India (MNN) — Your prayers are urgently requested for Pastor Kumar, a Gospel For Asia native missionary in the south Indian state of Karnataka, who is right now facing a life-and-death situation.
After his graduation from a GFA Bible college, he and his wife Sonia moved to an unreached village and began their ministry together, sharing the love of Jesus with those who had never heard His name. Over the past two years the Lord has given them growth: Not only has their baby boy become a happy little toddler, but today more than 40 new believers gather to worship the living God in the church he has established.
But Pastor Kumar’s faithful labors and victories have not come without attack from Satan. He has received threats from anti-Christian fundamentalist groups over the past several weeks. Last week those threats escalated into a full-scale demonstration.
One of our senior leaders notified GFA that a mob went to each house in Kumar’s village, threatening anyone who went to church this Sunday — they would break their arms and legs, and kill them. Finally they came to Pastor Kumar’s home and beat him. Before leaving, they delivered their ultimatum: If he conducted Sunday services this weekend, they would kill him in front of his wife and son.
Pastor Kumar reported these threats to his GFA leader, who brought the incident to the police. However, the police responded that they couldn’t help; this mob was too large and the pastor should do whatever he wanted to do.
Founder and President of Gospel For Asia, KP Yohannan says the chief of police says the treats were serious and the encouraged Pastor Kumar to stay away. “He didn’t go to church. Meanwhile, praise God, the elders of the church they called all the believers. (And), They met for worship on Sunday morning in another location.”
Meanwhile, GFA has appealed to the central government in Deli and asked them to intervene in this situation. Yohannan says local persecution is on the increase, but so are the number of conversions. He says in the midst of persecution many are turning to Christ.
$30 a month can support a pastor, evangelist and church planter in India. Money is also needed to supply Bibles to the thousands of people who are coming to Christ.
