Married against the odds
Two new believers fell in love, but being from different castes, the road to marriage was fraught with risk
Photo by Pablo Heimplatz on Unsplash
“God is always faithful,” say our partners at Asia-CMS, who share this story of the gospel breaking through caste barriers.
By AsiaCMS (names have been changed to protect privacy.)
Our co-mission partner Brother T and his team in South Asia, work to develop leaders within unreached people groups, establish house churches, disciple new believers with Bible Studies and strengthen local believers through house visits and community support in remote communities.
With the caste system still prevalent in most villages in South Asia, high castes will never marry a lower caste. However, recently, the team, alongside the local leader in a village, conducted a small wedding for two new believers – who were from different castes – all by the grace of God alone!
Anita accepted Christ through this local ministry and her question always was, “who will marry me as I can’t go back to the Hindu belief nor can I marry a non-believer?” The team encouraged her to pray, and last October she became engaged to Krish, a high-caste Brahmin, who became the only believer from his entire family.
They decided to marry but as expected, the groom’s parents and relatives were totally against it. Nevertheless, Krish decided to go ahead and marry Anita. They set the date for the wedding and sent out invitation cards and soon they heard that the groom’s entire village people were coming to stop the marriage. All the while, the church community began to pray for a peaceful ceremony.
Brother T and his whole team made plans to attend the wedding but they were warned to be prepared, as anything could happen. It was quite a risk for everyone but by faith, the team drove to the village for the ceremony. When they arrived, preparations were still underway in the bride’s village, as they all waited for the groom to arrive.
After an hour or so, the groom arrived with his pastor and other believers but none from the groom’s family came. God was faithful in providing for all the needs for this wedding and they were able to conduct the wedding ceremony peacefully in the village – becoming the first Christian wedding conducted in the village.
The ceremony was contextualised for their culture and according to their custom, and everyone celebrated joyfully, praising God for the peaceful union.
A few months after the wedding, the church team received the wonderful news that Anita had been received with honour by Krish’s family, who were once against this union. God is so good. All praise to him alone.
Pray together
Please pray for Krish and Anita, as they start their family life – that they may remain strong in their faith and grow spiritually. They have also recently decided to step into the mission field to evangelise and share their faith.
