September 2026

Content warning: This story includes abuse and significant harm involving children.

Back in January, I was reflecting on the past year with our leaders.

Priya*, the leader of a Gypsy and Tribal development ministry in southern India, shared that persecution had been increasing towards her and the pastors she coordinates with, who do ministry in more than 20 Gypsy and Tribal communities. Persecution hasn’t historically been as severe in southern India compared to other places we work, so I wanted to dig into that more. She explained that she and the pastors were being harassed more and more when they would visit the communities. There were two different types of people causing the problems. One was some of the alcoholic men inside the community. The second was men from outside the community—people who live nearby and are from higher social strata.

Why? Priya explained: “One of the men, a Gypsy man, he asked a question to [one of the pastors] Arun*: ‘Why are you stopping our children from begging?’ Because the children go for begging, and they are earning more money and bringing alcohol to their father. They earn more money from begging. So, the fathers ask, ‘why you are stopping this?’”

In other words, Priya and the pastors are receiving opposition because alcoholic fathers used to be able to sit back and count on their children begging to bring them money. Now that those children are in school – over 75% of them today compared to less than 1% 15 years ago – they aren’t earning money on the streets. “So some of the men are attacking the pastors not to come inside and spread the Gospel.”

The second group, the men from outside the community, have an arguably even worse reason.

Priya explains, “These people are looking into the community and they see the pastor is holding the Bible inside. They are going and spreading the Gospel. The [community people] are very happy. If the children are gathered in a colony, they are singing songs and dancing, and they are very happy. So this type of happiness, they [the outsiders] don’t like it, actually. Because these men are very much interested on the girls, because they are ‘untouchable’, but the [men] want the sex. So if the [girls] come out of the colony, they can use them, abuse them, or they can play with them, or they can touch or kiss them. So whatever the men want, they can do it. And some of the men are asking the teenagers, the 14 year-old-girls, to come for prostitution. The [persecution] is because the pastors are protecting the children or teenagers from not going outside for begging or other things.”

For those in the communities who have begun following Jesus, they now recognize their own worth as God’s image bearers. Now, children are growing up with hope, dignity, and opportunities ahead of them.

These Gypsy and Tribal communities are considered below “untouchable” status. Despite having lived in India for thousands of years, they’re viewed as foreigners and have often not held legal citizenship.

They’re easy to take advantage of because the law doesn’t care about them. As you’ll know if you’ve followed our work over the years, Priya has fought for legal and land rights for these communities, including citizenship, and has worked to provide economic and educational access. This has grown out of her firm conviction that despite what the culture says, every person deserves dignity. For those in the communities who have begun following Jesus, they now recognize their own worth as God’s image bearers. Now, children are growing up with hope, dignity, and opportunities ahead of them. They are able to forego the short-term financial benefit of begging for an education that can lead to a better future. Women are gaining economic independence. Girls can no longer be easily taken advantage of or forced to sell their bodies to survive. The men who used to abuse them are angry.

This is it. This is a huge reason for persecution. It’s not simply declaring you are a Christian or verbally sharing the Gospel. It’s the fact that the Gospel changes lives.

There’s a lesson in here for us. We should reflect on whether the Gospel we are sharing and living brings hope to or offends the right people.

Think about this story again. Sharing the Gospel message is responded to with joy by the children and women in the Gypsy and Tribal communities, and with anger by the men who used to take advantage of them.

Over and over again throughout Scripture, we learn of God’s heart to protect and uplift the vulnerable—the orphan, the widow, the foreigner, the poor—and His anger at those who mistreat them. We only need to look at Matthew 24:31-46, where we are told, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me,” to see this. But we also have: “This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place” (Jeremiah 22:3). “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). I could share dozens of similar verses.

The true Gospel upends the status quo. It challenges the social order. It defends the worth of those whom society deems unworthy. That leads to backlash by those who benefit from unjust systems.

I encourage you to read more about the Gypsy and Tribal ministry here and clicking the GATE tag. You will see a years-long pattern of lives changed holistically through the Gospel.

Join us in prayer for the persecuted church. And of course, follow along on social media in September as we unpack more causes of persecution.

In Christ, Kate, Executive Director

Summer Match Update!

Because of your generosity, we exceeded our $70,000 goal and raised $74,132!!

With the match, that means $148,264 raised in six weeks! We cannot wait to share with you the impacts of your giving over the next year and beyond. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!