September
17 2008
Dear Friends.
We trust that you are well and enjoying the blessing of the Lord on
your lives!
After serving at AFRICA SCHOOL OF MISSIONS for 24years, it has been
quite an adjustment to embrace life in our new hometown in OOTY, INDIA.
Despite the many unique challenges we face we count it a privilege
to be in the nation of INDIA serving the Lord.
After five weeks of house hunting we have found a lovely home to rent
which is such a wonderful provision of the Lord. In December 2000,
when we were ministering in Texarkana in the USA, Karen had a dream
of a home that we had in India where we could serve missionaries,
the home we have is what she saw in this dream! We still need to sign
a contract and we await the arrival of our household goods from South
Africa.
Geoff attended the Indian Missions Association's conference in Hyderabad,
which has opened up many doors for ministry. This includes doors in
Bihar where we trust the Lord to start a Church Planting School. Geoff
has also been ministering in Coimbatore with our friends the Prakasams.
In two weeks Geoff will be going to Chennai to give training to Teachers
at the Bible School that was started through Pastor Christo Walters
and is supported by Churches in South Africa. Then later in October
and November Geoff will be going north to Delhi, Varanassi, Patna
and Siliguri to teach at a Church Planting School and some conferences.
For the first six months Karen's primarily commitment is to our children
and making a home for us. With regular power cuts and irregular water
supply this takes a lot of time. Collecting water and making fire
a part of her daily routine here in Ooty. She is however also working
hard on completing a Manuel to assist with the duplication of the
Orphan Care Centres she started in South Africa with Masoyi HBC and
H@W. We have had numerous requests for involvement in orphan care
and Karen will get involved with Orphan Care in 2009.
Our girls are settling into their new School-Hebron. They have made
some wonderful friends and spend most weekends at the Boarding Dorms.
Life is so very different to what they have known and it has been
quite difficult for them, but we salute them for their tenacity in
embracing the culture and determining to make the choice to be happy
here in India! Daniel is taking time to adjust and has had some issues
to work through; the school has been incredibly gracious in the support
they are giving him.
Please pray with us regarding the following matters:
- Persecution of Christian in Orissa and beyond. (at the IMA conference
we got reports everyday of Christians being martyred for their faith,
in many parts of India)
- Pray for those affected by the severe floods in Bihar.
- Pray for the Missionaries we are serving and the training we are
doing.
- Pray for our monthly support which is not completely in place.
- Pray for a vehicle, it gets expensive to use public transport continually.
- Pray for our protection as a family.
- Pray for us as we learn a new language. (We met with language consultants
this week)
Thank you for being part of our lives and our ministry here in India.
We serve to make the Name of Jesus GREAT in this beautiful nation!
Every blessing in Jesus,
Geoff, Karen, Abi, Beth and Daniel
