The fences around all the 3 believers’ homes have been removed and the situation at present is peaceful. But this may be the calm before the storm; as the villagers were not ready for talks with the believers in the presence of the District Magistrate for the next week and they mentioned that they will be ready only the week after.

This may be because the Chief Minister will be visiting the district this coming week and along with her there will a huge media and police presence. Any persecution during this week will turn out to be good fodder for media and it will back fire on the persecutors.

Hence, the persecutors have agreed for talks only after a week i.e. after the visit of the Chief Minister and after the media and police presence have thinned down.

Please continue to pray for the imminent talks and for the security of the believers in a hostile environment.

This morning the District Magistrate along with the police had gone to our village and after speaking to the villagers, in the presence of the village panchayat, permitted the believers to remove the boundary/fence. After they removed the boundary/fence around one home it started raining heavily, the police left while it was still raining and directed the believers to remove the boundaries around the other two houses soon after the rains stop, they have assured support and protection to the believers if any one prevents them from removing the boundaries.

The District Magistrate wanted to talk with the villagers and believers and come to a settlement but the villagers were not ready for any talks today, they have asked the District Magistrate to come back after a week for talks with the believers.

Please do continue to pray and pray especially for the talks.

The local political leader has taken no action as promised; in fact, the villagers have decided to rigorously and strictly enforce the isolation of the believers. The Christian Minority Leader has spoken to the Police again today and they have assured us that police action will be taken tomorrow.

Please do continue to pray for the believers.

Last night the Oasis pastors and the Christian Minority Leader in West Bengal met with the Superintendent of Police and Officer Incharge of the Police station. The police have assured that immediate action will be taken.

Police last night spoke to the local political leader of the ruling party and asked him to remove the boundary placed around the believer’s house. If he is unable to do so by today, then the police themselves will remove it and set the believers free and they will arrest all those behind this persecution.

The Christian Minority Leader who approached the police has also mentioned to the police that if they fail to take any action, the news media will be approached. He also assured that he will talk to the Chief Minister of West Bengal.

On the other hand, the persecutors are planning to strengthen the boundary wall and strictly enforce the isolation of the 3 believer families. They say that they won’t allow any Christian to live in the village.

Hope and pray that police will take necessary action by tomorrow as promised.

Pray for the believers to be faithful in the face of persecution and bold in their witness to others.

Friends & Partners: We urgently need your fervent prayer for our fellow believers. Please read the details below.

Oasis church is the first and only Christian church in this particular village in West Bengal. The location/village is disclosed due to security concerns for our believers. The church worship in this village began in 2007. At present, there are 13 baptized believers from 3 families.

The persecution of the believers of this village began more than a year back. At that time, the church had 19 baptized believers from 5 families. Two months back the persecution had reached to such an extent that it led to 6 baptized believers and 2 complete families to backslide. They were re-converted into the Hindu faith.

But the other 3 families continued to steadfastly hold on to their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ though the persecution continued. The persecution reached its peak on the morning of the 6th of October 2011, when few anti-Christian youth locked up the 3 believer families (this includes children, women, elderly and even a pregnant lady) in their own homes without access to food, water and proper sanitation.

When our pastor approached the Pradhan (village leader) of the village, he expressed his incapability to do anything in this regard as the youth involved have some political affinities. He asked our Pastor to talk to the local MLA (Member Of Legislative Assembly) seeking his support. But the leadership of Oasis felt not right to take political help which can worsen the situation; hence, the pastor approached the local Police and filed a Police complaint.

But the local police have failed to take any action and the situation only got worse with believers being locked up in the homes for the 5th consecutive day and are faced with threats of losing their livelihood as the youth who have locked them up have threatened to harvest the crops of the believers. They have also demanded that they re-convert to Hinduism and pay a fine of Rs.5000, in addition to handing over all their poultry and cattle. By demanding this they are trying to snatch away the livelihood of our believers.

Today the local leadership of Oasis ministries will be meeting with the SDPO (Sub-Divisional Police Officer) seeking immediate Police intervention and to ask them to implement the constitutional rights promised by the Indian constitution to its citizens.

Please join me in praying for our fellow believers in this particular village. Pray that God would strengthen their faith in Christ & for favor in the sight of authorities.