FIRST PERSON: Sun sets on a Sikh massacre
DELHI (BP) -- It's sunset on the day after a massacre. I'm standing in a Sikh temple in Delhi, India, wanting so badly to tell the Sikh men and women here that I'm sorry, that I'm ashamed at what happened to their Sikh brothers and sisters in the U.S.
‘Railway boys’ in India find a home
Louisiana church helps ministry to India’s runaway children
INDIA -- A boy sleeps face down on the concrete platform as a train pulls into the Indian train station. Around the corner, a boy who lost his foot to an incoming train hobbles through mounds of garbage.
The boys' stories captured the hearts of members of The Ring Community Church in Baton Rouge, La. After a vision trip last year, The Ring committed to partner in prayer and finances with Prabal and Debjani Dey,* an Indian couple who have opened a hostel for railway children like these. Nine boys and four girls, thanks to the Deys, have a chance for a new life, both physically and spiritually. The Deys' hostel for boys has been in operation several years; the girls' hostel opened this year. The Lord led the Deys to open a hostel for girls when the couple saw two sisters, ages 6 and 10, picking through trash for plastic water bottles to sell. Their father, a rickshaw puller, had recently passed away, and their mother ran away with another man. "I started crying," Dey said. He told Debjani that he couldn't leave the girls, but didn't know what to do because the boys and girls couldn't live in the same home. "Maybe this is the Lord's plan," Debjani told Dey. "When you started the boys' home you didn't have any money," she reminded him. "The living God, He can take care of them." The Deys decided to trust the Lord to provide financially for a girls' hostel. A leather company near their boys' hostel announced space for sale, but the building was out of their price range. The Lord provided. Someone donated the money they needed for the first two months' rent. Both of the Deys' hostels are already at maximum capacity, but the Lord has provided for the Deys' ministry again through The Ring Community Church. The Ring Pastor Josh Causey first heard about the Deys' ministry through "His Voice Global," an organization that partners U.S. churches with ministries abroad. "For a generation that's kind of drawn to difficult kinds of ministries, this puts faces with human trafficking, drug trafficking and homelessness," Causey said. Hundreds of boys and girls live in train stations throughout India. They are runaways – orphaned or abandoned. "There are a lot of people who are overwhelmed by the story of the train station and the kids," Causey said. "The thought of kids living in that kind of reality is so heartbreaking."In Bangladesh, a ‘vast multitude’ envisioned
DHAKA, Bangladesh (BP) -- As youths, Qahir Hamad* and his Bangladeshi friends beat a group selling Bibles and Christian literature and threw the wares into a pond.
Christianity frees farmer from fear of death
EAST ASIA (BP) -- Jia Liang* doesn't stop to sit down the entire evening, making sure guests never see the bottom of porcelain bowls full of rice and fish stew.
Asian farmer’s coffee crop brings nurture to his faith
EAST ASIA (BP) -- Far off the beaten path in the mountains of an East Asian nation, believers in a house church find God's faithfulness in budding coffee crops and healthy animals. Zhe Wang Hu* is one of these believers, praying for his coffee crops when the church gathers to worship after a long day in the fields. At home over their wooden dinner table, Hu's family talks about the weather, not as light conversation but because their well-being depends on it. Despite the recent absence of rain, the 20-something farmer trusts that God will provide for his wife and son. "I have witnessed God's harmonious way [in] pouring down the rains when the plants need the rains," Hu says. "It shows His grace." Hu started growing coffee in 2009 with the help of Christian agriculturalist Ted Wong*. Wong, who has a Ph.D. in environmental engineering, teaches believers in rural areas how they can support themselves and their ministries. Most of the men and women he works with live in rural areas in East Asia and have few options to make a living. Wong uses his expertise to teach the believers how to grow coffee and blueberries effectively, and he assists them in exporting the coffee to generate income. Wong also disciples the believers so they can influence their communities. He visits Hu frequently, providing coffee seedlings and agricultural counsel. Before the coffee project in Hu's village started, Wong made sure Hu knew that coffee trees take longer to mature than normal crops. For three years, he would see no income. Wong told Hu he must be committed and work hard for any profit to come from the plants and that he must wait for the fields to be "ripe with the harvest." "That takes a lot of faith," Wong says. "Commitment is the key." When Wong and Hu meet every month, they discuss the health of the coffee and Hu's spiritual health. Hu, the most successful farmer in the village, has 1,500 healthy coffee trees that soon will be ready for picking, processing and exporting. "I believe God has chosen him for this program," Wong says of Hu. Other villagers have tried their hand in the coffee business with less success. As Hu works the land that's been in his family for three generations, he sends up supplications for his crops. Although rain is scarce, he has faith that God will answer and bless his faithfulness and perseverance. Hu also prays for the health of his animals. "The buffaloes, the hogs that I raise, whenever there is trouble to these animals, I submit my prayers to God and ask Him to bless me," Hu says.
India’s IT elite lend an ear to storytelling
BANGALORE, India (BP) -- The blue Skype icon bounces on the bottom of the computer screen in front of Lekha Katti*, an Information Technology [IT] professional in Bangalore, India. When her Bible verse of the day arrives via an instant message, she copies it to her Facebook profile. ...
These Christmas ornaments change lives
BANGKLA, Thailand (BP) -- She uses a silver pen to sketch miniature figures of the wise men from the Christmas story and then cuts out the velvet ornaments that will hang on trees in countless American homes during the holidays.
Bangladesh marks 40 years as a nation
DHAKA, Bangladesh (BP) -- A Bangladeshi man picks up his microphone and begins to sing. He's a muezzin, a man appointed by the mosque to herald the call to prayer. Five times a day, devout Muslims unfurl their mats, face Mecca and pray to Allah.
Bhutan Christian calls persecution ‘necessary’
SOUTH ASIA (BP) -- There's not a day that goes by that Kencho Kinle* isn't sharing the Gospel door to door. Everyone in the city knows him; some even run when he approaches. His testimony is hard to forget because it is written in blood -- both in Jesus' blood and his family's.
