India (MNN) — Security has been
beefed up at sensitive religious places across India following threat from the
al-Qaeda.
This follows a series of religiously-motivated attacks in
Hyderabad, India, earlier this year. Police are urging all religious
organizations to take extra security precautions.
Grace Ministries International's Sam Vinton says that's
especially true in areas where Hindu nationalism is strong. "There are
certain laws about converting people: anti-conversion laws. There again, a
pastor finds himself, when someone wants to talk to him, wondering if this is a
real interested person in the Gospel,or someone trying to see what kind of
accusation they can bring against the pastor for trying to convert them."
Despite the considerable risk to their safety, just one week
after a series of bombings in August, the GMI team made up of Subash and Sandra
Muthyala held open-air gospel meetings as an outreach for one of the village
churches. The church has around 40 people.
At the special services, 130-150 people attended the
meetings, many of them Hindus. After the gospel was clearly presented, many
responded to the call to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The GMI team helps the local churches with church planting,
evangelism and literature distribution. They have struggled with discrimination, aside from security
issues. In addition to that, Vinton
says, "One of the biggest challenges we're facing right now is that the
rupee has gotten very strong compared to the American dollar. So,we're facing
15-20 percent differentiation in the sense of what they got out of the dollar. That is causing a very big hardship right now
with our work in India."
Please pray for safety and also for the Muthyalas be
effective in carrying out the ministry showing the love of Christ and
encouraging the believers in their ministries. Pray, too, for the continuing work of the Holy
Spirit.
