It's Saturday night about 8:00 pm and we just returned to our hotel in Visakapatnam after two days in Orissa.  We're tired, but in good spirits.  We left here Friday morning and travelled to Tarangada, where Vishwas Vani just built a church, children's care center and learning center.  ICM helped with these projects, and we arrived for their dedication.  As I have mentioned before, the children's care center is really an orphanage, and the learning center is built to serve at least 25 churches train their pastors and leadership.  This means that there are at least that many churches in the area.  We understand there are 52 there now, with 25 of them having been contributed by ICM donors.

 

We were not prepared by what we were met with at the gate to the church compound.  Most of these church/learning centers are in remote places, and we knew this was true here because of the dirt, ungraded road leading in.  About 250 yards from the front gate, however, we met a crowd of several hundred people, who mobbed us as we got off the bus.  We were surrounded with cheering, singing and smiling Sora Christians, all of whom trying to shake our hands and give us the traditional India greeting of hands held in a prayer fashion.  We didn't so much as walk to the gate as respond to  the crowd's movement.  We noticed an even larger crowd under a meeting tent, and more people inside the compound.  We were told there were about 3,000 people there, just to greet 10 of us from the US.  The overwhelming nature of the moment had us all overcome with emotion.  Never had any of us experienced this before. Some had walked over three hours to be there.

 

Our attention was drawn to the gate opening ceremony, and then to each of the 3 buildings for their respective dedications.  Without pausing, we were led to the large tent for more singing, prayer and dedicatory remarks.  Children were everywhere.  It was a remarkable time.

 

One custom of the people caught us off guard.  As they approached us, either individually or in a group, they would bow, touch our feet and reach to shake our hands.  We were puzzled by this, and were told that these people do this as a form of respect and honor.  It happened both days we were gone, and at all locations.  I never got used to it.  What I did enjoy, however, is the warmth and willingness to greet us that was expressed so openly by them.  We never shook hands with just one person...always many.  It certainly warmed our hearts.

 

After the service, and before dinner, Our guide, Augustine, took us a few miles away to another small church, recently built by ICM.  To me, this was the most meaningful visit of our trip.  We were told the story of this group of Sora by their pastor, who couldn't get through it without tears.  Although India has freedom of religion, the nation is two large, with too many people, for the police to protect everyone, all the time.  In 2008, a group of fundamentalist Hindus decided to mount a campaign to destroy all Christian churches in this area of the Sora people, and to kill all their pastors.  When they reached the village of these people, who were all Christian, the men of the church wanted to fight them off, but their pastor told them this is not the Christian witness.  The people and pastor fled to the forest as these Hindus destroyed the church and all of their homes.

 

The people hid for a few days, then went to a police station to report what had happened to them.  The police put them in a camp for 6-8 weeks, and the government agreed to give each family 20,000 rupees (about $400.00).  Having no where to go, they relied upon the generosity of other Sora villages until they decided to pool their money and buy land for a new village.  This they did, and Vishwa Vani, with ICM's help and a donation by my friend and Greensboro attorney, Janet Ward Black, last fall dedicated a new church building in a new village where all 125 congregation members now live. 

 

We once more were touched to our core, as we marvelled at this faithful pastor, and his dedicated congregation.  They had lost everything to religious intolerance.  They had nothing.  Nothing.  They simply prayed, because they didn't know what else to do.  Deciding to pool their funds, and joining together as a group allowed them to have their new place and new church.  All is not perfect, of course.  They still have daily issues of finding work and supporting one another.  

 

 The inspiration of this story and this place will not be forgotten by us for as long as we remember.  We have heard many stories of the arrests and persecution of pastors occasioned by Hindu radicals, and we marvel at their faithfulness.  Of course, on reflection, we wonder how many of us would be so brave.

 

We journeyed back to the Learning Center and spent a pleasant night at another service, followed by a meal, and then to bed.  Our accommodations were simple, but very adequate, and all of us had a wonderfully peaceful night.  It was interesting, though, to see that several hundred other local people stayed at the compound as well.  We were told that since they came from so far, they were encouraged to plan to spend the night.  It was almost like summer camp again...they stayed up and shared time with each other until late.

 

Saturday's report will have to come later.  There is so much to tell, I can't do it all tonight.

 

If you have it in you tonight, please say a prayer for our Sora friends and pastors who suffer from religious persecution.  This type of hatred is the worst, and we are naive to think it doesn't exist.

 

"As much as you have done it unto the least of these......."

-Aubrey Rosser