A Church Rebuilt
Thousands thronged the open field, sleeping under precariously erected tarps, standing in long lines for a plate of food from a communal kitchen. Tall jungle trees spreading leafy boughs here and there offered the only shade from a blistering sun. It was the last week of March, 2010, and this was Khandmal District in the heart of Orissa, India. From here two years earlier, a tidal wave of violent persecution from Hindu radicals had swept across the region, leaving more than a hundred thousand Christians homeless, their schools, hospitals, and every church building demolished. Eighteen BCM Orissa church buildings had been razed along with hundreds of BCM church member homes. Sixty-two BCM pastors and their families had fled for their lives, taking shelter in two refugee camps (see “Refined by Suffering,” BCM World, Spring, 2009).
Exactly one year ago in March, 2009, the refugee camps had closed. Shouldering small bundles of possessions, the Orissa pastors and their families returned to their home villages and ministries. Two months later, India held its most closely scrutinized election in a decade. Much was at stake — some would say India’s very claim to be called a democracy. Battling it out for supremacy were the subcontinent’s two most powerful political parties. The “UPA” or Congress party ran on a platform of a secular, democratic India with guaranteed freedom and protection for religious minorities. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s platform had been simple, unwavering and distressingly popular: Hindutva, or a forced return to Hinduism and caste rule.
A decade earlier, the BJP dominated India’s federal government. In 2004 the UPA knocked them out of national power. But it was the BJP’s control of states like Orissa that had led to such violence against the region’s small Christian minority. As India headed to the voting booth, concerned Christians around the world were praying. The election results stunned even those with great faith and hope. Nationwide, the UPA won 2-1 over BJP, giving the moderate secular party a sweeping majority in parliament. In Orissa itself, not a single BJP candidate won a seat at either state or national level. India’s voters, whether Christian, Hindu, or Muslim, had issued a strong rebuke to religious extremists and affirmation that they wanted a free, secular state.
By mid-2009, the new Orissa government had taken significant measures to restore peace, even compensating affected victims with some provisions and cash reparations to restart their lives. While sporadic incidents of violence against Christians have continued in the region and indeed across India, daily life for the Orissa believers returned to normalcy with surprising rapidity. A once scattered leadership reorganized for improved ministry coordination, dividing Orissa into four zones, each with its own regional director under BCM Orissa director Rev. D.K. Nayak. In homes, under tarps, in the open air, beneath shade trees, congregations began meeting again. New house churches were started.
So when 5000 Christians crowded for three days into an open field, this was no refugee camp, but the BCM Orissa Annual Church Convention. For the past two years, the churches had not been able to hold their annual assembly. Now they sang, listened to God’s word, ate, and fellowshipped with great rejoicing.
A highlight of the convention was dedicating the first three rebuilt BCM church buildings in Pazidanga (where the convention was being held), Bopalmandi, and Boddimaha villages, one each in three of the four zones. BCM’s Senior Executive Vice President of International Ministries, Dr. Vararuchi Dalavai, traveled with BCM India Coordinator Rev. Adrusta Rao and other leadership to Orissa to officiate the dedications. Dr. Dalavai shares how as he looked out over the gathered thousands, tears filled his eyes to see brothers and sisters in Christ who such a short time ago were running for their life through these very surrounding jungles, now living fearless, free lives.
Can tragedy and loss hold anything positive? BCM Orissa leadership concurs that a definite fruit of this ordeal has been strengthened faith and powerful spiritual cleansing within the local church. Dr. Dalavai summarizes:
“The Orissa crisis and the love of Christ shown through our BCM missionaries and pastors towards the unfortunate during this time has brought the Spirit of God once again into the local Christian community to make them more faithful to God’s Word and in their testimony to those who live around them. Today the believers can be much stronger to face even more persecution if necessary, God forbid.”
Certainly, while the Orissa church is experiencing a season of peace and freedom, they realize fully it may not always be this way. To worship and pray, sing and dance together as the Body of Christ is one freedom the Orissa believers will never again take for granted.
