Over in India, some of our pastors have stumbled on a method of starting churches that was born out of necessity and opportunity.
Some say there are more than 250,000 destitute women in India who must sell their bodies to have food to eat. And those are only the women employed as “temple prostitutes” to raise money for pagan gods and their priests. Once they are of no further use to their priest-masters, they are cast out to starve. Many of our preachers have tremendous ministries to these women and their children, who are invisible to government help and considered dead by their own families. But I will let them tell you their story in their own words.
“Here we are, HIV-undetected saints who have endured stigma, discrimination and hardship that have harmed our wellbeing. We were thrown out of our homes and chased away from the community, with nowhere to find the strength to stand against our oppressors or fight for our rights under the Indian Constitution, which promises protection to every citizen. But the system has deprived us of everything.
The only safe place was to stand on the street corner and solicit customers. This is against our morals, but we felt we had no other way to survive. Yet on those very streets where we survived by selling our bodies, we heard the values and morals of Christianity, and the gospel of love and forgiveness, which gave us freedom and real justice.
Now our one cry is: why didn’t these preachers come to our rescue earlier? Our hearts are filled with hope that very soon we will lead a new life with hope and dignity, even though nobody yet welcomes us into their homes.
We are thankful to the Lord Jesus, who not only cleansed our sins but also gave us a place, a church building, where we can gather and worship every Wednesday.”
Preacher Sumanth, along with a few others, holds separate services for these women, who are HIV positive and now followers of Jesus. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a feeding center for these women and their children!
If you feel this is tragic, you are right. Feelings in our hearts concern us, but if they never move from our hearts to our hands, they convict us. These ladies are the walking dead, and there are probably tens of thousands of them to whom no one will speak, share food or offer friendship.
But our Lord is the friend of sinners, and as His emissaries, we should emulate His character, whether those we reach are HIV positive, women used up by idol gods that no longer have any use for them, children stolen and sacrificed by barren couples to appease the gods for a child of their own, or children sold in open markets like hens and pigs into sexual slavery or chained to physical labor because their parents didn’t want them or couldn’t feed them.
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The Great Commission Fund supports national church planters like Preacher Sumanth as they reach people no one else will. Your gift helps them start churches where they are needed most.
