Story number 1 for 25 Feb 2003

(India)–We begin today in India where another missionary has been beaten for sharing his faith. Gospel For Asia’s John Beers says the incident happened in north-east India to one of their film teams. Beers says villagers were open to the story of Jesus, but an extremist group didn’t like it. “They began to beat the team. They grabbed the leader, a young man named Titus. They grabbed him by the scarf (and) began to strangle him. (They) beat him, punched him, kicked him until he fell unconscious. But, by God’s grace one of the villagers who was a Christian took him to his house and tried to take care of him.” Titus was able to escape a second beating and is recovering. According to Beers, this violence is common against Christians and prayer is needed. “These are brothers. They’re flesh and blood just like us. And, they have fears and they have difficulties and they have struggles, but by God’s grace they’ve made the commitment to continue to go forward. In fact, some of our leaders in a meeting, they said, if it means martyrdom it’s okay we’re going to go. And so, they’re continuing to go forward even in the midst of the threat.”