Dear Praying Friends,
This is just a short update for prayer of activities over the past 10 days:-
1. We praise God for His help, and for your prayers, with all the end of the year programs. It has been a terribly busy period for us and many of the staff have been working very hard. The programs went very well and many have heard the gospel. Please pray that God’s word will go deep into the hearts of all who have heard.
2. Three of our staff working in the HIV ministry will be spending the next 10 days in Bangalore. We have been given a stall to sell handicraft and the items made by the HIV people. The staff are going by train tomorrow and are taking a lot of things with them. Pray that they will be greatly encouraged and that much will be sold.
3. There is a lot of chikangunya all around us and some of our staff are affected. The Chetpet area where we are living in is full of this. Pray for protection for all of us, especially over this Christmas season.
4. On the 26th of December we are sending all the children who will be in the Orphanage (approximately 80) to Padappai until the 3rd of January. Pray for the staff who will be with them and a mission team that will be conducting many activities for them for three days.
5. Pray for our Security personnel. We are facing a lot of problems with the present Security and recently a large amount of money was stolen from the Bethany Higher Secondary School. We need honest men of integrity for this post.
6. The last three days it has been continuously raining here and many of our roads are flooded. The monsoon is very late this year.
As we go to the end of the year, many pressures are on all of us and we all need your prayers for renewal over the Christmas season.
A few lines from you would be greatly appreciated.
With warmest greetings and compliments of the season,
Colleen
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Colleen's Prayer Emails
Dear Praying Friends,
Warmest Greetings to you in His Precious Name.
The following are some urgent prayer requests:-
1. Vimala had an X-Ray yesterday as her foot is swelling terribly, and the bone has not fully healed, only partially, and she has to take rest for one more week with her foot up. Pray for a miracle of healing as it is very inconvenient, as it is telling on the little children in our family. Our children have no father and when they go to school and their mother cannot accompany them on occasions, they feel it terribly.
2. Jean Bertram in Scotland who was in India recently, contracted swine flue after she went back to Scotland and she feels that she was infected on the plane going back to Scotland. It seems that there are a lot of cases of swine flu in Scotland. I have spoken to her on the phone and she is far from well. Please pray for quick healing for her. She is a great support to the ministry of CMCT.
3. On 8th of December (tomorrow), we are all going to Chinnakuppam for the Christmas program. Pray that it will be a good time and pray for Mr Bhaskar, our building contractor, that he will fulfill his agreement to quickly do much more work on the houses before the team come here in January from New Zealand. Rains have caused the delay and the weather reports say that it is quite possible that we will have rain until the end of December.
4. Next Saturday, the 12th, we are having a Christmas program for the sponsored children of in Chinnakuppam. In CMCT a Christmas program will be conducted for all the children in the Sponsorship programs, who attend Bethany School. It is going to be a very busy time for us.
5. Pray for Olive Rankin. She flies back to UK tonight. Pray for safety in travel. We praise God for her. She has done an excellent job while she was with us. We are thrilled about the new handicrafts and we know that all of you will be equally thrilled when you see them.
Please let us know whether you have received this email or not. May God bless you abundantly.
In His Glad Service,
Colleen
Warmest Greetings to you in His Precious Name.
The following are some urgent prayer requests:-
1. Vimala had an X-Ray yesterday as her foot is swelling terribly, and the bone has not fully healed, only partially, and she has to take rest for one more week with her foot up. Pray for a miracle of healing as it is very inconvenient, as it is telling on the little children in our family. Our children have no father and when they go to school and their mother cannot accompany them on occasions, they feel it terribly.
2. Jean Bertram in Scotland who was in India recently, contracted swine flue after she went back to Scotland and she feels that she was infected on the plane going back to Scotland. It seems that there are a lot of cases of swine flu in Scotland. I have spoken to her on the phone and she is far from well. Please pray for quick healing for her. She is a great support to the ministry of CMCT.
3. On 8th of December (tomorrow), we are all going to Chinnakuppam for the Christmas program. Pray that it will be a good time and pray for Mr Bhaskar, our building contractor, that he will fulfill his agreement to quickly do much more work on the houses before the team come here in January from New Zealand. Rains have caused the delay and the weather reports say that it is quite possible that we will have rain until the end of December.
4. Next Saturday, the 12th, we are having a Christmas program for the sponsored children of in Chinnakuppam. In CMCT a Christmas program will be conducted for all the children in the Sponsorship programs, who attend Bethany School. It is going to be a very busy time for us.
5. Pray for Olive Rankin. She flies back to UK tonight. Pray for safety in travel. We praise God for her. She has done an excellent job while she was with us. We are thrilled about the new handicrafts and we know that all of you will be equally thrilled when you see them.
Please let us know whether you have received this email or not. May God bless you abundantly.
In His Glad Service,
Colleen
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Colleen's Prayer Emails
Dear Praying Friends,
Greetings in His wonderful Name.
Thank you for praying for our Christmas program that was held on the 21st of November. Our children gave such a wonderful performance that was most professional! The Music Theatre was packed to capacity with people standing in the aisle and even sitting down in the vacant places in the aisles. The Lord truly answered prayer. We had a lady Police Officer with us. She is an Assistant Commissioner of Police, who was by the Late Rajiv Gandhi’s side when he was assassinated. She is a Christian and showed us her left hand where she only has a thumb and one finger, the rest of the fingers having been amputated as they were seriously injured. She spoke a few words and said that we should never be ashamed of being handicapped, but should go on with our work with courage. It was a privilege for me to stand beside her and present her with our Christmas CD that we released at this program.
The Rally closing programs are going well. The children and leaders are doing excellent programs, and it is wonderful to hear the children reciting memory verses.
Please continue to pray for so many programs being held until the 24th of December. Pray that all those who do not know the Lord who attend, will open their hearts to accept the Lord.
Swamy is improving and he may be returning to work after two weeks. Vimala is now going about her usual work. She still gets a lot of swelling on her foot, but it has improved a lot.
We are busy following up on all the children whose homes have been flattened. The places they have been allotted to, are very small. There is only one room, in which only three people can sleep. They only have a tiny kitchen and toilet, and the families are not at all happy. It is rather a sad situation.
The following people need special prayer as they are very unwell:
1. Meena, doing her Teacher’s training jn Vel’s College;
2. Olive, who is under psychiatric treatment;
3. Some of the Orphanage children who are suffering from fever. There is a lot of illness going around the city at present.
May God bless you and encourage you as He is encouraging us.
In His Service,
Colleen
Greetings in His wonderful Name.
Thank you for praying for our Christmas program that was held on the 21st of November. Our children gave such a wonderful performance that was most professional! The Music Theatre was packed to capacity with people standing in the aisle and even sitting down in the vacant places in the aisles. The Lord truly answered prayer. We had a lady Police Officer with us. She is an Assistant Commissioner of Police, who was by the Late Rajiv Gandhi’s side when he was assassinated. She is a Christian and showed us her left hand where she only has a thumb and one finger, the rest of the fingers having been amputated as they were seriously injured. She spoke a few words and said that we should never be ashamed of being handicapped, but should go on with our work with courage. It was a privilege for me to stand beside her and present her with our Christmas CD that we released at this program.
The Rally closing programs are going well. The children and leaders are doing excellent programs, and it is wonderful to hear the children reciting memory verses.
Please continue to pray for so many programs being held until the 24th of December. Pray that all those who do not know the Lord who attend, will open their hearts to accept the Lord.
Swamy is improving and he may be returning to work after two weeks. Vimala is now going about her usual work. She still gets a lot of swelling on her foot, but it has improved a lot.
We are busy following up on all the children whose homes have been flattened. The places they have been allotted to, are very small. There is only one room, in which only three people can sleep. They only have a tiny kitchen and toilet, and the families are not at all happy. It is rather a sad situation.
The following people need special prayer as they are very unwell:
1. Meena, doing her Teacher’s training jn Vel’s College;
2. Olive, who is under psychiatric treatment;
3. Some of the Orphanage children who are suffering from fever. There is a lot of illness going around the city at present.
May God bless you and encourage you as He is encouraging us.
In His Service,
Colleen
Friday, November 20, 2009
Colleen's Prayer Emails
Dear Praying Friends,
Warm Greetings to you in His Precious Name.
Across the road from us we have the most pitiful picture. Over 200 hut house flattened to the ground, still people living on the side of the road and many of these our own children from Bethany School who have lost their uniforms, school books, etc., in all the shifting and also who have not been given an allotment for alternative housing. It has affected 30-40 of our sponsored children and we are faced with the most pitiful situation.
Some of our children have been shifted 20 kilometers outside the city and the parents are working in this area and they have a ration card and also a voter’s card for this area. Three slum areas have been bull dozed to the ground in our area. The reason is they are planning to have a Metro Railway system around the city which will take 10-15 years to build. The entire rail track is going to be along the Coovum river and we have heard a station is going to come up across the road outside our building. It is very distressing to us and we need the Lord’s wisdom. The sponsorship department are very busy checking up on the children and their circumstances. Some of the families are going to need advance rent to get another place nearby. If there is no other alternative, these children cannot go to any other school until June of next year. So, the situation is quite urgent.
Many of you reading this may be having a sponsored child involved. Please pray with us and if your child is involved we will let you know eventually.
The monsoon is not over as yet and the weather report says there will be more rain and we can expect rain up till the 15th of December.
We had the TV crew from America with us only for two days as they were delayed coming to Chennai by one day. It was a very busy time trying to fit in everything, and confusion. There are many things that have not been covered, but in the end I am sure it is going to be very worth while for the glory of God.
We need prayer for health. Some of us have been very ill with a very bad cold, including myself. There is a lot of illness going around Chikangunya is spreading very fast.
In our Bethany Higher Secondary School, because of the rains, the walls have been literally blackened, covered with mosquitoes. They have been trying to spray them out, but it is impossible for the children and even the teachers to sit in the class. To put mosquito netting on all the windows will be very expensive and when the class room doors open, this is not going to help.
My son-in-law, Swamy, husband of Dora, has had a motor bike accident. It is a miracle his life was saved. In the same place the next day a woman was killed. Swamy is in bed and will not be able to walk for at least a month. Dr. Jayaraman has done a skin graft on his leg. Today Vimala has had a further X-Ray and healing is taking place, but she still has to be very careful. Because she is indisposed, I have been spending a lot of time with our sponsorship staff, buying the Christmas clothes for every sponsored child. We give all the children in the Sponsorship programs new clothes for Christmas. We still have two or three more days to complete the shopping.
Every evening this week, we have been having practices for the Christmas program which will be held tomorrow night in the Museum Theatre. Today as well as tomorrow morning, there will be a main practice. Our program is at 6 p.m. tomorrow night the 21st. Then, from Monday, 23rd November, we start all our end of the year programs which involves a special program nearly every night, and some in the day time. So, I need a lot of strengthening from the Lord as all want me to attend their respective programs. We also need to do this in order to encourage all the others in the ministry.
In regard to the Tsunami Housing project, the re-building of the housing cannot start until the rainy season is over.
We realize in these days that the evil one is working over time and we need to be very strong in the Lord and on guard all the time and be powerful to overcome the evil one. We are also human and it means so much when prayer partners stand with us and encourage us. In the modern world we are living in, there are very few who write letters and emails have become so business-like. Sadly, we have lost out terribly on the personal touch.
With warmest greetings,
In His Joyful Service,
Colleen
Warm Greetings to you in His Precious Name.
Across the road from us we have the most pitiful picture. Over 200 hut house flattened to the ground, still people living on the side of the road and many of these our own children from Bethany School who have lost their uniforms, school books, etc., in all the shifting and also who have not been given an allotment for alternative housing. It has affected 30-40 of our sponsored children and we are faced with the most pitiful situation.
Some of our children have been shifted 20 kilometers outside the city and the parents are working in this area and they have a ration card and also a voter’s card for this area. Three slum areas have been bull dozed to the ground in our area. The reason is they are planning to have a Metro Railway system around the city which will take 10-15 years to build. The entire rail track is going to be along the Coovum river and we have heard a station is going to come up across the road outside our building. It is very distressing to us and we need the Lord’s wisdom. The sponsorship department are very busy checking up on the children and their circumstances. Some of the families are going to need advance rent to get another place nearby. If there is no other alternative, these children cannot go to any other school until June of next year. So, the situation is quite urgent.
Many of you reading this may be having a sponsored child involved. Please pray with us and if your child is involved we will let you know eventually.
The monsoon is not over as yet and the weather report says there will be more rain and we can expect rain up till the 15th of December.
We had the TV crew from America with us only for two days as they were delayed coming to Chennai by one day. It was a very busy time trying to fit in everything, and confusion. There are many things that have not been covered, but in the end I am sure it is going to be very worth while for the glory of God.
We need prayer for health. Some of us have been very ill with a very bad cold, including myself. There is a lot of illness going around Chikangunya is spreading very fast.
In our Bethany Higher Secondary School, because of the rains, the walls have been literally blackened, covered with mosquitoes. They have been trying to spray them out, but it is impossible for the children and even the teachers to sit in the class. To put mosquito netting on all the windows will be very expensive and when the class room doors open, this is not going to help.
My son-in-law, Swamy, husband of Dora, has had a motor bike accident. It is a miracle his life was saved. In the same place the next day a woman was killed. Swamy is in bed and will not be able to walk for at least a month. Dr. Jayaraman has done a skin graft on his leg. Today Vimala has had a further X-Ray and healing is taking place, but she still has to be very careful. Because she is indisposed, I have been spending a lot of time with our sponsorship staff, buying the Christmas clothes for every sponsored child. We give all the children in the Sponsorship programs new clothes for Christmas. We still have two or three more days to complete the shopping.
Every evening this week, we have been having practices for the Christmas program which will be held tomorrow night in the Museum Theatre. Today as well as tomorrow morning, there will be a main practice. Our program is at 6 p.m. tomorrow night the 21st. Then, from Monday, 23rd November, we start all our end of the year programs which involves a special program nearly every night, and some in the day time. So, I need a lot of strengthening from the Lord as all want me to attend their respective programs. We also need to do this in order to encourage all the others in the ministry.
In regard to the Tsunami Housing project, the re-building of the housing cannot start until the rainy season is over.
We realize in these days that the evil one is working over time and we need to be very strong in the Lord and on guard all the time and be powerful to overcome the evil one. We are also human and it means so much when prayer partners stand with us and encourage us. In the modern world we are living in, there are very few who write letters and emails have become so business-like. Sadly, we have lost out terribly on the personal touch.
With warmest greetings,
In His Joyful Service,
Colleen
Monday, November 16, 2009
Christmas Gifts for Sponsored Children
Dear India Sponsors,
God bless you for making this sacrifice of your time and funds to make this a happier Christmas for these sweet children.
Judy Bell
tojudyb@aol.com
It is that time of year to think about sending your child in India a Christmas gift package. Thank you so much for caring about these children and especially thank you for your prayers for their well being and their spiritual walk with Jesus. This little gift will bring a smile to their faces and create even more of a connection with you.
Packages need to be sent as soon as possible so they will be there when the children have their Christmas party before their Christmas break. Please mail to: CMCT - 72(59)Spur Tank Road Chetpet,Chennai-600 031. India.
They have asked that we send by registered mail. They would rather we spend less on the gift and spend on the shipping to make sure the gift arrives.
Here are some suggestions of what to send if you need ideas:- If you know the size: a T-shirt, cotton night gown with sleeves, a cotton skirt or blouse (remember how hot it is in India)
- Photo frame
- School supplies: all the same as our USA children (except for electronics)
- Inexpensive watch
- Small purse
- Personal photos of you, your family, your pets
- Photo album
- Toilet items: towel, shower gel, powder, comb/brush/clips/hairbands/toothbrush &paste
- Ribbons
- Wrapped candy or sweets in a tin
- Story books
- Diary
- Small toys (no war toys)
- Puzzles
God bless you for making this sacrifice of your time and funds to make this a happier Christmas for these sweet children.
Judy Bell
tojudyb@aol.com
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Dear Praying Friends,
Warmest Greetings to you in His Precious Name!
This is a short email to ask for continuous prayer for the ministry of CMCT. This is the time when much prayer is needed because when staff become too busy with Christmas programs and practices, it is very easy for them to become short-tempered and highly strung.
The accident matter was settled, but sadly we had a second accident on Thursday, involving another school bus and also another Advocate’s car. This case was mutually settled and closed after paying an amount to them. We are issuing strict instructions to our drivers to be more conscious on the roads.
Vimala continues to need much prayer, and because she is a diabetic, the healing is very slow and her toes are still very swollen. Praise God we have been able to wrap gifts for 8 Rally break-ups. I went along with some of the sponsorship staff to buy the Christmas clothes for Cedar Fund and ‘Help the Children’ today. This is a tremendous job and will take many, more days.
The last few days we have had no rain, but the sky is very overcast and therefore it has become very humid. Still many places have no electricity and no proper water supply.
The Christmas program on the 21st needs much prayer. Please pray for our speaker, John Williams. There is still a lot of practicing to do, but I am sure in the end it would turn out beautifully. In the Rallies also the leaders are practicing special items.
On Monday we are having a TV crew from America here for 3 days to do a program to be telecast on a station in USA that has millions of viewers.
Pray for Jean Bertram and Emma Givens as they arrive here on Tuesday.
With love and prayers,
Colleen
P.S From lunch time today it is again raining very heavily. Heavy rain forecast for all Tamil Nadu. Also today the co-operation sent police Bulldozers and trucks to wipe out the slum across the road from C.M.C.T. Those of you who have visited will know. The shouting, fighting and crying has been awful. They are giving them tokens to go outside the city to a slum clearance building. So many are refusing to go. Many have jobs in this area and children have school. So many of the hut houses are now flattened.
Warmest Greetings to you in His Precious Name!
This is a short email to ask for continuous prayer for the ministry of CMCT. This is the time when much prayer is needed because when staff become too busy with Christmas programs and practices, it is very easy for them to become short-tempered and highly strung.
The accident matter was settled, but sadly we had a second accident on Thursday, involving another school bus and also another Advocate’s car. This case was mutually settled and closed after paying an amount to them. We are issuing strict instructions to our drivers to be more conscious on the roads.
Vimala continues to need much prayer, and because she is a diabetic, the healing is very slow and her toes are still very swollen. Praise God we have been able to wrap gifts for 8 Rally break-ups. I went along with some of the sponsorship staff to buy the Christmas clothes for Cedar Fund and ‘Help the Children’ today. This is a tremendous job and will take many, more days.
The last few days we have had no rain, but the sky is very overcast and therefore it has become very humid. Still many places have no electricity and no proper water supply.
The Christmas program on the 21st needs much prayer. Please pray for our speaker, John Williams. There is still a lot of practicing to do, but I am sure in the end it would turn out beautifully. In the Rallies also the leaders are practicing special items.
On Monday we are having a TV crew from America here for 3 days to do a program to be telecast on a station in USA that has millions of viewers.
Pray for Jean Bertram and Emma Givens as they arrive here on Tuesday.
With love and prayers,
Colleen
P.S From lunch time today it is again raining very heavily. Heavy rain forecast for all Tamil Nadu. Also today the co-operation sent police Bulldozers and trucks to wipe out the slum across the road from C.M.C.T. Those of you who have visited will know. The shouting, fighting and crying has been awful. They are giving them tokens to go outside the city to a slum clearance building. So many are refusing to go. Many have jobs in this area and children have school. So many of the hut houses are now flattened.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Dear Praying Friends
Dear Praying friends,
I want to thank you for your prayers and I want to ask you to pray much for us as the monsoon season has started here and although we need the rain so much, it is so tragic to see the roads deeply flooded and the people in the slums suffering in low lying areas inundated with water. Today is our ration distribution day and it is so pitiful to see the poor people (over 450) who have received rations from us today. All schools in the city are closed today because the play grounds are under water. Some of our children and staff are falling ill.
Last evening one of our school buses met with an accident. It was our driver’s fault. Unfortunately the car involved in the accident was a very expensive one and belongs to a High Court Judge who is a relative of the Health Minister in Parliament. Our staff had to negotiate in the Police station till 10.00 p.m. last night and finally they agreed to accept Rs.30,000 from us. Initially they wanted Rs.60,000. Otherwise they were going to impound our school bus, and we would not have got it back for a long time. Some of our staff have gone to pay the money today and nearly 5 hours have passed, and they have still not come back.
We are very concerned as we have no proper security. We had to send out the main security man as he was up to a lot of deceitful activities, even taking rations from the poor people and helping our children take out things which they should not have taken.
I am very sad that Vimala had a fall and has a hairline facture in her big toe. This happened two weeks ago, but the pain is still intense with bad swelling. She has been resting her foot but it is an impossibility with no servant and four small children and all the end of the year gifts to prepare for all the programs. Today she saw an orthopedic surgeon who was very harsh in his words and he has told her that she has to rest her foot and be in bed for two more weeks. Some of the words he used were not very nice. I honestly don’t know how we as a family are going to manage with all the pressure of all the end of the year activities and our meals.
Our main Christmas program is on the 21st of this month in the Museum Theatre. A lot of intense practicing is going on as we are presenting this year a very different program, which is a one-hour musical drama by our children in the Orphanage. We need much prayer that this program will go on very well for the glory of God.
Because of the rain very little work can be done at the Tsunami site at present. The Panchayat came to see me this week, telling me how pleased the 34 families were who were occupying the 34 houses and how the other families were suffering because of the rain and because no fishing could be done on account of the rough seas. These are the burdens pressing on me at the moment, for earnest prayer please.
With warm greetings and a special THANK YOU to those who reply and encourage.
Colleen
I want to thank you for your prayers and I want to ask you to pray much for us as the monsoon season has started here and although we need the rain so much, it is so tragic to see the roads deeply flooded and the people in the slums suffering in low lying areas inundated with water. Today is our ration distribution day and it is so pitiful to see the poor people (over 450) who have received rations from us today. All schools in the city are closed today because the play grounds are under water. Some of our children and staff are falling ill.
Last evening one of our school buses met with an accident. It was our driver’s fault. Unfortunately the car involved in the accident was a very expensive one and belongs to a High Court Judge who is a relative of the Health Minister in Parliament. Our staff had to negotiate in the Police station till 10.00 p.m. last night and finally they agreed to accept Rs.30,000 from us. Initially they wanted Rs.60,000. Otherwise they were going to impound our school bus, and we would not have got it back for a long time. Some of our staff have gone to pay the money today and nearly 5 hours have passed, and they have still not come back.
We are very concerned as we have no proper security. We had to send out the main security man as he was up to a lot of deceitful activities, even taking rations from the poor people and helping our children take out things which they should not have taken.
I am very sad that Vimala had a fall and has a hairline facture in her big toe. This happened two weeks ago, but the pain is still intense with bad swelling. She has been resting her foot but it is an impossibility with no servant and four small children and all the end of the year gifts to prepare for all the programs. Today she saw an orthopedic surgeon who was very harsh in his words and he has told her that she has to rest her foot and be in bed for two more weeks. Some of the words he used were not very nice. I honestly don’t know how we as a family are going to manage with all the pressure of all the end of the year activities and our meals.
Our main Christmas program is on the 21st of this month in the Museum Theatre. A lot of intense practicing is going on as we are presenting this year a very different program, which is a one-hour musical drama by our children in the Orphanage. We need much prayer that this program will go on very well for the glory of God.
Because of the rain very little work can be done at the Tsunami site at present. The Panchayat came to see me this week, telling me how pleased the 34 families were who were occupying the 34 houses and how the other families were suffering because of the rain and because no fishing could be done on account of the rough seas. These are the burdens pressing on me at the moment, for earnest prayer please.
With warm greetings and a special THANK YOU to those who reply and encourage.
Colleen
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Dear Praying Friends,
Many of you have responded to my last email and I want to thank you very much. It is always so encouraging to hear from friends who are praying. I would ask you to continue to pray for the Lord to do a deep work in Marjorie Hannah’s heart. Only God can change her because I have tried my uttermost for many years. We now have peace in our family, which is something very special to us. Those who have met Marjorie only saw the best side of her. Marjorie is always very nice to some people, but very rude to some people, but extremely rude and uncouth to those she wants to hurt.
Marjorie was expelled from her school and some of our staff arranged for her to go to the South of India where she is staying in a Mission where they have an Orphanage, Bible School, a Sewing Course and a School. They will persuade her to complete her studies somehow. However, this place is a contrast to CMCT, which is what Marjorie needs. We are deeply grieved because we tried our best, but we will never give up praying for her and would ask you to always keep her in your prayers.
Miriam Grace is very sad because she had been saving Rs.10 notes that people used to give her as pocket money and Marjorie had stolen all of these from Miriam’s purse. When Miriam discovered this, she was very sad.
Ching Biak who was one of the girls has now realized her folly and I have sent her back to school today. She needs a lot of prayer because she has threatened to commit suicide. Sherril’s father has taken her back to Bangalore and he is bringing her back today and giving us a letter that if anything happens again, that CMCT would not be held responsible.
We are conducting a meeting with the parents and relatives of 50% of our Hostel children on the 24th of October and 50% on the 30th of October. We would value much prayer for these meetings and individual talks with parents and children. We need much wisdom and strength. Please pray for the wardens (house-mothers) because they are very sad because the children do not respect them.
The Scottish team have done an excellent job. They returned home the night before. They worked on top speed and used 47,000 bricks, building the Tsunami houses. Mr Bhaskar was in my office today and as God sends us money we will be passing it on to him. We have asked him to continue with the building work and not to stop it.
Last Sunday at our Bridge Gospel Church, we had a wonderful service, very bright, and it was a joy to have overseas visitors with us also. At present we are very privileged to have Campbell and Florence Fountain with us from New Zealand. We have been friends since teenage days!!
It is very, very hot and extremely humid in Chennai, which is quite unusual at this time of the year.
A very sad thing has happened. Our very expensive generator has broken down and we have had to hire a generator. The generator has to be taken to pieces because a mother cat and her 5 kittens have got grounded up in the machinery. Can you imagine such a tragedy? It is awful. Pray for Anburaj as he sees to all of this work.
John Speirs has been with us for a week and it has been a very blessed time. John needs prayer as he has a lot on his plate, but he is a real gift to CMCT and I commend him to you for prayer.
We are having a very sad problem with one of our Nurses, A Esther, who was disqualified from Narsapur College of Nursing during her bond period. She was found with a man inside one of the hospital wards during her night duty. She had to finish that bond period with us and also our bond period. Sadly she has continued her friendship with the same man during the last 1 ½ years behind our back and two weeks ago was caught with the same man, locked up together in our Operation Theatre. Praise God she was caught and I have called her parents today. She has to complete her bond period with us. Sadly she is using the patient’s mobile phones, to speak to this man, and also writing to him. This deceitful behaviour on her part has made all of us very sad. Therefore, please pray for Esther very specially.
Things are not good in Pakistan and much prayer is needed for a cordial relationship between India and Pakistan.
I send my warmest greetings to you all, and those of you whose emails I have not answered, please accept this as a reply to yours, and please be in touch. It always encourages us to know that people have read our emails and are praying.
With warmest greetings, in His Service,
Colleen
Many of you have responded to my last email and I want to thank you very much. It is always so encouraging to hear from friends who are praying. I would ask you to continue to pray for the Lord to do a deep work in Marjorie Hannah’s heart. Only God can change her because I have tried my uttermost for many years. We now have peace in our family, which is something very special to us. Those who have met Marjorie only saw the best side of her. Marjorie is always very nice to some people, but very rude to some people, but extremely rude and uncouth to those she wants to hurt.
Marjorie was expelled from her school and some of our staff arranged for her to go to the South of India where she is staying in a Mission where they have an Orphanage, Bible School, a Sewing Course and a School. They will persuade her to complete her studies somehow. However, this place is a contrast to CMCT, which is what Marjorie needs. We are deeply grieved because we tried our best, but we will never give up praying for her and would ask you to always keep her in your prayers.
Miriam Grace is very sad because she had been saving Rs.10 notes that people used to give her as pocket money and Marjorie had stolen all of these from Miriam’s purse. When Miriam discovered this, she was very sad.
Ching Biak who was one of the girls has now realized her folly and I have sent her back to school today. She needs a lot of prayer because she has threatened to commit suicide. Sherril’s father has taken her back to Bangalore and he is bringing her back today and giving us a letter that if anything happens again, that CMCT would not be held responsible.
We are conducting a meeting with the parents and relatives of 50% of our Hostel children on the 24th of October and 50% on the 30th of October. We would value much prayer for these meetings and individual talks with parents and children. We need much wisdom and strength. Please pray for the wardens (house-mothers) because they are very sad because the children do not respect them.
The Scottish team have done an excellent job. They returned home the night before. They worked on top speed and used 47,000 bricks, building the Tsunami houses. Mr Bhaskar was in my office today and as God sends us money we will be passing it on to him. We have asked him to continue with the building work and not to stop it.
Last Sunday at our Bridge Gospel Church, we had a wonderful service, very bright, and it was a joy to have overseas visitors with us also. At present we are very privileged to have Campbell and Florence Fountain with us from New Zealand. We have been friends since teenage days!!
It is very, very hot and extremely humid in Chennai, which is quite unusual at this time of the year.
A very sad thing has happened. Our very expensive generator has broken down and we have had to hire a generator. The generator has to be taken to pieces because a mother cat and her 5 kittens have got grounded up in the machinery. Can you imagine such a tragedy? It is awful. Pray for Anburaj as he sees to all of this work.
John Speirs has been with us for a week and it has been a very blessed time. John needs prayer as he has a lot on his plate, but he is a real gift to CMCT and I commend him to you for prayer.
We are having a very sad problem with one of our Nurses, A Esther, who was disqualified from Narsapur College of Nursing during her bond period. She was found with a man inside one of the hospital wards during her night duty. She had to finish that bond period with us and also our bond period. Sadly she has continued her friendship with the same man during the last 1 ½ years behind our back and two weeks ago was caught with the same man, locked up together in our Operation Theatre. Praise God she was caught and I have called her parents today. She has to complete her bond period with us. Sadly she is using the patient’s mobile phones, to speak to this man, and also writing to him. This deceitful behaviour on her part has made all of us very sad. Therefore, please pray for Esther very specially.
Things are not good in Pakistan and much prayer is needed for a cordial relationship between India and Pakistan.
I send my warmest greetings to you all, and those of you whose emails I have not answered, please accept this as a reply to yours, and please be in touch. It always encourages us to know that people have read our emails and are praying.
With warmest greetings, in His Service,
Colleen
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Dear Praying Friends,
Warmest Greetings to you in His Precious Name.
I am sorry I have not been in touch with you for nearly six weeks. I had a short holiday and have been travelling for the ministry. There is always so much to do in sharing about what the Lord is doing here in CMCT and I thank the Lord for His mercy and strength and for all the help that I received from fellow believers who were so kind. I am also full of praise to the Lord for those who have been working so hard in the UK to raise funds for the Tsunami project. I have never seen such sacrifice and hard work by so many people because of their concern for the Tsunami project. Only God can reward them for me. Many times it brought tears to my eyes to see how hard the people were working and to see the way the Lord has opened doors for them to help to raise funds.
I want to challenge all of you in other countries about the need for you also to take the initiative and if you would like to have any ideas, please ask and I will guide you to the people in the UK who can help you and give you ideas. At present we have a team of 18 here with us from Scotland, working very hard at Chinnakuppam. They are building with 7,000 bricks a day. Their aim is to complete 40,000 bricks during these 10 days. Unfortunately the temperature is still very high and it is not easy for them at all, and I would ask for special prayer for the Scottish team. They will be with us till the 21st of October. The Chinnakuppam village people are very happy to see their houses being built. When these 40 houses they are working on are completed, we will still have another 60 houses to raise funds for, to complete building them. UK will have raised at least 80,000 till date, and if everybody did likewise, we can finish the project by next March. Even children were standing outside Tesco’s helping people to carry their grocery shopping. They had a box for people to drop their contributions towards the Tsunami fund, and they raised an enormous amount this way.
I have just arrived back near mid-night on the 13th (yesterday). Sadly I came back to face unexpected problems. Three of our girls in the Orphanage ran away yesterday. My daughter, Marjorie Hannah, was the one who helped them to do so and also joined with them. It is only God’s mercy that the Police caught them and two of our staff had to pick them up from the Vyasarpadi Police station and bring them back to CMCT.
My daughter, Marjorie Hannah has been giving me a lot of problems for a long time but I have not shared this with any body. However, we as a family have been very sad for a very long time. Only the Lord knows how we tolerated her cheekiness, rude behaviour, her disrespect for all her seniors and her hatred towards the smaller children in my family. She was also cheeky in the School and lately refused to study and complete her 12th standard.
This morning Marjorie tried to physically hurt me, behaving in a very unruly way. Because the School refused to take her back and we need peace in our home, and also she is such a bad example to the smaller children, I have sent her out of the family today. We cannot keep her in the building because she is capable of going to any extent, which will tarnish the image of the ministry and also give us a bad name.
Fortunately, a national worker in the South of India has agreed to keep her, so she is on her way, being taken by two of our staff. I would ask for urgent prayer for her, that one day she will realize how much love she has received. This means she has discontinued her 12th standard, and she seems to be very happy about her decision.
Can you imagine bringing up a daughter for 20 years and having her write a letter saying she was leaving the family and she did not want our help any more? We have this letter in our file. I guess we are living in days when many Christian families are facing the same problem, and over the past weeks we have had five girls leave while I have been away, all because they decided they did not want to study any more.
We have decided to conduct a Parent’s meeting and interview every child individually and then the parents. Those who do not want to study any more, I am going to ask them to leave because we cannot invest God’s money on girls who do not appreciate the help they are being given and also hurt us so much. A few of us are very discouraged and would value special prayer that the evil one will be bound. Otherwise everything else is going on well in the ministry. I am very proud of many of our staff who are very capable and who are working very hard.
Please pray and encourage us in some way.
Sincerely, in His Joyful Service,
Colleen M Redit
Warmest Greetings to you in His Precious Name.
I am sorry I have not been in touch with you for nearly six weeks. I had a short holiday and have been travelling for the ministry. There is always so much to do in sharing about what the Lord is doing here in CMCT and I thank the Lord for His mercy and strength and for all the help that I received from fellow believers who were so kind. I am also full of praise to the Lord for those who have been working so hard in the UK to raise funds for the Tsunami project. I have never seen such sacrifice and hard work by so many people because of their concern for the Tsunami project. Only God can reward them for me. Many times it brought tears to my eyes to see how hard the people were working and to see the way the Lord has opened doors for them to help to raise funds.
I want to challenge all of you in other countries about the need for you also to take the initiative and if you would like to have any ideas, please ask and I will guide you to the people in the UK who can help you and give you ideas. At present we have a team of 18 here with us from Scotland, working very hard at Chinnakuppam. They are building with 7,000 bricks a day. Their aim is to complete 40,000 bricks during these 10 days. Unfortunately the temperature is still very high and it is not easy for them at all, and I would ask for special prayer for the Scottish team. They will be with us till the 21st of October. The Chinnakuppam village people are very happy to see their houses being built. When these 40 houses they are working on are completed, we will still have another 60 houses to raise funds for, to complete building them. UK will have raised at least 80,000 till date, and if everybody did likewise, we can finish the project by next March. Even children were standing outside Tesco’s helping people to carry their grocery shopping. They had a box for people to drop their contributions towards the Tsunami fund, and they raised an enormous amount this way.
I have just arrived back near mid-night on the 13th (yesterday). Sadly I came back to face unexpected problems. Three of our girls in the Orphanage ran away yesterday. My daughter, Marjorie Hannah, was the one who helped them to do so and also joined with them. It is only God’s mercy that the Police caught them and two of our staff had to pick them up from the Vyasarpadi Police station and bring them back to CMCT.
My daughter, Marjorie Hannah has been giving me a lot of problems for a long time but I have not shared this with any body. However, we as a family have been very sad for a very long time. Only the Lord knows how we tolerated her cheekiness, rude behaviour, her disrespect for all her seniors and her hatred towards the smaller children in my family. She was also cheeky in the School and lately refused to study and complete her 12th standard.
This morning Marjorie tried to physically hurt me, behaving in a very unruly way. Because the School refused to take her back and we need peace in our home, and also she is such a bad example to the smaller children, I have sent her out of the family today. We cannot keep her in the building because she is capable of going to any extent, which will tarnish the image of the ministry and also give us a bad name.
Fortunately, a national worker in the South of India has agreed to keep her, so she is on her way, being taken by two of our staff. I would ask for urgent prayer for her, that one day she will realize how much love she has received. This means she has discontinued her 12th standard, and she seems to be very happy about her decision.
Can you imagine bringing up a daughter for 20 years and having her write a letter saying she was leaving the family and she did not want our help any more? We have this letter in our file. I guess we are living in days when many Christian families are facing the same problem, and over the past weeks we have had five girls leave while I have been away, all because they decided they did not want to study any more.
We have decided to conduct a Parent’s meeting and interview every child individually and then the parents. Those who do not want to study any more, I am going to ask them to leave because we cannot invest God’s money on girls who do not appreciate the help they are being given and also hurt us so much. A few of us are very discouraged and would value special prayer that the evil one will be bound. Otherwise everything else is going on well in the ministry. I am very proud of many of our staff who are very capable and who are working very hard.
Please pray and encourage us in some way.
Sincerely, in His Joyful Service,
Colleen M Redit
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Women's India Team
We are so please to announce there is a group of 12 women - led by Teri Gundlach, Mary Hendricks and Anne Storm going to India the end of January 2010. More on ways to pray for/encourage and support them coming soon!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Prayer Update
Dear Praying Friends,
The temperature in Chennai has come down to 38ºC from 39 to 40. Sometimes it is 37 ºC. We are having a little rain in the evenings some days, but this is also only in certain parts of the city and so quickly the roads become flooded.
Today is our Bethany Primary and Higher Secondary School Sports Day. The children have been practicing for many weeks. We have hired the SDAT Ground which is a very large sports ground. Mr.S.Ananthakrishnan IRS, who is the Addl. Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise is our Chief Guest and will declare the Sports Meet open. I will light the Torch and distribute the Annual Day prizes. Mr.Irudayadoss, the Sports Master and all others have been working very hard. It is always a very wonderful program and just now we are making a new DVD and little of this will be on the DVD.
We would value your prayers for many of the children in the Orphanage who are getting very sick with high fever and cold. Many of them are hospitalized.Dr. Hannah who has been in the hospital for six weeks has now resumed night duty, but she is very weak. We long for God to provide a young, godly night Duty Doctor. Otherwise the medical work is going on very well and many patients have been admitted. This week three more badly burnt cases have been admitted.
There are people who are making a special drive to raise funds for the Tsunami house project and we are very grateful to them. It is very encouraging. I am asking you to pray that more people will come forward so that we can pay the builder the outstanding amount and buy the bricks, cement, sand etc. We need all these items for the team which is coming in October. They have asked us to keep ready 40,000 bricks. This team needs much prayer as they have a task before them to build so many houses. Again in January another team is coming from New Zealand and if anyone of you wish to join this team, please get in touch with INGESTRE STREET BIBLE CHURCH, Wanganui. Also St Margaret Anglican Church in Auckland is planning to send a team. There are many opportunities for short term mission service and if you are prepared to volunteer and join we will be able to complete this project.
In our CMCT Chapel on the 2nd Floor in many places the tiles have sunk and are broken and we have to completely re-do the flooring. This is not a joke. We have already repaired in 2 or 3 places previously, but the foundation under the tiles was not done properly. They will start this work on Saturday morning and will work night and day to complete this. When you receive this please pray for this work.
I want you to continue to pray much for our Bridge Gospel Church. Every Sunday new people are joining and there are about 10 more staying behind for classes on baptism. This is very encouraging.
Anburaj was very ill for 3 or 4 days, but praise God after taking a C.T. Scan we found that all was well and it was only a muscle pain and not a heart problem. But he has to bring down his cholesterol level. Please pray specially for him.
We continue to enjoy having visitors from overseas. This week was very special as we had Mr. Nigel Boatman from U.K. He encouraged us a lot.
With warmest greetings and may God bless you abundantly.
Sincerely in His Service,
Colleen
The temperature in Chennai has come down to 38ºC from 39 to 40. Sometimes it is 37 ºC. We are having a little rain in the evenings some days, but this is also only in certain parts of the city and so quickly the roads become flooded.
Today is our Bethany Primary and Higher Secondary School Sports Day. The children have been practicing for many weeks. We have hired the SDAT Ground which is a very large sports ground. Mr.S.Ananthakrishnan IRS, who is the Addl. Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise is our Chief Guest and will declare the Sports Meet open. I will light the Torch and distribute the Annual Day prizes. Mr.Irudayadoss, the Sports Master and all others have been working very hard. It is always a very wonderful program and just now we are making a new DVD and little of this will be on the DVD.
We would value your prayers for many of the children in the Orphanage who are getting very sick with high fever and cold. Many of them are hospitalized.Dr. Hannah who has been in the hospital for six weeks has now resumed night duty, but she is very weak. We long for God to provide a young, godly night Duty Doctor. Otherwise the medical work is going on very well and many patients have been admitted. This week three more badly burnt cases have been admitted.
There are people who are making a special drive to raise funds for the Tsunami house project and we are very grateful to them. It is very encouraging. I am asking you to pray that more people will come forward so that we can pay the builder the outstanding amount and buy the bricks, cement, sand etc. We need all these items for the team which is coming in October. They have asked us to keep ready 40,000 bricks. This team needs much prayer as they have a task before them to build so many houses. Again in January another team is coming from New Zealand and if anyone of you wish to join this team, please get in touch with INGESTRE STREET BIBLE CHURCH, Wanganui. Also St Margaret Anglican Church in Auckland is planning to send a team. There are many opportunities for short term mission service and if you are prepared to volunteer and join we will be able to complete this project.
In our CMCT Chapel on the 2nd Floor in many places the tiles have sunk and are broken and we have to completely re-do the flooring. This is not a joke. We have already repaired in 2 or 3 places previously, but the foundation under the tiles was not done properly. They will start this work on Saturday morning and will work night and day to complete this. When you receive this please pray for this work.
I want you to continue to pray much for our Bridge Gospel Church. Every Sunday new people are joining and there are about 10 more staying behind for classes on baptism. This is very encouraging.
Anburaj was very ill for 3 or 4 days, but praise God after taking a C.T. Scan we found that all was well and it was only a muscle pain and not a heart problem. But he has to bring down his cholesterol level. Please pray specially for him.
We continue to enjoy having visitors from overseas. This week was very special as we had Mr. Nigel Boatman from U.K. He encouraged us a lot.
With warmest greetings and may God bless you abundantly.
Sincerely in His Service,
Colleen
Monday, August 17, 2009
Prayer Update - August 10, 2010
Dear Praying Friends,
Thank you for your continued prayers. It means much to us to know that you are praying. We are having a lot of struggles in CMCT with some of our girls who we have educated and trained and now have good positions. I want to ask you to pray especially for 2 girls called Joyce and Magilzchi. They have been with me since standard 4. One is a qualified Pharmacist now and one has a very good Teaching certificate and was teaching in Bethany Higher Secondary School. Their father is a full time work in the Assembly. He had been coming into CMCT very often many times without our knowledge and meeting the girls in the Hospital. He was also availing many medicines from the Pharmacy. He had arranged boys for these two girls to marry but he told me that first they must finish their bond period. He has obviously brain washed one of the girls Joyce who said she will never leave CMCT even after marriage and she will come daily and continue to work. Both are baptized believers and Joyce in particular is very active in camp work, Rallies and Sunday School and very helpful in the Orphanage.
A week ago on a Sunday at 9.40 p.m. they pretended to take the rubbish from the Orphanage downstairs and had their bags in the rubbish tin. The security thought nothing about this they went to the rubbish area. They just left the rubbish down and jumped out of the front fence. There was an auto rickshaw waiting to pick them up. We found out they had gone a long way to their sister’s house. After that there has been no contact whatsoever. In India many people say that Hindus are more honest than Christians. Isn’t it sad? I share this with you with a heavy heart because as Christian we should be a testimony for the glory of God.
The cost of everything is going up in India and we have had to cut down on all the provisions that we are buying also for the Orphanage. The cost of essential commodities are going up very much in price. The rents for houses have risen terribly.
A team from USA have come to Chennai and conducting 2 Medical camps for our Primary and Higher Secondary School. The Medical Camps will be held on 11th and 13th of August. Pray that they will be able to cover checking all our children over 1000.
I would value your special prayers for me as I have been asked to be the Chief Guest in Anna Adharsh College which is celebrating their Silver Jubilee on 19th of August at 9.30 a.m. The theme I have to speak on is TRANSCENDING THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE-PERSPECTIVES. I want you to pray that I will speak the right things to challenge women. I have been asked to speak for 15 minutes and there will be a lot of distinguished guests there. They want me to speak about what a woman can do and give an example of my life. I need much prayer as this is an opportunity to witness also.
In our Medical Floor we are having a lot of patients every day and a lot of burn cases are coming to us. Some of them are hearing the Gospel for the first time. We have a very serious case, a Lady named Geetha who was working in the Child Trust Hospital as Nurse-in-Charge. She was taking care of the new born babies in the Intensive Care Unit and was responsible for looking after over 40 babies. Sadly, she and her husband had a fight and she poured kerosene and burnt herself. She is very young about 30 years. I had several talks with her and she has become very interested in reading the Bible. It is tragic to see how she has been burnt above the chest and on the right side of the body. We read in the Newapaper every day of tragic circumstances of people to seek to commit suicide. We praise God that our Hospital is being used to share the Gospel with so many people.
Swine Flu is on the increase and everybody is alarmed. A small child who was being treated for swine flu died this evening in Mehta Hospital which is very close to our office. All the teachers in our Primary school are scared and we have given them face masks to use.
I request you to pray for me and also for the staff so that we will be encouraged and keep our focus totally on the Lord. We have many pressures on us. Please keep in touch.
May God bless you abundantly.
Sincerely in His service
Colleen Redit
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
My special greetings to you.
Dear Friends,
My special greetings to you.
Thank you for praying for me and the ministry of CMCT. We have been very busy ever since I contacted you last. There are many challenges in the ministry and some times we are under a lot of pressure. We need much prayer. I am deeply concerned about many issues and can only bring them to the Lord in prayer. We are having a special staff prayer meeting. The Lord who is above all can show us the answers. There are several prayer requests which I want to share with you for urgent prayer.
1. Praise God our Bridge Gospel Church is going very well. We have now been registered as a Church with the Government. Every Sunday there is an increase in numbers. It is such a joy to sit around the Lord’s table with HIV affected people, lepers, poor people, middle class and well educated people including all our children and adults. There is such a wonderful sense of the Lord’s presence. We are having good Bible teaching and beautiful time of worship. The youth have started visiting the hospitals on Sunday evenings. Pray for this church please.
2. Some of our staff are very ill. Shanta is in our hospital. She has been out of the office for more than 2 weeks. Dr. Hannah is very ill. She was admitted into our hospital with 107°temperature. She was delirious. There are other staff who are having viral fever. We are also having in our hospital a full time worker J.Vijaya Ram and his wife Beena Ram from Bihar. We were able to do a HYTERTCETOMY Operation for Beena Ram. Please pray for them. They will soon return to Bihar. Vimala is having a problem with her diabetes and she is on a change of medication and not well.
3. Esmee Benjamin – a lady whom we have been helping for many years is in our hospital. She has been diagnosed with cancer. She had a HYTERTCETOMY Operation yesterday and because of complications we had to move her to another hospital. The operation is over and at present she is in the Intensive Care Unit.
4. We have just admitted into our Orphanage a girl of 4 years of age called S.Keerthi. Last Saturday night she was sleeping in her small house with her father and brother. Suddenly the land lord’s son broke into the house about 3 in the morning and the father woke up to find him lying with his daughter molesting her. The father was so shocked and so upset. The situation is such that the mother and father are terrified to keep this little girl with them. The father – Mr.M.Sankaran is HIV also the mother. Sankaran is working in our HIV Self Help Project. He is very talented and is training the HIV affected people to do beautiful handicrafts. This child is not HIV affected. Many of us wept when we heard what happened to this child. We are just getting admission in school for her.
5. Uma Maheswari, a 10th standard girl in the Orphanage who has been with us for many years ran away from school yesterday with her uncle. Her uncle has been to school many times and was jealous because she was being educated and enticed her away with him. Finally at 11 p.m. last night we got news that she has reached her home which is very far away. We have found out that she has been taking her clothes out over several days. She has ruined her life. The school refuses to allow her to continue to study as it is a police case.
6. Sadly what we expected has happened. Martina Louis whom we educated and trained as a nurse, on the 10th of this month came to Chennai from Narsapur having completed her Nurses Training and went straight to her house. She comes from a very wicked family. She told us that she would never do this, but she has done this and her mother came and told us that she will not come here to do her bond period.
7. We request you to pray for the financial needs of the ministry and for God’s provision for each days needs. The tsunami ministry is continuing and we owe a lot of money to the builder. We are very grateful to many people who are trying to raise funds for this project. The cost of everything is going up so much and so we quickly long to see this project finished. The Lord will do it.
8. Pray for godly drivers for CMCT. We have 2 drivers who fight, actually hitting each other. It has happened twice now.
I can mention many other needs, but the above is enough. I praise God He knows all our needs and has told us not to get discouraged but to keep trusting Him with all our hearts. We continue to do this knowing that He holds every minute of the future in His hands.
Warmest greetings and we look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely in His service
Colleen
My special greetings to you.
Thank you for praying for me and the ministry of CMCT. We have been very busy ever since I contacted you last. There are many challenges in the ministry and some times we are under a lot of pressure. We need much prayer. I am deeply concerned about many issues and can only bring them to the Lord in prayer. We are having a special staff prayer meeting. The Lord who is above all can show us the answers. There are several prayer requests which I want to share with you for urgent prayer.
1. Praise God our Bridge Gospel Church is going very well. We have now been registered as a Church with the Government. Every Sunday there is an increase in numbers. It is such a joy to sit around the Lord’s table with HIV affected people, lepers, poor people, middle class and well educated people including all our children and adults. There is such a wonderful sense of the Lord’s presence. We are having good Bible teaching and beautiful time of worship. The youth have started visiting the hospitals on Sunday evenings. Pray for this church please.
2. Some of our staff are very ill. Shanta is in our hospital. She has been out of the office for more than 2 weeks. Dr. Hannah is very ill. She was admitted into our hospital with 107°temperature. She was delirious. There are other staff who are having viral fever. We are also having in our hospital a full time worker J.Vijaya Ram and his wife Beena Ram from Bihar. We were able to do a HYTERTCETOMY Operation for Beena Ram. Please pray for them. They will soon return to Bihar. Vimala is having a problem with her diabetes and she is on a change of medication and not well.
3. Esmee Benjamin – a lady whom we have been helping for many years is in our hospital. She has been diagnosed with cancer. She had a HYTERTCETOMY Operation yesterday and because of complications we had to move her to another hospital. The operation is over and at present she is in the Intensive Care Unit.
4. We have just admitted into our Orphanage a girl of 4 years of age called S.Keerthi. Last Saturday night she was sleeping in her small house with her father and brother. Suddenly the land lord’s son broke into the house about 3 in the morning and the father woke up to find him lying with his daughter molesting her. The father was so shocked and so upset. The situation is such that the mother and father are terrified to keep this little girl with them. The father – Mr.M.Sankaran is HIV also the mother. Sankaran is working in our HIV Self Help Project. He is very talented and is training the HIV affected people to do beautiful handicrafts. This child is not HIV affected. Many of us wept when we heard what happened to this child. We are just getting admission in school for her.
5. Uma Maheswari, a 10th standard girl in the Orphanage who has been with us for many years ran away from school yesterday with her uncle. Her uncle has been to school many times and was jealous because she was being educated and enticed her away with him. Finally at 11 p.m. last night we got news that she has reached her home which is very far away. We have found out that she has been taking her clothes out over several days. She has ruined her life. The school refuses to allow her to continue to study as it is a police case.
6. Sadly what we expected has happened. Martina Louis whom we educated and trained as a nurse, on the 10th of this month came to Chennai from Narsapur having completed her Nurses Training and went straight to her house. She comes from a very wicked family. She told us that she would never do this, but she has done this and her mother came and told us that she will not come here to do her bond period.
7. We request you to pray for the financial needs of the ministry and for God’s provision for each days needs. The tsunami ministry is continuing and we owe a lot of money to the builder. We are very grateful to many people who are trying to raise funds for this project. The cost of everything is going up so much and so we quickly long to see this project finished. The Lord will do it.
8. Pray for godly drivers for CMCT. We have 2 drivers who fight, actually hitting each other. It has happened twice now.
I can mention many other needs, but the above is enough. I praise God He knows all our needs and has told us not to get discouraged but to keep trusting Him with all our hearts. We continue to do this knowing that He holds every minute of the future in His hands.
Warmest greetings and we look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely in His service
Colleen
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Dear Praying Friends,
Warm Greetings to you in the Precious Name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!
I wish you all could have been with me when we visited Chinnakuppam. I had asked Mr Bhaskar to try and complete 40 houses by September. These are the houses that the teams from overseas had already done a lot of work on. The roofs were being put on many of these houses. There were about 100 people working there. We still owe the builder a lot of money for the work that is being done. Please make this a matter for prayer. It was very wonderful to see many families occupying their houses now and some have even put thatched compound walls around them, for which we praise God.
We had a tremendous welcome and we will be visiting again in two weeks. The atmosphere in this village is so different and the work done for the young people is having a life changing effect. We are looking forward to some more teams that are planning to come out soon, and any of you who are interested in joining a team please let us know. One team is coming from Scotland in Oc.t and two from New Zealand. Maybe Jan 2010.
I want to share with you that financially we are very low at present. Expenses seem to be mounting every day and we need the Lord to provide in a very special way. We owe Mr Bhaskar, who is doing the building work for the Tsunami houses, quite a lot of money. We are having a lot of repairs to do on our vehicles. We still have not paid for the repair work on our building. We are just now paying high fees for girls going out, who have passed their 12th standard. We still have to stitch uniforms for the Bethany School. This includes about 250 children who are new to the school. The prices of vegetables have escalated over night, and recently petrol and diesel prices have gone up considerably.
We don’t want to deprive any child of education. We urgently need to give a rise in salaries to many of our staff. There are men in the Social Work department who have a lot of responsibility and they need to get a higher salary, otherwise they cannot run their families. The day to day expenses are very great and paying the electrical bill for our building and the amount of diesel we use in the generator is something that we find very difficult.
We have had many poor people coming to the hospital, who need surgeries. Ammu is having an operation again tomorrow on the stump of her leg. It keeps opening up and a very thick flap is being put. Esther, who has had many facial operations has just had another surgery and is due to have another one this week. We are planning to enroll her into a Lab Technician’s Course, but this is delayed because the Plastic Surgeon is trying to improve her appearance.
The needs amongst the HIV affected people are very great also. I am sharing these things with you, so you will know how to pray for us. Pray for more rain in Chennai. The monsoon at present in some parts of India is not what it should be. We have had intermittent showers in Chennai, maybe once or twice in the past few weeks. Recently we had a shower which started at around 8.00 p.m. and which lasted for only 20 minutes! This kind of rain has very little benefit for the people and crops and only makes it more humid.
I think I have told you that I had a daughter called Ruth, who ran away 17 years ago after completing her 12th standard exams. It is so long ago that we had forgotten about her. Suddenly she turned up like the prodigal son after 18 years. She wept and wept and asked for forgiveness. I have done a lot of things for her since and her two children are now in the Bethany Higher Secondary School. They showed such love to me and were so proud to think that they have me as their grandma! Ruth is very weak and she only weighs 30 kilograms. Her HP is only 6 and she looks old and haggard for her 40 years. They are very poor and she has not been eating properly for many years because she was so guilty. Pray very specially for her and her children.
Special prayer is asked for Sundari and Solomon. Sundari is the girl who was with us many years ago. I had put her to work in the Reception of the medical work, but because of many wrong things we had to ask her to leave the job. Even although she is not working any more in CMCT, she is causing problems using the mobile phone, and they have now been asked to leave the house they have been renting. Pray that Sundari will allow the Lord to do a deep work in her life.
We have some very sad cases in our Hospital at present, and our medical staff are doing an excellent work. Immanuel needs special prayer. He has been looking very ill and yesterday I sent him to a Diabetic hospital for a complete check-up. The results were not good and the Specialist told him that he had just come at the right time. He is now on a lot of medication and he has been told to return to the hospital in two week’s time.
Anburaj is not well and has just had a complete check-up at the ENT hospital and he needs special prayer. Vimala is overdue for her check-up at the Diabetic Hospital and she also needs prayer. At present many of the children in our Orphanage are having mid term exams. The portions they have to study are so many.
The Bridge Gospel Church is encouraging. It was good to have Peter Hill from New Zealand with a team of 18 people from Thailand., who have been with us for the past 7 days. Peter Hill has had much experience in leading churches and he spoke on Sunday and he was able to take four sessions giving excellent advice to the men who are taking up leadership. His visit was a very timely one.
Daily we meet many challenges here. I had a young boy, Enoch, of 18 years in my office today, brought by his father from Chittoor. This boy has not spoken for 3 years as a result of a head injury. It was so sad to see him standing with tears streaming down his face, but no response to anything that was being said to him. Today we have admitted him into the Mental Hospital and he has to have a scan tomorrow morning in Govt. General Hospital hospital. The doctor feels he is under severe depression and they will be giving suitable treatment. Pray much for him. The father has been hand feeding this boy for the past 3 years. He was also in tears.
Looking forward to hearing from you, and asking you to pray for all of us as we go on in the ministry day by day. It is always encouraging to us to know that you are praying.
With warmest Greetings,
Colleen M Redit
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Sunday, June 28th Event
Please Join Us To Hear
An update from Don and Mary Hendricks from their visit
to CMCT in April
What our new CMCT Support Team is planning for the future:
projects, prayer, fundraising, trips, etc.
Sunday, June 28th from 4-6pm
The Hendrick's Home
529 Playa, Newport Beach, CA
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Dear Praying friends,
It is with great joy that I share with you the way the Lord has been leading us in regard to starting a new church. Last Sunday at 9.00 a.m. in the morning there was so much excitement outside CMCT as 250 girls from upstairs plus so many outsiders met outside the gates of CMCT waiting to be transported by our buses to Padappai. The temperature was 40 degrees, and our staff said: “We are going on a holy picnic”.
When we arrived at Padappai we all met in the Chapel and had a time of worship and then those who were going to be baptized were introduced to everybody. The baptistery was filled with water. We all gathered around and it was such a joy for me to see this baptism taking place at our Camp site. We had beautiful singing, glorifying the Lord and 20 were baptized, 8 of our own girls and the rest were outsiders who had come to the Lord through the ministry. In the old days they were staunch Hindus and it was such a joy to see their joy as they obeyed the Lord in baptism. The baptisms were carried out by Mr David Lingam and then Mr Anburaj.
We then met in the Chapel for our morning worship service, all participating in the Communion and a guest speaker Mr George,(vistor) whom the Lord is using much, gave a very challenging message. For some of you who are sponsoring these are our girls who were baptized: Sylvia, U Monica, Blessy, Sheba, Kavita, J Joyce, Revathy, Shrimathy. If any of you know these girls you will rejoice with us. We all enjoyed lunch together, a very sumptious Indian meal – Vegetable Biryani (spiced rice with bits of vegetable), Fried Chicken, Chicken Kurma (Chicken pieces in a thick gravy of coconut cream) and a Chutney with Onion in curd. I hope this makes your mouth water!!!
After a time of relaxing all leisurely returned home. We need much prayer as next Sunday we will be meeting in the Madras Christian College Auditorium and we look forward to the Lord doing great things amongst us and many more joining. Pray especially for the leadership.
I had mentioned previously that we were starting twice a month on a Saturday afternoon, Girls and Boys (separately) Cadet Leaders Bible Study. I am taking the girls and Philip is taking the boys. I had 20 in my class and Philip approximately 14, and it is going very well. It is a thrill for me to see teenage girls hungry to study the word of God, writing notes and learning verses off by heart. I am taking the study, ”Life with a Purpose”, and already the girls are telling me how it is blessing their lives.
We have had a bit of a shock recently when the government announced that they are employing 5,000 teachers and giving them government jobs and 5 teachers from our Primary School and one from the Higher Secondary School have received letters that they are being employed to teach in government schools. They are being offered thrice the salary they have already been drawing. Sadly this involves the Primary School Headmistress, Assistant Headmistress and 3 Teachers. There is nothing we can do about this. Devakanni, the Headmistress has been with us since the time the School started, but for these Teachers to get a government job means everything. It is very hard for us as we watch, and we are conducting fresh interviews this week.
I would value special prayer for Moni, one of our children who has just passed into the 8th standard and is being ostracized very badly in School because she lisps and walks with a limp. She is one of the girls who came from Bihar. She sobbed for 10 minutes in my office last morning and declared over and over again how much she loves me. She was terrified that we would put her somewhere else, but now we have been able to talk to her and we are taking her out of school and admitting her into our Tutorial. We want to enroll her into an easier course. When we asked her what she would like to do when she leaves school, she said, “I want to help people who are like myself”, so we will take her and train her for that. Moni is a very slow learner. For one year I sent her for speech training classes and she has been having physiotherapy and she is a most loving child. Our hearts go out to such children. We have just got a special school for Nissy run by the Wesley church here and she started attending from last Saturday.
We need much prayer for our financial needs. Expenses run high and we have been drained in regard to School expenses and repairs to the toilets to the Hostel floor. After spending a great deal of money it is still leaking. We are very sad about this.
Four children from Bihar have not returned from CMCT after the holidays, which is sad and it means that they will not have any more education in their lives. Please pray for God’s provision every day. Pray for us to continue to trust the Lord completely.
It is still extremely hot here – 40 to 41 degrees every day. It is unbearably hot outside in the day time, and many people are falling ill.
I look forward to hearing from you and I want to thank you for praying.
With warmest greetings,
Colleen
It is with great joy that I share with you the way the Lord has been leading us in regard to starting a new church. Last Sunday at 9.00 a.m. in the morning there was so much excitement outside CMCT as 250 girls from upstairs plus so many outsiders met outside the gates of CMCT waiting to be transported by our buses to Padappai. The temperature was 40 degrees, and our staff said: “We are going on a holy picnic”.
When we arrived at Padappai we all met in the Chapel and had a time of worship and then those who were going to be baptized were introduced to everybody. The baptistery was filled with water. We all gathered around and it was such a joy for me to see this baptism taking place at our Camp site. We had beautiful singing, glorifying the Lord and 20 were baptized, 8 of our own girls and the rest were outsiders who had come to the Lord through the ministry. In the old days they were staunch Hindus and it was such a joy to see their joy as they obeyed the Lord in baptism. The baptisms were carried out by Mr David Lingam and then Mr Anburaj.
We then met in the Chapel for our morning worship service, all participating in the Communion and a guest speaker Mr George,(vistor) whom the Lord is using much, gave a very challenging message. For some of you who are sponsoring these are our girls who were baptized: Sylvia, U Monica, Blessy, Sheba, Kavita, J Joyce, Revathy, Shrimathy. If any of you know these girls you will rejoice with us. We all enjoyed lunch together, a very sumptious Indian meal – Vegetable Biryani (spiced rice with bits of vegetable), Fried Chicken, Chicken Kurma (Chicken pieces in a thick gravy of coconut cream) and a Chutney with Onion in curd. I hope this makes your mouth water!!!
After a time of relaxing all leisurely returned home. We need much prayer as next Sunday we will be meeting in the Madras Christian College Auditorium and we look forward to the Lord doing great things amongst us and many more joining. Pray especially for the leadership.
I had mentioned previously that we were starting twice a month on a Saturday afternoon, Girls and Boys (separately) Cadet Leaders Bible Study. I am taking the girls and Philip is taking the boys. I had 20 in my class and Philip approximately 14, and it is going very well. It is a thrill for me to see teenage girls hungry to study the word of God, writing notes and learning verses off by heart. I am taking the study, ”Life with a Purpose”, and already the girls are telling me how it is blessing their lives.
We have had a bit of a shock recently when the government announced that they are employing 5,000 teachers and giving them government jobs and 5 teachers from our Primary School and one from the Higher Secondary School have received letters that they are being employed to teach in government schools. They are being offered thrice the salary they have already been drawing. Sadly this involves the Primary School Headmistress, Assistant Headmistress and 3 Teachers. There is nothing we can do about this. Devakanni, the Headmistress has been with us since the time the School started, but for these Teachers to get a government job means everything. It is very hard for us as we watch, and we are conducting fresh interviews this week.
I would value special prayer for Moni, one of our children who has just passed into the 8th standard and is being ostracized very badly in School because she lisps and walks with a limp. She is one of the girls who came from Bihar. She sobbed for 10 minutes in my office last morning and declared over and over again how much she loves me. She was terrified that we would put her somewhere else, but now we have been able to talk to her and we are taking her out of school and admitting her into our Tutorial. We want to enroll her into an easier course. When we asked her what she would like to do when she leaves school, she said, “I want to help people who are like myself”, so we will take her and train her for that. Moni is a very slow learner. For one year I sent her for speech training classes and she has been having physiotherapy and she is a most loving child. Our hearts go out to such children. We have just got a special school for Nissy run by the Wesley church here and she started attending from last Saturday.
We need much prayer for our financial needs. Expenses run high and we have been drained in regard to School expenses and repairs to the toilets to the Hostel floor. After spending a great deal of money it is still leaking. We are very sad about this.
Four children from Bihar have not returned from CMCT after the holidays, which is sad and it means that they will not have any more education in their lives. Please pray for God’s provision every day. Pray for us to continue to trust the Lord completely.
It is still extremely hot here – 40 to 41 degrees every day. It is unbearably hot outside in the day time, and many people are falling ill.
I look forward to hearing from you and I want to thank you for praying.
With warmest greetings,
Colleen
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Prayer Update
Dear Praying Friends,
June is always one of the busiest months in the year for us. On Wednesdays our whole compound is crowded with people and this year I have refused to take in more children for educational help and I have taken only very rare cases into the Orphanage. Many people have put so much pressure on us and even today it has been very difficult for us. With the current recession, we are having to be very careful in which way we help people and it puts a lot of pressure on us and it also makes us feel very bad because so many of the cases are so genuine.
June is always one of the busiest months in the year for us. On Wednesdays our whole compound is crowded with people and this year I have refused to take in more children for educational help and I have taken only very rare cases into the Orphanage. Many people have put so much pressure on us and even today it has been very difficult for us. With the current recession, we are having to be very careful in which way we help people and it puts a lot of pressure on us and it also makes us feel very bad because so many of the cases are so genuine.
I often think of the different standards of living in different countries in the world, and even although so many people may say they are suffering now, no suffering can be as bad as seeing the poverty that we see around us. It is a miracle when children living in the most terrible slums can study and get very high marks in their exams. I am asking you to pray for the children living in our Orphanage and Hostel, that they will seriously take up their studies and aim for much higher marks, because this year the marks our children secured in the 10th and 12th standards, apart from two girls, was far from good enough.
We have taken in 20 new children into the Orphanage. I admitted two more today and we still have two or three coming to us from Bihar.
In the Bethany Primary School quite a lot of children studying in the 5th standard have taken their Transfer Certificates and are going to other schools and not to the 6th standard of our Bethany Higher Secondary School, but we have had a lot of new admissions into the Primary School, also to the Bethany Higher Secondary School. At present we are applying to the government for permission to start Business Maths class. Pray that we will be able to get this sanction.
The Dental Clinic on our medical floor is over-flowing with patients, and Dr. Rinku is now asking us to appoint another Dentist. It will be difficult for us to pay another Dentist. So, please pray with us about this.
The Lord has been leading us as we have sought Him in regard to starting a new church. We are registering as "Bridge Gospel Church" and every Sunday up till now we have been meeting in our own Chapel. Last Sunday we had to move all the side chairs and put mats down because so many different people attended the service.
On the 21st we are having a baptism at our Camp site at Padappai. We built a baptistery last year. At 9.00 a.m. we will be taking all our girls of 15 years and above plus all the outside people to Padappai. After the baptisms, we will have our morning worship and breaking of bread in the chapel at Padappai. We will provide lunch for all.
We have been praying much and have been searching for a large conference room which we could hire. We have been exploring the possibility of hiring a room in a hotel, and we nearly decided on one. Today the Lord has wonderfully answered. Down our road is the Madras Christian College and they have agreed to give us their auditorium every Sunday from 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. for Rs.7,000/-. This is very reasonable. This auditorium is a large one and can seat Over1,000 people. It has a platform and a lot of parking space. All we have to purchase is a good loudspeaker system. Isn't it wonderful how the Lord answers prayer? We will be starting our church in this new place on the 28th of June. There will be approximately 30 new w baptized believers Some H.I.V people. We would ask you to pray much for us. It would be wonderful if you come and join us on that occasion!
Thank you for praying for us to complete the Tearcraft Order, which has now been completed, praise God.
All our children are back in school and we are applying for admission for those children who have finished school into higher studies and admission for new children.
Thank you again for your encouragement and prayers.
With warm greetings,
Yours in His Joyful Service,
Colleen
Thursday, June 04, 2009
A New Church is Started
Dear Don & Mary,
Warm Greetings to you in His precious Name! I hope this finds you well.
I want to update you about the way the Lordis leading us in starting a new church. We praise God for the wonderfulway He is guiding. We have continued to have a church in our Chapel. We are still searching a hall to rent outside. We will eventually moveinto another building, but in the meantime we are having the Worship and Breaking of Bread service in our Chapel and we are having an excellent response. Last Monday we had a meeting of some of our main men staff who are very keen and godly. We had prayer together and we have made the following decisions for the present. We are naming the church"Bridge Gospel Church".
We are having Worship services from 11.30 a.m.to 12.30 noon. Before the Worship service we are having a short time with the children with suitable singing and a children's talk, but all the main people will come before 11.30 a.m. We are registering the church as a Trust, which is the normal procedure. We have unitedly prayed and appointed Mr Anbu Raj at present to be the Pastor, and other staff are assisting him.
At present any people are coming from outside, contacted through the ministry and last Sunday we had such a beautiful time of worship and 19 at present are staying afterwards to attend classes for baptism. There are more people coming this Sunday, who have been asking for baptism, and they will join the classes. Some of these are our kitchen staff, and some from the soup kitchens who have been requesting for baptism for some time. From this coming Sunday we are sending our bus to pick up all the people who wish to come from the soup kitchens. We have also invited HIV affected people to attend. Some of them are asking for baptism also. We are planning to have the baptism in Padappai in the middle of June. I think there may be at least 35 people who will be baptized.
I have purchased all that we need for the Communion Table, and we are using individual wine cups. We have bought the round containers that contain 36 cups in each, and this is working very well. At present David Lingam and Balaji from Choolaimedu are coming at 11.30a.m. and Mr David Lingam has been taking the baptism classes.
On Sundays we feel so happy now. It is such a relief and so wonderful to have real worship and to feel the presence of God so much. We have Mr Daniel who plays beautifully the key board for the services, and it is lovely to have music played softly while the Bread and Wine is being distributed. This is just to update you and to ask you to pray earnestly that we will soon get a place to rent outside of CMCT.
With warm greetings to you all.
Sincerely, in His glad service,
Colleen
Warm Greetings to you in His precious Name! I hope this finds you well.
I want to update you about the way the Lordis leading us in starting a new church. We praise God for the wonderfulway He is guiding. We have continued to have a church in our Chapel. We are still searching a hall to rent outside. We will eventually moveinto another building, but in the meantime we are having the Worship and Breaking of Bread service in our Chapel and we are having an excellent response. Last Monday we had a meeting of some of our main men staff who are very keen and godly. We had prayer together and we have made the following decisions for the present. We are naming the church"Bridge Gospel Church".
We are having Worship services from 11.30 a.m.to 12.30 noon. Before the Worship service we are having a short time with the children with suitable singing and a children's talk, but all the main people will come before 11.30 a.m. We are registering the church as a Trust, which is the normal procedure. We have unitedly prayed and appointed Mr Anbu Raj at present to be the Pastor, and other staff are assisting him.
At present any people are coming from outside, contacted through the ministry and last Sunday we had such a beautiful time of worship and 19 at present are staying afterwards to attend classes for baptism. There are more people coming this Sunday, who have been asking for baptism, and they will join the classes. Some of these are our kitchen staff, and some from the soup kitchens who have been requesting for baptism for some time. From this coming Sunday we are sending our bus to pick up all the people who wish to come from the soup kitchens. We have also invited HIV affected people to attend. Some of them are asking for baptism also. We are planning to have the baptism in Padappai in the middle of June. I think there may be at least 35 people who will be baptized.
I have purchased all that we need for the Communion Table, and we are using individual wine cups. We have bought the round containers that contain 36 cups in each, and this is working very well. At present David Lingam and Balaji from Choolaimedu are coming at 11.30a.m. and Mr David Lingam has been taking the baptism classes.
On Sundays we feel so happy now. It is such a relief and so wonderful to have real worship and to feel the presence of God so much. We have Mr Daniel who plays beautifully the key board for the services, and it is lovely to have music played softly while the Bread and Wine is being distributed. This is just to update you and to ask you to pray earnestly that we will soon get a place to rent outside of CMCT.
With warm greetings to you all.
Sincerely, in His glad service,
Colleen
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Dear Praying friends,
I want to thank all of you who have been praying for our Boys Camp. Praise God we had a very good Camp, approximately 240 attended. Nearly all our men staff from CMCT with the leaders were at Camp, and as I watched them I was very proud to see them all dong an excellent job in leadership. They all pulled their weight and they got really involved in all the lives of all the boys. Some who have never really taken an interest before, participated to the maximum this time. The Lord blessed the messages of Anburaj and Mr Dhas and there were many who came to the Lord. I always find it very moving seeing hard boys weeping their way to the Lord.
When we had our testimony meeting, which went on to approximately 12.30 a.m., 110 boys gave their testimony. This is not easy for boys. The Lord has been speaking to many of the teenage boys and 34 have signed up to attend a Cadet leaders Bible Study twice a month on a Saturday. They have given their names and addresses. As a result of the Girls Camp, 75 have given their names to attend the Girls Cadet Bible Study. We are having it in the afternoons of two Saturdays each month, the boys from 2.30 to 3.30 p.m. and the girls from 4.00 p.m. to 5 p.m. I will be taking the studies for the girls, and I am going to do a series on "Life with a Purpose".
Philip, most likely, will take the boys and use the same subject. I used to have this in the early days of the ministry and found it very profitable.
At present the VBS is going on at Chinnakuppam, the Tsunami village and 110 children are attending. On the last day of the Camp it was 43 degrees and suddenly in the afternoon we had a heavy shower of rain which lasted for one hour, with loud peals of thunder and heavy flashes of lightening, which brought the temperature down a wee bit.
We have just received the 10th standard government results and we praise God that our Bethany Higher Secondary School got 81% passes. We had a group of naughty boys and none of them have passed. Five girls failed. We encouraged them to resit again in July. In our CMCT Orphanage, all passed except G Suganya, B Prasikala and Barisha. The first two girls went home and have not returned. Barisha returned yesterday and because this is the third time she has sat and still not passed, since she has a very low IQ, we have put her permanently in the Handicraft Centre. So, please pray that she will be able to learn something useful. The other girls have all returned and we are putting them into the different courses they will take in the 11th and 12th standards. We are also admitting the 12th standard girls who have passed, into professional courses and it is costing us a lot of money.
We have been busy paying school fees last month for so many children and it has worked out to a really large sum of money. The school expenses now are very high and I am very worried as I send this email. There are still so many children's school fees to be paid and young people whom we sponsor come to us requesting us to help them and we must. For their higher studies the cost is much.
We are very busy and the Tearcraft order is not ready as yet and we have asked for an extension of two weeks time. We have many needs and we need much prayer, and I want to thank those of you who keep in touch. You will never know what it means to hear from you and to be encouraged.
With my warmest greetings,
Sincerely, in His Service,
Colleen M Redit
Monday, May 18, 2009
Prayer Update
Dear Praying Friends,
I want to thank those of you who send an email to me. It is always nice to hear from the Lord’s people.
I just want to let you know as some of you have sent emails to me about the elections, that we are full of praise to the Lord for all that He has done. The Lord has answered prayer tremendously. So many Christians have been praying and we give all the glory to the Lord. The Lord has answered prayer in regard to our State and the Central government. There are two States though, that still need prayer. It means that we are going to have a stable government for the next five years. Prayer is needed now as government meetings are in progress. We praise God the Lord’s work will continue un-hindered.
Boys’ Camp starts tomorrow and we ask you to pray much for the speakers, Mr Dhas and Mr Anburaj, that they will be given a real anointing as they give the messages. Pray for the boys who attend, that they will be responsive and that many of them will accept the Lord into their lives.
The Handicraft Centre is working over time trying to complete the Tearcraft order and they need much prayer.
We have 34 children in the Orphanage; they have no home to go to. I sent them to the Museum and Art Gallery this afternoon.
Philip Seth had a fall yesterday and has hurt his ankle on his left foot very badly and he is seeing the surgeon tomorrow morning. We need him as a leader in the Camp.
Just a couple of days ago, we had one hour of very heavy rain with thunder and lightening, which has cooled the temperature a wee bit, but the humidity level has risen. The weather forecast says that these very hot days will prevail till the end of this month. Pray for our children and staff to be kept well.
With warmest greetings,
Colleen
I want to thank those of you who send an email to me. It is always nice to hear from the Lord’s people.
I just want to let you know as some of you have sent emails to me about the elections, that we are full of praise to the Lord for all that He has done. The Lord has answered prayer tremendously. So many Christians have been praying and we give all the glory to the Lord. The Lord has answered prayer in regard to our State and the Central government. There are two States though, that still need prayer. It means that we are going to have a stable government for the next five years. Prayer is needed now as government meetings are in progress. We praise God the Lord’s work will continue un-hindered.
Boys’ Camp starts tomorrow and we ask you to pray much for the speakers, Mr Dhas and Mr Anburaj, that they will be given a real anointing as they give the messages. Pray for the boys who attend, that they will be responsive and that many of them will accept the Lord into their lives.
The Handicraft Centre is working over time trying to complete the Tearcraft order and they need much prayer.
We have 34 children in the Orphanage; they have no home to go to. I sent them to the Museum and Art Gallery this afternoon.
Philip Seth had a fall yesterday and has hurt his ankle on his left foot very badly and he is seeing the surgeon tomorrow morning. We need him as a leader in the Camp.
Just a couple of days ago, we had one hour of very heavy rain with thunder and lightening, which has cooled the temperature a wee bit, but the humidity level has risen. The weather forecast says that these very hot days will prevail till the end of this month. Pray for our children and staff to be kept well.
With warmest greetings,
Colleen
Prayer Update
Dear Praying friends,
I want to thank all of you who have been praying for our Boys Camp. Praise God we had a very good Camp, approximately 240 attended. Nearly all our men staff from CMCT with the leaders were at Camp, and as I watched them I was very proud to see them all dong an excellent job in leadership. They all pulled their weight and they got really involved in all the lives of all the boys. Some who have never really taken an interest before, participated to the maximum this time. The Lord blessed the messages of Anburaj and Mr Dhas and there were many who came to the Lord. I always find it very moving seeing hard boys weeping their way to the Lord.
When we had our testimony meeting, which went on to approximately 12.30 a.m., 110 boys gave their testimony. This is not easy for boys. The Lord has been speaking to many of the teenage boys and 34 have signed up to attend a Cadet leaders Bible Study twice a month on a Saturday. They have given their names and addresses. As a result of the Girls Camp, 75 have given their names to attend the Girls Cadet Bible Study. We are having it in the afternoons of two Saturdays each month, the boys from 2.30 to 3.30 p.m. and the girls from 4.00 p.m. to 5 p.m. I will be taking the studies for the girls, and I am going to do a series on “Life with a Purpose”.
Philip, most likely, will take the boys and use the same subject. I used to have this in the early days of the ministry and found it very profitable.
At present the VBS is going on at Chinnakuppam, the Tsunami village and 110 children are attending. On the last day of the Camp it was 43 degrees and suddenly in the afternoon we had a heavy shower of rain which lasted for one hour, with loud peals of thunder and heavy flashes of lightening, which brought the temperature down a wee bit.
We have just received the 10th standard government results and we praise God that our Bethany Higher Secondary School got 81% passes. We had a group of naughty boys and none of them have passed. Five girls failed. We encouraged them to resit again in July. In our CMCT Orphanage, all passed except G Suganya, B Prasikala and Barisha. The first two girls went home and have not returned. Barisha returned yesterday and because this is the third time she has sat and still not passed, since she has a very low IQ, we have put her permanently in the Handicraft Centre. So, please pray that she will be able to learn something useful. The other girls have all returned and we are putting them into the different courses they will take in the 11th and 12th standards. We are also admitting the 12th standard girls who have passed, into professional courses and it is costing us a lot of money.
We have been busy paying school fees last month for so many children and it has worked out to a really large sum of money. The school expenses now are very high and I am very worried as I send this email. There is still so many children’s school fees to be paid and young people whom we sponsor come to us requesting us to help them and we must. ( for higher studies) cost is much.
We are very busy and the Tearcraft order is not ready as yet and we have asked for an extension of two weeks time. We have many needs and we need much prayer, and I want to thank those of you who keep in touch. You will never know what it means to hear from you and to be encouraged.
With my warmest greetings,
Sincerely, in His Service,
Colleen M Redit
I want to thank all of you who have been praying for our Boys Camp. Praise God we had a very good Camp, approximately 240 attended. Nearly all our men staff from CMCT with the leaders were at Camp, and as I watched them I was very proud to see them all dong an excellent job in leadership. They all pulled their weight and they got really involved in all the lives of all the boys. Some who have never really taken an interest before, participated to the maximum this time. The Lord blessed the messages of Anburaj and Mr Dhas and there were many who came to the Lord. I always find it very moving seeing hard boys weeping their way to the Lord.
When we had our testimony meeting, which went on to approximately 12.30 a.m., 110 boys gave their testimony. This is not easy for boys. The Lord has been speaking to many of the teenage boys and 34 have signed up to attend a Cadet leaders Bible Study twice a month on a Saturday. They have given their names and addresses. As a result of the Girls Camp, 75 have given their names to attend the Girls Cadet Bible Study. We are having it in the afternoons of two Saturdays each month, the boys from 2.30 to 3.30 p.m. and the girls from 4.00 p.m. to 5 p.m. I will be taking the studies for the girls, and I am going to do a series on “Life with a Purpose”.
Philip, most likely, will take the boys and use the same subject. I used to have this in the early days of the ministry and found it very profitable.
At present the VBS is going on at Chinnakuppam, the Tsunami village and 110 children are attending. On the last day of the Camp it was 43 degrees and suddenly in the afternoon we had a heavy shower of rain which lasted for one hour, with loud peals of thunder and heavy flashes of lightening, which brought the temperature down a wee bit.
We have just received the 10th standard government results and we praise God that our Bethany Higher Secondary School got 81% passes. We had a group of naughty boys and none of them have passed. Five girls failed. We encouraged them to resit again in July. In our CMCT Orphanage, all passed except G Suganya, B Prasikala and Barisha. The first two girls went home and have not returned. Barisha returned yesterday and because this is the third time she has sat and still not passed, since she has a very low IQ, we have put her permanently in the Handicraft Centre. So, please pray that she will be able to learn something useful. The other girls have all returned and we are putting them into the different courses they will take in the 11th and 12th standards. We are also admitting the 12th standard girls who have passed, into professional courses and it is costing us a lot of money.
We have been busy paying school fees last month for so many children and it has worked out to a really large sum of money. The school expenses now are very high and I am very worried as I send this email. There is still so many children’s school fees to be paid and young people whom we sponsor come to us requesting us to help them and we must. ( for higher studies) cost is much.
We are very busy and the Tearcraft order is not ready as yet and we have asked for an extension of two weeks time. We have many needs and we need much prayer, and I want to thank those of you who keep in touch. You will never know what it means to hear from you and to be encouraged.
With my warmest greetings,
Sincerely, in His Service,
Colleen M Redit
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Our Story
For several years, many of us have supported Colleen Redit and her ministry at Christian Missions Charitable Trust in Chennai.
In 2005, our church - Mariners Church in Irvine, CA chose CMCT as a partner to help rebuild after the Tsunami. Fishing boats, nets, supplies, temporary shelter, medical help was given as a result. Over time, a building was erected within the community to provide a creche and meeting place for the people. 30 homes have been built and over 100 more are under construction.
Land was purchased to build a community center for 3 neighboring villages as well as a place for volunteers to stay when coming to help build new homes and serve. This building also serves as a new church for the area.
In 2008, Mariners Church Vacation Bible School chose India and CMCT as their project and raised over $23,000 to help supply the new school within the city of Chennai with desks, a chemistry lab, a sick room and a library. Over 100 people from Mariners also sponsored children.
In early 2009, due to Mariners desire to work through pastors and churches and not organizations, the partnership was dissolved on good terms with over $225,000 being distributed over the 3 years.
As a result we have created this blog - gathering place - to continue to support CMCT and Colleen's vision and hope you will join us in prayer, support or service.
We know there are hundreds of others within the U.S. who are involved with CMCT and welcome you to join us in growing the awareness of this ministry and becoming more effective in serving it.
In 2005, our church - Mariners Church in Irvine, CA chose CMCT as a partner to help rebuild after the Tsunami. Fishing boats, nets, supplies, temporary shelter, medical help was given as a result. Over time, a building was erected within the community to provide a creche and meeting place for the people. 30 homes have been built and over 100 more are under construction.
Land was purchased to build a community center for 3 neighboring villages as well as a place for volunteers to stay when coming to help build new homes and serve. This building also serves as a new church for the area.
In 2008, Mariners Church Vacation Bible School chose India and CMCT as their project and raised over $23,000 to help supply the new school within the city of Chennai with desks, a chemistry lab, a sick room and a library. Over 100 people from Mariners also sponsored children.
In early 2009, due to Mariners desire to work through pastors and churches and not organizations, the partnership was dissolved on good terms with over $225,000 being distributed over the 3 years.
As a result we have created this blog - gathering place - to continue to support CMCT and Colleen's vision and hope you will join us in prayer, support or service.
We know there are hundreds of others within the U.S. who are involved with CMCT and welcome you to join us in growing the awareness of this ministry and becoming more effective in serving it.
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