India (MNN)–Gospel For Asia reports a series of church arsons in northeast India’s Manipur State. Police are investigating the April 19th attack on the Believers Church located in the Thoubal district.
GFA’s KP Yohannan says there have been three attacks this year and the sixth time it has been targeted. In several cases, the building was under construction, and completely destroyed by fire.
But the attacks aren’t intimidating believers. “They’re saying, ‘This is our church, and we will continue to rebuild it, no matter what they do to us, we are going to pay the price.’ But I thank God, that in spite of the persecution, the opposition, the believers themselves, are saying that, ‘We are not going to simply walk away and quit.'”
Yohannan says their attitude speaks volumes. After the third hit, gang members were bewildered. “They saw these new believers with strange behaviors, in terms of saying, ‘We pray for you. We are not against you’ That itself was the reason for a couple of families to give their lives to the Lord.”
After the last arson, Christian leaders in Manipur agreed to form an Inter-Church Peace Council and contact the state’s Minorities Commission.
Yohannan says for them, “Such opposition is a daily fact of life for our missionaries on the front lines in many parts of Asia,” continuing with an urgent request. “I ask the body of Christ pray daily for their persecuted brothers and sisters in these situations.”
