We are hearing gruesome stories of the violence and persecution against Christian believers in Orissa. About 26.000 believers are in relief camps and more people are still hiding in the jungle. In the relief camps they are given food and shelter by the government. But some of the camps are being bombed from outside by the Hindu extremists. Some places the Hindus are sending in small children to poison the food and the water. Only 4 villages in the entire Kandhamar district are not affected by the violence against Christians.

128 Church buildings, Christian schools and hostels are being burnt and destroyed. Hundreds (or may be thousands of) houses are being burnt or destroyed.

Before the Hindu extremists came to burn and destroy they came to the village to sell yellow Hindu flags to the Hindu villagers to flag their houses to signify their Hindu belief that their houses should not be burnt. When the extremist mob came to destroy they sometimes scared of the Christians and looted their houses before they burnt the houses. Sometimes they even put fire on house with believers inside. Many of the Hindu extremists came from outside the villages but were joined the local Hindus covering their faces when they attacked the Christians.

One of our friends told us that he had heard from his friend who had attended a big meeting of Hindu activists in Bhubaneswar that they made plans to kill 220 pastors and reconvert 12.000 Christians this year.

Another friend of ours told us an amazing story of how God helped him and his helper to escape an ambush of people planning to kill him. Regularly he visits some churches in the Kandhamal district. Fifty Hindu extremists knew he was coming and lay in wait for him on a hilltop. When he came to the foot of the hill he just felt tired and unease and decided to take rest. After resting for fifteen minutes a Hindu lady came by. She warned him and told him that the extremists lay in wait for him at the hilltop. He waited for another five minutes and then the extremists shouted to him from two hilltops, one in front of him and one behind, and came rushing down to take him. My friend and his helper fled on the cycle down a very narrow road. After a while they split and my friend ran away on a narrow path in the jungle. Then he met another Christian who had heard of the ambush and the plan to kill my friend. He took him to his house, gave him some food and helped him to escape through the jungle to another village from where he could get transportation to Bhubaneswar where he lives. The extremists came to know that the Christian man had given him food and shelter and helped him to escape and therefore they burnt his house and chased him and his family away from their village.

Another Christian couple was spared in a miraculous way. As the husband was on his way to work in the morning he ran into a Hindu mob that started to harass and threaten him. But eventual they let him go. He felt God telling him to go home and bring his family out of the village at once for God wanted to save them. He went home, but his wife was not willing to leave the house at once. However, he insisted that they had to leave. When they were on the way they saw the flock of extremists approaching them. He felt God telling him to walk straight forward in spite of the mob. By faith they walked straight forward towards the extremists and it was like they were blinded as they took no notice of them as they walked by. The extremists arrived to his house and they searched for them but could find no one and put the house on fire. The Christian family was able to reach one of the relief camps and are now in a secure place.

When the Hindu extremists approached one village to attack the Christians and destroy their houses a Hindu man tried to prevent them from doing any harm to the Christians. He said that the Christians were good people in his village and that no one should hurt them. The mob didn’t listen to him, but attacked him and killed him before they attacked the Christians and burnt their houses. This shows that not all the Hindus are extremists or violent people in this area of great turmoil.