family and to torture church members as part of a wide spread campaign against missionaries in the region, BosNewsLife learned from his organization Sunday, October 3.
K.P. Yohannan, the leader and founder of U.S. backed Gospel for Asia (GFA) said Pastor Kumar has "received threats from anti-Christian fundamentalist groups over the past several weeks" in an unidentified village where he and his wife arrived two years ago to preach the Gospel and establish a church.
"One of our senior leaders notified me just a few hours ago that a mob went to each house in Kumar’s village, threatening anyone who went to church this Sunday-they would break their arms and legs, and kill them," he added in a statement.
"Finally they came to Pastor Kumar’s home and beat him. Before leaving, they delivered their ultimatum: If he conducted Sunday services this weekend, they would kill him in front of his wife and son."
MISSIONARIES PERSECUTED
In addition several other several other native missionaries serving in Karnataka are facing persecution for preaching the Gospel, said K.P Yohannan who also urged supporters "to pray" for them and the troubled pastor.
Pastor Kumar arrived in Karnataka with his wife Sonia and their baby in 2002 after graduating from a GFA Bible college, the organization said. He is one of 14,000 native missionaries supported by GFA, who it claims are planting 10 churches every day. GFA says it wants to train and send 100,000 native missionaries “into the most unreached areas of Asia.”
For more information on GFA and its sponsor program visit: http://www.gfa.org The GFA postal address was identified as: Gospel for Asia, 1800 Golden Trail Ct., Carrollton, TX 75010.
WITH AUTHOR: STEFAN J. BOS
