India Team USA

Dear Praying Friends,

Warm Greetings to you in His Precious Name.

This comes to you from a very hot Chennai. The temperature is 38 degrees here at present.

We praise God for the encouragement we are having with our four Vacation Bible Schools. Large numbers of children are attending in each place, and our staff are very encouraged by the response that they are seeing from the children. We have two more days to go before the closing day.

We are very busy with preparations for our Girls’ Camp which starts next week from the 4th to the 8th of May. I am asking for special prayer for myself as I will be giving 8 messages during the Camp. Pray that there will be a real breakthrough and that we will see many girls coming to know the Lord Jesus as their personal Saviour. Pray for us to keep well in the heat, for the cooks and for unity among the leaders. Pray for Fabiola as she leads the leaders’ devotions each morning

I am sharing a very important need with you for prayer. We are very low in funds in our general account. The last two weeks have been very difficult for us and we are much cast upon the Lord. We are not able to make some payment for many of the expenses for our VBS ministry and Camps.

This is the time of the year when we are starting to pay all the fees for the new school year for all the sponsorship children. School fees have gone up very much and we feel very sorry for staff and parents who have nothing that they can contribute towards their children’s education. In the Sponsorship department we have worked out different categories to make it fair for each one.

We are in the midst of getting the children measured for new school uniforms for the new school year, and new school shoes. This is a very big burden on my heart , and I am sharing this with you so that you will stand with us in prayer.

We praise God for Dave Clark and 8 others who are helping him in the building of houses in our Tsunami village, Chinnakuppam. They arrived yesterday and they are working hard in the heat. They are determined to complete maximum houses before they leave on the 2nd of May. A few of us are going to see them tomorrow and have lunch with them just to encourage them.

Today I have seen many people in my office as this is our open day - some very tragic cases of people wanting to put their children into our Orphanage. I have agreed to take a 13 year old girl next Monday and there are other pitiful cases whom we will help, after conducting surveys.

I have a daughter called J Selvi, who left home about 4 years ago and we got the tragic news that she has been diagnosed as having a very aggressive stomach cancer, which has spread to the small intestines. The doctors are conducting a laproscopy today or tomorrow to see whether they can operate or not, but she is so weak physically and she is on a blood transfer this afternoon. If she has to have chemotherapy we do not know whether she will be able to stand it. As a family we have all been to see her. We are constantly in touch with her and would ask you to pray urgently for her. Only a miracle can save her.

I would be grateful if you could please send a few lines in reply, saying that you have received this email. May God bless you.

With warmest greetings,

Colleen