Even though I was on a crowded airplane high over my homeland of India, it took all the energy I had just to hold myself in the seat. Only moments before I had finished reading a shocking story on page one of a national newspaper. It pierced my heart with deep pain. It made me want to jump up and preach—to scream like one of the Old Testament prophets would—against the national sin of my people.
It was September of 1987, and India was still reeling in revulsion mixed with pride over the grotesque sati death of a teenage bride named Roop Kanwar in Rajasthan. Sati is an ancient Hindu religious practice in which a wife is burned alive on the funeral pyre of her husband.
In this instance, police stood helplessly by and watched the flames consume her living flesh before a crowd of 300,000 Hindu devotees. They were afraid of the fanatic mob. These Hindu pilgrims came from all over India to witness the ritual sacrifice of the 18-year-old girl.
Later, under pressure of public opinion from other parts of the country, family members were arrested for her murder. However, fanatic devotees declared that they planned to keep up their own pressure on the authorities until the organizers of the ritual killing were released.
What distressed me was that millions of my people were praising her religious devotion and saying, “We’re finally getting back to being real Hindus!”
I shook my head in horror. “Can’t they see the depravity of such a dark doctrine?” I asked myself over and over. “Who but the enemy of mankind could incite followers to such a fiery death?”
Sati was outlawed by the British at the instigation of William Carey, the modern pioneer of Christian missions in India. However, like the caste system, numerous evil rituals are still secretly practiced in many parts of the land. What shocked modern Indians of all religions is the fact that no attempt was made to keep this sati sacrifice secret. Police and government authorities were warned not to interfere because the sacrifice was a “religious affair.”
In the past few years, “back to Hinduism” movements have become bolder and bolder in their militant demands for revival of ancient practices and suppression of other religions such as Christianity.
I used to hear the reports of this growing fanaticism yet remained untroubled. But God touched my heart on that plane, and I spent the rest of the flight crying out to God for India. I realized my need to pray and repent of the numbness I had allowed to grow in my conscience. I began asking God to break my heart afresh with the agony of the lost millions—people living in utter darkness.
Can you imagine the mindset of religions that allow and promote this kind of fanaticism? What is the fate of a nation whose people desire and glorify human sacrifice?
Since this last sati death, a lot of money was raised to erect a temple to honor Roop Kanwar, and devotional chants celebrating her “piety” have become popular.
As we read and hear these reports, we must pray that God will tear our hearts and grip us with a genuine burden for these millions of lost souls. Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision International, once prayed, “Break my heart, Lord, with the things that break your heart.”
Today, God is looking for those who will cry out that prayer and allow the Holy Spirit to take away their comfortable Christianity and totally transform their hearts. We need to let the Lord stamp a vision for eternity in our hearts and minds.
The situation in the Subcontinent and throughout Asia is not hopeless. Christ is the answer. Millions will be freed from their bondage to darkness if only we will send messengers to them with the truth. The Word says, “For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’ How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:13–15).
Even if you personally cannot go to many of these nations in Asia, you still can make an impact. You can pray and be a sender of native missionaries, who will go and preach the Good News to those who have never heard. We are called to go and send to win the lost.
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K.P. Yohannan ( - Present)
Dr. K.P. Yohannan, the Metropolitan Bishop of Believers Church, was born and brought up in Niranam, Kerala. Niranam has immense historical significance in the tradition of Saint Thomas, a disciple of Jesus Christ who planted the first church there in AD 52. K.P. Yohannan dedicated his life to God at a young age to serve the needy and downtrodden. He prayed, “Oh my Lord, let my heart break with the things that break Your heart” and his life was never the same. It’s his belief that one can only demonstrate God’s love by loving people. After over four decades of selfless service, he says, I have no regrets in praying that prayer for I know God has touched millions through what He did in and through me. It is all God’s grace.He spent the early years of his service in North India and traveled to the remote villages sharing the love of Christ and doing charitable works. Through numerous encounters during those years, he was instilled with an increasing passion to bring hope, peace, and comfort to the needy and deprived. His sacrificial commitment, farsightedness and aptitude to perceive helped him to lead a life of unhindered devotion to serve Christ and His church. K.P. Yohannan is also the voice of Athmeeya Yathra, touching millions through his daily radio and TV broadcasts. His 250 books offer practical and spiritual guidance on hundreds of subjects.
Recommends these books by K.P. Yohannan:
Living in the Light of Eternity: Discovering God's Design For Your Life by K.P. Yohannan
The Beauty of Christ through Brokenness by K.P. Yohannan
Crisis in Leadership by K.P. Yohannan
K.P. Yohannan is the founder and president of Gospel for Asia, a mission organization involved in evangelism and church planting in the unreached regions of Asia. Currently Gospel for Asia supports thousands of church planters in the heart of the 10/40 window.
Born in a remote village of South India, K.P. Yohannan's personal journey toward spiritual reality began at the age of eight when he gave his heart to Christ. While he was still a young boy, his mother began fasting each week, praying God would call one of her six sons into full-time gospel ministry. Her prayers were answered in 1966 when 16 year-old K.P., her youngest, volunteered to serve in North India with Operation Mobilization.
From 1974 to 1979 K.P. attended Criswell Bible College in Dallas, Texas, where he earned his B.A. in Biblical Studies. He was also awarded an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Hindustan Bible College in Madras, India. During the time he attended Criswell, he pastored a local church in Dallas. However, he was unable to forget the millions still lost without Christ in his homeland of India, and knew God was calling him to reach his own people. In 1978 K.P. resigned his pastorate and he and his wife, Gisela, organized what is now Gospel for Asia.