On the last
day of our stay in Orissa God enabled us to meet with our dear friend, who is one
of the victims of the recent violence against Christians in Orissa. For safety
reasons I can’t disclose her name, but she was married to one of covenant
brothers who served as a pastor in the district of Kandhamal and who was killed
by Hindu extremists. With her eyes filled with tears she told us a very sad
story.

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She and her
daughter were on the way to meet their husband and father in the village where
he served the Lord. When she approached the village she met some people who told
her not to enter the village because a pastor had been killed in the village. Fearfully
she went ahead and she became aware of a crowd of people on the road just at
the river that passed by the village. Then she saw a body lying in the river,
and when she looked at it she realized that it was the body of her husband. As
she went close she could see that he was full of wounds and that his skull had
been broken.

She immediate
went to the village police to report the death of her husband. The police came
and brought the body out of the river for a post mortem. Then she came to know
that he had been killed the day before she arrived. He had been severely beaten
by iron bars before someone crushed his skull with a sharp stone and then
thrown into the river. Some believers joined her and they were able to give his
body a decent burial.

There was a
very hostile atmosphere among the Hindu people as she reported the killing of
her husband to the police. Some of the Hindu extremists poured kerosene on her
and her daughter, but as the person lit a match to put them on fire to burn
them alive another person snatched the match out of his hand. By the grace of
God they were able to escape in the midst of the turmoil and hostility.

As she told
us her sad story we could do nothing but weep with her and her beautiful
daughter. Words became too poor as means of communicating compassion and love
for her. However, we were able to pray with her and comfort her in her
distress. We were also able to provide some help for her and her daughter’s immediate
needs. Some of our covenant friends will look after them and by faith we have
committed ourselves to help them to a new and safe start in life. Her own family is now pressurizing her to reconvert to become a Hindu again. Her "in laws" are all in relief camps as they had to fly for their lives.

We know
that our friend, the servant of God, has gone to a better place enjoying the
presence of his beloved Lord and Saviour forever. The sufferings he went
through can even be counted for nothing compared the glory he is enjoying with
the Lord. Our compassion, love and prayers are with the widow and her daughter,
as well as with all the others victims who had some of their family members
killed by the extremists.