India Team USA

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