A Scare

When I left for Rajasthan on Thursday another family went with us to visit their loved ones there in the same village. It was our accountant, Limba, and his wife and baby. They stayed only one night and left by bus on Friday night to travel back home while we stayed on in the village.

At 7:30AM on Saturday morning O. and I were awakened by shouts from our niece and our daughter coming into the room and telling us they had just gotten a phone call that Limba and his family were in an accident.

I called home right away and found out that they ad gotten off the bus in our city and were taking an auto rickshaw home and while going on the road another vehicle (a van) came and crashed into the back of them. The little auto rickshaw went flying down the road and enventually tumbled over a few times.

Limba banged his head but was not injured, the baby was totally fine, but Limba's wife, Rajni, was hurt badly in her back. Thank the Lord, they were spared worse than that. Rajni was walking and talking but in a lot of pain. She is also 3 months pregnant and they did an ultrasound and the baby is fine. The main issue is the back pain and since she is pregnant, no x-ray.

Pray for her, she's resting and hopefully, healing.

It was a big scare, but those who were here to see the result of the accident praised God - by the condition of the auto rickshaw it was hard to believe that anyone could walk out of it alive.



P.S. - the driver of the van ran away from the scene. The scoundrel. (The man pictured above is
not him.)

A Short And Busy Month

It's February. Just 2 or 3 days shorter than every other month, but for some reason it always feels crunched to me.

O. came home from Rajasthan this morning and told me someone invited us to a house opening on the 14th so we'd have to leave on the 13th (it's about 8 hours away). We have a bunch of guests coming on the 17th and 18th and our choir is invited to lead worship in a church in Rajasthan on the 23rd and 24th. As far as I know neither one of us are going for that.

I have two ladies coming on the 25th and staying in to the first few days of March. P.'s first birthday is March 1st and we'll be in Rajasthan so we'll be celebrating that on February 27th (most likely.)

This week - Ha! we didn't even go there yet, is full of Bible College activities. A big one, the picnic, is on Thursday.

Lot's of fun this month - it's gonna zip on by...

Now I'm Going To Rajasthan

It's my turn to head to Rajasthan with all the kids tomorrow. We'll be there through Sunday night.

Back From Bombay

By the time I got back from Bombay my girls were in the midst of school exams, so there has been lots of studying for things like Math, and English and Social Studies. I send them to someone else to study for Hindi. Not much time for blogging or computer in general.

I was also annoyed for the last few days, I think going away from home does that to me. I was only gone for 1 1/2 days but little things get changed. Our wheat ran out and someone bought the wrong kind to replace it and it was old and yucky. E.'s school uniform shirt turned up missing and I still haven't found it... Little things like that throw off my balance, but other than that the trip was a blessing.

The only negative thing was the feast P. and I gave to the mosquitoes all Tuesday night, they kept us awake. Unpleasant. Getting home tired probably didn't improve my mood.

My talks did go well, I think. I had two sessions with women in the afternoon and then I was the special speaker at a church's 10th anniversary. In addition to speaking, I think I prayed individually for about 150 people. Not Kidding. My favorite prayer request was a lady who came forward with two small, grungy looking children and said (as her prayer request), "They bug me all the time." I said, tell me about it, I've got four!

All in all, a good time. I did get a call from the pastor's wife last night saying that her husband had been suffering for three days with chest pain due to high BP and to please pray. His name is Dennis.

O. Back In Rajasthan

O. left for Rajasthan yesterday and will stay there until I arrive with our girls on Thursday of this week. We've been wanting to visit the family who was injured but school and Bible College exams are going on. We'll leave after the last exam on Thursday and stay until Sunday.

There are elections in Rajasthan on Tuesday so O. went early to vote.

Travelin' To Speak Tomorrow

I'm booked for two speaking engagements tomorrow near Mumbai (Bombay). I'll drive (be driven) there early tomorrow morning.

The first is from 2-5PM among the women in friends of ours' church. The 2nd meeting is a church opening and I don't know them. I just happened to be in the area due to the Women's Meeting and was utilized.

I'll be speaking on "Walking in the Light" for the women's gathering and on 2 Samuel 24:24 for the church opening. Pray for me if you remember.

O. will be home with the three girls. He relishes the chance to play Mr. Mom.*

*One day out of 366

O. And Team Back At Home At Last

Everyone got home from Rajasthan about an hour ago. It was a long wait for them today.

As they ate food (gobbled it up really) they were recounting the numerous ways God moved in miraculous ways. We just talked about the hundreds (I said no thousands) of people who prayed.

I cannot tell you how many responses I got from people saying that they - and their whole church - are praying. Praise the Lord. The amount of prayers prayed in regards to the situation this past week is uncountable and awe inspiring to me.

More Good News: Men In Jail

About twenty minutes ago I got a phone call from O. who was at the courts. The men who beat the believers on Sunday night were before the judge for sentencing (or non-sentencing.) According to O. they came with a lot of RSS* support and bribe money. O. said, "Pray."

I prayed and called someone to have both our Karuna kids and Bible Students pray right now, and I prayed some more.

About fifteen minutes after the first phone call O. called back - the judged sentenced the men to jail time until at least January 26th. After that, we don't know, but it was a great miracle and answer to prayer. Talk about holding your breath!

Thanks to everyone who has been praying. Don't stop.

Hopefully, we'll get our husbands back home soon now...

* RSS = Hindu Nationalist Organization, totally anti-Christian

The Police Are On Our Side

There has been a great breakthrough in the ongoing case of the beatings in Rajasthan. As of yesterday the police are now on our side. Since the beginning they have ignored, harassed, not helped and basically been unpleasant to us; but after two days of standing at the police station waiting for justice and inundating the police with phone calls from human rights groups, etc. from all over India, they gave in.

On Thursday night the police sent four security to escort some of the believers who were beaten back to their homes. One of the security men was supposed to stay there all night. This only happened through prayer. As God softened the heart of Pharaoh, he soften the heart of the police inspector, at last. Thanks for praying. After the past four days of hindrances on every side, this really was a great miracle.

The story gets better. After the security man was sent, O. and the guys with him returned to his home village in the evening. It's located about 3 Km from Tidi village where the attacks happened. As they pulled off the main road into the village they saw the security man sitting around with another man, drinking. He's supposed to be in Tidi protecting the villagers from more attacks and here he is three kilometers away, drunk.

O. got fired up, called the police inspector, threaten all kinds of stuff and got it all sorted it. But the end of it was that we caught the police corruption first hand and on film.

They are now much more willing to do what needs to be done.

Photos Of The Persecuted

I received these photos this morning from two men who came back from Rajasthan last night. It took me a while to just get myself up to even looking at them. These are people we know and love. Our family in Christ and in blood.

These photos have all been taken over the last 3 days.

Pastor Surjit (This is the father of the president of our ministry.)

His hand was cut while using it to stop the ax that was coming toward his head.
O.'s sister with a broken leg. They didn't get any medical treatment until over 24 hours after the incident happened.

Ramesh, with his injured foot.

The man who held the meeting. It was at his house where the fighting broke out. He and many others have not been able to go back home due to fear of repercussions.

He was hit in the head with an ax.

Pray for them. Pray for O. and the others following up with the police and in the courts. This case may have to go all the way to the capital in Delhi.

* ignore the dates stamped on the photos, they're all wacky.