Source: www.vomusa.org
Date: May 22, 2022
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Pray for Christians Like Unga in India
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| Hindu nationalists have targeted Christians in their efforts to create a purely Hindu nation. Church meetings are routinely interrupted, pastors are violently attacked and some Christians are killed as the country’s leaders and laws increasingly recognize only Hindus as rightful citizens. One of the biggest threats to the Hindu nationalist ideology is the gospel of Jesus Christ, which frees Hindus from the bondage of trying to appease or earn the favor of millions of false gods. If the gospel continues to spread, India cannot become “the land of the Hindus.” Therefore, Christians, like Unga, are treated as enemies. In 2020, a mob of Hindu extremists armed with sticks and daggers surrounded Unga’s house at about 11 p.m. Unga was away at the time, and his teenage son, Samaru, was home alone. Knowing that his father couldn’t be reached by phone, Samaru called his uncle, who rushed to provide help. When Samaru’s uncle arrived, the extremists abducted both him and Samaru. While his uncle later managed to escape, Samaru was dragged into the forest. Soon after Unga returned home and learned that his son had been abducted, he reported the incident to local police. Unga’s pastors, other Christian families from the village, and the police searched for Samaru for weeks before finding his body deep in the jungle. At the sight of his son’s body, Unga fell to the ground and burst into tears. Samaru’s murder was not the first time Unga’s family had experienced persecution. Unga and his nephew were brutally attacked by Hindus in their village in 2017. And villagers had also denied Christian families access to the village water well and prohibited them from purchasing items from village shops. Despite all this, Unga is determined to keep his eyes focused on Christ. “We have experienced the love of the Lord,” he said. “There is no way to go back [to Hinduism].” Since Samaru’s murder, 10 other families have come to faith in Christ in Unga’s village. You can pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who face persecution, including death, for their witness. Pray that in the aftermath of horrific attacks like the one that cost Samaru his life, more Hindu families will come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
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