Extremist threats fail to stop Christian ministry conference in India

Jaipur – Hopegivers International’s annual training conference was held successfully in Kota in spite of threats and attacks launched by Hindu militants, Christian Today has confirmed.

Late October, about 1200 people attended the conference, including hundreds of Christian pastors.

Though local authorities had warned ministry officials beforehand that Hindu extremists had threatened to disrupt the gathering, yet, the 3–day conference took place.

"Even though a few [participants] were beaten," said Dr. Samuel Thomas, Hopegivers’ president, "Nobody was so severely beaten that we had to hospitalize."

"The plan was to have ten thousand," Agape Press quoted Dr. Thomas as saying. "But then the police asked us, 'Please, Mr. Thomas, for God's sake, tell your people not to come because there will be bloodshed.' The Bible does say, 'Be wise as serpents, harmless as doves.'

"But at the same time," the head of Hopegivers continued, "we cannot wimp out. If every other religion in India has the right to worship their god, I think Christians also have the right."

Kota has long been a hotbed of anti–Christian violence, but the ministry leader says the threat of violence cannot be allowed to deter the work of spreading the Gospel and sharing the love of Christ.

Agape Press has reported that the police and everyone else "from either high caste or middle caste families of Hindus in authority in Kota” are not in favor of Christians and “they don't want to see the Hopegivers have a convention."

But in spite of the local opposition, Dr. Thomas says the ministry's outreach will continue. To date, Hopegivers International has planted more than 11,000 churches throughout the nation of India.