Rami was so excited! After spending several weeks of sharing the message of Good News, he had five people who had come to Christ and wanted to be baptized. He took them to the Ganges River to baptize them. During the service, several fundamentalist Hindus arrived. Out of respect for the religious ceremony, they were quiet and caused no trouble. Once finished, however, they beat Rami severely enough to send him to the hospital. 

 

It was a hard time for Rami. But he knew that his life was no longer his. He lived for Jesus and any sacrifice was no comparison to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Weeks later, Rami had around ten more ready for baptism. He took them to the same place at the Ganges River and the same fundamentalists arrived. They respectfully waited for the church planter to baptize the new Christians. Again, they beat him so badly that he was taken to the hospital.

 

Unfortunately, this repeated a couple more times. Rami continued to endure. At this point, the local church had grown in numbers sufficient enough that the local police took notice of their report. The officers arrested the thugs and threw them in jail. 

 

Though Rami felt honored by the kind gesture from his church, he went from the hospital and headed straight to the jail. There he requested that his persecutors be released. Shocked, his tormentors asked why he would drop the charges after the way they had treated him. Kindly he responded that because Christ had forgiven him, he could forgive them. Overwhelmed by God's grace, some of those men gave their hearts to Christ.