Grace Community Church has commited to give 4% of our offerings this year to ministries serving beyond the walls of Grace.  These are some of their stories.

Hospitality.  Seems like a simple concept.  But don’t some people make you feel more at home than others?

Truthseekers is using hospitality to spark a revolutionary change in India.  The 4,000 year old caste system has kept groups of people separate and unequal for millennia.  The hundreds of castes that make up the Other Backwards Castes (50% of people living in India) have been brainwashed to not talk, collaborate, or otherwise work with each other.  This of course has benefited the Brahman elite ruling class who then have a much easier time controlling the masses. 

Enter Truthseekers.  Through the simple concept of hospitality, the leaders of the Truthseekers movement are inviting caste leaders to sit down with each other over a meal and talk.  And it’s working!  A good Indian meal of curry, roasted garlic, and chapati shared in an enviromnent of openness and love.  At the Truthseekers’ office in New Delhi, Truthseekers hosts various leaders from around the country both for a meal and a place to stay the night.  Great conversations develop.  New friendships are born.

Grace was able to give $5,000 to Truthseekers this quarter so that they can host more caste leaders and throw more parties.  Watch this video about what happens as walls break down:

“>Truthseekers’ Footwashing

Here we are at Outreach, Inc.

Eric Howard did NOT expect us and was quite surprised.  Here is a thank you from Eric.

Here is Pam Sardar from Truthseekers International.  She is so awesome and has such a passionate heart.

Our last stop of the day was at Third Phase right here in Hamilton County.

Betty and Ruth have been serving at Third Phase for I don’t know how long…30 years?  Here is Betty sharing some of her heart.

This was a fun day representing the people of Grace in sharing the checks from the Christmas Catalog.  So cool.

How would you like to be called “other backward caste?”  Insulting?  Degrading?  Worthy of a slander lawsuit?  And yet that is exactly what over half a billion (that is 600,000,000) people are called for their whole life.  How would you like to be referred to as “backward.”  Today’s post is written by Sunil Sardar, who leads Truthseekers International, an organization seeking to speak truth into the volatile caste environment of India.

There are many names in this country for the thousands of castes that collectively make up India’s Other Backward Castes (OBCs).  In the brahminical stories, they are the strong, brainless monkeys (Hanuman) who are in service to the wily brahman king Rama. The brahman priests themselves call OBCs Shudras, meaning slaves. Most people refer to them merely by their occupation. The government designates them as backward.  However, no matter which name is used, OBCs have for 3000 years been portrayed in pictures as black, ugly humans deservedly killed by white, beautiful goddesses.

Who are the OBCs, really? The OBCs are the toiling majority of India, the working poor upon whose backs India’s upper castes and upwardly mobile people are establishing global fame and amazing economic growth.

Not only are OBCs the poor of India, though. They are also people made in the image of the Most High God, but no one has ever told them this wonderful news. Rather, they have been trapped in the caste system, and falsely divided into thousands of castes for over 3000 years. For the sake of maintaining their own political, social, and economic power in this nation, India’s upper castes have misrepresented who the OBCs are to the world, and to you, too. However, the good news is that despite their oppressed status and being misrepresented, they are NOT without hope.

Did you know that OBCs are historically monotheistic? Most OBCs follow the One True God for Whom There is no Idol, and they call Him Mahadeva.  If you were to engage the rural OBCs in a discussion about their religious practices, you would find that only two or three generations ago most of the people in OBC villages were monotheists, and that they have only relatively recently been persuaded by brahman priests that they should follow the brahminical gods and traditions. You would find that old OBC traditions and religious practices often point clearly to belief in a god who is very similar to the God of the Bible.

Here is something else you probably don’t know: OBCs are looking, not for the return of King Rama, who has a discriminatory kingdom, but for Baliraja, the good King. This is most obvious during the celebration of Diwali. While Brahminical households make a pastry figure of Bali and crush him under their feet, cursing him and his kingdom, OBCs light a lamp and implore, “Let the Kingdom of Bali come and let the misery be gone!” In other words, OBCs are looking for a Messiah to rescue them, but the high castes are cursing the OBC’s longed-for king.

OBC beliefs and culture are not what you’ve been taught. If Jesus is to be followed by the majority population of India, it is very important that all of us who follow Jesus understand India’s OBCs are not the people we’ve been led to believe they are. I believe India’s OBCs are, in fact, the other sheep Jesus spoke of in John 10:16. Their god is actually very much like ours. They also believe that God works with His hands, wipes away tears, and gives eternal life.

From what I have learned in my travels and conversations, India’s OBCs are very close to the Kingdom. We’ve got to understand who they are and speak to their heart’s longing for respect, dignity and love. They long for a Messiah, just like we long for our Messiah to come again. May India’s OBCs, “the other sheep,” discover their true Shepherd!