Face To Face With Persecution

To God be the glory great things he hath done. We are moving into the 4th Month of our Missionary journey here in the Country of India, and we can honestly say that God has been tremendously good to us. He has more than fulfilled even our highest expectations of Him. Truly the mercy of God has been before, and behind and beside us every step of way on this Missionary journey. We are forever indebted to you, our  friends and family who have continually kept us in prayer these few months. We know for absolute certainty that these prayers on our behalf have sustained and kept us amidst many dangers seen and unseen, and amidst many trials, and hazards that come with Missionary service.

This week’s blog is about a Village on the outskirts on the Villupuram Region named Meyyur. We were very enthusiastic about doing Ministry in this particular Village for a number of reasons but primarily because this Village is pastored by the only Woman Pastor in the entire Region. This Sister in my opinion is one of the most committed and diligent workers here in the Region. She is the lay pastor for 3 Churches and she nurtures many families in different Villages, and she is also a literacy teacher who conducts 5 different literacy Meetings per week where she teaches many Village Women to read.

Our 1st nights meeting was an interesting one. We arrived at the Village after 1 1/2 hours of travelling down bumpy and severely damaged roads that had taken  tremendous beatings during the annual Monsoon rains. We also discovered that the only path to our Meeting site was through several inches of very slippery mud. Marion and Noah feared the worst as they both were wearing opened toe shoes. We also noticed an especially pungent smell surrounding us, this smell we were no stranger to as we have encountered it many, many times during our Missionary journey here in India, the smell was human excrement. What was particularly disturbing though was that at the entrance to the Village, every few steps that we took there were piles and piles of human waste on both sides of the road and when the sun was at it’s pinnacle the smell was immense.

Nevertheless we proceeded to our meeting site where we encountered a large and vibrant group of Seventh Day Adventists who were singing songs as they awaited our arrival. These believers also have no Church building and so they decided to set up Church outside. We began our 1st night’s meeting outside, the woman pastor (Sister Daniel) told me that they were eagerly looking forward to our meeting and that they had especially prayed to God that it would not rain during our meetings as the Monsoon rains were still pouring nightly. Believe it or not, God worked miraculously for us because it did not rain one drop during our nightly Meetings. This was the 1st week that we had conducted meetings in all the Villupurum region that it did not rain during our nightly meeting, praise God.

On the first night I began to preach, about 15 minutes into my presentation I realized that someone in the adjacent street had mounted some speakers and was gradually increasing the music Volume. The music volume was increased to the point that hardly anyone could hear either myself or my translator as we were preaching the nightly message. The disturbance had come from some Hindus who were  not pleased that we were having our meeting and wanted to make sure that no one heard the presentation. I had a strange feeling from that nights exhibition that this was only a harbinger of bad things to come, and unfortunately I was right.

The following night we received several prayer requests from people who were complaining to us that even at their homes, they were being harassed by local Hindu radicals. In this outer region of Tamil Nadu many of our Adventist Brothers and Sisters are experiencing real religious persecution. In some Villages if people convert to Christianity, they are completely ostracized. They are treated as the lepers were treated in biblical times. They have to vacate their homes and move to the outskirts of the Village, where they can no longer use the one water pump that comes into the Village. There are no Police Stations or Fire Stations remotely close to any of the Villages that we have been to so far. And so fellow Villagers are most people’s only source of security and protection, but not if you have converted to Christianity.  Here in India many people still pay a tremendous price for their faith.

On the 4th night of our meeting we were preaching on the state of the dead.  As I was preaching from Ecclesiastes 9:5 I noticed a  disturbance ahead, and as I looked carefully an Army of about 100 Hindu men began to briskly walk towards our group meeting. As soon as I saw them I knew that we had a big problem on our hands. There is a really sick feeling that comes over a person’s body when you are faced with confrontation and you are greatly out numbered. The young Pastor who was our translator was a young man 32 years of age named Circunam Silverage, this young man told me “ boss don’t worry I will take care of them” he then proceeded to skillfully handle these men. These Hindu radicals most of whom were in their 20’s  staunchly demanded that we stop our meeting. They wanted to know why we were converting the people.  Every Hindu that night had a different contention with our small group. Marion and Noah were hastily escorted into a nearby house for protection from this group of very angry men that descended upon us.  Marion immediately  began to pray with the Lay Pastor Sis Daniel and she broke down in tears.  She was so heartbroken and told Marion that this happens all the time.  The Hindus taunt them and say “ where is your God ?” “where is your temple? ” because they do not have a church building to worship in and are forced to congregate outside.   I was told by these men that I had no business in what was taking place and that I was a foreigner and I should pack up and leave immediately. Our Adventist group was composed of only 8 or 9 men including myself, most of these few men were very afraid and intimidated except our translating pastor Silverage. If I were to leave this young pastor with these 100 Hindu men what would become of him? I whispered a prayer and decided that I would stand by this young Pastor’s side come what may, even though these men demanded that I leave the scene, I felt that I could not leave him by himself in this terrible hour. God gave Pastor Silverage great tact and wisdom in that crisis hour, he was firm enough with the men to let them know that he was unafraid yet respectful enough to not  use any harsh or provacatory words. He began to reason with them as they all leveled their different charges against the Adventists. Some were angry with our people because they refuse to pay the local taxes to maintain the Temples, some were angry because of a local graveyard issue, etc. Yet this 32-year-old Pastor stood as firm as a rock in the midst of a tempestuous sea of angry voices. After 30-45 minutes of talking to the leaders of these men he was able to disarm them, and we all escaped without blood shed or loss of life. I truly thank God that those who were with us were more than those who were with them, and that the Angels of The Lord encamp round about those who fear Him and they are ready to deliver.

These types of occurrences are daily experiences for our Adventist brethren here in India, and now we can say that we too have seen firsthand some of the religious persecution that takes palace daily in this vast nation.

From my study of History I know that tragedies and even atrocities continue to happen in our World because good people and even well-meaning people stand aside and do nothing to stop it.

The people in this Village of Meyyur are facing hardships and persecution as many people only read in a Magazine or see on Television. They are suffering in silence and we feel an obligation to be a voice for them. We have devised a plan that could put a stop to much of the hardships that they are enduring here in India. If these people have their own Church building they will protected by law from disturbances to their religious assemblies by these Hindu groups and others. We are not in a position at present to build them a Church building due to our present financial condition as that would be an immediate solution, but we have been in negotiation with some friends who work for Maranatha and if we can just purchase a plot of land for them, then they could be placed on the list to receive  a Church by Maranatha. The cost of this plot of land as we have investigated will cost  $2000 US. So we are making this appeal on behalf of our brothers and Sisters here in the Country of India, to any who can help this most worthy of causes. If you are able to support you can feel free to make a secure donation to our blog at: http://3goingforward.wordpress.com/ just click on the donate button and all proceeds will go towards this building  project.

As you are a recipient of our  blog we would love to hear from you. We send our blogs to friends all over the World but rarely do we get responses to our different posts, so if you are receiving this blog and if they have been a blessing or encouragement to you please drop us a line as we would really be blessed to hear from you. May God continue to richly bless you as we work towards finishing the work that he has given us to do. Gavin, Marion and Noah Simpson.