The father’s commitment to spreading the gospel and seeing others meet Jesus were the very reasons why the Naxalites, a militant Maoist group in India, targeted him.
“People stopped obeying the Naxalites and instead obeyed what this father and Scripture said,” Abhishek explains. “He told Christians to be humble, to live in a godly manner.”
During Abhishek’s initial visit with the family, they shared the details of their father’s death. Early in the morning at 4 a.m., the Naxalites kidnapped their father and took him into the jungle where they mutilated his body.
“Then they just beat him senseless,” Abhishek says tearfully. “They tied his legs, hung him from a tree and beat him with rods.” Finally, they shot him.
“It was terrible to see. Such a heinous killing, so brutal. They killed this man of God.” The Naxalites also threatened to kill them, the family said, if they reported anything to the police.
Ministering with both provision and presence, Abhishek provided the family with food and helped them relocate to a safer area. When the children are old enough for school, he will also help provide their school fees—because of your support and prayers. He is also present with them, walking with them through the nightmare.
“I went to that family and I cried with them, I encouraged them, I comforted them from the Word of God,” Abhishek says. The widow shared her gratitude with Abhishek, saying that “nobody has come and comforted us like that.”
A surrendered life