Six Christian Indians in the Jharkhand region of India, who were imprisoned for one month in September simply praying for a sick Hindu woman, have now testified that they were able to share the Gospel with some of their fellow inmates, and bring them to Christ.
As revealed by Morning Star News, local authorities arrested the six Christians in the Ghosra village just after local Hindu radicals attacked them. They were going to the home of a local Hindu man to pray to God to heal his sick wife.
However, instead of arresting the radicals that attacked the praying Christians, local sources reported that they went after the Christians instead, arresting them on charges of insulting religion and promoting hostility between the classes. Both these charges are punishable by serving a sentence of three years in prison.
Apart from arresting the Christians, police officers also assaulted two of the individuals, 25-year-old Sajan Majhi and 20-year-old Kalender Majhi. 35-year-old Dasrath Karketta, who was also one of the Christians who were arrested, revealed the police officers repeatedly assaulted the two men.
Karketta then explained that they spent one month behind bars before they were each released on bail. He even described their prison stint as "joyous" due to being able to read the Bible with four of his fellow Christians that were arrested. The group also worshipped, prayed, sang hymns, and spread the gospel to their fellow inmates.
"There also, people came to Christ. We strongly felt the Lord was using us for His work and we were happy about it," said Karketta.
Karketta recalled that he and his fellow Christians that were arrested and assaulted were asked by Bikhru Majhi to come to his house and pray for his wife. This was because Majhi heard Karketta's testimony about how he won his battle with cancer and was then led to Christ. Even though Majhi is Hindu, he often invited Christians to pray for his wife as he believed that prayers could heal her.
Balmuni Kumari, the only Christian woman who was arrested, revealed that she was sent to a woman's prison. Kumari then said that she received threats against her family by the Hindu extremists while she served time. The extremists demanded that she and her family leave the village.
According to Kumari's brother Singhray Kullu, their family suffered discrimination because of their faith. Some locals even plotted to expel them from the village and Balmuni's mother went into depression. Fortunately, things went back to normal when Balmuni was released.
