DAWN Fridayfax 2001 #31

India

Will 1 million Dalits become Christians - or Buddhists?

One million Dalits are preparing to change religion. The 250 million Dalits, the untouchables, are the largest group in the Indian population, and work as street sweepers, toilet cleaners, barbers or dyers. "Some of them are so despised in India's Hindu system that they are not even allowed to pray in the temples," says Dr. Joseph D'Souza, President of the All India Christian Council. In 1974, missionary Bruce Nichols already recognised that the lower castes would not remain Hindus forever, saying "whether they become Christians depends on what we do." "Militant Hindu leaders see conversions as a direct attack on their power base. For that reason, India's political regime has spoken out vehemently against conversions - but this policy is having a boomerang effect," says the Indian author Vishal Mangalwadi: "Leaders of the Dalits, who are at the bottom of the social ladder, have recognised that the conversions have a side effect: they are the greatest possible threat to the socio-religious system which has suppressed them for the last 3,000 years." 1,000 Dalits in Coimbatore, southern India, have already decided to convert from Hinduism to Christianity. Some Dalit leaders are planning a mass conversion to Buddhism in New Delhi on 14th October. Until very recently, the political leaders were very open to becoming Christians, but the traditional Indian churches were "not very pleased that these people wanted to convert, because social protest obviously played a role in their decision. In addition, they feared a bloodbath at the hands of militant Hindus. Since then, some church leaders have gathered to repent of their fear and cold-heartedness, and have decided to accept these people and disciple them, even if they have to pay with their own blood. The dramatic result is that some key Dalit leaders have decided that they will follow Christ, not Buddha," writes Mangalwadi.
Source: Joseph D'Souza, Vishal Mangalwadi and others, e-mail: Mangalwadi@rosecroft.net

East Asia

Even the spies

"Brother Samson is a small man, but a giant in faith," according to a report by the Baptist International Missions Board. Samson used to be a Buddhist, but came to Christ in 1987, and started full-time ministry in 1997, when he moved to a non-evangelised town and planted a house church. The Governor sent four policemen to the meetings to spy on the Christians. The spies, however, returned week after week, fascinated by the gospel, and soon started attending the Bible study on Wednesday in addition to the Sunday meetings they were ordered to spy on. Two of them have become Christians and joined the church. Samson's neighbour is a witch doctor who does not like what the Christians are doing next door. He called out loud curses against the meetings, and tried to disrupt them with loud music, but the Christians just pray for him and reckon with his conversion. There are now 27 people meeting in Samson's house, and he leads another six house churches with up to ten members.
Source: www.imb.org

India

To which God do you pray?

Sudhir's wife and daughter were hit by a bus right in front of his eyes. He shouted a warning, but it was too late - the bus drove over them, and they lay helplessly bleeding on the road. Sudhir took them to hospital in his motorised rickshaw, praying "Please, Jesus, give them back to me." The diagnosis was shattering: his wife Renuka had various head injuries, twelve fractures and her hip had splintered into 42 pieces; his daughter Chaksu, would be partially disabled. But Sudhir started to pray with other Christians, and their condition suddenly started to change: Chaku's doctors reported that she would not be disabled, and that her internal injuries would heal. Renuka's doctors planned a 9-hour operation. Following a prayer, she went into the operating theater with a smile on her face. The operation ended the moment it began. The astonished surgeon came out of the operating theater to speak with the waiting family members. "To which God did you pray?" he asked. "Your wife doesn't need an operation. The fragments are suddenly in the place they belong." It wasn't long before Renuka was back on her feet. God had answered her prayer.
Source: CBN World Reach

Siberia

Healed of Tuberculosis in prison

Dimitri attended a conference with English evangelist David Hathaway in Tschita, Siberia, in Spring 2001. Dimitri had become a Christian in a jail in 1994, one year before Hathaway held an evangelistic and healing event there. Dimitri had contracted incurable Tuberculosis, which is common in Russian prisons, and was healed at the event with Hathaway in 1995. In 1999, he was released after 22 years in prison, and married a preacher's daughter in 2000. Today, he himself preaches in jails in the Khabarovsk region, bringing to others the gospel which so changed his life.
Source: Prophetic Vision, David Hathaway. www.propheticvision.org.uk

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