Seven days: seven deaths in my church

22million cases. Almost 250,000 deaths. Funeral pyres burning in car parks. And, most recently, the partially-burned bodies of 40 people or more washed up on the banks of the ‘sacred’ River Ganges. These are the terrifying numbers and distressing scenes we have seen on our TV screens as the Covid disaster in India has unfolded.

But how are churches in India responding to this epic disaster? Pastor Devender Verma is senior pastor of Delhi Bible Fellowship Church and director of the School of Biblical Teaching which trains pastors all over North India, in both rural and urban areas.

Speaking exclusively to Evangelicals Now, he said that oxygen – despite government assurances – is still in short supply. The situation in rural districts such as Uttar Pradesh is even worse than the cities as testing for the disease, effective medical care and treatment is non-existent.

Seven deaths in his church

Pastor Verma’s church and family has been directly affected by Covid 19. His own congregation saw 15 cases, with seven deaths in a single week and his wife, Sangeeta, and son had to be quarantined for 21 days. But his church, although in the middle of a slum community, is not powerless: ‘We are trying to provide them help for medicine. Lockdown has lasted over a month and many have lost jobs and are struggling to feed their families. So we are giving them groceries, medicine and sanitising material’.

Scathing view of government

His view of the Indian authorities’ handling of the crisis is scathing: ‘I am disappointed with my government. They were not prepared; worse, they permitted political rallies during the peak of the outbreak and allowed millions to attend the Hindu mega-festival ‘Kumbh Mela’. His solution? ‘They should impose the lockdown strictly for some time and provide food to the poor. They must arrange oxygen and medical facilities to both rural and urban areas. They should make vaccines available as soon as possible’.

Pastor Training International, which teaches pastors to preach the gospel, has worked in India for many years.

Director of Training Simon Percy added: ‘Lockdown restrictions, coupled with rising unemployment, are impacting badly on our Indian brothers and sisters in Christ. Churches are no longer meeting and very few in rural India have access to Zoom, causing serious financial hardship for many small independent congregations.’

Writing on his blog recently, Vinoth Ramachandra, Secretary for Dialogue and Social Engagement at IFES (the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students), spoke out against global vaccine inequality.

He said: ‘More than a year into the pandemic, three-quarters of the current vaccine supply has been secured and administered by ten countries that account for 60 percent of global economic growth, while about 130 countries – home to 2.5 billion people – have not received a single dose.

‘Christian theology has long held that the right to life trumps the right to private property. If I have food or life-saving drugs in my home that I don’t need for my survival, yet my poor neighbour is starving or seriously ill, then if the latter were to break into my home to take what he needs for his survival is not an act of theft. Rather, it is I who am guilty of theft by withholding it from him.’