Day 19. Kurmi in India (koor-MEE)

The Kurmi are the chief agricultural cultivators in north India, especially throughout the south eastern regions of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Though they are highly regarded for their agricultural skills and hard work most often they are not the land owners. There is a proverb, if you see a field flourishing better than the surrounding fields it will surely be a Kurmi field!

Due to their history of labor without land ownership, the Kurmi are categorized as Other Backward Castes (OBCs). This political status provides them many benefits such as quotas in government jobs and reserved seats in medical and engineering colleges. The Kurmi have made good use of these benefits, getting professional and government jobs, making many among them part of India’s growing middle class.

The Kurmi worship Hindu gods as well as deities of their family and region such as Hanuman, the monkey god. A small number of Kurmi have identified themselves as Jesus followers, but unfortunately, many Kurmi fear that “Christians” want to win their children away from their families and are therefore resistant to efforts by believers to share the blessings of Jesus with them.

Prayers for the families of the Kurmi:

Lord, give miracles, dreams, visions, and healings to the Kurmi families, showing the power of Jesus to bring salvation. Bless the Kurmi in their work and bless with faithfulness of those who hear the call to work in Your field.

Lord, bless Your Holy Scriptures in their language (Hindi). May they hear the stories of Your call for laborers into Your Harvest.  Help them to hear the reason Jesus came and to take on the calling  for which You have made them.   

Lord, raise Kurmi believers to live out Jesus’ teachings; to share the Bible in their homes, to train whole families to win other whole families, to turn the hearts of  children to their parents and turn the hearts of parents to their children. Give them power to share in the truth of Jesus’s salvation. 

The blessing of the Lord for the Kurmi: As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My Word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Is. 55:10-11)