Drones fly overhead as ministry plugs on in Kashmir

By Abdul Masih –

JojuJohn and his wife saw all the hardships their parents faced as pastors and decided they didn’t want to do ministry.

“But deep inside our heart, we were thinking if God will send us, we will go to the difficult place,” Joju says. “We would go to a place where no one wants to go.”

And that’s how in March 2012 he ended up in the India-administered area of Kashmir, a flashpoint for conflict with Pakistan.

After Pakistan won its independence from India, the region of Kashmir was disputed and remains contentious today.

On April 22, Islamist militants killed 25 non-Muslim civilians, tourists, in Pahalgam, 8 hours away by car, to revive the smoldering resentments between the two nuclear powers. India responded by firing missiles at extremist sites in Pakistan, including mosques.

The threat of protracted war only hurts the Kashmiris.

“Our place is very much affected now,” Joju says. “The drones passed above our house many times. We hear the sound of firing continuously. But we are not afraid, even our children, by the grace of God.”

Joju, now 44, lives and ministers in Jakh, just 5 miles to the Pakistani border.

On Friday, Joju spray-painted “Jesus loves you” and “Jesus saves you from sin” on walls around Jakh in support of his Faith Prayer Center church.

JojuJohn’s father converted to Christianity from Hinduism in the Kerala state of India. He became a pastor, and the family suffered many hardships. Joju vowed to avoid hardships – until with his wife, he asked God to send him to a really hard place.

After Bible college, he went to Punjab in Northern India for a year of training. From there, he, his wife and daughter launched into Kashmir, from where the famous cashmere wool originated for luxury apparel.

At first, they had a hard time finding a home they could rent. The Hindus didn’t want to rent to Christians. It took 3-and-a-half years to get a place of worship. They now hold service in the home of one of their converts.

Joju and his wife weren’t used to the extreme weather, six months of extreme cold follow hard on six months of extreme heat. His wife suffered from swelling and cracking of the skin in her finger and toes due to the cold.

His daughter suffered from malnutrition as they struggled to eke out a life. His wife was briefly employed as a teacher but had to quit because of health issues. They lost one pregnancy to miscarriage because of the deprivation of their lives.

Revival has been hard fought, a slow trickle of one soul at a time. Not even entire families come, he says. Some 150 converts have been baptized, and regular Sunday morning church attendance is at 70.

The church holds outreaches, open-air meetings, youth ministry, film ministry, pamphlet distribution and children’s ministry. They visit the villages in the hills surrounding Jakh to evangelize.

“There are some anti-Christian elements which oppose our ministry,” he says. “We have to undertake social work like tuition classes and charity works.”