Dear Brethren in Christ and Friends & Supporters of The Elijah Challenge,
We very recently received a message from Elijah Challenge Coordinator Sister Shakuntala in New Delhi who leads evangelistic events in North India. She wrote:
“I want to share one thing with you. Last month (March 2024), many churches were closed in Uttar Pradesh due to persecution by the BJP government.”
The government of India, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is a Fundamentalist Hindu, would like to wipe out Christianity from India. At the very least, they are stopping Hindus from attending Christian events so that they can hear the life-giving gospel.
In 2017 the Lord, foreseeing what is now happening in India, led us to stop our open-air evangelistic events in the southern state of Orissa and to start applying the Lord’s approach in Luke 9:1-2 and Luke 10:9. With this approach, workers were trained how to heal the sick and cast out demons exactly as our Messiah Jesus did in the gospels. After that with full financial support we sent them two-by-two to unreached villages simply to “heal the sick and tell them, ‘the kingdom of God has come near to you.’”
With this approach, no open-air evangelistic events are held. Our workers, sometimes going house-to-house in unreached villages, simply healed the sick—especially when requested by Hindu family members who had tried everything for their sick family member but to no avail. After the sick family member is miraculously healed in the wondrous name of Jesus, then typically the entire family will gratefully accept Jesus Christ. This opens the way for a house church to be planted very quickly.
The above approach is clearly underground with absolutely no public open-air evangelistic events held and no visible church buildings constructed. The Indian government is unable to stop this invisible underground approach.
Using this underground approach, since 2018 well over 67,000 Hindus have accepted Christ and are now being discipled in over 1,800 house churches. This has taken place through our 150 trained harvest workers who minister primarily in the Fundamentalist Hindu state of Orissa (Odisha)—where baptized is now ILLEGAL.
After receiving the above message about the BJP government now closing churches in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, we shared with Sister Shakuntala what the Lord is doing so very fruitfully through our trained workers in Orissa using the underground approach. We offered to have her workers in North India trained with The Elijah Challenge—exactly as our workers in Orissa have been trained. After that we would send them out with financial support to preach the gospel and plant house churches in totally unreached regions—using the underground approach of our workers in Orissa.
Sister Shakuntala happily agreed, and is now making plans for workers under her in North India to be trained with The Elijah Challenge.
- Please pray that the Lord will open the way and bless the Elijah Challenge Training to take place in North India by our Orissa Coordinator Pastor Subodh Jena.
- Please pray that the Lord will provide the additional funds for us to send and support new harvest workers under Sister Shakuntala in North India.
Thank you for your fervent intercessory prayers at a time such as this, dear brethren in Christ Jesus our Messiah!
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