The Supreme Court has issued several petitions for Rajasthan to justify the anti-conversion law’s constitutionality, which allows state officials to seize property and demolish homes based on allegations of forced conversion.

(Photo courtesy of Bibles For The World via Facebook)

John Pudaite, President and CEO of Bibles For The World (BFTW), says it’s part of a broader legal battle as India’s Supreme Court takes a magnifying glass to anti-conversion laws across multiple states.

“They are questioning how this current government — the BJP government — can continue to steamroll across the country and pass these anti-conversion laws, which are nothing but an attack primarily on Christianity,” he says.

This new scrutiny may also cause those who target Indian Christians using anti-conversion laws to think twice.

“As they felt impunity, they would attack the churches and attack the Christians,” says Pudaite. “People are realizing that the laws they thought covered them may not have as much strength…as they had hoped.”

(Photo courtesy of Bibles For The World via Facebook)

Looking ahead, Pudaite urges the global Church to take this critical case, and others like it, before the Lord.

“We need to continue to pray for the Supreme Court and those justices, that they can be impartial in their evaluation of the evidence and of those laws. We can pray that they will not be politically influenced or otherwise influenced.”

Pudaite also encourages believers to keep the Gospel in sight — with hearts to reach their persecutors with the Gospel.

“Especially as we go into this Christmas season, pray that this may be a special time for the Body of Christ to be able to share the Good News of the birth of Jesus Christ…. Pray that the true spirit of Christ in Christmas may be able to shine.”

Header photo: Architecture in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. (Photo courtesy of Dexter Fernandes/Unsplash)

On the newly released World Watch List, many were watching India in particular to see how it would rank. For the second year in a row, India remains in 11^th place, hovering just outside the top 10.

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

Regan Miller with Mission India offers some perspective: “The fact that it stayed the same probably just means that the other countries have remained worse, which is tragic, but it doesn’t mean that India is doing a whole lot better.”

For example, “There are a handful of states in India that have what is called anti-conversion laws. The laws vary slightly by state. But in general, they require that if you are going to change religions, you or the person leading you to the other religion gives official notice,” explains Miller.

“If…they find out that you’ve changed religions without giving official notice, then you or the person leading you to a new faith can be fined or given prison time.”

Persecution from Family and Community

Christian persecution in India also takes place on a family and community level. Tribal Christians in Manipur state are still targeted and attacked for their faith.

Miller shares a story that illustrates what often happens when a family member converts to Christianity.

In November, one of Mission India’s adult literacy teachers met a young couple and began sharing the Gospel with them. The man, Bulesh, was raised by his mother in an animist background. But eventually, Bulesh and his wife chose to follow Jesus.

“The very next morning, Bulesh’s mom and two other women from the village chased Bulesh and his family out of their home,” says Miller.

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

“The couple, thankfully, was able to find refuge at the home of a local Christian. Church members have been supporting them and giving them food and helping meet their daily needs. But what a difficult thing to see that you could have your own mom chase you away the very next day because you received Christ.”

Prayer Resources

So what can you do with the 2025 World Watch List? Pray through it.

Mission India has resources to inform your prayers for India, specifically! Connect at their website here.

Miller says, “You can sign up for the daily prayer prompt, and we will send you a daily email every morning with a really simple prayer with something that you can pray for about a specific person in India who is involved in our ministry.”

Ask God to give persecuted Indian believers wisdom as they navigate challenging circumstances because of their faith. Pray for their ability to offer forgiveness and grace, and to show the love of Christ.

Header photo courtesy of Mission India.

People keep finding bodies washing up in the Ganges River as the virus pummels rural areas. Shrouding bodies and immersing them in the water is a custom for many villages, especially when firewood for cremation isn’t readily available.

Bible translators

This crisis has affected Bible translators working with Wycliffe Associates as well. Tim Neu says, “One of my friends wrote in and described how it’s like a heavy, low hanging cloud. And this is what he wrote in his note to us. ‘I’ve lost close friends and family. My 24-year-old son is currently in the hospital with complications from COVID.’ So these are the types of things we’re seeing. And it is actually causing Bible translation to be put on pause.”

Neu encourages listeners to pray for the Christians suffering right now. “They have very limited access to the medical supplies and even care at the hospitals right now. So pray that they would be able to weather this intense storm, this health crisis that they’re facing. Pray that they would have not just the faith, but that their bodies would actually be able to fight and survive.”

Get involved

You can also send help to these Christians. Wycliffe Associates has a special fund for emergencies like this, and they have already been sending resources to partners in India. You can donate here.

The header photo shows the sun setting over the Ganges river. (Photo courtesy of Makalu from Pixabay)

Mission India’s Bartholomew* says IDOP is a good time for Christians in the West to look beyond ourselves.

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

“I think with everything going on in our world right now — as we all look to our own communities and with elections and things coming up — it’s always good to take a minute and pause to see how others like us are being treated as Christians around the world.

“This devotional is a great time to take a pause from what’s going on in our own backyard and start to look at what’s happening to Christians in India.”

Christians in India only comprise about two percent of the population, and persecution has gotten worse. Last year was the first time India made the top 10 worst countries to be a believer on the World Watch List.

“Over 60 percent of Christians in India experience some sort of direct persecution,” Bartholomew says. “So it happens on a frequent basis, unfortunately, and we really want people to understand the impact that has on Christians in India and how God is moving amidst that level of persecution.”

Along with their devotional, Mission India is also showcasing a new video to help you pray for Christians in India. When you sign up for Mission India’s devotional, you’ll get first access to the video as well.

The devotionals will be sent out via email each day from October 29 to November 1. Sign up here for Mission India’s four-day devotional in anticipation of IDOP!

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

“This devotional not only would be a time to grow the relationship that one can have with Jesus as you go through it, but also serve as a way to communicate really what Christians in India experience on a daily basis as it relates to persecution for believing and following Jesus Christ.”

Header photo courtesy of Mission India.

*Names changed for security purposes.

India currently has over 3.2 million coronavirus cases – the third-highest globally. And for daily new cases, they’re at the top of the chart. If India maintains this trajectory, they could soon overtake Brazil for second place overall.

One of Mission India’s Church Planter Training partners who blessed many in India through Relief Kit distribution. (Photo courtesy of Mission India)

When the pandemic first hit in March, India responded with one of the strictest lockdowns worldwide. But in June, India started to loosen its grip and allow a more state-by-state approach to virus containment.

The recent spike in India’s numbers could be due to several factors: limited ability to social distance in condensed and impoverished areas, loosening lockdown policies, or improved testing capabilities and reporting networks.

Mission India’s Bartholomew* says, “It’s a developing nation, so the healthcare network isn’t as robust…. There could be a lack of testing capability in certain areas.

“So I think really what we’re seeing is a developing nation that has 1.3 billion people really grappling and struggling with how to efficiently test and report on those testings. As that becomes better and it comes online more, you’re starting to see that.”

Mission India works with local Christians to run Children’s Bible Clubs, Church Planter Training, and Adult Literacy Classes. In light of the pandemic, they are also distributing Relief Kits to provide physical and spiritual hope.

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

“The majority of workers in India are day laborers meaning if they can’t go to work that day, they don’t have money to go buy food for that day to eat or support their kid and have clean water and access to essential items for hygiene,” Bartholomew says. “So because of that, these Relief Kits are a much-needed tool to help these families get by as — like the rest of the world — India tries to grapple and get out of this global pandemic.”

Recently, Mission India’s partners even distributed Relief Kits to 100 orphans and child laborers.

You can support Mission India’s Relief Kits here! Just $40 provides four weeks of food, hygiene items, and other essentials to a family of four in India.

Additionally, Mission India is imploring the Body of Christ to pray for India and their ministry partners.

“[Ministry] partners are now getting COVID-19 unfortunately. So we pray for the whole nation of India and for our partners specifically that they would be protected, that their health would remain stable, and that they wouldn’t contract COVID-19.”

Bartholomew also asks, “As it relates to our partners distributing Relief Kits, [pray] they have the wisdom and the words to speak life and love and grace of Jesus Christ to the people they interact with.”

Click here to learn more about Mission India’s ministry.

Header photo courtesy of Macau Photo Agency via Unsplash.

*Names changed for security purposes.

Bartholomew of Mission India says the coronavirus and lockdowns have taken their tolls on Indian day laborers. “A lot of these individuals, when they work, that’s what they bring home to eat and there’s not a lot of savings…. Obviously, if they can’t buy food, that impacts stores being able to sell things, which obviously leads to a lot of things economically.”

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

Mission India has been distributing Relief Kits through local Christian partners to families in need. Each relief kit provides four weeks of food and hygiene supplies to a family of four.

With the support of believers around the world, Mission India has distributed 26,000 Relief Kits so far.

“Since we’re working with our partners on the ground in India, they’re sourcing all the materials and building the kits in their regions,” Bartholomew says. “So the kits may vary depending on if rice is more prevalent in that area versus another area, it could be something else. They’re very local generated. It’s not us sending things to India. It’s Christian Indians, our partners, sourcing materials.

“Then it’s being passed out to the community-at-large – Christian, non-Christian, it doesn’t matter. We’re there to help provide relief and share the love of Jesus through that interaction.”

Bartholomew says he recently heard a story of how one of their Relief Kits blessed a whole family. Mission India runs Children’s Bible Clubs in India, and one of their leaders wasn’t sure where his next meal would come from during the pandemic.

(Image courtesy of Mission India)

“He lives with his father and his mother and his sister, and both parents work as daily laborers. Daily laborers are the ones that are being hit the hardest so they have no money, no job, no support, but they kept on praying, ‘God, provide something for us. We are hungry.’

“When one of our partners started passing out these Relief Kits, the Children’s Bible Club leader’s family was blessed with one of those. He responded, ‘It is indeed a miracle in my life,’ and he went on to thank the partners for what they’re doing.”

You can sponsor a relief kit through Mission India for just $40. Click here to give!

Then, Bartholomew asks, “Be praying for the nation of India. There are 1.3 billion people and healthcare is not as accessible as it is here in the US. So be praying for people’s health — and that is not just their physical health, but their spiritual health and their emotional health.

“For our partners, be praying that they will be kept safe and be given boundless energy as they serve in a new capacity.”

Header photo courtesy of Mission India.

*Names changed for security purposes.

Sunday, November 3 is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP), coordinated annually by The Voice of the Martyrs.

One noteworthy country you can pray for this year is India.

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

This was the first year India made the World Watch List’s top 10 worst countries to live as a Christian. Over 60 percent of Indian Christians experience direct oppression for their faith.

To raise awareness, Mission India is releasing a four-day devotional over IDOP weekend with the hopes of helping people pray for persecuted believers in India.

“It will kick off on October 31 and then it will capstone on November 3 and tie in with the actual day of International Day for the Persecuted Church,” Mission India’s Bartholomew says.

“Over the course of those four devotionals, people who sign up will be able to read about the different types of persecution that Christian Indians have geared towards them, but also what God is doing in spite of all that and how God is working amongst Christians to grow the Church and to strengthen the Church.”

The prayers of persecuted Indian believers can serve as a model for how we can pray as well. Bartholomew says Mission India often gets questions from people wanting to pray for persecution to end.

“We actually posed that to one of our partners in India and he said, ‘Well, persecution is never going away. We never pray for it to go away. We pray to be strengthened and to be protected in the midst of all this.’”

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

He says, “I think it’s a great reminder of how the Church grew so much when it was persecuted and it continues to be like that. Whenever it’s persecuted the most, that’s when God really seemingly creates these kinds of miracles of the Church growing.”

To sign up for Mission India’s four-day IDOP devotional, click here! The deadline for registration is October 31.

For now, Bartholomew asks, “Pray over these Christians in India that they would be strengthened when they’re persecuted and that they would have the right words in the midst of difficult situations to share the love and grace of Jesus.”

Header image courtesy of Mission India.

*Name changed for security purposes.

For Christian males, the level of unemployment was worst in urban areas, dropping to 8.9 percent. Among other urban religious minorities, Muslims have a 7.5 percent unemployment rate and Sikhs 7.2 percent. Jobless Christians in rural areas also topped the list — 6.9 percent for men and 8.8 percent for women.

It can be a struggle for minority believers in India to find jobs, often because their neighbors refuse to employ them or because they aren’t given the same opportunities to gain marketable skills.

Unemployment is another way Indian Christians are targeted and pushed out of the country.

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

Bartholomew with Mission India says, “Since 2014, persecution towards Christians in India has increased by 400 percent. Persecution can look physical, it can look verbal, it can look many different ways. Our partners have experienced the full breadth of those different types of persecution.”

While we’ve seen this growing trend of Christian persecution in India over the past several years, Bartholomew says it doesn’t make it any easier to process. And there are some believers around the world who still don’t know about the struggles our Indian brothers and sisters face.

“I believe awareness is increasing thanks to different resources that have been created to kind of showcase what’s taking place and what the reality is. But at times, I think we’re all surprised by just the ways and the levels of which Christians in India are persecuted.”

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

However, Mission India is also encouraged by the stories they hear from national partners and how they respond to persecution. “They use it as a way of knowing that God is moving, and because God is moving, things are changing. That’s why persecution is increasing. So our partners celebrate the fact that God is moving and they’re seeing Him just move in powerful ways and lives are being transformed.”

To support national believers and give them marketable skills, Mission India hosts Adult Literacy Classes and Church Planter Trainings. The classes and trainings are led by local Christians employed by Mission India.

“All the money that we raise, it enables and trains Christians who live in India to go do the work,” Bartholomew explains. “A byproduct of that is we’re assisting them. But then they’re also being enabled to take the skills that they’ve learned to go better themselves, to go into the workforce and find different jobs.”

An Adult Literacy Class with Mission India. (Photo courtesy of Mission India via Facebook)

In Adult Literacy Classes, students achieve a 5th-grade level in reading, writing, and math. Empowered with literacy and math skills, these men and women are able to apply for better jobs, assure they aren’t cheated in their wages, and save money. They also learn about personal health and hygiene.

But the Adult Literacy Classes aren’t reserved for Christians. Non-Christians are welcome to join the classes as well. The teachers share the Gospel along with lessons, and many students have started a relationship with Jesus!

For a one-time gift of $40, you can sponsor an Adult Literacy Class student for a full year! Or you can give $200 a month and support one year’s worth of training for a Church Planter.

“By investing in Mission India, you’re helping to enable ministry to take place,” Bartholomew says. “As ministry takes place, more lives can be transformed. Our hope, obviously, is to see India transformed by the love of Christ.”

You can support Adult Literacy Classes here and Church Planter Trainings here!

Bartholomew also asks the Church to be “praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ in India, that they would be confident in Him. And pray for the people that persecute them, that their hearts would be opened to love and grace of Jesus Christ.”

Header photo courtesy of Mission India.

*Name changed for security purposes.

Children's and adult classes are held after the workday.  The beginning of the class is spent on education and the last half is spent memorizing Bible verses and learning more about the Gospel.  This plan is made clear to the villages from the beginning.  Remo Paul, whose mother founded RHS, is currently an administrator of the organization.  He said he has found that sometimes villages who begin wanting only literacy want to sing and learn from the Bible by the end of the day.

As the part of their first and second phase of the literacy project they were able to raise
the literacy rate in the rural area from .04% to 40%.  "It has kind of brought a sense of self-sufficiency, and a sense of pride among the people, that they can fend for
themselves and not be cheated in the local market," said Paul.

The health care project works with the government to help provide medicated mosquito nets for the villages.  Skits about sanitation educate the people, who have no access to immediate medical help, on how to prevent malaria and water-born diseases.

RHS is sure to enter villages as Christians so the people are aware that RHS believes in a God that is different from their beliefs. They let the people know that there will be prayer and mention of Christ as well as singing and dancing, said Paul.

India's anti-Christian sentiment has caused some shouting and shoving said Paul.    However, despite some fear, they have accepted that will be part of the mission of
Christ.  "We just pray and go out there and do it," Paul said.  They have helped plant 62 churches and appointed local people to pastoral care.

India Partners helps raise people to pray for the projects.  "Every time we have had trouble, we suddenly realized that the trouble had just vanished and we realized someone somewhere around the world had been specifically praying for that issue," Paul said.

India Partners also helps find funding for the literacy and healthcare projects.  Supporting the healthcare project is $800 for one year.  The literacy project costs only $280 and averages $8 per person for the entire year.  To donate to either of these projects or learn more about RHS visit www.indiapartners.org.

Bibles for the World’s co-founder Mawii Pudaite says every 50 years something spectacular happens. “The most common type of wild bamboo in Northeast India blossoms and then disaster comes. When the bamboo begins to blossom, the rats will rampage through the rice fields. Rats love the taste of the blossoms and they quickly go into a feeding frenzy.”

Mizoram and Manipur sees to be the hardest hit states. The Chief Minister of Mizoram is a Christian and ordered that all rats be killed. However in neighboring Manipur, the chief minister is a Hindu. “Killing rats is psychologically difficult for many Hindus since rats are actually deified in the Hindu religion. The elephant god of prosperity if often portrayed as riding upon a giant rat.”

Pudaite says Manipur’s rice harvest has been especially hit hard this year. “They thought they were going to have a wonderful harvest this year. And then, the farmers went to their rice fields to harvest and over night the rats had devoured all of their harvest.”

Bibles for the World is distributing rice in the region in Jesus name, but Pudaite says they also did something else. “We provided the Bible in their language, for every family that did not have the Bible in their home. It’s a tremendous opportunity to share the love of Christ.”

Funding is needed. Bibles for the World would like to distribute more than one-million Bibles this year. Coupled with that is the need for purchase rice. “Bible for the World has established a special relief fund. All the donated money will be used to buy rice, which our co-workers in India will distribute to the people.”

Click here to contribute to their relief fund.