India (MNN) ― India's new parliament must be seated by June 2. As that date approaches, there is some apprehension as to how smoothly the world's largest democracy will transition.
The moderate Congress Party and its allies won 260 seats in the 543-seat parliament with two races undecided -- only 12 seats short of a majority. Although the incumbent prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has vowed to lead a "stable, strong government which is committed to secular values," his bitter rivals, in hiding, may not have let go of their influence entirely.
According to multiple media reports, the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party appointed an ad hoc committee to revive and strengthen the party following recent setbacks in Nagaland. Still others say the trouncing was so severe that it will take some time for the BJP leaders to regroup.
Meanwhile, those at the head of Christian ministries working in oppressive areas feel there shouldn't be much changing drastically.
However, the makeup of the Parliament will be slightly different. Tom Dudenhofer with Audio Scripture Ministries says, "Any time any organization goes through change, there's an element of risk."
ASM is also at the beginning of a transition in their India ministry. "We are actually in India making the transition from an expanded type of a cassette player to the digital Scripture players. They've been very well received. What makes them so useful to the people is that they're very portable, and the solar panel charges the player."
Dudenhofer says people are hungry for the Scriptures, and ASM can barely keep up with the demand. "People already are being motivated to share God's Word in other areas. Pray for wisdom for the believers, for courage, and for open thinking that God would really challenge them with not only a vision for reaching their villages, but for reaching the whole world."
They've already done a distribution where 1500 families received a player. Each unit costs ASM $50. They need both funding and prayers as they continue to get the digital audio Scripture players into the hands of church planters, evangelists and other partners. Can you help?
