India (MNN) — India's new parliament must be seated by June
2. As that date approaches, there is
some apprehension as to how smoothly the world's largest democracy will
transition.
The moderate Congress Party and its allies won 260 seats in
the 543-seat parliament with two races undecided — only 12 seats short of a
majority. Although the incumbent prime
minister, Manmohan Singh, has vowed to lead a "stable, strong government
which is committed to secular values," his bitter rivals, in hiding, may
not have let go of their influence entirely.
According to multiple media reports, the Hindu extremist
Bharatiya Janata Party appointed an ad hoc committee to revive and strengthen
the party following recent setbacks in Nagaland. Still others say the trouncing was so
severe that it will take some time for the BJP leaders to regroup.
Meanwhile, those at the head of Christian ministries working
in oppressive areas feel there shouldn't be much changing drastically.
However, the makeup of the Parliament will be slightly
different. Tom Dudenhofer with Audio Scripture Ministries says, "Any time any
organization goes through change, there's an element of risk."
ASM is also at the beginning of a transition in their India
ministry. "We are actually in India
making the transition from an expanded type of a cassette player to the digital
Scripture players. They've been very well received. What makes them so useful
to the people is that they're very portable, and
the solar panel charges the player."
Dudenhofer says people are hungry for the Scriptures, and ASM can barely keep up with the demand. "People already are being motivated to
share God's Word in other areas. Pray for wisdom for the believers, for courage,
and for open thinking that God would really challenge them with not only a
vision for reaching their villages, but for reaching the whole
world."
They've already done a distribution where 1500 families
received a player. Each unit costs ASM $50. They need both funding
and prayers as they continue to get the digital audio Scripture players into
the hands of church planters, evangelists and other partners. Can you help?
