A conversion racket that involves an evangelical, missionary organization cleverly disguised as a charity under a seemingly innocent, misleading name – RailHope India has come to light which preys on unsuspecting, gullible railway employees, traders, shop keepers, service providers and passengers.
The organization RailHope India says in its website that it is a prayer fellowship for “brothers and sisters” in Jesus, serving in the Indian railway network or for anyone retired from Indian railways.
“But we also welcome anyone with an interest in railways, either as model railway hobbyists, railway enthusiasts or even if you are from another transport service”., the missionary organization says.
It goes on to say that “RailHope International exists to promote Christian fellowship through prayer and spiritual services”.
The organization claims to produce multilingual print media wall calendar featuring trains from around the world and “inspirational and encouraging Bible verses” on each page, along with the contact details of the RailHope representative from each country.
The charity’s web page goes on to give a history of the parent organization, Railhope International (railhope.net), headquartered in the U.S, whose stated mission is: “Christians who work with the railway (and other public transport companies) shall be encouraged to start local or regional prayer meetings and to form a national association”.
The website continues with “testimonials” of converts, following a typical pattern – the convert’s former religion, their hardships or insecurity, their sudden ‘miraculous’ exposure to the Bible, delusions of extraordinary, supernatural, ‘magical’ experiences, interactions with other Christian converts who take them to local churches Etc, eventually leading to their conversion to Christianity, supposedly due to the power of “the only true god and saviour in the whole world”!
The Indian chapter (railhopeindia.in) is quite blatant in stating the following:
“Our Lord is reaching, calling to people who do not know Him, asking them to follow Him into His Kingdon and accept the free gift of eternal life that can only be found through the precious gift, Jesus Christ [sic]”.
The organization is run by one David Rao and a woman named Sarahu Abhinaya. In his testimonial published in the website, David Rao describes himself as a once “devout Hindu”, in a country of idol worshippers with a “95%” Hindu population. H reporteldy served in Indian Navy for 15 years and later moved to Saudi to work in the oil field. He currently works at Subhavaarta TV Channel.
The man in his testimonial states, “I used to worship trees, Money, sun, moon, stars, cows, snakes, hills and many, many stones and mountains, water, fire and what not. What a blind faith. In India they worship three millions of Gods”.
Sarahu Abhinaya, who is now working as a ticket inspector for the Southern Railway in Chennai talks of her conversion to Christianity saying that regular “prayer meetings” were held among a growing group of christian employees. This sparks a concern whether such evangelical activity is happening unchecked on Government of India (GOI) premises and very likely, on government time, when employees are expected to discharge their duties.
Another man named S. Arulraj is identified as a RailHope International evangelist.
It is important to note that RailHope India which doesn’t feature in the list of FCRA-registered organizations has received foreign funds from Rail Hope International, Switzerland which has allegedly been used for proselytizing purposes.
In light of this, a complaint has been filed by Legal Rights Observatory (LRO) against the organization seeking probe into the organizations funding and activities.
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