Occasionally, he receives plaintive phone calls asking him to “come pray for my wife; she’s dying.” That could be a setup for an ambush, he says, so he replies, “Take her to the hospital at once, and I’ll pray from here.”
But the minister, who recently returned to full-time evangelism and preacher training after working for the Indian government, knows that these simple precautions can’t guarantee his safety as he preaches in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad and surrounding villages.
“If we don’t carry the cross of salvation to them, who else will do that?” asks Ghorpade, who came to Wichita to visit his son and daughter-in-law, who live here. He also spoke to the congregation they attend, the West Douglas Church of Christ.
Every village in his homeland must have a chance to hear the Gospel, Ghorpade says. His message to those who wish him harm: “Before you kill me, first hear me.”