News / Thoughts

Bangladesh: Baptism of 45 new Christians disrupted

The baptisms of 45 new Christians from a local church in Bangladesh were disrupted by a group of angry Hindus, who later asked for forgiveness after police got involved and sided with the Christians.

Baptising believers is a challenge for many small churches in Bangladesh, because they do not have their own land or space to hold baptisms. Consequently, they are often carried out in places which are vulnerable to intrusion or opposition.

This is what happened with one local church in south west Bangladesh. They were delighted to be baptising 45 new believers – an encouraging sign of the church growing in the area. But local Hindus arrived to stop the celebrations.

“The Hindu people were unhappy seeing that people from their community were converting to Christianity,” said the pastor, “Now they are witnessing their people being baptised and they wanted to put a stop to it. They even tried to stop all church activities here.”

Police intervention brings remorse

The Hindu group then became aggressive by verbally abusing the believers and picking up items to use as weapons. “They tried to attack us,” the pastor continues. “Realising the situation was going out of control, I informed the local police, and they came to our protection. Then the situation calmed down, and we managed to continue with our baptism programme.”

The police’s protection even brought remorse among the Hindu group – something that doesn’t often happen after attacks like this. They apologised to the pastor and asked the believers to forgive them. However, the incident has left believers fearful, and there is concern that hostility continues to linger and may flare up again with the police not around.

This incident presents a picture of what’s happening in Bangladesh – the church is growing, with many coming to know Jesus, but persecution is often not far behind. Let’s rejoice that God’s kingdom is spreading in this nation whilst praying for our brothers and sisters who are vulnerable to opposition.

Pray now…

• Give thanks that these 45 people have decided to follow Jesus
• That this incident will galvanise their faith rather than hinder it
• That relations between Christians and Hindus in this local community will improve.

Do something…

1. Get our free World Cup prayer wall chart and pray for Christians facing persecution from countries in the tournament.
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2. Learn more and pray: Get our free glow-in-the-dark World Watch List Map and find out more about the places where faith costs the most. Get your map here…

3. Pray regularly: Every Monday night at 7pm we’ll be praying one prayer for one minute for the one in seven Christians around the world who face persecution. Set an alarm and tune in…