Source: Mission Network News, March 30, 2020<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cTravel from one state to the next is prohibited; all transportation has been shut down. People are filled with all kinds of anxiety,\u201d says Todd Van Ek of Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Mission India.<\/p>\n
Typically, India is one of the world\u2019s most difficult places to be a Christian. However, \u201cpersecution has radically decreased because people are so consumed with the coronavirus,\u201d Van Ek says.<\/p>\n
In fact, \u201cParliament was going to meet and consider a national anti-conversion law, but then they shut Parliament down so it didn\u2019t even come up for discussion,\u201d he adds. \u201cSo we see a lot of positive even in the midst of all the problems that come with COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n
As described here, the nationwide \u201cshelter-in-place\u201d order ended Mission India\u2019s typical ministry activities. However, \u201cwe\u2019re still doing ministry; just the way we\u2019re doing it has changed,\u201d Van Ek explains.<\/p>\n
Daily life in the villages is changing, too. \u201cIndia is 70 percent rural, so the impact in the villages is completely different than the impact in the major cities,\u201d Van Ek says. \u201cIn the villages, people are conducting worship services outside their home. People have more time because there\u2019s this lockdown going on, so they\u2019re engaged in more conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00bb Read full story<\/a> and other reports about ministry in these times from Mission Network News.<\/p>\n \u00bb Also read India\u2019s Coronavirus Lockdown Leaves Vast Numbers Stranded and Hungry<\/a> (New York Times).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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. \u201cTravel from one state to the next is prohibited; all transportation has been shut … Continue reading INDIA: Gospel Opportunities Surface Amid COVID-19<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9215,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9214\/revisions\/9215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}