India

Though predominantly Hindu, India is also home to one of the world’s largest Muslim populations. One bold evangelist is making sure they hear the gospel, despite persecution from both Muslims and Hindus. Harikiran was born into a Hindu family, but he came to know Christ at age 15 after his sister-in-law was healed from a lengthy illness. When modern medicine and witchcraft had failed to improve her condition, she and her family accepted a pastor’s invitation to visit his church. They soon came to know Christ, and Harikiran’s sister-in-law quickly recovered. “From that day,” he said, “we decided to follow Jesus.” In his eagerness to share the peace and healing his family had experienced, Harikiran began telling others about his new Christian faith. As a result, he has faced many challenges over the past couple of decades as he has continued to tell others about Jesus. He has been arrested three times, jailed for a week, beaten, and harassed by a mob of Hindu activists. But none of these difficulties have hindered Harikiran from sharing the gospel. “If we save one woman or one man,” he said, “it will be worth it. Not a single person should be without God.”

Tied to a chair in a small room, struggling to breathe after a severe beating, Pastor Dharala Francis awaited his death. For nearly 30 years, he had faithfully led a ministry that served the disadvantaged in India, but on July 9, 2015, his reputation for sharing the gospel caught up with him. That day, an angry mob beat him severely and conspired to burn him to death. “I didn’t have fear,” he recalled eight months later, sitting with his wife and daughter at a guest house in India. “I was ready to die that day. I said, ‘If this is the last day for me, I want to go to heaven directly.’” Instead of dying, however, Pastor Dharala saw a surprising work of God. A Threatening Love The pastor and his family had spent the first six months of 2015 building relationships with villagers in western India, praying for those who were sick, serving the poor and distributing Christian literature. Gradually, Hindus — and even some Muslims — started following Christ. “Every Sunday we would go to that village and share the Word of God, and day by day the number was increasing because of many miracles taking place there,”

Onslaught on Christians in India’s Sacred State One evening in early September 2018, an investigative report on India’s Zee News stunned many viewers with the claim that pastors in Uttar Pradesh state were paying Hindus to convert to Christianity. Though fictitious, the report reinforced similar claims about Christianity that had appeared elsewhere. Hindu radicals were incensed by the news that Christianity was growing and even flourishing in Uttar Pradesh, which is considered the sacred home of Lord Shiva and an important site of worship on the holy Ganges River. Hindu nationalists believe that India should be a purely Hindu state and that followers of other religions should be expelled from the country. Throughout September and October, persecution against Christians erupted across the densely populated state of Uttar Pradesh. Gangs blocked roads leading to churches and vandalized some smaller churches. Angry mobs beat Christians and dragged pastors from their beds in the middle of the night. Police arrested pastors during Sunday services, closed churches and arrested more than 100 Christians for “creating community disharmony.” And most evangelism in the area came to an abrupt halt. Meanwhile, Christian leaders in the area struggled to respond to the ongoing incidents, paying bail, traveling