India. It’s home to one billion souls, a complex weave of castes, religions, landscapes, languages, and cultures. It is both modern and remarkably ancient, home to extravagant wealth and to the most extreme poverty to be found anywhere on the planet. And it is one place Christians Broadcasting Hope (CBH) calls home.

For many years, our India CBH ministry has sent out a word of hope under the direction of our brother and servant of God, Asim Das. Through CBH’s initial broadcast, Satya Jyoti (True Light), produced in the Oriya language, over twenty-two million individuals in east central India have the opportunity to hear, in their native language, of God’s love through the person of Jesus Christ. In the spring of 2007, our India effort was expanded to include a new Hindi effort. Over eight hundred  million people understand Hindi, the most widely understood language on the subcontinent.

Both CBH India ministry efforts operate out of a part of the country that has seen tremendous violence and peril for those who dare to speak out a word of hope in the name of Jesus. Yet in this part of India, where only 2 percent of the population dares to profess Christ, his witnesses are yielding fruit. Retreats, discipleship training, and a variety of efforts to nurture listeners who have questions or make decisions to follow Christ support both the Oriya and Hindi ministry. Bijoy, a former Hindu who attended one of our recent Seekers Conferences, made the following profession of faith:

Before coming to this conference, I had a feeling of hatred and disgust toward Christians. I did not know Jesus was God. Coming here I have realized that the followers of Jesus are in the right path. Jesus has given his life for the people of the world. I believe he is God.

If you have watched the news over the past several months, persecution has been great in the region of India that is home to our CBH efforts. Some of our sister congregations have been burned to the ground along with the homes of believers who worship there. Yet the light of hope still shines, and a recent e-mail from Brother Das highlights the power of the living God through the testimony of those Christians most severely persecuted for their faith:

One very encouraging thing is when the believers in one of our congregations were asked to renounce Christ, they said they cannot do it. What they have found in Christ is more precious to them. They asked for time to move out and relocate, but would not in any circumstance deny Jesus. We thank God for their testimony. By God’s grace no life has been lost from among our people. Others have lost near and dear ones.
 
Pray for India. Pray for Christians in India. Pray for CBH broadcasts that continue to blanket India. Pray for Brother Das and our CBH team still sending out hope in the midst of peril. Hope lives. Tell the world.

To see our newest video about the CBH effort in India, go to our videos page, or go to www.youtube.com and search using the keyword CBH4Hope.