A video of YouTuber and street preacher Nicholas Bowling popped up on social media recently. The said video which is about 11 months old on YouTube is about Bowling’s preaching trip to India which he labelled as “I Spent 7 Days Preaching in One of the Most Persecuted Nations!”
In the video, he chronicles his week spent in India where he is seen preaching and converting people – which is illegal for a foreign national and is blatantly violating visa norms.
Despite India’s strict regulations on religious proselytization, particularly by foreigners on tourist visas, Bowling openly preached in churches, village streets, and private homes, frequently seen encouraging Hindu attendees to convert to Christianity.
Who Is Nicholas Bowling?
Nicholas Bowling states he lived a reckless life filled with alcohol, drugs, and promiscuity. Despite outward appearances, he was depressed, broken, and empty. His turning point reportedly came during a crisis involving a felony charge, a breakup, and his father’s medical emergency. Claiming a radical encounter with God, Bowling abandoned his career path for ministry. His past, by his own admission, was marked by moral failure and self-destructive choices.
Evangelical Activity In Rural Andhra Pradesh
Throughout the 20-minute video, Bowling narrates how he received an invitation from India to minister in the villages of Andhra Pradesh. He opens the video with the claim that he spent “150 hours in one of the most dangerous Nations for Christians around 80% of India’s population are Hindu 14% are Muslim and only 2% are Christians.”
While doing so, he showcases the wrong map of India.
The numbers that he speaks of are from the 2011 national census. Bowling seems to use this wrong fact in his favour, he could have checked the latest data from Joshua Project‘s website which has pretty much recent data.
His first day shows him staying with a family of a pastor Jeevan in Andhra Pradesh. Bowling is seen ministering at a church where this pastor preached. He is also seen praying, preaching, and converting people at many homes in the state.
The next day he is seen going to Bethesda Prayer Hall in Hyderabad to preach at the Sunday morning service. He also proudly claims that “The pastor told me that 90% of the people in their Church were ex- Hindus who converted to Christianity only 10% of the members of their Church were born in Christian families.”
On the third day, he is seen at a church in another village where 14 different pastors came together for the service.
He narrates how “many of them had gone up into unreached Hindu Villages and preached the gospel and several of them had been beaten, stoned, ran out of the villages and even tied up to trees and left; but there were also many other stories good stories of healing Miracles that had taken place and of people who had gotten saved as they went to reach these people. This persecution that they had endured didn’t make them back down even a little bit, but they united together with the goal of reaching 10,000 villages with the gospel.”
He calls Hindus protecting themselves from these missionaries as “persecution”.
He also says, “We headed out to evangelize the village.” – Proof enough that he indulged in preaching.
On Day 4, he is seen going to another village where he is seen singing and ministering at someone’s home and proudly proclaims, “On the fourth day, we had another village Church service, but this time it was at someone’s home. As the service began some of the neighboring Hindus found out that there was an American who was coming, so they ended up coming to the service too, following the message we gave a Salvation call, and then prayed for people to be filled with the Holy Spirit and as the Holy Spirit mightily fell upon the people.”
In the same session, he is seen converting a Hindu couple. He says, “As we ministered and laid hands on each person, a Hindu couple came forward and something amazing happened. Do you accept Jesus, she says yes. Hallelujah.” He then asks them to “put your trust only in Jesus” and the couple say yes. He further says, “He is the only one who can save you, look to no other gods for help, God is a jealous God, there is only one God.”
Then he performs the miracles on a Hindu girl. He sadly said, “We didn’t see her convert to Christianity, but she came specifically for her child to be healed.”
After “healing” the girl, he says, “To me that speaks really loudly that another religion is coming to our God for healing and I believe that God healed that baby and she’s going to give her life to the Lord because of it.”
On the 5th day, he is seen preaching and “casting out demons”.
On the sixth day, he goes to yet another church with Jeevan, visited homes and ministering there, he stated they were mostly Jeevan’s relatives.
He also talks about how he conducted public gospel sessions in Hindu-majority villages and laid hands and prayed over Hindu individuals, declaring miraculous healings and deliverance from spirits. He has also claimed multiple conversions, including of Hindu men, women, and at least one pregnant woman seeking healing for her unborn child.
In one instance, a Hindu couple is shown converting to Christianity on camera, as Bowling declares, “Say you will have visions of Jesus… Look to no other gods for help. God is a jealous God. There is only one God.” In another scene, he says to a Hindu woman, “God will heal your baby to confirm the message of the Gospel… and you need to choose to trust Him alone.”
This kind of activity, recorded and published by Bowling himself, directly contradicts Indian visa stipulations, which prohibit religious preaching or conversion activities by foreign nationals unless they are on specifically designated missionary or religious visas which are almost never granted for public proselytization, particularly in areas sensitive to communal balance.
Under Indian visa regulations, foreign nationals entering India on tourist or business visas are strictly barred from engaging in:
- Missionary activity
- Public preaching
- Conversion efforts
- Organized religious gatherings
Additionally, Section 295A and 153A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) prohibit acts that deliberately or maliciously outraging religious feelings and promoting enmity between groups.
By Bowling’s own admission, he engaged in faith healing, including praying away cancer, grief, and infertility. He also promoted exclusive worship of Jesus while denouncing Hindu practices. He encouraged viewers to “turn away from sin and from other gods,” suggesting Hindu deities are false.
The coordinated nature of these activities, alongside a foreign evangelist, amplifies the seriousness of the alleged violations, implicating both foreign and local actors in religious conversion drives that could disrupt communal harmony.
It is noteworthy that an American preacher David Courney who arrived in Andhra Pradesh, married a local and went on to preach and convert in Manipur, was also seen instigating the Kukis before the riots in 2023.
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