Growing up in India, B.V.R. Rao was abused as a youngster, but he always knew hope was out there somewhere.
Thirsty for knowledge, Rao was forced to go outside and read by the light of streetlamps until midnight or later because his sister-in-law — his caretaker, along with his eldest brother, after his father died — denied him the use of electric lighting to study. Seeking peace as a teenager, he became a Buddhist when he could find no peace in the Hinduism into which he was born.
Rao searched and searched for peace. And one day, he found it — in Christ.
“You are looking for peace. Why not try Jesus?,” a high school classmate told him. Rao attended church with this friend for five months and began reading the Bible. The pastor explained the plan of salvation to him, and he committed his life to Christ.
‘Tremendous need’
Now Rao, executive director of Prison Fellowship of India and president of the India Baptist Convention, is working hard to spread that commitment around in the nation, where only 4 percent of the more than 1 billion people are Christian.
“India is a country with tremendous need for the gospel of Jesus Christ, but because 6 percent of the population controls 94 percent of the wealth of the country, it is a nation of few resources among the people,” he said. “Those who control the money are generally non-Christians, so Indian ministries depend greatly on assistance from Christians in other countries.”
Rao recently visited First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, in Tuscaloosa Baptist Association as part of a tour of Canada and the United States to encourage partnerships between churches and ministries in India.
It’s a multifaceted ministry he has in his home country. In addition to being a professor at India Baptist Theological Seminary, Rao and his wife run an orphanage for 27 children in their home. He travels throughout India, visiting prison officials, counseling inmates and providing them with Bibles, preaching and encouraging Christians.
One new project Rao has planned is to build and equip a nursing school, which will address the problems of poverty and will also provide better health care by training nurses to work in medical centers. He plans to recruit Christian young women to study as well as those of different faiths to give the Christian students the opportunity to witness to the others.
According to Rao, 85 percent of Indians are Hindu and the biggest barrier in winning them to Jesus is that they believe good works are essential to salvation. Hindus believe in reincarnation and that good works in one life make it possible to attain a higher place in another life until, ultimately, they arrive at a place where they can see God.
Offering hope in Christ
He explained that these beliefs give Hindus little hope, whereas Christianity is a message of hope. So it often happens that Hindus come to faith in Jesus during times of crisis as Rao did when they have exhausted every means of finding peace. He frequently uses his own testimony of searching for peace as he witnesses to others.
Although ministry in India is challenging, Rao sees Jesus working in the lives of Indians every day. “We bring to Hindus and other unbelievers a message of hope; it is sweet to their ears.”
For more information, contact Rao at bvrrao@gmail.com.
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