Daily Topic for September 09, 2009
The reason God asks this isn’t because He lacked the answer, but rather for us to think about where we are. Taking the gospel into a lost world requires the same perspective. Before lost nations can be redeemed, they must understand where they are and how they got there. As the maxim goes, people need to acknowledge the darkness before they can follow the light. For this reason, many Bible translators and missionaries are seeing that the best place to begin with an unreached people group is in Genesis. Otherwise, information without a context quickly becomes misinformation.
Pray that entire Khandayat communities might understand that they are in darkness, and that they must rely on God show them the light. Pray that they will soon repent of their sins, so they can experience a relationship with their creator.
Orissa is home to about 1.3 million Khandayats, the single largest caste in the state. There are no known believers. According to the Joshua Project, they are 100 percent Hindu. Traditionally farmers, some have become fishermen even though fishing is considered an inferior occupation compared to cultivation of land. But compared to farming, fishing has become more lucrative in the coastal areas.
In one village recently, a group of 29 Khandayat men allegedly attacked six women of the lower barber caste. “I was dragged out of my home, beaten up and stripped naked,” said one victim. A BBC News report (news.bbc.co.uk/2hi/south asia/4277624.stm) quoted one of the women who said she was “picked up from her home, detained inside a room, and sexually abused for more than two hours.”
The conflict arose when some barber men refused to wash the feet of the upper caste Khandayat guests at a wedding ceremony. The foot washing ritual is commonly performed at weddings in Orissa, but resistance is growing among the lower castes. The six female victims immediately filed a complaint with the local police, but five days after the incident, none of the attackers had been arrested. A local rights activist, Rabindra Behera, accused the police of not taking the incident seriously.
Learn more at joshuaproject.netPray the Khandayats will hear of the love of Him in whom there is no Jew, nor Gentile… nor Khandayats, nor barbers. Pray for God to soften their hearts.-JWS
Next day: Ghatwar People
Previous day: Komati Caste