Persecuted Migrant Workers in India Discover Christ

There are 620,000 villages in India, and COVID-19 has turned village life upside down.   The dominant Hindu caste often persecutes the migrant lower caste workers – creating “wandering refugee camps.” The Hindu government deepens the problem by controlling the food supply.

Large numbers of migrant works are wandering from place to place — often not accepted in their home villages. Mothers and fathers, with children and teens in tow, are forced to traverse an uncertain and disjointed existence, without a home, security, food, or confidence about the future.

However, what has amounted to a national calamity has created tremendous opportunities for our Indian brothers and sisters to share the gospel.

India Church Planting Reports

One Church Planting School India leader reports, “Thousands of migrant workers moving into the region of our networks are finding hope, joy, and peace in Christ.”

Another church planter reports, “We have the great honor and opportunity to love and serve the migrant workers in our areas, who have come from a large city in India. They were hated by their own people, but our little church family is serving their physical and spiritual needs so they are satisfied fully in Christ.”

There are a multitude of children and teens also left in desperation. Parents, struggling to find work, are uncertain about how to respond to their children’s needs. Many of the teens and small children become aimless in purpose. The church plants, in love and faith, stepped up to meet the needs of the unschooled and hopeless children by using coloring books with Bible stories.

One Little Boy

SOM India Director’s son was talking to one boy while coloring the stories and the boy showed much emotional pain. The young boy lives with his only grandmother who is very aged, sick, and might die soon. The little boy thinks he will become an orphan and nobody will take care of him. The Lord began to work in the heart of this little boy, the house church is praying for his future and healing of his grandmother.

One little boy struggles to find hope in the midst of the backdrop of inconceivable chaos. Nevertheless, the Lord has compassion for the crowds like those who are like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:36)