my people, (they say) no one really knows.”
Yohannan reports that the news is positive about his people. “That’s the miracle. Usually, this is the time of the day that lots of our people are in these trains, coming back from ministry and all that. And, by the grace of God, so far, from our leader there, he said, as far as he knows no one was hurt.”
GFA’s work is quickly focusing on the tragedy, says Yohannan. “Our people really get into full gear to get among the people and serve them, without screaming at them about hell and heaven and all of those things, but later they can come back and meet them and visit with them and talk to them about the Lord and that is the pattern we follow in all of these situations.”
According to Yohannan, these types of tragedies get people thinking. “I run into lots of people that say, ‘I don’t understand it — where is our god.’ And, of course this is the opportunity we have to point out to them the God of the Bible. It’s sad for us to think that things like this should happen for people to stop in their tracks and think, ‘there is a living God. I need to think about that.'”
GFA is reaching out to the five-million slum-dwellers of Bombay. Yohannan says Bible studies, prayer fellowship groups and churches have been established. Funding is need both for the new work at hand, but also for the on-going work with the poor.
