Orissa Persecution
Dear Friends,
Greetings to you in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
I want to briefly share with you on our pastors conference and a testimony from one of the persecuted pastors from Orissa. We have just begun the process of relief and in order for us to touch the lives of thousands of those who have lost everything we need for you respond generously.
We praise God for the wonderful pastors' conference we had from 1st to 6th of September. The conference was very unique in every way. By the way, I want to thank you so very much for generously giving to the conference. Because you gave and prayed for the conference, we had a wonderful and unique conference. We also want to thank our international partners that joined us from USA and Australia. They were incredible blessings!
We started the conference with an indigenous prayer encounter using an indigenous singing called "villu pattu" that narrated the need for prayer and shared the prayer requests and mobilized the participants to pray. It climaxed with the entire community turning toward the pastors from the state of Orissa, stretching their hands and calling out to God to pour out His grace on them and their families and protection for those who were going through the persecution. It was very unique.
Following the prayer time, we had the cultural evening that brought out the colors and richness of culture in dance and singing by various cultural groups. It again climaxed with a "Bhajan", a group from Maharashtra not only demonstrated how to worship God through Bhajan but mobilized and led the participants in a time of worship through Bhajan. Again it was very unique!
We had three plenary sessions every day that were shared by Dr. Stuart Robinson and Dr. David Shenk. Both of them shared the need and importance of reaching our neighbors. It was an eye opener for many of the participants and a learning experience of how to reach neighbors. It was unique again.
We had two small group sessions every day where a team from Australia and a team from the US helped to further clarify what was shared in plenary sessions. Since the topic was reaching neighbors*(Muslims), many of our pastors had a lot of questions especially on how to build bridges with our neighbors and introduce Jesus to them. The sessions were very interactive and it was very unique.
This year we introduced a new session in our conference that is a time of intercessory prayer. The entire participants were engaged with God to pray for the nation, state, people groups, God's ministry in India, the ministries of HBI, Persecution and praying for one another. In every session we truly experienced the presence and power of God. This session was completely planned and conducted by our continuing students in the college. It was unique again.
Every evening we had the conference and the uniqueness of the conference was the testimony time where we had our missionaries from Kashmir and village church planters from Orissa share with us. It was unique beyond words!
I want to share with you one of the Orissa pastors who shared his story of persecution with us;
Run... Run... Run... for life! Was the scream of Digal to his 25 children in the orphanage! As they all sat together on that dreadful afternoon to have lunch, Digal got a phone call from his Hindu friend informing him there was a mob of 600 people with all kinds of arms coming to attack the Christians in his village and his orphanage and asked them to run immediately. Even before some of the children could have one mouth full of food, Digal had to scream "Run... Run... Run... for life", he and his wife had to pick up the children who could not run and they both ran with the children. They ran as fast as they could into the forest. In an hour, he got a call from another Hindu friend sharing with him that his entire house was burnt and all that he had were destroyed.
(Digal is one of our village church planters in Orissa and also is taking care of 25 children).
God brought 14 of the village church planters who went through the persecution to the conference. When they came to HBI, they told us that they would not go back to their village or district. They were so terrorized and just wanted to give up. We just listened to them, cried with them and prayed with them.
After a few days we interviewed them during one of the evening sessions of the conference. It was painful to listen to their experiences as they narrated with tears. All the participants listened to them so intently. One of them who said I would not go back, said, "Jesus suffered a lot to save us so when we suffer for Christ, many will come to Christ so I will go back". He also shared the Khandamal district of Orissa has 40% Christian population and in the next 10 years the entire district must and will come to Christ. He challenged the participants "please pray with fasting for the whole church, all of us should reflect Christ and we should not give up, so that the kingdom of God will be established in Orissa". There were no dry eyes!
We all prayed with them and encouraged them and gave them generously as they took clothes for themselves, for their families and for the family of one additional church planter that they would meet when they returned.
Friends, in two or three days we will send you a letter on what God is wanting us to do in the state of Orissa to help our brothers and sisters? God has given us a holistic strategy - Relief, Rehabilitation, Restoration, Rebuilding and Revitalization. We have just begun the process of relief and in order for us to touch the lives of thousands of those who have lost everything we need for you respond generously.
Our desire and our cry is to see nations and peoples worship the Lord Jesus Christ! Will you stand with us as we continue to bring the hope and love of Jesus with our brothers and sisters of Orissa so that they will lights in the midst of darkness!
We need your prayers for not only for Orissa but also for the believers in the state of Karnataka where 20 churches were destroyed, Madhya Pradesh where 2 churches were destroyed and many more. Pray that the Lord will bind the forces of darkness and bring salvation to those who are brining persecution on His church. Pray that we will all be strong and stand firm in and for our faith. Pray that we will love unconditionally like Christ.
Please join us and empower us all you can because we will need a lot to make a difference. We count on your prayers and support! You can send you support for Orissa brothers and sisters by making a check out to HBI Global Partners, designating "Relief &Rehabilitation" and mail it to P.O. Box 584, Forest, VA 24551 or on our website www.globalpartners.org to donate online.
We want to thank you so very much for your affirmation of prayer, encouraging emails and generous giving.
Your servant in the mission,
Dr. Paul (Bobby) Gupta
President
HBI Global Partners
P.O. Box 584
Forest, VA 24551
www.globalpartners.org
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