TROUBLE IN THE NIGHT

    As you may have know, I had taken seven-week teaching tour of the Ukraine, Portugal, Spain, and India this fall. Overall, it has been a great experience, and I am grateful to the Lord for His blessing on this time. Unfortunately, our two weeks in India was cut short because of the situation there has become very difficult. Before we went into Orissa, we had asked for a lot of prayer support because of the increased persecution in our area. My travel partner, Elton and I felt that it was important to go in nonetheless because our brothers need to know that they are not alone in their struggle.

    The day after we arrived in India, we met with our native partners and listened as they recounted their "difficulties". In a nutshell, a radical Hindu party has formed the government in India for the past couple of years with a goal to preserve the Hinduism culture and religion. Hindu radicals who support this party began to openly oppose anything that is not strictly Hindu and are emboldened because they know there will be little consequence for what they do. One of the hottest areas in the State of Orissa happens to be the region where we have been working since 1992. It is also where our house located. All of our pastors have experienced persecution and some have been violently attacked. Recently, one of our brothers had his head split open with a stick, and another had his arm broken as a gang of Hindu’s ambushed them. When it was reported to the police, they arrested our men. After this, the radicals surrounded a house where our main partner, Gabriel, was visiting the man who had the head wound. The Hindu’s told Gabriel that they could not let him live, but some of the local villagers intervened and he was able to escape. Two church buildings in our area were taken apart by their bare hands. Perhaps the worst thing that has happened is that a climate of fear and suspicion now pervades this peaceful jungle region. They placed one of their members in each village to report on Christian activities and to try to ensure that everyone participates in Hindu festivals. Our pastors are not free to evangelize like they use too and open-air meetings will surely be attacked. Some of the tribal people are no longer willing to attend church for fear of being persecuted.

    The first night we stayed in our village, we were told that the radicals would have learned we were there by the next morning. Needless to say, both Elton and I had a difficult time getting to sleep that night. As I prayed I felt the Lord tell me that we would be safe that night, but that we would have to leave the next day. A sense of peace accompanied this idea, but the more I thought about it and all it’s implications a battle with fear broke out in my mind. I told the Lord that I did not trust myself to hear from Him in this situation because my flesh wanted to leave. If we were to leave, He would have to confirm it through the national leaders that we were meeting with the next day. One of the things that troubled me the most was knowing that our presence in our village would draw reprisals on the very people we came to support. The second thing that made it difficult was knowing that any conflict that involved the police we almost certainly result in our being expelled from India. We had to report to the police station the day we arrived in our District to register with them, which was a new experience. The commander personally interviewed us with a fine toothcomb. We could tell that he knew we were preachers but he did not come right out and ask. He did ask what our purpose was for coming to this remote area. (Tourist rarely come here.) We gave him a nice answer that was true but very vague. He asked us a second time if we had any other purpose in visiting his District. He finally seemed to warm us to us and served us some tea, but it was clear to us that if they found us preaching we would be in deep trouble. I did not want to do anything that would prevent us from ever getting back into see our brothers again. Nothing could impair our mission work in Orissa more.

    The next day we enjoyed a beautiful morning at our house, which I had not seen for a couple of years. As we drank sweet tea under the shade of a vine covered canopy many of our pastors began to arrive, greeting us warmly and sharing testimonies of what God was doing in their ministries. The only thing that seemed unusual was the sound of a motorcycle that came into the village that morning. This was odd because as we are really off the main road and the path to our jungle village is so rough that few vehicles ever come there. We heard it again a couple hours later.

    One of our objectives was to meet with the Board members of Word of Grace Fellowship. This was a wonderful meeting with a great time of sharing and praying together. We had taken in a large sum of money to support 45 pastors and their families who are part or our organization. We also took in enough money to build a new wing to the orphanage and to feed about 35 or 40 orphans for a few months. Everyone expressed deep gratitude as we recounted how God provided us with the money to meet their needs. The secretary did the bookkeeping in front of the group so that everything was done in the open and the funds were properly designated. When this was finished one board member said that he needed to say something. With emotion he expressed his gratitude that we had come to Orissa and for the support we brought, but said he regretted that they were not able to offer us any protection or safety. With this, our interpreter leaned forward and looked at us with soulful eyes and said that the leader of the radical Hindu’s who had ambushed our pastors and threatened Gabriel had come to our village twice that day on a motorcycle with another man. One of our orphans overheard them planning how they would bring a group of men to the village later that night to attack us. We could see by the way they relayed this news to us that the threat was very real. It was like being hit with a bucket of ice-cold water. They said it would best if we left right away. It would be dark soon and I felt that it was important to get our car out to the main road before they blocked the only road into our village. If they attack us here, nobody would know about it. A couple of our pastors went down the road on bicycles to watch for anyone coming while we packed and said quick goodbyes. It was hard to see our friends and neighbors crying as we packed the same car they helped us unpacked just the night before.

    That night we held our breath as we drove through the area where the radical Hindu’s were going to get their gang from. We traveled another couple hours beyond this place where we slept briefly before getting up before daylight to travel most of the next day to a church in another District. We had only seen about a quarter of our pastors, and met with our Board for only a few hours. We had hoped to spend a few days with our Board between the teaching times with the pastors. This was now lost and we could not see how we could regain it. With no phones and everyone scattered throughout a remote jungle area, it is very difficult to inform everyone of our plans and would take several days just to get them all in one location and by then the Hindu’s would know where we were. We have one building that we can use just outside the troubled area, but it would be right under the nose of the police commander who had interviewed us. It would be hard to hide such a gathering in this town.

   We arrived in the new District, which had few churches whose pastors had expressed an interest in joining our organization. They had planned a three-day meeting where their men could be ordained with us and had a calf ready to be killed for a feast for the entire village; the only problem was we were about a week early. Anyway, we ministered in a church for a couple of days, but it was real difficult. Not only did we miss our tribe and could not stop thinking about the pastors we have come to know and love, but we had a difficult time speaking to the people who had assembled to hear us. They were of a different tribe and we had to speak through two interpreters. This made it nearly impossible to teach. All we could do was exhort them along the simplest lines.

    In the end, we felt it best to come home a week early, as there was not much else we could do that would help us fulfill our purpose for being there. Neither of us had any desire just to kill time in India.  Since then we have been in touch and found out that the attack was called off when they realized we had left. We spent a couple days in the capital city making plans to hold a seminar for all our pastors and their wives. We found a hall to rent where we can hold a retreat for four or five days. We are praying about when would be the best time to go back over to do this. 

   Thank you for your prayers and support during this past couple of months. Much love, Penn

2008 Copyright. This material is the creative property of Penn Clark