Persecution of Christians in Orissa
Update Autumn 2010: Construction of a home for widows and orphans
Our home for the surviving widows and orphans of the murdered Pastors has already had to move twice. We are still looking for a permanent solution which will also be safe from attacks. We are very grateful for a very large donation we received to purchase the land and the building, but we still need at least another Euro 50,000 to finalise the project!
We still need further sponsors for children and widows in the home, as well as for the familes of the pastors, who are still working in Orissa and founding & looking after churches there.
Just Euro 30 a month will pay to look after a child and send him/her to school, Euro 60 a month will provide for a widow (some of them are workers in the home) and Euro 100 a month will provide for the basic needs for a whole pastor’s family! Sponsorships can also be for a limited period of time, or financed in part. We are really grateful for every Euro we receive on a regular basis!
Please continue to pray for the troubled & unsafe situation of the camp in Orissa!
Since 2008 Christians have been persecuted by radical Hindus in the state of Orissa.
Here are some reports:
>>The story of Pastor Samuel Naik (55) is cruel. A Hindu mob came into his village and their intentions were absolutely clear to him. When he heard that they were on their way, he told his wife that he knew that they would both be with Jesus later that day. He ran into the house to put on new clothes, for he knew that today would be a great day - the
day when they would meet Jesus! After he had changed his clothes he took his wife by the one hand and holding his bible in the other, he waited for the mob to arrive.
Some minutes later an angry mob of some 500 Hindu fanatics stood in front of his house and shouted wildly at them. They finally threatened him with death if he would not desecrate his bible and urinate on it in front of their eyes, as a sign of a renunciation of this faith. Samuel Naik had just one request: „Please give me just five minutes to pray and then you may do whatever you please with my wife and myself.” They both knelt down & prayed and they laid their life in Jesus’ hands. Then the Pastor told his attackers that they could proceed. Immediately one of the attackers drew his sword and cut off the top of the skull of the Pastor. Blood spurted in all directions, while another swung an axe into his back and a third pierced a speer into his chest. Samual Naik fell forwards and lay dead in a huge pool of blood. At once the mob turned on his wife, who had been forced to witness the killing with her own eyes. They poured kerosine over the widow in order to set fire to her.Then suddenly some of the Hindu women from the crowd started to shout: „Stop! Let her live! Let her live for many years without her husband and then she must suffer more! If you burn her, the suffering will be too short!” So the wife soaked in kerosine was left standing there. Beside herself with fear, she covered the body of her dead husband with a blanket and hid in the woods, hoping that she would be able to bury him the next day. But when she returned the body was gone and has never turned up again since. Nobody knows what happened with the body on this fateful day 25th August 2008.<<
--------------------------------------
>>Sheilabathi Naik is just 27 years old and already has two children whom she must look after as a young widow. Rasmitha and Sormista are roughly seven and three years old. Her husband was a Christian and worked as a day labourer. His brother, Velkeshan Naik (32) was Pastor of their church. In August of a last year a violent Hindu mob came looking for the Pastor. Someone gave him a tip off and he was able to escape to the woods with all his family and hide there. Nageswar Naik was not particularly afraid as he was not a Pastor and just an ordinary member of the church. But when the radical Hindus realised that the Pastor had escaped they turned on his brother instead and threw rocks at him. „My husband was taken to a local hospital after the stoning, but he died in terrible pain after 8 months on 15th April,” said his wife. Sheilabathi Naik and her two children are supported by us and now live in a small village called Reikia, completely isolated socially, but far away from that aggressive mob who killed her husband.<<
--------------------------------------
There are many many stories we could tell… we want to do everything possible to alleviate the suffering of these people as far as possible. Many of the survivors are still on the run or in hiding. We urgently need sponsors for the families of these Pastors, their widows and the orphaned children! In Orissa the school starts at the end of June and we would dearly love to send all these kids to school, so that they will not miss a further year of school.
Widows do not count for much in this region (mountain tribes) as women without husbands and when they are Christians they have even more problems and are mostly disowned by their families. The Pastors are also in a difficult situation, both personally and in their churches. Their houses are occupied by Hindus, their Church buildings are destroyed and the church people are scattered everywhere, they are disposessed… and death it seems, is always chasing them.
We need Euro 30 a month to look after a child, Euro 60 to take care of a widow and Euro 100 for a pastor’s family. We know that many of you have already invested so much in our work in India. Many thanks! Maybe you know of other Christians or other churches who would be willing to help us in our work and to help Christians in dire need?!
Wir brauchen monatlich 30 €, um ein Kind zu versorgen, 60 € für eine Witwe und 100 € für eine Pastorenfamilie. Wir wissen, dass so viele von euch bereits soviel in unsere Arbeit in Indien investieren. Vielen Dank! Vielleicht kennt ihr noch andere Christen oder Gemeinden, die mit einsteigen können, um den Christen in dieser Notsituation zu helfen?!Donate via our Bank Account DE47 2106 0237 0000 2216 00 | BIC: GENODEF1EDG at the Ev. Darlehnsgenosseschaft e.G. Kiel