In my previous post on this subject, I reprinted the story of a group of radio workers who endeavored to reach the little Hindi-speaking children of India with the love of Jesus.

The organization is a group called "Gospel for Asia", who believes in spreading the message of what Jesus has done for us across many Asian countries. Their workers are locally-based, often poor, and risking their lives because they believe the message of Jesus is the most important thing in the world. Their faith is genuine and sacrificial.

Today I came across an article about a mob of 250 people who attacked a church because some people in their village had believed in Jesus. Sure, enough, it was a GFA church. After three influential families in the village give their lives to Christ:

A mob of 250 people came and burned Bibles and Christian literature, damaged furniture and property, and vandalized the place,.. The vandals reportedly beat several Bible college students who attended the church, including five women. A local Hindu leader had charged the students with being a menace to the neighborhood.

According to GFA:

Many in the village have expressed their desire to beat GFA missionary Babuser and the new believers, steal their land and other belongings, and ultimately drive them out of the village.

As the village meeting continues, they are pressuring leaders to inflict maximum harm on these believers. Village leaders have already made at least one decision: The Christians must pay a fee to even meet together for church. GFA missionaries from other villages have traveled there to encourage their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Civil rights in India? It depends what you believe, or choose to believe. We're not there quite yet as a society, but we're working on it. Freedom to choose what to believe, and speak freely about it, is very, very precious.

If you pray, pray for the persecuted villagers, that they would love their enemies and touch their hearts: that they would be like Jesus in their suffering.

And we can all ponder how grateful we are that we are not silenced, physically attacked, beaten, and having our property confiscated for believing the "wrong" thing. Whatever your favorite Hollywood multimillionaire may tell you.

Update: Oops, guess I was wrong about that. But then again, there have always been goons -- we're just seeing more of them on that side of the fence now.