Currently, a conservative estimate was given by the India's National Human Rights Committee indicating that 90 churches were burnt and 600 houses were torched. However, the figure masked the real number of people killed since many had escaped the violence.
"We do know that thousands have been displaced. Others are still missing. The total number of Christians that have been killed really isn't known. Some are reporting nine. It could be more than that," Ms. Penner told Mission Network News (MNN).
She went further, stating those who conducted the attack underestimate the Christian faith to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Regardless of what they do, she said, nothing could stop Christians from spreading the Good News.
"I think they really do believe that if they continue to attack Christians, if they continue to harass them or make their life difficult, that they will stop. I don't know if they really do understand the fact of just how central sharing the faith is to the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
In the meantime, she urged Christians from around the world to write to their Indian Ambassador from their own country to express their desire for the Indian government to protect the religious minority over there and to repeal the current State law prohibiting the conversion of faith.
Recently, the Indian Prime Minister, in a letter addressed to an Australian widow whose missionary husband and her children were killed in Orissa, wrote the Indian Federal Government was doing all it could to stop the violence and protect the religious minority living over there.