Refined By Suffering
A BCM medical team was traveling in Andhra Pradesh state toward the Orissa border when their guide, Rev. Adrusta Rao, BCM India’s Coordinator for Church Development and Relations, drew their attention to a village through which they were passing. In September a few months earlier, Pastor Rao and a local pastor were riding through on a motorcycle when they were suddenly surrounded by a group of men on motorcycles. The two missionaries had reason to be afraid. Only weeks before, the most recent wave of anti-Christian persecution in neighboring Orissa had left over 150,000 believers dispossessed, churches and homes burnt, and hundreds murdered or disappeared. Now the motorcycle posse demanded to know why a BCM church in their own area was offering sanctuary to these troublemakers. Christian refugees were not welcome in the area.
Pastor Rao and his companion prayed fervently, if silently, as they explained they had local, district, and state government approval for a refugee camp. Their prayers were answered. Accepting their explanation, the men eventually let the BCM missionaries go.
The large and growing Christian minority in India’s southeastern state of Orissa has long been a focus of Hindu radical opposition. When a Hindu supremacist party won state elections on an anti-conversion platform, hostility escalated to action. The first major tidal wave of persecution came on Christmas Day, 2007, when mobs attacked Christmas celebrations across Orissa. A second and more severe wave came after Maoists rebels murdered the anti-Christian Swami Laxamanananda Saraswat on August 23, 2008. (For more, see “Orissa Burning: Faith Under Fire” by Jeanette Windle – BCM World, Fall 2008).
With tens of thousands left homeless, including some Hindus, the Orissa government eventually permitted aid organizations to set up relief camps. But these were not safe for BCM pastors and church leaders, many of whom were on a death hit list of the same radical Hindu movement now controlling the state government--and the camps. Two BCM churches about ten kilometers apart just across the border from Orissa agreed to host refugee camps (a third was planned, but local officials refused to allow Christian refugees into their village).
In all sixty-two families totalling more than 240 men, women, and children were housed under tarps, thatched shelters and the actual church sanctuaries. At one village, a bore well recently installed through BCM ministry for village use provided water. At the other, water had to be brought from a nearby pond. A communal kitchen provided two nutritious meals a day. More than thirty children orphaned in the violence were cared for at a third location.
By the time BCM pastors and families filtered into the camps, most were in poor physical shape. Many had spent weeks hiding in the jungle and surrounding countryside, living off whatever they could gather. Along with malnutrition and exposure, adults and children were suffering from infections, complications from contaminated water, and other medical problems. Among them were pregnant women and newborns. In November 2008 BCM President Marty Windle and a medical team that included VP of International Ministries, Dr. Vararuchi Dalavai, Rev. Rao, and a number of Indian Christian doctors visited the camps. If an open thatched shelter made an unconventional clinic and pharmacy, care was no less effective, and more than two hundred refugees were treated for malaria, hepatitis, fungal diseases, anaemia, and other sicknesses. A free clinic was also held for local villagers.
A follow-up medical team in January 2009 included Dr. Chip Mershon and Nurse Practitioner Rebecca Young from the USA along with Joe Dukes, VP of Personnel. Among Indian Christian medical volunteers were ophthalmologist Dr. Sheila and a dentist, Dr Shalom. This permitted eye and dental exams along with more immediate medical needs. Once glasses were fitted, a number testified excitedly that they were now able to read their Bibles clearly for the first time in years. Overseeing both teams was Dr. Helen, a small, elderly woman, now retired from medical practice, who for years had the distinction of administering India’s public health system. Operation Blessing India (CBN) and the Cephas Foundation Charitable Trust provided medical supplies for the teams.
But physical ailments were far from the only trauma refugees had endured. BCM president Marty Windle, Dr. Chip Mershon, Joe Dukes, and Dr. Dalavai as well as Rev. Rao and BCM Orissa supervisor Rev. Nayak encouraged the refugees during their visits through the sharing of God’s word and praying with them. They also took time to listen as BCM pastors and families shared the horrors of their own experiences. Tears flowed down cheeks on both sides as one man told of seeing his son shot dead in front of their home by a mob seeking to kill the area pastor—himself. Another pastor and his family had awakened in the night to realize that the radical Hindus had locked their doors and windows from the outside. As their house was set on fire, the family managed to escape out a back window and flee to the jungle. Another pastor described seeing two fellow believers shot dead on either side of him as he and his congregation fled their church. A BCM regional director had lost his teen daughter to malaria complications while in hiding. One pastor’s wife with two preschool children made her way to the camp, only to find out her husband was in jail, accused of sedition on the premise that his Christian church was responsible for the riots. Experiences of murder, gang rape, and other atrocities were too horrific to describe. A number of pastors had been separated from their families for months because of a price on their own head. All their homes and churches were destroyed.
In shared grief came spiritual healing. And yet what impacted every visitor to the BCM refugee camps was not the destitution and suffering endured by the Orissa Christians. It was the atmosphere of worship. Many arriving at the camps had not been able to worship with other believers in months. Others had been meeting sporadically on jungle paths and in other isolated shelters where they could not raise their voices above a whisper, much less sing praise to their Savior. At the camps they made up for this by holding two worship services a day, each lasting several hours. There are advantages to having several dozen pastors on tap to preach. One pastor, Lubara Mallik, composed a song that came to be known as “The Persecution Song.” The simple Indian melody was sung over and over at every worship service. Walking through the camp, one could even hear the children singing it as they played. Translated to English, the words are as follows:
Come let us endure the suffering of persecution. Serve dearest Lord Jesus and experience Him through suffering / Christ had to suffer before He entered into glory, / We are crucified with Christ, so have no rights and cannot suffer wrongly. / We are greater worth than gold, As gold refines by fire. so we believers are refined by suffering. / Glorious days are coming when we shall walk on gold. / Let us not blame any one, rather forgive our persecutors / For whom Jesus has shed His precious blood. / So let this be our response to unjust suffering, the badge of authentic discipleship.
Nurse Practitioner Rebecca Young treating refugee.
As the larger government relief camps began to close, the decision was made to close the BCM camps as well. If it is not unjust suffering, but rather a godly response to suffering that is the badge of authentic discipleship, then the BCM Orissa pastors and church leaders have truly shown themselves to be such disciples. Many Orissa Christians have sought permanent refuge in other parts of India, and with good reason. But the unanimous resolution of the BCM camp refugees has been to return to their scattered congregations as well as those hostile neighbors so desperately in need of the gospel’s life-changing message.
Since most of the refugees had lost all personal possessions, January’s follow-up medical team presented each of the sixty-two family units a set of basic provisions to help them start over. Included were four dinner plates, four tumblers, one rice and one curry cooking pot, and 2 serving spoons, all of solid stainless steel. Each family also received travel funds and a start-up gift of Rs. 5000 (approximately $104).
All of this as well as the daily expenses of running the camps was made possible through generous giving of the BCM International family. One joy in the heartbreak of the Orissa situation has been to see BCM ministries all over the world coming together to support their brothers and sisters in need. Children’s camps in Peru, BCM Northern Ireland’s 60th Anniversary celebration, a missions conference in South Africa, a women’s retreat in Scotland, churches and individuals from India to North America are among so many who have responded to this crisis.
On March 1, 2009, the BCM Orissa refugee camps officially closed (this doesn’t include the orphans, who are now in an organized children’s home). Both camps as well as area churches came together for a final worship service, where returning families were commissioned and sent on their way with some additional relief distribution. Their departure is hardly the final chapter in the Orissa crisis. Many are returning to destroyed homes and no jobs. In a number of Orissa villages, local Hindu leaders have been forcibly coercing returning Christians to reconvert to Hinduism or leave. Recently another Hindu radical leader was assassinated by Maoist rebels, and the call has already gone out again to avenge his death upon the Christians.
And yet in Khandmal district, a region that saw the most violence and persecution, BCM Orissa recently held its first laymen and women training conference. Despite threats, more than 1300 lay leaders showed up! Rev. Nayak, wrote of one pastor’s return home:
“Pastor Tuna of Bataguda boldly went to their village. Gathering the scattered believers, he started worship services in his church in spite of dreadful fear. He encouraged the believers that they are serving the living God. He said we are already dead in Christ, so there is no need to fear anyone. If they die, they die for Christ and their eternal place is heaven. This very thin and short BCM pastor shows a strong faith. Looking to his braveness, other pastors also have been taking the steps, among them Pastor Bimalraj and Pastor Lubara Mallik (who wrote the Persecution Song). Pray for these pastors who could be the example for others.”
One of those same pastors added, “We don’t ask that you pray for the persecution to stop, but that we will be faithful and stand strong in the midst of the persecution.”
Let’s hope he won’t mind if we pray for both!