God moves among unreached in India

ChristianAidMission ~ The ethnic Bhuiya in Jharkhand state, India, are an unreached people who worship the spirit of the nearest mountain, among other things, and indigenous missionaries are accustomed to praying for the demon-possessed among them.

The Joshua Project lists the Bhuiya as unreached because less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the tribe in India profess Christianity, and the percentage of evangelicals among them is unknown. Anthropologists record Hinduism and animism as the Bhuiya’s main religions. Among the animists, the earth and sun are their highest gods, followed by local ancestral and mountain spirits, according to the Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceana. Many Bhuiya worship the cobra, with some calling it their mother.

An indigenous ministry in a southern state of India in the past year trained and sent a near-culture missionary to Jharkhand, an eastern state, to visit a Bhuiya village with the message of Christ’s salvation. A family there had an older relative who had wandered in nearby jungles for four years, and they brought her home to hear the evangelist.

“I lived a worldly life and worshipped local gods and goddesses,” said the woman, whose name is withheld for security reasons. “I was possessed with evil spirits, and as a result I was mentally affected and wandered around in the jungles.”

The indigenous missionary shared the gospel with the family and asked them if they wished to put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

“After their willingness to accept the Lord, he prayed for me, and instantly the Lord delivered me from the grip of the evil spirits and healed me from my insane condition,” said the woman. “Now I am absolutely normal and have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord. Now my entire family belongs to the family of God. Praise the Lord!”

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