India (MNN) — Hundreds of Christians joined in a peaceful rally in Jaipur, Rajasthan Tuesday, condemning the arrest of Doctor Samuel Thomas of Hopegivers International and the closure of educational and charitable institutions run by the agency.
Thomas was arrested a week ago in India and charged with inciting communal disharmony. Radical Hindus falsely accuse Hopegivers of publishing a comparative religions book, criticizing Hinduism.
Chief Operating Officer of Hopegivers International in Michael Glenn. Progress is being made in small steps. “The letter writing campaign seems to be paying off in many ways. We’ve got congress circulating a ‘dear colleague’ letter through the halls of congress to send a letter from the U-S Congress to the Prime Minister indicating our concern.”
All of this publicity and protesting is drawing the attention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, says Glenn. “The Prime Minister of India is definitely looking at this. He sent a four man commission and did report that there are serious concerns that they have to do something about this situation. If they don’t take care of it there this could explode and just go like wild fire throughout the entire country.”
Hopegivers founder M-A Thomas is still in hiding. Glenn says while prayer is the most important thing right now. However, they also need financial support to help. “Attorneys are attorneys. You have to pay for them no matter where you’re at in the world and that is a significant part of this. We want to be smart and good stewards of God’s money and to use every means possible to take care of our men over there.”
The BJP continues to threaten Hopegiver’s orphanage, says Glenn. “They’ve made some threats about shutting off the electricity for our orphanage in Kota and we’re working on ways to keep the power on.”
Pray that God would intervene and allow all the men to be released from prison and that through it many more people of India respond to the call of Christ.
