Bhubaneswar is the capital of the state of Orrisa on the coast of Western India. It has more Hindu idols than all the other states in India combined. In a city of nearly 500,000. 
Only about .04 percent of the population claim to be Christian. It is home of a very radical Hindu element that at times persecutes the Christian minority. It was here in Orissa that some Evangelical missionaries from Australia were burned alive in their car while traveling on vactation. They were here in India working with AIDS victims.
Only about .04 percent of the population claim to be Christian. It is home of a very radical Hindu element that at times persecutes the Christian minority. It was here in Orissa that some Evangelical missionaries from Australia were burned alive in their car while traveling on vactation. They were here in India working with AIDS victims.“Now the ground of Orissa is blessed with the blood of martyrs”, one of the committed Christians of this state told me at dinner one night. Many of the Christians here talk about this event in a kind of reverent voice that changes as they describe the details. It is very meaningful to them that this family gave their lives for the cause of Christ in their country.
It strikes me how our Americanized perspective on an event like this is so different. When we hear about someone being burned alive in a car, our reaction is usually to be horrified and disgusted by the lack of justice. We think in disgust about the instigator of this kind of violence. We want to know how to get even. Our American sensitivities do not immediately go to the eternal perspective. Christian Indians living in Orissa have a much different grasp on the meaning of it. They think of it in very solemn, even sacred terms.
I suppose that when you live in a country where it is against the law to convert someone to Christianity, you are conditioned to believe a certain amount of persecution is a reality that is not too far away. After all, Christ gave only one command at His ascension- and that was to tell others about Christ. There are families here who have been set up by the radical Hindu to look as if they have committed a crime, they are framed, beaten in their own homes, and then when the police come, they put the Christian family in jail for inciting trouble on their town.
So Lars had good reason to believe that Praney was nuts. “You never know till you try” was Praney’s response.
So, they raised the money for the conference, and tried it. They reserved a room in a local hotel, thinking that they may be able to attract about 600. Then a Monsoon destroyed the hotel they had rented, so they moved it to an Anglican school.
It wasn’t long before they had over 600 registrants. And then 1000. And then 1500. The large room in the middle of the school was not big enough. So the Global Action team in place here in Bhubaneswa
r went to work erecting a huge tent on the grounds of the school. When Praney came in and observed the tent at 11:00 P.M. on Friday, he announces to the team that it is not big enough.We now have 2100 registrants. The team worked all night extending the tent out another 30%.
When we arrived last Friday morning at the school grounds, there were already 1800 “delegates” at the conference and more flooding in. The conference did not begin until Friday evening, but the place was already packed.. By the time we started the number had swelled to 2300 registered and 200 more standing outside the tent who had no place.
They begin turning people away from the event- to the great disappointment to some who have traveled over 20 hours to Bhubaneswar to be a part of the gathering.
For several months now I have been told that there is a movement of the Spirit in the church in India. Missionaries have told me that there is an opening to the gospel in this part of the world that they have never seen before. I can tell you first hand now that all of the amazing reports we hear of people coming to Christ is certainly confirmed by the incredible young people I met in Bhubaneswar. In the face of persecution, I met literally hundreds of young men and women who told me about their work in their towns and villages. They showed no signs of fear or apprehension. They are young, courageous, and determined. Some of them endured 15, 20, 25 hour train rides to come for the four day conference.
When we arrived last Friday morning at the school grounds, there were already 1800 “delegates” at the conference and more flooding in. The conference did not begin until Friday evening, but the place was already packed.. By the time we started the number had swelled to 2300 registered and 200 more standing outside the tent who had no place.
They begin turning people away from the event- to the great disappointment to some who have traveled over 20 hours to Bhubaneswar to be a part of the gathering.
For several months now I have been told that there is a movement of the Spirit in the church in India. Missionaries have told me that there is an opening to the gospel in this part of the world that they have never seen before. I can tell you first hand now that all of the amazing reports we hear of people coming to Christ is certainly confirmed by the incredible young people I met in Bhubaneswar. In the face of persecution, I met literally hundreds of young men and women who told me about their work in their towns and villages. They showed no signs of fear or apprehension. They are young, courageous, and determined. Some of them endured 15, 20, 25 hour train rides to come for the four day conference.
I have no idea how they heard about it. Nor does Global Action.
“Pray for me sir, I am starting my own church in my village” was something that I heard over and over again. There were so many who told me that they had come to Christ and as a result were starting their own churches and Bible Studies I began to think that India is country of pastors with no congregants.
The conferences were amazing. The young people did not want to stop. They arrived in the tent early and left late. They love to worship. They love to dance. They want to sing and sing and sing. “Jesus Power, Awesome Power!” they sing in broken Indian English” “Satan power, powerless power!!” They sing it over and over again with great enthusiasm as if to lay those words at the feet at the endless pantheon of Hindu gods.
“Pray for me, I am going to present the gospel tonight and invite people to come to Christ” Lars tells me as he walks toward the tent the first day. I tell him that I will pray for him, remembering his words of a few days before, “I don’t have enough time to be nice anymore…”
At the end of a very straight forward in your face kind of gospel message, Lars passes out forms with specific details on what kinds of commitment that he wants them to register on that first night. This is not your ordinary commitment card- it is more like a college application process. The registrant is asked to share their testimony and their story, and the exact nature of their commitment.
Over 450 indicate they are making a first time commitment to Christ. It is obvious to all of us that many of these young Christian leaders have brought entire groups of lost people with them to the conference.
The next morning Michael stands to sing one of our familiar worship songs, and it isn’t long before the band comes up and starts to join him, even though they have just heard the song. The crowd begins to sing with him, without his prompting, and then they begin to stand, and then hands of worship start going up. They may not understand a word of the song, but somehow they know what he means when he sings,
“Pray for me sir, I am starting my own church in my village” was something that I heard over and over again. There were so many who told me that they had come to Christ and as a result were starting their own churches and Bible Studies I began to think that India is country of pastors with no congregants.
The conferences were amazing. The young people did not want to stop. They arrived in the tent early and left late. They love to worship. They love to dance. They want to sing and sing and sing. “Jesus Power, Awesome Power!” they sing in broken Indian English” “Satan power, powerless power!!” They sing it over and over again with great enthusiasm as if to lay those words at the feet at the endless pantheon of Hindu gods.
“Pray for me, I am going to present the gospel tonight and invite people to come to Christ” Lars tells me as he walks toward the tent the first day. I tell him that I will pray for him, remembering his words of a few days before, “I don’t have enough time to be nice anymore…”
At the end of a very straight forward in your face kind of gospel message, Lars passes out forms with specific details on what kinds of commitment that he wants them to register on that first night. This is not your ordinary commitment card- it is more like a college application process. The registrant is asked to share their testimony and their story, and the exact nature of their commitment.
Over 450 indicate they are making a first time commitment to Christ. It is obvious to all of us that many of these young Christian leaders have brought entire groups of lost people with them to the conference.
The next morning Michael stands to sing one of our familiar worship songs, and it isn’t long before the band comes up and starts to join him, even though they have just heard the song. The crowd begins to sing with him, without his prompting, and then they begin to stand, and then hands of worship start going up. They may not understand a word of the song, but somehow they know what he means when he sings,
O God let us be,
The generation that seeks,
Seeks your face,
O God of Jacob
Michael is very popular here. “You are the Michael W. Smith of India” Sadar Singh Moses teases him.
When I stand to teach I ask the sea of young dark faces staring back at me if they are ready for Bible Study?
Twenty Five hundred hands shoot up instantly as if to say “anytime, anywhere!” I have the impression that a teacher could sit here for hours on end and they would not grow weary of it.
On the last day we ask if anyone wants to stand and tell what the conference has meant to them- the line is so long it curls around the tent. We have to break up their sharing after just a few, as we cannot possibly hear any more stories.
There were stories of former Hindu, who have given their lives to Christ and who have been forsaken by their families and their village, and yet they have boldly made the commitment to carry on the work and to spread the gospel. There is the story of the group that is leading worship for us, who are all new Christians and who because of their new found faith have formed a community in their city in which they volunteer several days a week at an AIDS clinic. What amazing joy and love for worship we see from this group of young people.
The camp is a kind of gated embassy of Christianity in the midst of swarming paganism.
On the outside of the camp is the madness of Hindu Bhubaneswar. Our conference coincides with the Hindu holiday of Diwali, which is a main holiday here in which they honor the goddess Lakshima who they call the “mother god”. Lakshima is supposed to bring them wealth and good fortune. They make their Lakshima idols with their own hands and put her in a temple that they build themselves on the sidewalks and streets around town. On the third day of the celebration they light a huge statue of Ravada Podi, the evil god of darkness who is the alter ego of Lakshima. They shoot off fireworks and beat drums and sacrifice animals in order to scare the dark powers of Ravada Podi away. When we arrive back to our hotel after the second night, which is unfortunately positioned right next to one of the largest makeshift temples in the city, a huge explosion of fireworks erupts at about 11:00 P.M. It sounds like what you might imagine a car bomb might sound like.
The explosions continue until 1:00 A.M. Hindu chants are blasted out on giant loud speakers until late in the night. When do these people sleep?
On the last day they take their mother goddess out of the temple and parade her down the street and throw her into the river, where they believe she (the idol they have made with their own hands) will float upstream to the top of the Himalayas, the revered home of the gods, where she will stay until next year. This is a day of great sadness for Hindus- their mother god has gone away for another year. It is required that everyone be sad tonight. There are signs in our hotel that say, “Because of the immersion of the mother idol, the bar will not be open tonight.”
Michael and I take a stroll down the street in front of our hotel to get a feel for the parade outside. The people look miserable. There is a darkness about this city that I have not felt anywhere in my life- a spiritual bondage and oppression that is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
The newspaper here has stories about terrible pollution in the rivers and the streets. Trash is everywhere. Because of their Hindu beliefs they lift no finger against the filth and stink of cows and pigs and mangy dogs and diseased monkeys. They dump their trash everywhere and pour their plastic idols into the streams. The country is suffering from such desperate poverty and filth- and yet because of their Hinduism they cannot interrupt the karma of the oppressed, therefore it is left to mostly Christian and non-Hindu ministries to care for the poor, the diseased, the orphans and the AIDS victims.
But somehow they don’t connect the dots. They do not draw straight lines form their deprivation on the one hand, and their philosophical and religious beliefs on the other. A minister in their government was killed today at his home in Delhi. He was attacked by Rhesis monkeys on his balcony and fell several stories to his death. The monkeys are a real problem in Delhi, but revered by the Hindu because of their monkey god. So people continue living on the streets, and people continue to fall out of balconies and endure the stench, the trash and dung and disease. But the monkeys stay. We would not want to displease the monkey god.
I told Michael I don’t think I have ever been to a place as lost as this.
Every night we have been here we have endured the sounds of Puja. Screaming and chanting and fireworks and drums and giant megaphones attached to vehicles in which the Hindu priests use to scream out their chants. What a stark contrast this is to what we experience on the inside of the Christian school where 2500 young people are crowded into a camp to hear the word of God and to sing worship songs like “Jesus power, Awesome power, Satan power, powerless power!”
When I stand up to talk on the last day, I tell them that I would love to bring people from my own church here so that they could see for themselves what amazing faith and love for the Lord and enthusiasm for worship and for learning scripture these people have. The crowd erupts into thunderous applause.
We have seen so much of India. We came not really knowing what to expect. We came hoping that some how we might be a blessing to these people. We are leaving now knowing that we are the ones who have received the blessing.
We came to teach and yet we have received lessons that will last a lifetime.
Tonight, our last night, I am thinking about how incredibly spoiled I am. We have seen people who live on the streets of Calcutta who never leave the sidewalk their entire life. I have seen people who ha
ve gone their whole life living on dirt floors not knowing where the next meal would come from. I have seen children living in garbage dumps in a country that values the dog on the street or the cow on the road more than they value human life. I have lived almost 47 years now and yet I feel as if I am just now seeing a glimpse of the incredible capacity of God's love for the nations. We are not the center of the universe after all. I have experienced love and compassion that has moved me to tears. I have seen human suffering on a scale I could not imagine. I have seen a new generation of young people who are determined to bring the gospel to India. I have seen darkness. I have seen light.I have seen Jesus power- and I have seen powerless power.
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