India (MNN) ― Security has been beefed up at sensitive religious places across India following threat from the al-Qaeda.
This follows a series of religiously-motivated attacks in Hyderabad, India, earlier this year. Police are urging all religious organizations to take extra security precautions.
Grace Ministries International's Sam Vinton says that's especially true in areas where Hindu nationalism is strong. "There are certain laws about converting people: anti-conversion laws. There again, a pastor finds himself, when someone wants to talk to him, wondering if this is a real interested person in the Gospel,or someone trying to see what kind of accusation they can bring against the pastor for trying to convert them."
Despite the considerable risk to their safety, just one week after a series of bombings in August, the GMI team made up of Subash and Sandra Muthyala held open-air gospel meetings as an outreach for one of the village churches. The church has around 40 people.
At the special services, 130-150 people attended the meetings, many of them Hindus. After the gospel was clearly presented, many responded to the call to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The GMI team helps the local churches with church planting, evangelism and literature distribution. They have struggled with discrimination, aside from security issues. In addition to that, Vinton says, "One of the biggest challenges we're facing right now is that the rupee has gotten very strong compared to the American dollar. So,we're facing 15-20 percent differentiation in the sense of what they got out of the dollar. That is causing a very big hardship right now with our work in India."
Please pray for safety and also for the Muthyalas be effective in carrying out the ministry showing the love of Christ and encouraging the believers in their ministries. Pray, too, for the continuing work of the Holy Spirit.
