wfn.org | Prayer meeting highlights India church growth

[BethAH@mbm.org]

November 1, 2000
Beth Hawn
Communications Coordinator
Mennonite Board of Missions
phone (219) 294-7523
fax (219) 294-8669
<www.MBM.org>

Prayer meeting highlights India church growth despite persecution

GOSHEN, Ind. (MBM) – Through spoken prayers, singing, Scripture,
storytelling and silence, Christians in Indiana prayed for
Christians in India who are facing persecution for their faith.
They also celebrated the growth of the church in the midst of
opposition.

Those who gathered for the prayer meeting at Berkey Avenue
Mennonite Church in Goshen gave thanks for a century of shared
history for Mennonites in North America and Mennonites in India.
(The Mennonite Church first sent missionaries to India in 1899.
The General Conference Mennonite Church began an India mission in
1900.)

The Oct. 17 prayer service, planned by Mennonite Board of
Missions, gathered 30 people with a variety of connections to
India – former mission workers, children of mission workers,
Indian Mennonites, Indians living in the United States and other
friends of India.

“We are gathering tonight on behalf of MBM, on behalf of Indian
Christians, and on behalf of Mennonites around the world,” said
John F. Lapp, West Asia and Middle East administrator for MBM and
the Commission on Overseas Mission.  “This evening we’ve come
together to remember the Christians in India who are facing a
time now of persecution … in a society that hasn’t necessarily
thought of itself as a society where persecution takes place,” he
said.

“Give them courage to face persecution,” prayed Florence
Nafziger, an MBM worker in India from 1945 to 1984.  “Set their
souls on fire, that they will spread your word to friends,
neighbors and family.”

Special guests at the service included Rev. Jai Prakash Masih, a
pastor, teacher and administrator from the General Conference
Mennonite Church in India, and Drs. Sunil and Veena Chatterjee,
from Dhamtari Christian Hospital and the Mennonite Church in
India.

Masih gave an overview of church growth in India.  He said the
church is alive despite the persecution.  “There is a tremendous
amount of missionary awakening going on,” he said, especially in
urban church planting.  “Conversions are still going on, even in
the regions where persecution is happening.

“Persecution is a reaction to what the gospel is achieving, and
achieving very fast,” he said.

In addition to violence and crime directed at Christians, Masih
said there are covert forms of persecution, such as
discriminating against Christian youth in university placements.
However, Masih said the biggest problem for the church is not
persecution, but disunity within the church, especially between
ethnic groups.  He asked for prayers for unity.

Sunil Chatterjee, medical superintendent of Dhamtari Christian
Hospital, said the instances of persecution in Dhamtari have been
minimal.  He sees a larger problem in the life of the churches.
“I believe that in our church, we are losing our vision which our
missionaries have given us long ago,” he said.  “Our faith is at
a plateau; it’s a little bit cold.  Maybe without persecution,
our church will not grow, but with persecution, it will grow
stronger.

“Pray that we will become stronger when the persecution comes to
Dhamtari,” he said.

Already, the hospital staff must be cautious in how they express
their faith.  “We don’t have the freedom to go out and preach,”
he said to MBM staff during an Oct. 16 lunch gathering.  “But we
can do evangelism through how we care for our patients.  The
nurses pray with our patients, sing for them, and witness to them
through caring for people that others won’t touch.

“We need a lot of prayer for the hospital,” he said.  “And for
our church, we need revival.”

Veena Chatterjee said the Christian staff members also try to
reach out to the non-Christian staff.   About 30 to 40 percent of
the hospital employees are not Christian.   “Remember our
hospital in your prayers, that we may continue to do God’s work,”
she said.

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Bethany Swope       PHOTOS AVAILABLE