Rat-eaters

I just read the following in the prayer letter of a missionary from/to India whom I recently met. I thought I would post it here as something of a follow-up to my earlier "160 Million Untouchables" post - and to help connect us with one more tragedy that is on God's heart.

"For many years we have been praying for a Dalit community called Musahar (Mush = Rat, Ahar = food). They look after the grain fields of high caste [people], kill the rats to protect the crops, and [then] eat those rats. Interestingly when they dig the rat holes to find rats, they can take the rats, but cannot take the grain (some rats collect almost a kilo or two in their holes). They are one of the lowest of the low in the oppressed society, extremely poor, and suffering. 1.3 million of them live in Bihar and and one million in Eastern UP. We have a very few Christians from this group and no pastors."

There is a world of pain and suffering out there. I confess that I haven't even begun to understand the reality of this. One thing I do know, though, is that labourers (Luke 10) like you and me are needed.

Read more about the Musahar rat-eater Dalits at the BBC website: here or type "Musahar" into Google or Google images.