Exciting News for March 2010

I have been asked what I am going to be doing on my missions trip to Thailand/India in April and would like to share a brief summary. My daughter Michelle is a missionary in Chaing Mai Thailand. She is working with the high risk children in the red light district. I hope to spend some time in her ministry and see how the Lord is using her to set those children free of the bonds of the sex industry that is so rampant in Thailand.

Then I will be taking Michelle and Heather, a friend from her ministry (they are both 22 years old by the way) to India with me to see Matthew Raju and the children in his little church orphanage. At this time,Matheww and his wife Hanna over see a womens sewing center, teach a bible college, and minister to the poor widows, as well as house and educate 40 orphan, semi orphans, and street children. They do all of this in a small church building which is approximately 12X24 in size. They also minister and take care of a leper colony and encourage and help to support other poor area tribal pastors, as well as outreach to the Hindus in their own community and neighborhood.

I have several objectives to this trip. The main one is to reestablish relationships as it has been nearly 3 years since my last visit. I will photograph the children, widows, lepers etc to document the conditions they are living in. I hope to get help them find housing that can accommodate them with better living conditions. At this time, they have one water pump for all their cooking, bathing and cleaning and it is outside. There is one outhouse style toilet, with no sink, and they cook outside on a little fire pit. Their conditions really are very primitive. I hope to see them eventually in a home that can offer the boys a girls separate rooms, have a school room, a room for the poor widows to live in as they can be "house mothers" and a room for the pastor and his wife.

We will be purchasing anything the sewing center women has made, like purses, doilies, and shirts, etc. I want to bless them and know they will feel of more value having earned a wage and knowing their product is coming back to the USA. Once here I have a little store that is willing to purchase them, hopefully making a profit that can go back into the cost of the house they will soon have. I am also taking supplies to teach them how to make jewelry, and hope we can find local beads to make their jewelry something reflecting their own culture.

We are going to visit the leper colony and take them some "trykes", which is especially made for them. Many of these dear ones have no toes, feet, hands, etc and they are destined to live a life on the ground, having no furniture and being shunned, and these trkes will help to give them independence and help to restore their dignity.

While there we will provide them with blankets, clothes, rice and fresh fruits and vegetables. I would also like to take them medical supplies of bandages, asprin, etc. We will be holding a church service there, as these lepers are Christians..I am sure this will be one of the most humbling experiences of my life, and I am looking forward to meeting my brothers and sisters and showing them the love of Jesus.

We will also have a meeting with the other tribal pastors. I hope I can provide a few of them with a bicycle. The last time I went I was able to buy 2, and my heart was so moved, to see 2 men of God literally weep, when they were presented with the bikes. They have to travel very far to minister to the poor in their area, many of them own no shoes, yet they travel miles every day for the sake of one person. I have been a guest in their churches, and many times the offering and tithes they receive are as little as a handful of rice. I hope to be able to bless these pastors with an offering, so in return they can go back to their church and help provide for their widows, orphans and lepers.

The need is huge and quite endless. It is powerful to see how God is moving in this. I have purchased my own airline tickets as well as the tickets for my daughter and Heather. I have also paid for our hotels. It left me with nothing for the gifts and offering, but in only a few weeks, the Lord has brought in approx. $500.00 for these dears ones, and I can say, that 100% at this time goes to all the above needs.

Thank you for taking the time to read, I am trusting God to provide all our needs according to His riches in glory, and am really excited to see how it all unfolds in the next 4 weeks! Please keep us in prayer

Gods Blessing to You,