"I am ruined!" said Rahul, a money-lending businessman of the Lad community of Gujarat, as he buried his head in his palm. Neetu, his young bride, stood in the background, as his father bellowed, "How can you lend such large sums of money to a scoundrel like Kataria?" "What are we going to do?" whimpered Rahul's mother as she covered her head with her saree palu that kept slipping to her shoulder. Neetu's heart ached for Rahul, who looked more desperate than she had ever seen him. She knew that she couldn't say a thing, primarily because her father-in-law yelled and stopped only to take in quick gasps of breath, and also because it was considered unbecoming for a young daughter-in-law to interject when an older member of the family was speaking.
Later that evening when Rahul and Neetu had a quiet moment alone, she told him that she remembered something that she had learned in the Christian boarding school where she once studied. "Whenever we told the nuns how disconcerted we were because of an upcoming exam, she would say, "Ask and you will receive," and then she would pray for us. Maybe we should do just that."

* Scripture Prayers for the Bania Lad in India.

Pray that all hardships faced by the Lad people will prepare their hearts to seek and find the Lord. Pray that the Lord will prepare missionaries to work among the Lad Banias.

Some information from "The Scheduled Castes" K. S. Singh, ed. Oxford University Press, USA (1994)