February 27
Greetings to you from Bhubaneswar, Orissa in the most precious name of Jesus.
Thank you very much for your mail inquiring about our well-being. I am sorry for not communicating with you since the beginning of the year. Actually, the year has started with an extremely busy note and a lot of travel. Let me share with you a few hi lights.
1. As you know, after the 2008 violence, that year there was no Christmas celebration and a lot of discouragement. However, in 2009 the situation was different. There has been a lot of improvement in the overall situation and Christmas was celebrated in the entire Kandhmal region and in various relief camps where people have been staying. Several of the broken churches have been repaired as well and worship going on.
But, we can not say that the situation has become normal. Still there is tension and ill feeling in certain villages and the believers are still afraid in those areas. Just before Christmas, myself and Anju could visit some villages of Kandhmal and distributed saris to pastors wives and gifts to children. We need to continue praying for this area and our brethren as they try to rebuild their lives and so many needs to be met including construction of their houses and belongings.
2. In January, we both could attend a very important conference called: "Tent makers International Asian Congress" at Hyderabad. In the present context of Missions around the world, the concept of Tent maker is becoming very important and appropriate. I will send you a separate report on this.
3. In February, I went to Bangladesh to visit several mission partners. It is good to see, how the Lord is blessing the work in the Muslim country. At this point, ANM is trying to help four mission partners within Bangladesh. However, there are three new missions that I could also evaluate. If resources available, these native missions could be taken up and many more missionaries will be able to go out and take the Gospel to the unreached parts of the country. Even though Bangladesh is a Muslim country, yet some freedom still exists there and it is the right time to get involved. We need to pray so that the Lord will provide the resources to encourage the work in Bangladesh and many more souls can be added to the Kingdom.
4. Church construction is going on at 12 places and we need to pray for the field staff here who face a lot of challenge during the construction process.
5. Our TV program "Light of Hope" has completed three years of telecasting and having very good response. We are in the process of improving the quality of our program and our studio. I have some plans and I will be talking regarding this with Pastor Bakke when we come there in near future. Please pray for this venture as we are able to reach millions of people who otherwise would miss the opportunity of hearing the Gospel.
7. From March 1st to 4th we will be having the pastors conference (which we call OBI) at Vijayawada along with one of our mission partner who is exclusively working among Muslims. Three pastors from US including one from ANM will be the speakers along with me. They are already in India taking part in another mission conference of Trivandrum Bible College. I will join with them tomorrow on 28th. In fact, this is where we wanted Pastor Bakke to be part of the team. But, we knew, you might be having the mission conference now at BBC. We will look for the right opportunity to have Pastor Bakke here in India and also for him to visit our office at Charlottesville. Please pray for the OBI as it is a very strategic one, Lord's protection from any unwanted element or incident and far reaching result to reach the particular community with the Good News.
FAMILY NEWS
1. Richa has decided to pursue the career to become an Architect. She has joined the institute at Vancouver and is happy. Now, she is here with us for a short vacation. Actually, she has come for my nephew's (my sister Indira's son) wedding which will take place at Delhi on March 5th. She will return on March 7th.
2. Reshma is in the final year and will complete her grade 12th in May. Obviously, she is under tremendous pressure doing her IB course along with her regular classes.
Of course, we need prayer for both the girls as they face a lot of challenges, their studies and that the Lord will protect them from all temptations and trials in their daily lives and keep their testimony for the Lord.
3. I do not remember whether I informed or not: by God's grace I got my H1B visa approved. Now, there won't by any problem for us to come in to US and I have got my working status within the country. Let us praise God for this.
4. God willing, me and Anju will reach US on March 18th. It will be my desire to come and visit you all if we can. However, this is going to be a short visit as we need to be back by mid May for Reshma's graduation which will take place on May 21st. Then again, we will be coming back to US sometime in August. Somehow or other, we will make it to come and visit you all.
Hope, this will give you some information from our mission field of South Asia and some of our plans for next few months. Please remember; we consider it a privilege to be part of the BBC family and represent the church here in South Asia. We value very much your prayer and all that the church has been doing for us. Please convey our sincere thanks to Pastor Bakke, brother Scott and all our friends in the church. Looking forward to see you all soon.
Your brother in Christ,
PR
