Orissa, Bihar

The following is part of an email we sent out today requesting urgent prayer for some states in India that need it. I'm posting it here for anyone who prays but doesn't get my emails.

Orissa and Bihar are in Eastern India.

Pease pray for the state of Orissa. Since the month of December the Christians there have been severely persecuted. In the last few days the persecution has flared up once again. Numerous churches have been burned. Churches of people we know personally. Many Christians have fled into the jungles and are surviving there in hiding.

Please pray for this state and for this situation. Pray for the persecutors as well as our brothers and sister in Christ who are suffering. Please also pray for the local and national government leaders to take right action.

Pray also for the state of Bihar. There is major flooding in 15 districts, hundreds of thousands of people are homeless due to the flooding. Hundreds have died.

Finally, several Indian states that have instituted anti-conversion laws, making it very difficult for people to openly accept Christ. This law is being challenged currently, pray for victory. However, no matter what the outcome we thank God for the persecutions and trials, knowing He will be glorified through it all and will call many more to Himself.

Phil. 3:7-11 “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”