MISSIONS
are targeted. Their houses are
maybe set on fire or they are
stoned, or if the women are
going to the market, they are
abused or kidnapped. That is
happening much more bla-
tantly now than it used to.”
Another ministry that has
witnessed the growing nation-
alism is Partners International
( PartnersInternational.ca),
which has offices in Bramp-
ton, Ont. They help indigen-
ous Christian ministries in 56
developing countries forge
healthy partnerships with
Western ministries.
Indian believers face a lot of
problems from local government officials, according to an
Indian ministry partner who
requested anonymity to protect his safety. He said local
village leadership often shut
down events and post notices
saying pastors and evangelists
are not welcome in the village.
“They put the notice in the
village, and pastors or evangel-
ists who go are being beaten
up. In some villages the believ-
ers are not given water or they
are not given a place to bury
their dead.”
When Christians try to file
complaints, he says their at-
tackers bribe the police to de-
stroy the report.
“On many occasions the
pastors do not have proof of
the attack. So immediately the
other people fabricate some
witnesses and file a case
against the pastor.”
While he says the govern-
ment isn’t openly encouraging
attacks, he says they support
them by their silence. They
don’t address them in the media
or acknowledge them at all.
Faith Today spoke with a
senior leader from another or-
ganization that does significant
work in India. The source
spoke on condition of anonym-
ity to minimize the risk of re-
percussions. So far the organiz-
ation has flown under the
radar, but the source shared
another way the government is
restricting mission work.
“I personally know two
people who arrived in India
and were turned back – one on
a tourist visa and another on a
business visa. They had a func-
tioning business in India, but
they were told, ‘You are here to
do missionary work.’ There is
no appeal or anything.”
Both situations were in the
past year, one happening only
a few months ago. One of the
people turned back was a
worker with the organization
who has lived in India for
nearly two decades.
The organization has also
seen a rise in violence. While
none of their facilities have
been attacked, churches associated with their work have.
Kevin McKay, president of
Partners International Canada, says they have been
watching the nationalist trend
emerge throughout the region.
In Bangladesh one of their
partners was warned by the
police to suspend their meetings. They had a convert
murdered in Bangladesh and
another murdered in India.
“They were going into the
community and talking about
their faith,” he says. “These are
the things our workers face on
the ground. We had a worker
go missing two years ago in
Pakistan. He was held by the
Taliban for about six weeks.
We had a ministry partner
who was a former Taliban and
he was able to broker the release of that worker.”
Despite the building pressure McKay is confident the
“Pray that
God will turn
the hearts of
government
leaders around.
Prayer is the
number one
response.”
50 WWW.FAITHTODAY.CA / MAY / JUNE 2017
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