Finally the monsoon season is over. The cloudy and foggy weather had made life gloomy and dull. The life has once again come back on the mountains with the coming of winter. Days are nice sunny and warm. The mountains are covered with flowers. The rain this year affected more people. Many families have lost their loved ones in road accidents (buses and jeeps fell off the cliffs), landslides and flood in the plain. Last month an earthquake hit the eastern Himalayas. The earthquake was felt till the central India. Thank you for your prayers for our safety. We praise the Lord for the protection of all our believers in these disasters.
Our Deolsari believers are growing in their faith and are good witnesses of our Lord Jesus. Rakesh is being used by the Lord. He is leading the Deolsari Fellowship very well. He has passion for the Lord. He has been witnessing to his friends. New doors are being open for him. Last month he was called by a family in another village to share the gospel. He stayed with the family one night and shared the gospel with them. We are a kind of foreigners for these Garhwali people and they do not respond to the gospel well when we share with them they nod their head and say all gods are the same. But the local people are more effective as people identify with them. The villagers are more open to the local believers. They share their feelings (disagreements or agreements) openly with the local believers. We enjoy seeing these believers being used by the Lord. We are focusing more on discipling the local believers.
People in the villages are illiterate and poor. They think that more children will fetch more income to the family. This has increase the poverty and problems of the family. Pooja’s mother gave birth to her eighth child last month. Vikram’s family is also a victim of this problem. Vikram is our believer from Deolsari. He is the oldest child of five children in the family. He is 13 years old and his youngest sister is six or seven months old. Last month he lost his father who was an alcoholic. He had been drinking continuously for a month without having food that resulted in his death. Vikram’s mother is dumb and deaf. His father used to play drum in village weddings and festivals. Now Vikram being th
e oldest child of the family has to do the same job to take care of the family. Instead of going to school this small boy has to take care of his grandmother, mother and three younger sisters and a younger brother. In the photo Vikram and his brother have shaved off their heads. It is the Hindu custom that male members of the family of the dead person to shave off their heads. Pray that Vikram may trust the Lord for his family needs and the whole family may know the Lord.
We have started a fellowship in Happy Valley on Fridays. Rahul is leading this fellowship. Right now six or seven people come for the meeting and we hope that this will grow. Last month Rahul fell off from his bike when he used break the bike slipped, but the Lord saved him from big injury.
We want to thank you all for your continued prayers and supports. Thank you for partnering with us to spread the gospel in the Mountains of Garhwal. We hope to see churches being planted in the villages here. It has already begun, but the CPM yet to begin. To begin the CPM in the Mountains of Garhwal we need the local partners who would take the gospel to their own people. At this time we have two local partners (Rakesh and Rahul) with us and next year Pradeep will join us after completing his Bible School. As our co-workers increase we need more supports to help them. Please pray for more laborers and their supports. “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore to send out workers into his harvest field” (Mt. 9:37-38).
God bless you all dear faithful and cheerful givers.
Co-workers in Christ,
Pratim and Vinita
