Mission India's literacy class (Mission India).
Stravers just received another reported case from church planters in Punjab. "One new church had been started in a village with 25 believers. Hindu extremists came into the village, threatened the Christians, and demanded that they reconvert to Hinduism."
Orissa is one of seven states in India which has strict anti-conversion laws in place. It's also a state where Christians have faced threats, been beaten, and even killed because of their faith in Christ.
Anti-conversion laws in Orissa State require new Christians to get permission from the police to change religions and baptisms. "This will definitely expose you to intimidation by other groups-- not necessarily police intimidation, although that can happen, too, but by these very well-organized Hindu extremist groups," says Stravers
According to Stravers, Christians in Orissa state are not seeking government approval to convert and be baptized, which he thinks is good. "Intimidation is the main goal of the extremists. They know they can't kill all Christians, but what they're trying to do is intimidate some of the workers so they won't be witnessing so boldly; this would slow down the growth of the church."
With 80-percent of the population of Orissa functionally illiterate, literacy training is the most effective way Mission India is seeing people come to Christ. The one-year course helps people attain a 5th grade reading level, says Stravers. "And in the process, because our materials are Scripture-based, they learn the story of creation, the fall, the life of Jesus, and of course, the Gospel. And our experience is about 40-percent of the class participants become Christians."
Stravers says literacy classes are being targeted by extremists. One of their instructors was raped. "Many people in her class had come to Christ, and the Gospel was getting a good reputation. In other places we've had extremists go door-to-door and tell the students to stop going to that class."
But because of the desire to learn how to read, many continue attending.
Stravers says the program is popular. "We have, right now, 200,000 students on the waiting list trying to get into these literacy classes, and basically we're just lacking the funding."
