India (MNN) — Mission Cry wants to bring the hope of Jesus to Odisha State in Eastern India. This region has often been known for Hindu extremism. For instance, Odisha was the site of the infamous murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his sons by Hindu extremists in 1999. Read more here.
Bringing change to Odisha State
But Jason Woolford says that’s why Mission Cry is making such an effort to work there. He wants to establish seminaries in this region. And seminaries need books. “We’re sending nearly $1 million in donated Bibles, Christian books, and seminary materials. We will establish three seminaries in that area. And it’s so important, especially when you look at the population of nearly 45 million people. A majority of those are Hindu and Muslim. Just two and a half percent are Christians.”
Woolford hopes to see a big change in the region as a result of these seminaries training Christian leaders to preach the risen Jesus. But it’s not going to be easy. “A year ago, a 14-year-old boy who was a Christian was crushed to death with stones, and they chopped his body into pieces because he was a believer. The only way that this is going to change is for the Word of God to get to this place and for strongholds to be broken.”
Get involved
You can help send the seminary materials by covering the cost of the shipping containers. Donate at Mission Cry’s website.
And keep praying for Christians in Odisha State. Ask God to protect them. Woolford says, “A majority of them are being martyred for a God that they can’t even read about, because they can’t afford a Bible. I ask for continued prayer and a continued understanding of the importance of evangelism. God mandates us to go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel.”
(Header photo courtesy of the Government of Odisha, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
