Dear Pastors, Partners, and Leaders!

Once again I want to thank our Lord Jesus Christ that God has kept me and my father alive until now, so I am sending you our update. 

Beaten and Mocked for Believing in the Lord Jesus, but Still Preached the Gospel

2 weeks ago, when we were going to a village to attend a Bible study as we do daily, some men followed us. They found out that our Christian fellowship was going on in a certain village. After we left the village, those men, along with about 100 other people went to the village and vandalized it. They forced the people to sing Hindu devotional songs. Many of the people who were new believers sang the songs.

One of believers there was a woman named R*. I have mentioned her many times to you in my newsletters and prayer requests. She was beaten and abused by the people who vandalized the village. Still, she did not bow down. Instead, she preached the Gospel in front of the bigoted people. The Hindu fanatics made fun of the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ and threatened R* with death. 

They are pressurizing the people of the village to build a Hindu temple there, saying that everyone should worship in it and that those who will not worship in it will be killed. Long ago, our state was called the “graveyard of Christians”. There has been peace here for a few years. Now, we are concerned that our state is going to become the graveyard of Christians again. Please pray that God gives protection to me, my parents, and my wife and that the church family becomes stronger in their faith.

1 Day of Each Month Is Dedicated to Intercessory Prayer from Morning to Evening!

Thank God that He is truly a gracious and loving Lord and provides for our every need. God is advancing all of us day by day in the knowledge of His Word. He is burdening us to pray for other sisters and brothers. I always thank God that He has given me such a church and for supporters who are always attentive to our needs and praying for us day and night. That is why we all decided to find one day in each month when we could all gather together from morning to evening and for intercessory prayer. 

All of us spend time together in prayer and worship of the Lord from morning till evening on the first Friday of every month. In the evening we have dinner together. Because of this, people in our church are growing stronger in their faith and learning to depend on God while also praying for others. It feels great to hear their prayer requests and that God has given them the burden of preaching and spreading the news of Jesus. Many people from the church are going to other villages and sharing the news and bringing new believers to our church. We are also praying for them day and night and always encouraging them with the Word.

Praise Points:

1. Praise God that He has kept me safe.
2. Praise be to God! A wonderful work has been done through your prayers. In my last update, I asked for prayer for a lady named P*. Her husband had kept her under house arrest, but through your prayers she has started coming back to worship!
3. Praise be to God! S* was suffering from a very strange disease in which his hands would burst on their own and bleed. Because of this, the people of his village despised him. God has now cured him about 90%. He is doing much better and is doing electrical work.
4. Praise God, the people of our church are deeply understanding God’s Word and persevering in the face of persecution.

Prayer Requests:

1. Please pray for the safety of R*. Pray that God will protect her from all of the anti-Christian people who attacked her and her village. 
2. Please pray that our Sunday fellowship does not interfere with our Friday Bible study fellowship.
3. Please pray that the logistical problem with the banks be solved as soon as possible.
4. Please pray for me, my wife and my family. Everyone is suffering from a cold and fever. May God heal us.
5. Please pray for P*. She has a skin problem and has been undergoing treatment for about 2 years but is not getting cured.
6. Please pray for R*, he has been paralyzed for about 22 years and has been coming to our church for about 15 years. May God heal him. Also pray for A*. He has also been coming to our church for about 22 years but he is mentally handicapped.
7. Please pray about our outreach plans for this coming December. Like we do every year, we want to do a lot of outreach to tell the Gospel in the areas where the name of Jesus Christ has not reached. We currently have about 1,500 New Testaments. We hope to distribute them, show the Jesus movie on projectors in rural areas, distribute blankets to the poor and widows, etc. If it is God’s will, please pray that He gives us protection and fulfills our every need.

Thanks for your prayers, love, and partnership in sharing the Gospel.

God bless you!

Pastor & Mrs. 11*

*Names and faces have been changed or omitted for security reasons.