Update from Mid-India

For those of you who have been praying for the Mid-India missions, the latest update is below. The Lall's appreciate your prayers and ask for continued prayers as this is a very critical time.

Mid-India Christian Mission
Damoh, India
July 6, 2008

You might have received some e-mails about what is taking place here in Damoh. We are again going through a difficult phase where the government is trying to take over the Christian Outreach Center building. This is a different issue than that of our church premises. Construction of the church building is on hold and the government is not allowing us to build the building. On the other hand, here at Christian Outreach Center, which we call "Prayer Hall," we have been using this for Wednesday night prayer gatherings as well as to conduct marriages and other programs of the community. The land where the building exists has been in the possession of the Christian mission for about 100 years. There have been some complications when the government without informing us converted a part of the land to their name. Now they want to claim this building. On Friday June 27, we received an order saying that the government would take over the building on Monday, June 30 at 11:00 AM. On the weekend we could not go to any court for relief. Court and offices here in India open at 11:00 AM. We had to run to all the politicians we know and request them to help us. One politician decided to help us and we got a seven day relief to go to the court. This order was passed on June 28 which was Saturday. Monday we tried to get the copy of this order; nobody from the office showed up and the office remained closed all day. The next day we tried again to get the copy but the office was still closed for the second day in a row. There are more than five people working in that department but none were there.

This story can become very long. On Tuesday the government officials came with police force to seize the building in spite of the seven day extension that we had received. There were several policemen armed with guns. I told them that they wouldn't need all those guns. We are not terrorists. I had applied for the stay from the Hon'ble High Court where they decided to give it to us immediately. While the police were there in Damoh and I was negotiating with them, our lawyer from Jabalpur, where the High Court is, called us and informed us about the stay. I told him that the police were already here to seize the building. When I informed the police about the stay we had gotten, they still carried on saying that they had not seen the copy. They knew that the copy couldn't come out until late that evening but they still wanted to seize the building. I called my lawyer again and informed him about this. He re-entered the court of the Chief Justice of the Hon'ble High Court, interrupted a proceeding that was going on, and requested the copy. The Chief Justice asked that the copy be released immediately. The lawyer faxed us the copy and we were able to present it to the police and other officials who had come to seize the building. Now they could not deny the court's order and had to leave. Every minute at this time was crucial. There is no other explanation - God was working.

This was the longest one hour of my life. While I was dealing with the police, I received a call from Mr. Jay Hodges, chairman of our board from Georgia. This must have been early morning in Georgia!

I am thankful to all of you who have prayed diligently for this matter. Please continue to pray as we go ahead with the plea for our case in the court. God is above all and listens and answers prayers.

Vivert and Neelam Lall