Window on the World

From Randal Dick,
superintendent of missions

WCG in India:
one in 12 million

By John Halford and Rod Matthews

BANGALORE, India—In Decem­ber, we visited two WCG congregations in India that were conducting regional development meetings.

The congregations were hosts for members from afar who came by overnight trains to worship and fellowship together. We thought WN readers would like to know some of the challenges and opportunities our members face in this huge and fascinating country.

An amazing country

India is an astonishing place. It is a thriving democracy, and feels like one, which is quite an achievement for a country of 1.1 billion—the world’s second largest population. It is a nuclear power, has a space program and some of the world’s most brilliant and innovative scientists and technicians.

Joseph and Joanna D’Costa and family with John Halford (left) and Low Mong Chai, (right) Malaysian elder. [Photos by Rod Matthews]

But millions of India’s people are dirt poor, and their problems overwhelm any attempt at modernization. So state of the art technology exists cheek by jowl with appalling squalor. Air conditioned luxury cars share potholed streets with bullock carts and sacred cows. In the vacant lot next to our comfortable hotel, several dozen families live in ghastly shacks made of rubbish. We had to step over a leper to get to the Internet cafe.

Christianity is a minority religion in India. Even so, India has about 25 million Christians, which is only about 3 percent of the population, but still more than the combined populations of Australia and New Zealand. To put it another way, on most weekends, probably as many people worship Jesus Christ in India as in all of Europe.

That number includes the Indian members of the Worldwide Church of God. We have four churches, meeting in Secunderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai, several house groups and some scattered members. The congregations are quite small. The ratio of our church members to India’s population is about one to 12 million. What part can such small churches play in the work of God?

Quite a big one, actually.

Joe and Joanna D’Costa live in and look after our congregation in the southern city of Bangalore, and oversee the Chennai (Madras) congregation and house groups in Trichy and Madurai. The Bangalore congregation has about 25 members, and conducts an active youth program in southern India. The last couple of years Joe has conducted a Spiritual Enrichment Program camp at Ooty for young people modeled on the church’s international SEP programs. Joe also edits Living Light—a small magazine with the goal of making the Chris­tian message clear and understandable to Indians who wish to know more.

A Hindu nation

India is overwhelmingly Hindu—a religion that poses a difficult challenge to

Daniel and Mary Zachariah

 Christianity. At first glance, Hinduism seems unfathomable, and even nonsensical with its gaudy temples and strange idols. Surely people don’t really believe in all that, do they? But those are just the trappings of an ancient and sophisticated system of belief. 

One should not dismiss Hinduism (or any other religion) as nonsense. Wannabe evan­gelists in India quickly find out that it is little use offering glib answers and superficial programs to people who don’t have glib or superficial questions.

The Hindu faith does provide a way of making sense of the world to people faced with the contradictions of Indian life. They accept that this existence is just one of a progression of perhaps hundreds of thousands of reincarnations that must be negotiated until you can finally escape the physical realm. How you live now has repercussions in a future life. What you are now is the consequences of your past. Thus the rich can live alongside the desperately poor, in the knowledge that the poor may have a better chance in a future life. 

India is a profoundly religious place. A Hindu is willing to accept Jesus as another God and is happy to put his image on the shelf along with the others. Why not? In the struggle to escape the treadmill of existence, every little bit helps. Ma­hatma Gandhi, whose example led India to independence, had a high regard for Jesus and the Gospels. So although in some places Christians are persecuted as an encroaching threat to Hinduism, among the general population it is tolerated as a minority religion. But meaningful evangelism is a challenge.

Secunderabad church

The church in Secunderabad has its own small building. Daniel and Mary Zachariah serve the congregation there and oversee the Mumbai congregation, the house group in Delhi and a number of scattered members in the north.

Under­standing the need to be an example and a light, the Zachariahs are active in the community. The church building has a small library that it makes available to the community and uses the qualifications of members to offer self-improvement courses for area residents. Reading and education sessions are also offered for children in the community, and an annual youth development weekend is sponsored by the congregation.

Serving orphans

Indian orphans

Mary and Daniel took us to an orphanage where our church helps two dedicated Catholic priests look after homeless and unwanted children. As we arrived, the boys were playing cricket in a dusty potholed street, using a piece of corrugated iron as a wicket, and a broken fence post for a bat.

Some of these boys told us their stories. One little chap had been dumped at a rural railway station when he was just four years old. Somehow he had made his way to the city and then had been rescued by the orphanage.

Others had similar tales of running away from relatives unwilling or unable to care for them. In the orphanage these “Cinderella children” found basic shelter, even more basic food and education, and perhaps most important of all—love.

“These are the lucky ones,” Father Pat Birden told us. “It’s just a drop in the bucket.”

No one knows how many children eke out grim little lives in India’s rural villages and teeming city slums. Some work long hours as virtual slaves in sweatshops. Millions are beggars. Some, incredible as it sounds, are deliberately mutilated by adults to make them look more piteous—and therefore better able to elicit sympathy when begging.

Every year, many thousands go blind for want of a few cents worth of vitamins. Thousands more die of starvation or because they cannot fight off easily treatable diseases. Little girls are the most vulnerable. Although it is thankfully much less common than it used to be, female infanticide still happens in places where girls are considered of lesser value or a financial liability. Some die from deliberate neglect. And then AIDS is a risk for children sold into prostitution.

Preaching by example

St.  Francis of Assisi once said: “Preach the gospel by all means: if necessary, use words.” 

It is when expressing the very essence of Christianity—and as Jesus outlined in Matthew 25:31-46, the basis on which Christians would be judged—that Indian Christians must be discrete, humble, persistent and above all genuine. The big criticism leveled at Christians by Hindus is that they buy converts with promises of benefits to come—physical and spiritual, and disrupt the natural progression that Hinduism teaches.

St. Francis also said, “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” Our Indian members appreciate those who help them do their job and who respect their difficult situation. They ask for your prayers. Please do not forget these vibrant little congregations on the other side of the world. Their contribution in the work of the gospel is out of proportion to their numbers.

Copyright © Grace Communion International, 2003