A few months ago I wrote about Christians that were currently being tortured and killed in Orissa, India. If you’re up on the latest news, it’s still happening. I paraphrased a portion of Francis Chan’s sermon, as follows:
He’s a pastor from an area called Orissa, in India. If you guys remember, a few months ago I shared about the violence out there in Orissa, how some radical Hindus were burning down churches and killing Christians. There are about 50,000 Christians that are homeless now, because they’re terrified. This guy that I met with planted 32 churches in Orissa, and all of them are burned to the ground. They don’t know what to do… should they even try to worship? They have threats, so do they worship and get killed? Do they do it secretly?
All these thoughts are going through his head. All his churches are burned down. He’s had over 50 family members killed in the last couple of months, and they’re after him, ready to kill him. And he’s going back on Wednesday. There’s that side of me that wants him to stay here. No one’s trying to kill him here, and we’ll even protect him. But you know what… he’s not going to stay here! It is his mission. He’s looking to the resurrection, and whatever he sets for here on Earth, it’s going to be worth it because he’s looking towards the end. But I did tell him I would pray for him and email him and have the whole church pray for him. This is the real thing.”
I don’t really have much to say about this. Just that some of you may forget this by tomorrow, and that hopefully at least a few of you Christians (myself included) will reflect on your lives after seeing the devotion this pastor has given to the church and Christ. Watch the sermon here.