Source: Mission Network News, March 30, 2020
Keeping the virus contained with 1.3+ billion people and a failed healthcare system is challenging, to say the least, but efforts are underway. Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi started a three-week national lockdown.
“Travel from one state to the next is prohibited; all transportation has been shut down. People are filled with all kinds of anxiety,” says Todd Van Ek of Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Mission India.
Typically, India is one of the world’s most difficult places to be a Christian. However, “persecution has radically decreased because people are so consumed with the coronavirus,” Van Ek says.
In fact, “Parliament was going to meet and consider a national anti-conversion law, but then they shut Parliament down so it didn’t even come up for discussion,” he adds. “So we see a lot of positive even in the midst of all the problems that come with COVID-19.”
As described here, the nationwide “shelter-in-place” order ended Mission India’s typical ministry activities. However, “we’re still doing ministry; just the way we’re doing it has changed,” Van Ek explains.
Daily life in the villages is changing, too. “India is 70 percent rural, so the impact in the villages is completely different than the impact in the major cities,” Van Ek says. “In the villages, people are conducting worship services outside their home. People have more time because there’s this lockdown going on, so they’re engaged in more conversations.”
» Read full story and other reports about ministry in these times from Mission Network News.
» Also read India’s Coronavirus Lockdown Leaves Vast Numbers Stranded and Hungry (New York Times).