Dear Friends,
In just a few weeks we will be leaving for India with a US team of ten who will be joining our Indian team of about twenty. The preparation work in Hyderabad has begun by our Director James Sundar and things are looking very favorable for us.
This is our 38th project to India since 1990 and our 4th time to be in Hyderabad.
Please be in prayer for the necessary funding for – 1) the project expenses as well as 2) the 3rd quarter expenses for Harvesters Training College, 3) The Fathers Home and 4) the ongoing outreach program to reach the unreached carried on by GHIndia which amounts to around $25,000.
May I take this time to remind you that India does not allow missionaries into their country? Every time we go there, we go as an invited guest of GHIndia. Foreign missionaries cannot accomplish what national missionaries can do. We become suspect simply because of skin color, language barriers, our dress, the lack of sensitivity to their culture and not knowing customs. We are doing what we should have been doing for the last 50 years and that is to train, equip, empower and financially support passionate nationals who have a burden to reach their own people.
Many times when we do village ministry with them, we stress that we are 'their guest', so that the people won't think we are trying to import a 'western religion' on them just because we are there. We know the truth and the truth is we are commanded to go and preach the good news but they don't know that; consequently, Christianity becomes more believable when they hear it from their own people who have converted to it. This is why we have so heavily invested in the ministry of GHIndia and GHGhana. They are seeing people saved every day and added to the Kingdom that would not be happening otherwise and IMB figures bear this out.
Therefore we want to encourage and say to you that your sacrifice is not in vain and that people are being reached, trained for the ministry and it is all because of your prayer and financial support. Please don't let go of the rope and if the Lord would permit, prayerfully pray about going deeper with us because so many have dropped out in the past few months due to various circumstances.
GHANA PROJECTS – April & May
Godfried Tei reports that a great many meetings were rained out in April but May was much better. His April/May report did not make it in time for this prayer letter but he was busy ploughing the fields in the Easter Region of Ghana.
Through March, we have completed six projects preaching in 199 venues to over 56,000
with 20,613 of them experiencing God's amazing grace for the first time in their lives.
Enjoy Dottie's thoughts on the next page and Sam's report on the College, the Orphanage and the outreach work in India on pages 3 & 4.
Grace and peace…Mack and Dottie
Then You Be His Hands
Currently in my devotional time, I am using a booklet entitled "Building a more effective prayer life" and the thought this morning was - "Then you be His hands." As I was reading through the scriptures and the thought for the day, I realized that God had already given me a simple illustration of this truth.
I had volunteered to take a meal to someone and after buying all the ingredients, realized that with my wrist as it is, I could not grate the cheese nor chop the onions up into tiny pieces as the recipe called for. Mack has since my surgery, when I would be struggling to do something, held up his hands and said, "Remember these are your hands." So I asked him if he would grate the cheese and he agreed and added, "I'll cut up those onions as well if you will show me how you want it done." Now Mack is not known for his cooking skills and this was definitely not his normal routine, but he did both well and enabled me to put together a "tasty casserole" for our friends; without him the casserole (the finished product) would not have been made.
As I was reading the passage in Galatians 1:14-16 where God was pleased to reveal his Son in Paul, I realized this is also a picture of how God works. He uses us to reveal himself, the finished product. As we offer (surrender) ourselves to what he requests and by "being his hands on earth", He is able to create something beautiful – even if He asks us to do something out of our "comfort zone."
The story is told of a little young Danish girl who once found a small replica of Thorvaldsen's "Christ" in an abandoned house. She brought it to her father and said "but it has no hands, they have been broken off." The father replied to her, "then you be His hands". The little girl thought long and hard about what her father had said and later as a teenager surrendered her life to Christ and became a missionary to India. We don't have to wait to find a broken statue to realize that God wants us to "be His hands" in our world.
What is He asking you to do that might be out of your normal box? Mission opportunities are all around us. Maybe the Lord wants you to be involved in something new today so he can make a "beautiful creation" – something far greater and more eternal than a "tasty casserole." Stop for a minute and just look at your hands. Think of the ways you use them each day. For each of us these would be different ways. Some are caring for children - some are doing labor which requires the use of their hands. Some are working on computers. Some are holding books as they teach others. Some are working in the kitchen and I could go on and on. Your day would be different from everyone else's day. But the question as we gaze at our hands is this. Are they available to be "His hands"? Are they surrendered to the point where you can lift them to the Lord and say "I'll be your hands today"? What do you need done? This is evidence of the Spirit-filled life!
God bless!
Dottie
Excerpts from Aaron John Samuel's recent prayer letter:
A lot has happened around the world these days - the massive earthquake in China, the devastating effects of the cyclone in Burma, the recent terrorist attacks in India and the other parts of the world. The effect of evil (the fall of man) is all around us. All of these force us to question our role in this earth. This morning, I woke up with many questions as I pondered about my purpose and role in our mission field in Ponnai, INDIA.
God graciously chose to answer some of my questions. HOW? One of the first visitors we had this morning was the husband of a Hindu covert. His wife, Krishnaveni has become an ardent Christian. She has been regular to our church and participates actively in the worship service. Her husband came to complain about her wife's non participation in the Hindu religious ritual. He wanted to sacrifice a goat to his Hindu gods, but she was not willing to participate in it. My wife Fay said to the man 'If a person tastes the real honey from the wild, he will not go for the artificial one'. Later we shared that truth is not relative but absolute and we were in Ponnai ministering because the God of the Bible is the true God.
We thank God for bringing us to Ponnai to minister among people who are willing to suffer for the sake of Christ. God used this incident to help us to remind us of our role and purpose in Ponnai! Here is some more news!
Church Outreach Ministry
Adult Sunday School was started in Keerasath Church
Our church believers in Keerasath, where I serve as a pastor, came up to me after a service and told me of their desire to know more about God and the Bible. This is what every pastor would like to hear from his congregation. So, by God's grace we were able to start Bible Study. I have begun to teach them 'Bible Study Methods'. Praise be to God! Please do continue to pray for this ministry.
Church Anniversary in Ramapuram – one of our five churches!
By God's grace we celebrated the 1st anniversary of church in Ramapuram. Our student pastors Richard, Sam Durai and Samuel Ramamurthy have been ministering in this village. I was very happy to see many young people in the congregation. Even non-believers were invited for this celebration. God enabled me to challenge them to receive spiritual eye sight from the Lord Jesus Christ. About 13 people indicated that they were in need of spiritual eye sight and trusted Christ.
The church is growing and making an impact in that community.
We were glad to be invited for a birth ceremony in one of the Hindu convert's home in Ramapuram. The usual custom is to have a Hindu priest perform a ritual before the baby is placed in the cradle. However, this new convert chose to have us pray for the baby before the baby was placed in the cradle. We prayed for the baby and I preached to all the family members and relative; the first time a pastor has been invited to lead this ceremony in this family!
Vacation Bible School….By God's grace we were able to conduct Vacation Bible School from the 5th to the 10th of May 2008. My wife, Fay led the VBS and was supported by the pastors, college students and the believers. Around 175 children attended VBS. It was a wonderful time of ministry. Most of the kids came from Hindu background and Islamic background. Sam one of our students said that he was challenged to pray more frequently after teacing the VBS class. Arun Kumar challenged his class by the
life of William Booth. Two former Hindu children and one former Muslim from the orphanage, shared the Gospel in their former village to about 13 people.
Harvesters Training College
Bible Conference in Kanchipuram…by God's grace we were able to conduct a Bible Conference in Kanchipuram, a temple town of Tamil Nadu. Bible teacher Rev. Steve Griffiths came from Australia to lead the Bible Conference and the students of our Bible College who were involved in arranging and leading in worship. My parents had ministered in Kanchipuram from 1978 to 1982. God only knows about the fruits of their ministry but God encouraged my Dad by bringing in a person who accepted Christ about 26 years ago. She sat on the front row and listened very well through the entire conference. God challenged the participants to have the zeal and passion for the Gospel like the apostles had. The participants were blessed by this conference and requested us to conduct more Bible conferences like this.
Students sent out for Internship…as part of the curriculum our 2nd year students were sent out for one month of a funded internship. They stayed in three areas, cooked their own food and ministered in and around their areas of ministry. All of them said that they had learnt a lot about ministry and how to relate with each other.
God provided around 3,000 books for the HTC Library….God has graciously provided another 3,000 books to our Bible College through friends of Gospel Harvesters International. We had some difficulty is getting the books out of customs, however God worked it out. We are grateful to God for those of you in the USA who donated these books.
Mobilization and Admission for this coming Academic Year…we are hoping to admit 40 students this coming academic year. This coming week we will be conducting interviews so please continue to pray that God will send the right students.
THE FATHERS HOME
God was with the children when they were sick….One night after I came back from Chennai, little Archana was in pain. She had a very bad stomach ache. I rushed her to the nearest hospital, but since it was late there was no Doctor. The next day she was taken to Christian Medical College Hospital in Vellore. She was admitted and an appendicitis surgery was performed on her. Our caretaker Amulu was with her throughout her stay at the hospital. She has recovered completely. The very next week Karthick came crying to us with a broken hand and he was also taken to the Christian Medical College Hospital in Vellore and now he is recovering. Almost every week, our kids would stand before the church and testify as to how the Lord heard their prayers when they were sick.
Children complete their Academic year…..By God's grace our children completed this Academic year. Balachander wrote his 10th grade government examination. Six completed their 8th grade, so we took them out for a special treat. We were happy to see that most of our kids received awards for academic excellence - Barathi for 8th grade, Kamalnathan for 7th grade, Gayathri and Venkatesh for 6th grade etc. Please do continue to pray for them and our financial needs for the next six months.
Thank you very much for graciously praying for us and supporting us. Your support and investment is not in vain. Please do keep in touch….with love and prayers….
Your Brother in Christ,
Sam
Aaron John Samuel
Principal, HTC
Director, TFH
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