Across Pacific Magazine

More News          

End of 2005 Dear friends and prayer partners, We’d like to invite you to visit a couple of reviews that came out recently in our local newspaper. One is about the Jeevan Suicide Prevention Centre and can be found at www.hindu.com/2005/11/25/stories/2005112506690600.htm.  The other review is for an American restaurant that recently opened up in Chennai. It can be found at www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2005/09/21/stories/2005092101240800.htm. The Hindu newspaper is one of the leading Indian newspapers and has a circulation of 200,000 each day in Chennai alone.   Chennai has been hit with 7 major depressions, bringing more rain than we have had for more than 10 years. This is wonderful news as the rain has refilled the reservoirs, lakes, wells and ground water. However, the rains have also brought widespread flooding and thousands of people still are surrounded by water. Please do pray for those who have lost homes or had belongings destroyed by the flood waters.  Thank you for your continued interest and prayers. We wish you all a blessed Christmas! Sudhakar and Julie Simeon    MERCY MINISTRIES - CHENNAI/MADRAS SAVING SCHEME - Saral is one of our saving scheme participants. Her son, Velu, is a motorized rickshaw driver and has two children. Having driven a rented rickshaw for a long time he wanted to buy his own, so he took a loan from the bank. Though he was happy to have his own rickshaw he was unable to repay the loan as interest grew. Finally he left his family and ran away. Saral told us about all of this, so we prayed together with her. Only a few days later her son returned, explaining that he had been planning to commit suicide, but that something had stopped him. We are now praying that he will take responsibility for his family and work on paying off his loan.  SUNDAY SCHOOL, KANNAGI NAGAR - The Sunday school in Kannagi Nagar is going great. We have around 180 children regularly attending. It has been wonderful to see all the children's needs (books, snacks, pens etc.) met in the most remarkable ways. During the monsoon we had to cancel Sunday school in a few places due to flooding. We had to move the classes in Kannagi Nagar to the Tuition Center, but still all the children came. One of the Sunday school students name is Kalai. Her father was an alcoholic who drank every day, beat the children and told them to work instead of going to school. Kalai had memorized certain Bible verses and believed the promises of Scripture. She prayed for her father and soon a change could be seen. Her father stopped drinking! Not only did he start to encourage the children to go to school, but he even took them to the Tuition Center himself. He is now encouraging them to study well. Priya is a student in another of our Sunday schools. She told us that she had been suffering from headaches for a few days, but when we saw her mother she told us that Priya had had the headaches for a lot longer than that. Even though she is from another religious background she asked us to pray to Jesus for her daughter. We did pray, and today Priya is completely well. Pray that this will affect her family and that they will give Christ the glory. YOUTH CLUB, KANNAGI NAGAR - Last month we were able to hold a "counselling meeting" for the youth in Kannagi Nagar. About 35 people attended the meeting and the man leading the meeting (Brother Peter) covered several important topics. One of the youths is Vijay. He has been drinking a lot lately and is on the way to becoming an alcoholic. We have met with him a lot, and have shared the Gospel with him on several occasions. After the counselling meeting he said that he would stop drinking, and instead start going to church. We have seen a change in him and we give God all the glory for it. LEPROSY MINISTRY - CHENNAI/MADRAS Our ministry among the leprosy patients is expanding and doing well. Our medical team visited 17 colonies in Chengleput, Chennai and Salem last month and treated 377 patients. We have also distributed 1284 self-care packets. Six of the leprosy affected have been cured through our medical services. One cause for concern is that some of the patients that earned their living through begging have not returned home since the monsoon rain. Our church planting staff visits the colonies every week, teaching and encouraging. We are currently running 10 house churches in Chengleput with around 175 people attending. We are currently teaching on the character of God. We have also started a Sunday school in Bethel Nagar with 13 kids attending. In Salem, 55 people are attending our house churches. Muthu (4 years old) and Kalaiselvi (2 years old) are children of two of our leprosy patients, Velankanni and Kanaga. Velankanni and Kanaga beg for survival and they used to carry their children along with them. Because of this, the kids didn’t get an opportunity to go to school. But the children have now joined our Day Care and Velankanni and Kanaga are very grateful that their children are provided both with food and education. JEEVAN SUICIDE PREVETION CENTER - CHENNAI/MADRAS This story is about a person called Jennifer. Jennifer has completed her nursing course and she recently became a Christian. She is 26 and has been married for four years to Ram. One day, Jennifer called us, very upset. When she spoke, she was very confused because of all the problems she was going through. She told me the only solution to her problem was to die. I asked her, “What is troubling you?” Jennifer told me that her husband had had so many affairs both before and after they married. One instance happened only six months after their marriage, when he went for a pilgrimage to a holy site and had a relationship with a woman there. He didn’t tell Jennifer about it, but attempted suicide himself because he had been unfaithful to her. Recovering in the hospital, he told Jennifer why he had attempted suicide and she finally came to know about his adulterous affairs. After some time, Ram went to Kerala for business. He didn’t come back for several years. Jennifer heard that he had married again and all of a sudden, Ram came home to her with a 3 year old boy that he said was his son. He also said his second wife was pregnant again. Jennifer’s family is now telling her to get married again herself because none of her siblings will take care of her when she is old. Jennifer’s cousin, Ramesh, is willing to marry her. Their wedding is set for January, but Jennifer told me she feels she might have AIDS as Ram has a promiscuous lifestyle. The fear of AIDS has been tormenting her for the last few months. She said that this will be Ramesh’s first marriage and that she doesn't want to spoil his life.  She feels her only option is to die.   TAMBARAM DAYCARE - CHENNAI/MADRAS DAY CARE SCHOOL - Brundha is one of the sixty children attending our Day Care School. She is four years old and her mother attends our prayer cell. Her husband, who is an alcoholic, used to beat her and never gave her any money to run the household. While drunk, he often broke things in the house and said that he wished his family would just die. Brundha's mother had to earn her own money by doing household work in other houses. We have been praying for this woman for a while, and she has now received a fervent faith in Jesus. She is now confident that He will help her take care of the children no matter the circumstances. TUITION CENTRE, YERIKARAI - The following is a testimony by Vidhya, one of the 68 children that are attending our tuition classes: "My father used to be addicted to chewing betel nut. I prayed and asked Jesus to deliver him from his addiction. Today I am so grateful, because He helped my dad to stop. I am also grateful that I have improved so much in my studies since I started attending the Tuition classes here at Yerikarai". We are so excited to hear testimonies such as this one! SUNDAY SCHOOL, CHITLAPAKKAM - We have 55 children regularly attending the Sunday school in Chitlapakkam. We visit the houses of each of the children once a month. During one such visit to the home of Pavithra, a 14-year-old girl, her mother told us that her whole family has been blessed in all areas of life; a good job for her husband, the children doing well in school, a new house and great joy. She told us that "It is all because of my daughter's prayers". Though Pavithra's mother is practising another religion she has a lot of faith in Jesus. Pray that this whole family will give themselves fully to Christ.   STREET KIDS MINISTRY - CHENNAI/MADRAS Mini, a muslim lady with 2 small children, is from Kerala. When she became pregnant with her first child (now 3 yrs. old), her husband took another wife. He would come and go between Mini and the other lady, often leaving Mini alone. Later, when Mini became pregnant again, her husband didn't come back anymore and she couldn't find him anywhere. She started working on a construction site, but it was difficult for her when men on the site knew she was alone and she was often harassed by them. When her second child was born (now 8 months old) she was not able to work anymore. Since she felt in danger living alone with the construction workers, she took what little money she had and bought a train ticket to Chennai. Since Mini is from a small village in Kerala, she had never been to a big city and didn't really know what she would find. She was quite overwhelmed by everything when she arrived and just stayed in the big Central railway station. Her money quickly ran out and, again, people began to notice that she was alone and she realised that she was in danger from people who would want to exploit her and her children. She went to a flower seller and asked her if she could give her some food and water for her children. The flower seller heard her story and said, "If you will trust me, stay here with me and I will get someone to help you." Then she immediately came and phoned us, as this particular flower seller has her daughter staying with us in the girls' shelter. We visited Mini several times, taking her to our counselling centre at the station. Then we asked the flower seller if she would allow Mini and her children to stay with her for a few days so we could just make sure her need was genuine. We decided after a few days, that Mini was genuinely in need and we took her and her children into our shelter. We just let them stay and eat with us and didn't ask them to come for our prayer and worship times - letting them just feel at home. When Mini was with us for a few months, she told us that she had watched us and that she now loves Jesus! We had not even shared the gospel with her, but we are blessed to know that by observing our lives she had seen Jesus and wanted to also follow Him.  Since we didn't have any work for Mini in our shelter, we have found her a place as an assistant cook in another organisation, which has promised to pay her a salary and also to pay expenses for her children. We see how God was watching over Mini, seeing her plight and leading her to the right people to help her. He truly looks after the fatherless.   PIONEER MINISTRIES One of our ministries here in Chennai is the Pioneer Ministries. The Pioneer Ministries are dedicated to train and equip people to pioneer new works and churches in new places all over the world. This month we have the privilege to report from three of these locations; Madurai (Tamil Nadu), Kochi (Kerala) and Gambia. MADURAI, TAMIL NADU CHILDREN'S MINISTRY - One of the key things we are doing in Madurai is reaching out to the people in the slums. We have recently started three new children's ministries (along with the previous ones) and they are growing rapidly. After running a Vacation Bible School in Bodiline, we have started three different Sunday schools in three new areas. We currently have around 250 children participating in the new Sunday schools. Most of the children are not from Christian backgrounds. Their numbers are still growing each week. Every week we also go to the Government Primary School during their lunch break. We have been able to hold Bible classes for the students, where we teach songs, Bible verses and tell Bible stories. Both students and teachers have been very positive to our presence. MEDICAL WORK - The reason we do medical work is to help the poor and to reach out to them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When the people come for the medicine they do not just come for the medication alone, they come with many other struggles such as family problems, poverty, longing for love and peace, etc. We listen to their problems and introduce them to the One who can give them peace and provide for all their needs. We have had the opportunity to pray for many of them. Every week approximately 200 people are being helped by our medical work. CELL GROUPS - We facilitate five house prayer groups in different slums. Many are attending them and hearing the Good News. The biggest challenge to our cell groups has been caste differences (high caste and low caste do not mix together). This has proved to be a huge barrier to break through. There’s a whole family in the Bodiline Slum that planned to commit suicide by taking poison because of great debts and no jobs. We "happened" to meet them just before they were to drink the poison. We talked to them for a long time, counselled them and encouraged them to seek God for help. We prayed with them - and today they have jobs and are gradually paying off their debts. Many in the family now follow Jesus.   KOCHI, KERALA  We are running a Prayer Station in Kochi (Kerala) where we invite people to come with their struggles and problems. We then pray for them and counsel them if need be. Last month we had a real struggle paying our rent, as no money was coming in (we are a faith-based ministry and rely on donors). However, it is God who is our Provider, and in the last moment He sent us the money we needed through someone none of us knew. God is always meeting our needs! Let us tell you about Vijaya, who called us on the phone to ask us to pray for her to get a job. Her husband was not taking care of the home, but spent all his money on alcohol. She was crying and told us she had been contemplating suicide when she saw our pamphlet. We prayed for her over the phone. After three weeks she called us back saying that she got a job. We then shared the Gospel with her and she is on the verge of receiving it. However, her husband needs to repent so we ask you to join us in prayer for this family. THE GAMBIA, AFRICA CHAMPION FOR JESUS - Sam: One day I met a football coach who was smoking in my regular quiet time place. I asked him several questions to get to know him a bit better, and he seemed to answer honestly. After listening to my sharing about Jesus he requested me to share with his whole team. I had a great opportunity to share the love of God with them twice. Although none of them were Christians, I challenged them to be champions for Jesus and to follow and obey God’s word. Keep me in your prayers to have more opportunities like this. REOPENING KALIMA PRESCHOOL - We reopened Kalima preschool and added 10 new kids. Our total is now 24. We thank God for our two staff Samy and Ruth, who continues to move forward with the school. God spoke to Samy and said that He is the one who started the ministry and it is He who will sustain it. We believe the Lord Jesus Christ will lead our ministry in Gambia. A family from Holland signed up to provide the money to give our children lunch at school which is a huge need for them. God also helped us in September to give five kilos of rice and a kilo of sugar each to 63 families in our village Memmeh, which they were very thankful for. Our ultimate goal is to see this current preschool grow into a high school one day, which will take lots of prayer, time, people’s sacrifice and financial support. We are trusting God to bring committed people to help in the preschool. STUDENT PROJECT - This year our target is to add 50 more students to our project. This is our second year and we are up to 99 students. So far 77 have sponsors, but we need more for the rest of them. An African and a Sri Lankan pastor have recently become our student project sponsors. Also, after hearing about our project, a missionary came to visit us and invited us come to Chennai, India to raise funds for the project and personnel. We just paid several of our students' fees and will gradually pay for the rest. Do pray that the Lord will open the students' eyes that they can see Jesus through this project. PRAYER REQUEST - We still need to raise funds for our house rent, electricity, water and telephone service. Pray for two of our new believers who will be baptized soon. Pray also for the ministry, for more staff and more sponsors for the student project.  www.ywamchennai.org    Contact Information: P.O. Box 1301, St. Thomas Mount, Chennai 600 016, India

Across Pacific Magazine  |   Humour  |  God at Work  |  Across Asia  |  Marine Reach  |  Rancho de la Paz