Samsons in India

Update Nov 2011

2011-11-24T12:40:00.023+05:30

Dear friends,

It is great to be home! We arrived safe and sound back in India on the 5^th of Nov. We were greeted with the sounds and smells of India. It was 25C at 3AM quite a difference compared to Canada.

We want to start our new letter by thanking all of you that made our trip so special. Thanks to all
the pastors and churches that allowed us to share and to all of our friends and family for their hospitality and love.

As many of you know Hannah stayed in Canada to continue her schooling. We thank you all for your prayer support. Although we miss Hannah a lot it is a great comfort to us that she is settling in well and has started a new job.

We want to bring you up to date on a couple of projects. First the Hope for the Children construction and updates are finished and it looks like a new place.

Thanks to Pastor Zis Moradi from KRT Brampton for funding this whole project. The kids now have a beautiful new facility.

I also want to introduce our latest project, “New Beginnings Learning Center”. Many of you know and support Women Helping Widows. WHW is a widow’s ministry that I started to help poor and abandoned widows in our churches. From this ministry came a dream to start a center where women can learn a trade. We are planning on opening a center and restarting our sewing ministry.We will offer free sewing classes to women.

So many women in the villages are living in abusive situations because they can’t leave. They are poor with no skills or education they depend on their husbands for their financial support. Because many men are addicted to alcohol they spend their money at the local wine shop leaving the family with little or no money.

New Beginnings will offer women an opportunity to break the cycle of abuse and poverty. It will give them a better life and improve the life of their children. It will also open the doors to us to share the Gospel and the love of Jesus.

If you would like to partner with us in helping these women please contact us at prasaddawn@hotmail.com.

Looking ahead to the next month we are getting ready to start the very busy Christmas season. With all of it's Christmas programs in all the churches we give leadership to, widows party and children's party. If you would like to send a gift towards the Christmas programs please send it to the PAOC national office. Please note Samsons Chennai Christmas and drop us a line to notify us of your gift.

Advanced Christmas wishes to you all,

Prasad, Dawn and Asha.

2011-06-22T17:24:00.008+05:30

Dear Friends,

Summer in Canada is just beginning while summer in India has come to an end.
Summer means a break from school for the children at the home and a begging of our daily vacation bible school for the churches. This is an opportunity to reach out to the children and parents in the community. The DVBS ran for one week and was well attended. We pray that God will water all the seeds that were planted in many children's lives.

As we wind down from this busy time we wanted to update you on what has been going on with our family. The new addition to the children’s home is finished at last. It is a great blessing to see this done. Now we have started on phase two of the renovations. Some much needed remodelling on the existing home.

On Palm Sunday we celebrated with a parade or as they say in India a “processional”. We walk through the village singing songs and caring palm branches.

In May myself and with Hannah and Asha headed home for Canada. Prasad will be staying behind for a few months to care for the children’s home and churches and will be joining us later in the summer.
We will be looking for opportunities to iterate and would like to visit as many of our church families as possible. If you would like to have us speak please contact us at our hotmail address. We will be in the Mari times until Sep 12th and in Ontario from September 13th until Nov 3. We look forward to hearing form you.

Prasad and Dawn

Update Dec-Feb 2011

2011-02-21T17:36:00.009+05:30

Update Dec - Feb
After only a few short weeks winter has finished and spring is now here. Day time temps are in the low thirties and we know that summer is just around the corner.
In Dec we celebrated Christmas with family and friends. The month flew by with many Christmas programs and the children’s party.
This month we held our second Indian Field Retreat. This is a time for all of the PAOC missionaries to come together for a time of fellowship and to bond as a team. Our special speaker this year was Rev David Hazzard Assistant Superintendent for Fellowship Ministries and Rev Crag Burton District Superintendent for Eastern Ontario. We had a great time with the team and are already looking forward to next year.

We are excited to tell you about our latest church plant. Often we face trials and challenges when we start a new church this time was no different. We were asked to come and start a church in this are after the original church building had been torn down.

On February 6th we held our fist service next to the rubble of the old building. Please pray for this small church congregation. We want to thank Lori Gibbons the District Superintendent for Western ON for sharing a very special word that morning.

The finishing touches are being put on the new addition at the children’s home and should be finished next month! It is a blessing to see the home almost finished and knowing that soon we be able to help many more boys and girls. Thanks to Pastor Zia Morardi KRT Brampton for funding the full project.
Looking ahead we will be heading home to Canada in the month of May. We are still settling on a date so please keep this in your prayers. Looking foward to seeing you soon!

Prasad, Dawn, Hannah and Asha

2010-12-15T16:59:00.010+05:30

Dear friends,
We want to start our update by wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year. The rainy season has arrived in Southern India. Days of scattered showers and heavy rains a week can pass without seeing the blue sky. Children look forward to rain days just as kids in Canada love their snow days.
Just a few weeks ago we finished with our last team from Canada. A total of four teams this year. Each team was a blessing to us and to the people we minister to. We are now gearing up for the busy Christmas season.

On Oct 23 we welcomed the WM team to Chennai. This team focused on women, children and widows. The team was led by Sandra Gill WM director for Canada. In just a short 10 days the team visited 3 three schools and entertained, educated and blessed over 1400 children. In the evenings we visited our widows a total of 75 over a period of 3 days. On Saturday Oct 30th we held a one day WM event with over 200 ladies attending.

School children learned about life in Canada they also had a special visit from Joy the clown. Joy talked about creation and how God created everyone special and beautiful. The team planted seeds of hope and love in these Hindu children’s hearts.

In the evenings we visited our widows, some nights visiting them right in their homes. This gave the team a look into the life that these desperately poor women live. Left alone and often abused having the team visit them is an event these ladies will never forget.

One night the ladies walked more than a KM through the mud and rain to hold a meeting for our widows. Slipping and sliding all the way the ladies finally arrived. Between the showers Sandra blessed the ladies with a message and then each widow received a new sari and a bag of groceries.
Flourish! That was the theme for the WM event. You are beautiful, you are worthy, you can grow and flourish. Much needed words of compassion and love to these ladies. The WM team reached into the hearts of ladies and encouraged them blessed them and gave them hope.

We want to thank each and every member of the WM team for choosing Indian and for all of the hard work that was done. A big thank you goes out to Sandra Gill and to Donna and Dan Davies that helped co lead the team. They overcame many challenges along the way but lead this team with grace and love. We also want to thank “Covered by Love” quilt project and Sandra Morton who brought us so many beautiful quilts.

As we look to the New Year we can’t help but wonder what God has in store. Early in the year the new addition to the children’s home will be completed and we will be able to accommodate many more new children.
Our church plant in the town of Avadi will soon be finished and we will be able to hold services inside a brand new building.
Christmas brings challenges being stretched in many different directions and the distance between family and friends always feels a little further at Christmas. At the same time it’s a honour to serve those around us.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas,

Prasad, Dawn, Hannah and Asha

2010-10-06T10:07:00.028+05:30

Dear Friends,
The months have flow by and we are now heading into the rainy season. Days of rain and mud puddles that resembles small lakes.

The past months have been full with teams and visitors from home. After returning from our regional retreat in July we were visited by our second team this year. We welcomed APC "Agincourt Pentecostal Church" Scarborough. This was a special time for us because the team leader Pastor Laura Bogner and her husband Andy have been friends of ours for many years.

The team focused on children’s ministry. During the day visiting schools and in the evening holding children’s crusades. Hundreds of children were touched, loved and moved by the team’s ministry. Magic tricks, puppets and games were just a few of the items the team had brought along with them.
The team reached out to some of the poorest of the poor including a visit to a leper colony and a fabulous party at our children’s home. We want to thank the APC team for all of their hard work. You did an awesome job!

In August work started again on our church plant. Thanks to the HEART project started by Murray Cornelius. The walls were going up when work was shifted to a much needed home for the pastor of the church. Pastor David and his family were forced to move three times this year and could not find a home suitable for his family. Thanks to the HEART program Pastor David and his family will have a place to live.

Because of the construction of the home we still need $10,000 dollars to complete the project. Please pray that we will see the funds raised for the project. Our prayer is that we will be able to hold a service in the new church by Christmas.

In September we began preparation for our next team KRT "Kennedy Road Tabernacle"Brampton. KRT has been supporting our ministry since 2006 when a team came and began construction on “Hope for the Children”. They visited again in 2007 to build the compound wall around the home.

This time KRT came to begin construction on the home of an additional building to house the boys at the home. Not only did KRT help build the foundation but thanks to Pastor Jamie Stewart and Zia Moradi they also helped in a huge way to fund this project.

Over the past two week the team carried cement “Indian Style” on their heads. Dug holes and moved mountains of mud. All the work paid off and at the end of the two weeks they had laid the foundation for the new building.
In the between the construction they took part in outreach, a children’s party at the home and a very exciting visit to a leper colony. We thank them for all their hard work and flexibility.
A look forward our next team arrives the end of this month our WM (Women’s Ministries) team will be focusing on women and children ministries.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as our ministry continues to move forward.

Prasad and Dawn

Update April and May

2010-06-12T11:41:00.034+05:30

Dear friends,
Spring has gone and we are now at the end of the summer season. Temperatures that were above 40C and humidity at 86% for many weeks have now cooled down to 35C. It has been a busy season for us.

In March we held Pastor Conferences with several hundred pastors attending. Many of the pastors traveled hundreds of KM to attend. Thank you to Pastor Marshall Eizenga from Waterloo Ontario who spoke at the conferences. We hwldo two days seminor.The first day Pastor Marshall spoke on the subject The Holey Spirt. The second day he spoke on the subject Leadership. It was an eye opener and we got some very good feed back from the local pastors.

Also during the same time we held a special woman’s meeting our special speaker Sandra McIntosh shared. Over two hundred ladies attended the meeting. Sandra edified and uplifted the ladies speaking to them about how beautiful they are in God's eyes. How special and precious they are to him. These ladies were touched and ministered to by Sandra and her word.

In May we held special revival meetings. The dates were the 18th 19th and 20th of May. The day the meetings were to begin a tropical storm blew in and the weather forecast was rain, wind and thunderstorms for all three days. We asked people to pray that the weather will hold. The first night the weather was beautiful with just a sprinkle of rain from time to time. Our special speaker Brother Williams who spoke and sang the word of God. Brother Williams spoke on the righteous path, the path of peace, the path of purity and the path to heaven. Over one thousand people attended the first night.

On day two the storm was full force our stage, banners and most of our lights were destroyed, blow away or damaged. By three o'clock in the afternoon the decision was made to cancel the meeting.

But by the third night the weather had miraculously cleared and we went ahead with the third day meeting. With over one thousand four hundred people attending brother Moses Rajasekar spoke, sang and testified of God's goodness. Brother Moses is compltely blind and is dependent on dialsis and yet travels throught out India and the world singing and preaching.
We want to thank everyone that prayed for the meetings we saw many people come forward for healing and salvation. It was a true miracle that we were able to hold the two meetings!

Things have been quiet at the children’s home the past month. Many of the children go home for summer holidays. While the children were away God provided the funds so that we could have a play ground installed at the home.

Construction has stopped at the church in Avadi. We were able to finish the foundation and floor and start the construction on the walls. We can not continue this project with out your help. Please pray that we will be able to finish this project before the rainy season. If you are interested in more information about our church building project please have a look at our prior blog you can email us prasaddawn@hotmail.com.

Looking to the coming month, in July we are expecting a team from Agincourt Pentecostal Church. We look forward to this team Lead by Pastor Laura Bogner focusing on children’s ministry.

This year we have at least two more teams coming our way. 2010 is becoming a very busy year for us.

Please continue to pray for our family our budget is still in deficit and we are believing that God will work a miracle in this area.

Blessings,

Prasad and Dawn

2010-04-17T13:19:00.016+05:30

Dear Friends

I am writing this Blog to ask for your help with our latest project.

One of the churches we give leadership to is in a town North of Chennai called Avadi (some of you have visited this church). We were meeting in a large church building provided by a family member. It was a solid structure and quite adequate to hold the church of about 200 members.

In 2007 we were told to leave their church building. The congregation was given only one month to find a suitable building to meet in. Out of desperation the whole congregation went to the land lord’s house and begged him to reconsider. He would not and told them to leave immediately.

This left the church with no meeting place and Pastor David (our associate pastor)
and his family with no home. They had been living in a small apartment above the church.

We began looking for a piece of land to build a temporary building for them to meet in. The land prices in the area were very high and nothing seemed to be available. Just when we didn’t know where to turn God came through. A Muslim man offered us a piece of land for half price. It was right beside the old church building and in a good area. Right away we put the money together and bought the land. As we left for Canada in 2007 they were able to build a small hut where the people could meet for church.

At Christmas time they extended the building to hold the crowds of people. Still every Sunday people sit out side in the hot sun to hear the sermon.

As you can see the church is very small. The walls are made of coconut leaves covered on the inside with cloth. The roof is also made of coconut leaves that leak in the rainy season. Despite their church building Avadi is a healthy growing church. They are praying for a new church building one that is big enough for

the entire congregation.

On our visit to Canada in 2009 we began to raise funds for this project. So far we have raised $5000 of the $20,000 needed to complete the project. By faith we have started constructing the building. In March Prasad laid the first bricks to begin the project,

Here is where we need your help. First we are asking for everyone to pray for the church in Avadi. Pray for Pastor David his wife Gitsey and their two children. Pray for Pastor David and his family that they will continue to see the church grow as they reach their community for Christ.

Second we ask you to join us as we raise funds for a new church building. As I mentioned we have raised $5000 of the $20,000 needed to complete the project. Without help we will have to stop the construction. Please pray that God will provide the funds needed to finish the church.

If you would like to help with this project you can make check payable to the PAOC. Memo the Samson's Avadi Church Planting Project.

Thank you for your support. You are making a difference in India.

Blessings,

Prasad and Dawn

2010-02-09T11:49:00.009+05:30

After four months in Canada it is great to be home! We arrived back in India on Nov 1. As soon as we left the plane the smell and heat of India struck us. Even at 2AM it was stifling hot and humid. Still is was great to see familiar faces and be back at home.

We want to thank everyone that opened their doors to us while we itinerated in Canada. It was great to reconnect with people and to meet so many new ones.

On Dec 15th Charles and Desirea Silva arrived here in Chennai. Along with their two children Sarah and Judah they will be coming along side us to partner with us our children’s home “Hope for the Children”.

Over the past four year the ministry has grown and expanded so much that we desperately needed a couple to help us with the home. We look forward to working with them and to all the great things God has instore.
On December 19th we help our annual widows meeting. It was a great day. It is so much fun to see the ladies playing games and fellowshipping with each other. As always they received a new sari and a Christmas dinner.

Christmas time means children’s programs and the children’s party. It is always great to see what the children have put together each year. The programs are full of dances, songs and skits. This is a great outreach to the community because they are all held outside and many people come by to stop and watch the fun.

On Christmas Eve we held our Christmas party at the Children’s home. Songs, candy, presents and fireworks were enjoyed by everyone. Celebrating Christmas with these beautiful boys and girls is such a pleasure. Almost all of our children are from Hindu homes, so few of them would have ever heard the Christmas story or experienced the joy Christmas. We want to thank everyone that made this Christmas party possible for us.

We celebrated the New Year with both a New Year and old year service. Already 2010 is looking to be a very busy year.

In February we hosted our first team Kitchener Gospel Temple. Besides painting the children's home Pastor Burton held revial meetings.

It was a great time and we saw many miracles and several cam to Christ. We thank the team and Pastor Burton for all of their hard work and sacrfice.

2009-10-05T21:08:00.008+05:30

Dear friends,
The past few months have flown by and we are now looking toward the fall and the busy Christmas season.

In March we had some special visitors Melanie and Mary-Beth came from our home church “Highway Gospel Church” in Scarborough Ontario. Mary–Beth and Melanie were involved in Children’s ministry, a youth day, women’s meetings and repainting our new dining hall. It was wonderful to have them with us and such a blessing to us. We want to thank them for all their hard work.

In May summer hit with a vengeance with temperatures over 40C. The heat wave that usually lasts two weeks lasted over six weeks. Still we held a very successful VBS (Vacation Bible School) in all of the churches. Through the VBS we are able to reach out to hundreds of boys and girls with the love of Christ.

In June we hosted our first Indian retreat. The retreat took place in the beautiful city of Darjeeling. High in the mountains surrounded with cool breezes and beautiful views. Darjeeling was a wonderful time to refresh and connect with our Indian team. A special thank you to our regional director Peter and Sandra McIntosh for sharing with us during the retreat.

Just a few weeks ago we started tailoring classes for the local ladies in the villages. These classes are completely free and in able the ladies to learn a very useful trade. The goal is to give them skills to find employment but to also to share the love of Christ with them in a practical way. A thank you goes out to our friend Tony Dewan KRT Brampton for helping us by donating the machines.

In July we started our journey home to Canada. We want to thank all of the pastors that opened their doors to us an allowed us to share our power point presentation. Currently we are in Ontario and are itinerating here. We want to thank “Agincourt Pentecostal Church” for allowing us to stay in their mission house. It is a great blessing to have such a beautiful home to stay in. We also want to thank Donna Davies and WM for welcoming us into the home with a beautiful gift basket and for continuing to stop in with gifts of food.
We ask you all to pray for our family. We continue to raise funds for the children’s home and the much needed addition. We are also raising funds for a new church plant. Please pray that our budget will be met this year.

Blessings,

Prasad and Dawn

Hope for the Children

2009-04-10T07:18:00.004+05:30

2009-04-09T19:47:00.001+05:30

Update December and January

2009-02-23T10:35:00.009+05:30

Dear Friends,

The past few weeks have slipped away so quickly. December is our busiest month of the year. With Christmas concerts and Carol services in all churches, widows meetings, our children’s party, the list goes on and on.

We started early in the month of December with our Christmas concerts this year a total of five programs. It is always great to see what the children have done each year. It is also an amazing way to reach out to the community. So many of the village people come to see the concerts and at the same time hear the “Good News”.

Every year we hold our widows party. This year was another success, so many widows were blessed with a sari and some extra Christmas money. Before lunch we decided to play some games. This was so much fun for the ladies. In the end I must confess I am not sure who had more fun the ladies or the spectators. The gifts made the winners happy for sure.

On the 23 of December we had our annual Children’s party. This is my favorite day of the year. To spend the day with the children playing and giving them there Christmas gifts brings an indescribable joy to our hearts.

We want to thank everyone who made a donation to the Christmas party. Because of your gifts we were able to give the children new clothes, a nice gift, bath towels for each child.

We ended December with a trip to the zoo. All of the children made the trip. It was great fun and a lot of walking.

Thanks to ERDO in December we were able to help many families that were affected from typhoon Nisha. We passed out bags of rice, kerosene, cots and pillows. Many people have lost there homes and all of there belongings. We count it a blessing to help these people in need.

As we begin the New Year please keep India and our family in your prayers.

Blessings,

Prasad and Dawn

2008-11-22T15:42:00.019+05:30

Greetings Friends,

If I had to sum the past eight weeks or so only one word would describe them busy with a capital “B”. On the 6th of October my Rev Carmen Crockett his wife Colleen their daughter Jessica and their Church member Elizabeth Baker arrived after a long journey that began in Greenwood Nova Scotia. Carmen has been a pastor with the PAOC for over 23 years and we were very excited to hold revival meetings with him. I admit we were a little reluctant going into the meetings with all the violence against Christians in Orissia and even right here in Tamil Nadu but as always God is faithful. We want to thank everyone that prayed for us during the meetings because God’s hand of protection was upon us and there was a great moving of his Holy Spirit. While the monsoon rains poured down on the second night, God’s spirit poured out on his people. And we saw several people filled with the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues for the first time.

On the third night we saw people delivered and several set free from pain and healed right before our eyes. As Prasad and Carmen prayed for the last two people the heavens opened up and the meetings came to an end.

While Carmen was here we were also able to make a visit to our children’s home where we had a small party. I am not sure who had more fun the adults or the children.

As we said goodbye at the airport we gained a new member to our family. My niece Jessica will be staying with us over the next months as a PAOC short term missionary. She will be working in Children’s ministry as well as helping with Hannah and Asha’s home schooling. She will also be helping us with our media.

Just a few days later we welcomed Murray Cornelius and Jim Cantelon founder of Visionledd and former co host of Cross Road Communications. While they were with us here in Chennai we held a pastors seminar. The topic of the seminar was how we as the church can reach people suffering from Aids, as well as orphans and widows left behind because of Aids. It was a very eye opening and revealing look into the problem that is raging in India. This was the first conference that Jim had ever held in India.

Our next visitor Janinne Collins from Saskatoon Saskatchewan she was with us for two weeks. This was Jannie’s first mission trip and her focus was on women and children’s ministry. Janinne has a very powerful and personal testimony of how God brought her through miscarriage and post partum depression. This spoke in a mighty way to several of our ladies and opened door for us to minister to them. She also spoke to our widows and encouraged them in who they are in Christ. She also blessed all of our ladies with packets of toiletries.

We also spent several evenings ministering to the local children in the villages sharing the gospel with them and their parents as well. It was a great blessing to see the children’s faces light up as we sang songs and as Jannine shared the story of the “Good Shepard”.

We want to thank Jannine for taking time to come and minister to so many people here in Chennai. We also want to thank all who donated items for her to bring either to the children’s home or to our widows and women’s ministries.

Also this month we had Carol Perrin with us for a few days before she left for Andra Pradesh.

As we look ahead to the Christmas season and begin our plans for Christmas parties and our widow’s ministry it can be a bit overwhelming. Every year we have a Christmas dinner for the widows and buy them each a sari and give them a small amount of money so that they can have a joyful Christmas. We also have a special dinner for the children.

If you would like to contribute towards these Christmas expenses, you can make a check payable to PAOC and mention “India Samson’s Christmas special project” when you send your donation to the national office.

We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Blessings,

Prasad, Dawn, Hannah and Asha

2008-09-11T09:49:00.010+05:30

Dear friends,

Ministry is going well here in Chennai, we continue to see the churches grow and our children’s home is full and over flowing. Last month we moved into a new home, it is just minutes away from the children’s home and churches. We thank God for providing us with the new house.

We want to thank everyone who prayed for us during the bomb scares in July. Things have settled down again life has returned to normal (as normal as it gets in India). Recently the Chennai government has started a “Load Sharing Plan”. This means that through out the city of Chennai there are black outs, so far about three hours every day we have no electricity.

WHW “Women Helping Widows” continues to grow and we thank everyone that continues to give. I will have another update telling you about all the great things that have been going on ready to send to you shortly.

We are looking at a very busy October and the months there on. Rev Carmen Crockett is coming with a small team and will be with us from 7th till 16th of October. Murray Cornelius (PAOC Missions Director) is coming with a small team and we are planning a pastor’s seminar on HIV/AIDS in mid October. We are also expecting a lady specializing in children and women’s
ministry towards the end of October. Please pray that seeds will be sown in good soil and we will harvest many souls.

We visited the children’s home on Saturday and took a few pictures, as you can see it has grown. We now have total of 40 children! Several of our children need sponsors, please contact the "Child Care Plus" department of the PAOC or us directly if you would like to sponsor a child in our children’s home. Please specify Chennai India.

This month I felt led instead of our usual update to share with you a story of one of our children in the children’s home. His name is Selvam and his story is all too familiar to us. As you can see from his picture he is a handsome little boy.

Selvam and his brother Mani (pronounced Money) came to us over two years ago, scared and timid they sat beside their mother while she filled out forms to have them admitted to the home. With tears in her eyes she explained how her husband had been injured in a traffic accident and was no longer able to work. His back had been broken in the accident and had left him disabled. They had tried to keep the family together but could not provide for the children.

With in a few weeks the timidity and shyness seemed to melt away. Both Selvam and Mani began to open up and began playing and laughing with the other children.

I will never forget the day during devotions we asked if anyone had a testimony that they would like to share. Selvam stood up. He boldly said “I thank God that I live in the Children’s home. That I have lots to eat and can play with my friends. But most of all I am thankful that I can go to school and don’t have to work any more in the factory.” Out of desperation, trying to keep the family together Selvam’s parents made the decision to take all the children out of school. They all then went to work in a factory where their job was to spend the day splitting open green chilies with their hands. Many nights they would come home tired and hungry with blisters on their fingers from the hot chilies. There was no time for school or play and they were paid only pennies a day.

Because of your prayer and financial support we were able to open our children’s home “Hope for the Children”, where children like Selvam are able to attend school. Most children are from Hindu families and they are now attending church where they learn about Jesus and his love.
On behalf of Selvam and Mani and all the other children like them, we thank you for your love and support. With out you none of this would be possible.

Matthew 25: 40 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
We now have total of 40 children! Several of our children need sponsors, please contact the Child Care Plus department of the PAOC if you would like to sponsor a child in our children’s home. Please specify Chennai India.

This month I felt led instead of our usual update to share with you a story of one of our children in the children’s home. His name is Selvam and his story is all too familiar to us.
Selvam and his brother Mani (pronounced Money) came to us over two years ago, scared and timid they sat beside their mother while she filled out forms to have them admitted to the home. With tears in her eyes she explained how her husband had been injured in a traffic accident and was no longer able to work. His back had been broken in the accident and had left him disabled. They had tried to keep the family together but could not provide for the children.

With in a few weeks the timidity and shyness seemed to melt away. Both Selvam and Mani began to open up and began playing and laughing with the other children.

I will never forget the day during devotions we asked if anyone had a testimony that they would like to share. Selvam stood up. He boldly said “I thank God that I live in the Children’s home. That I have lots to eat and can play with my friends. But most of all I am thankful that I can go to school and don’t have to work any more in the factory.” Out of desperation, trying to keep the family together Selvam’s parents made the decision to take all the children out of school. They all then went to work in a factory where their job was to spend the day splitting open green chilies with their hands. Many nights they would come home tired and hungry with blisters on their fingers from the hot chilies. There was no time for school or play and they were paid only pennies a day.

Because of your prayer and financial support we were able to open our children’s home “Hope for the Children”, where children like Selvam are able to attend school. Most children are from Hindu families and they are now attending church where they learn about Jesus and his love.
On behalf of Selvam and Mani and all the other children like them, we thank you for your love and support. With out you none of this would be possible.

Matthew 25: 40 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

February 2008 Updates

2008-02-14T15:04:00.015+05:30

Dear Friends,
After three months in Canada it is great to be home again. So much has happened in these past few months it is hard to know where to begin.
I think that we have a little catching up to do since our last posting. In May we held our first “Women’s Conference”. Our special speakers were Sandra McIntosh and Cavell Rowsell. The ladies in the meetings were truly ministered to and blessed.

In June we welcomed several of our regional directors and the PAOC mission director Murray Cornelius to our home for a short visit.
On June 16th our children’s home “Hope for the Children” opened its doors. This was truly an amazing day! Who new that in 2002 when Prasad found 20 children living in his old bedroom that it would begin our journey to India. That we would return to India and build this home for the children. Seeing it completed and the children happily running and playing brings such joy to our hearts.
In July we boarded a plane and made our way back to Canada. We truly had a wonderful time meeting friends and family after two years. We want to thank all the pastors that opened their door and welcomed us in to share our presentation. The response we had to our presentation was overwhelming at times.

After only 11 short days back in India we welcomed a 10 member team from KRT Brampton. It was a packed two weeks with children’s ministry a construction team that helped start the much needed compound wall for our children’s home and revival meetings. We want to thank everyone who took part in the team.
December flew by in a whirl of Christmas concerts, carol rounds and Christmas parties. The highlight for us this December was our children’s party that was held at the children’s home. It was so wonderful to see the children with their happy faces opening their gifts. The children went wild when they opened their brand new TV along with their individual gifts. We want to thank Tony Dewan from Brampton for his general gift towards the children’s home. We also want to thank Carmen Moonsammy from Brampton and Calvary Pentecostal Church Gananoque Ontario for contributing gifts for the children.

We also had our Christmas widows’ service. A big thank you to all the ladies that have become part our new ministry “Women Helping Widows”. Because of your gifts each widow received a new sari and some money for Christmas. They were very blessed.
We started 2008 with the thunder of Rev Chuck Price in January when we held six nights of revival meetings. He set the area on fire with his powerful preaching. Several people were touched. Night after night people responded to his alter call. We are believing God for a harvest from these meetings.

We want to give you an update on our children’s home “Hope for the Children”. In December the much needed compound wall was completed and the gate is being added. We have started the construction on the dinning hall this week. The work was stopped for the whole month of December due to the late monsoon rain. The children are all doing well and we continue to grow in size and in number.

Looking a head we are expecting Rev Marie Miller to be with us in the next few weeks. We are planning a special meeting around her visit. This will be the two punch knock outs for the devil in the area. Please keep this in your prayers.

As many of you know our budget was in deficit at the end of 2007. We want to thank everyone who made a contribution. Because of you we were able to meet our 2007 budget.
May God richly bless,
Prasad and Dawn

Please visit our Photo Bucket Albums.... Click on the lines below...

Foursamsons Photo Bucket

February 2008 - General Photos

KRT Team Visit

Widow's Meeting

Evengelist Chuck Price - Reapers in the Rain Ministry

2008-02-11T16:15:00.000+05:30

Our family wanted to take a moment to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year. As we look back over 2007 it truly has been a great year. Some of the high lights are our first women’s conference, seeing the beginning of our latest ministry “Women Helping Widows” celebrating our second year in India and the opening of our children’s home “Hope for the Children”.

“Hope for the Children” continues to grow in the past 6 weeks since we have been back in India 4 new children have been brought to the children’s home bringing the total number to 35 children. We are looking forward to our children’s Christmas party that will be held on Christmas Eve.
It was wonderful to be home in Canada again, to see all our friends and family. We want to thank all the churches and pastors that opened their doors to us. It was wonderful to share our hearts with you about India.

From our power point presentation many of you will remember the story of Siva, a young Hindu boy who came forward for prayer during one of our meetings. God delivered Siva from fear and depression, later he gave his heart to the Lord. A few weeks ago we saw Siva again this time praising and worshiping God at one of our special meetings. According to his pastor he has become a very valuable church member, always helping in any way he can. Pray for Siva as he continues his Christian walk.

During the month of November we made a visit to a leprosy colony, we were able to minister to them and pass out some gifts to the people as well as pray for the patients and their families. Please pray that God will open the doors and we will be able to begin a ministry with these poor people.

A few weeks ago we received the news that our budget is in deficit, although things are improving please continue to pray that we will end this year with out a deficit.

We want to thank you for your continued prayer and financial support, because of you we are able to continue on in the ministry that God has called us to. Because of your gifts and prayers Children and Widows are being fed and clothed; people are hearing the “Good News” of the gospel and lives are being changed.

Merry Christmas,
Prasad, Dawn, Hannah and Asha

Update for March/April 2007

2007-04-28T10:36:00.000+05:30

These past two months have been exciting ones. In February 8 people were baptized. The older lady you see in the green sari was baptized just two months ago, yesterday I performed her funeral. We thank God that she made the decision to follow Christ.

In March we adopted a new church into the PAOI (Pentecostal Assemblies of India). We welcome Pastor David his wife Gersial and their daughter Blessina into our family PAOI family. Pastor David has an incredible burden for the town of Avadi (suburb of Chennai)

March 23, 24, and 25 were an incredible three days of ministry. We held a three day crusade in the town of Avadi. We made a special prayer request to you for these crusades. Thank you so much for your prayer, great things took place. The emphasis was on salvation and healing, God did not disappoint us. Please don’t forget to look at our “Samson's PhotoBucket” seen on the right side of the blog.

On the first night I spoke from the scripture Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened” “The Invitation” as my title. The response was wonderful so many people came forward for healing and to accept Christ as their savior.

On the next night Dawn spoke using as her text Luke 2:22-33 the story of Simeon and his search for Jesus. Her question to the people was “What are you searching for?” The response was again amazing. At the end of the meeting we prayed for hundreds of people who came forward for healing and to accept Christ as their personal savior.

The third night I spoke from Matt 28:30 “I will give you rest”.“The Promise” as my title and the result gave a boost in our own faith. I asked myself am I really worthy for God to use us in this way?

Here are just a few of the testimonies. On the following Sunday after the meetings Pastor David called us on the phone very excited to tell us there were thirty new people at church that Sunday morning. All thirty of them had given their hearts to the Lord during the meetings!

On the 2nd night of the meeting a women came forward for prayer, she had a cyst on her uterus and her uterus was swollen. After praying for her God instructed me to tell her to visit her doctor and the tumor would be gone. Two days later she went to her doctor the tumor was gone and her uterus was a normal size. Praise God! She testified in the church on Easter Sunday with tears of joy.

This little girl came forward for prayer she told us that her hands were burning, after praying for her she told us that the burning was gone.

This woman told us that she could not see well enough to read her Bible, we prayed for her asking God to restore her sight. After prayer she was able to take her Bible and read out loud for us. At least two women received their sight that night.

One week after the meetings a man testified that he had been suffering for ten years with pain in his chest. During the service I mentioned that they don’t have to wait until the end of the meeting for some one to lay hands on them that God can heal them right now. The man testified at the end of the meeting that as I mentioned this, immediately he felt something and the pain was gone. The following week he met Pastor David and said it has been a week and the10 years of constant pain in his chest has not come back.

A young Hindu man named Siva came forward for prayer on the second night of the meetings. He was in tears while he shared his story. He was suffering from sever depression and fear, a few months earlier his sister had committed suicide and this had left him and his mother very lonely and depressed. After I prayed for him the boy left only to return just as we were about to leave the meeting he knocked on our car window and asked to me to please pray for him again. I prayed with him again believing God for his deliverance. Just last week Pastor David told us that Sunday night this young boy came to church, he lay on the floor weeping. Finally after some time he was able to share his story with the church congregation and this is what he told them.
“All my life people have told me to worship all these different gods; finally I am worshiping the one true God. Jesus Christ! For along time now I have been living in severe fear and depression. I was very afraid the evil spirit that had come on my sister causing her to commit suicide had now come to me, but after prayer the fear and depression has now gone. I am so happy and have such a great peace in my heart.” He began to thank God over and over again. Pastor David led Siva in the sinner’s prayer and this young Hindu man accepted Jesus as his personal Savior and Lord.

Everything God did during the meetings was documented on video camera and we took a lot of still pictures as well. So we can share with you what the Lord has done.

After the meetings I was invited to several Pastors meetings and churches to speak. In April we spent almost every other day traveling to meetings. I felt a little over whelmed about this but by the grace of God I was able to minister to these Pastors. God has really birthed a burden in our hearts for the local pastors here in Chennai.

I had to block out the month of May as we have our own PAOI (Pentecostal Assemblies of India) activities coming up upon us. One of May high lights would be Sandra Macintosh and Cavell Rowsell from Bangkok will be ministering to the women in a special women’s meeting at Chennai, India. Please pray that things will go according to plan and God will move during the meeting. Also we have some leadership with the PAOC visiting us this month.

In July we are planning to come to Canada to itinerant until September. If you are interested in having us share about our ministry in your church, please email us at prasaddawn@hotmail.com or psamson@paoc.org.

We have also included some pictures of our orphanage construction that is now nearing completion. After many starts and stops construction is under way again and we hope to have it finished in May. The construction is nearly completed and now there is only the plumbing, plaster and electrical work to finish.

We look forward to seeing you all soon,

Prasad, Dawn, Hannah and Asha

"The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time" -- Carl F. H. Henry

Update December and January

2007-02-15T14:09:00.000+05:30

Dear Pastors and Friends,

We want to thank every one who wrote, emailed and called to express your condolence on the loss of my father who passed away on January second. It was very comforting to hear from almost all of you on our mailing list. We could not response to you all individually since the response was literally in the hundreds. I can’t explain what your mail meant to me at that time.

Greetings to you from Chennai, winter is now coming to an end and spring is now in the air. The day time temperatures are around 30C but there is still a chill in the morning air.

The month of December flew by in a rush of children’s concerts, carol services and the yearly widows meeting. This year we attended five children’s concerts and bought saris for 70 widows. I have included some pictures of our sari purchases, as well as the children’s concerts. (Please don’t forget to click on the link "Photo Bucket" with the places Avady, Ooty, Widow's Meeting etc. to the right and “Samson's FotoFlix ” to view all the pictures)

We held a special service for the widows of all five churches. Along with their sari each widow also received a small sum of money as well as a meal. I want to thank everyone who gave towards this special day. We were hoping to have a special speaker this year (Sandra Macintosh Thai Land), but because of Prasad father’s health we had to cancel.

We had also planned three days of special women’s meetings in early December and again those were cancelled as well.

On December 21 we had a special meeting at a church in a town called Avady. I have to tell you about something awesome that happened in this meeting. Towards the end of the meeting I challenged the people if you have any kind of sickness there is absolutely nothing impossible for Jesus and asked them to come forward. Honestly speaking I still don’t know why I did that. Healing ministry is not something I claim that God is using or directing me to and I don’t think I will make this kind of alter call again.

So many people came to the front with all kinds of sickness and problems. Healings and deliverance were taking place every where and while I was praying, behind everyone else I saw two men holding a man that couldn’t even stand. He was a lame man that the community knew very well. I must have been in the same kind of boldness that Peter had when he met the blind beggar. I began to pray and bombard the heavens. I told the two men, LET HIM GO! Oooops. For some reason the men wouldn’t let him go and held on to him tightly but the lame man shook off their hands and started running to and fro.

That was it. The crowd standing around went wild praising the Lord because they knew this man was lame. I give God the glory and praise for this miracle that He has done. Only one problem now the pastor in Avady has arranged a special 3 days healing crusade for me in that area on March 9th, 10th and 11th. When they told me about the meeting I said, excellent I will bring some one from Canada. But the pastor said no the people want you back in that area. Please pray that God will have His way and will in those special meetings.

On December 24th we hosted our orphanage children for their Christmas party. This was a time for the children to run, play and just be kids. Each child received new clothes and a toy for Christmas. We ended the night with a meal, a visit form Santa Clause (9 year old Santa whose name was Asha) and some fire works. As you can see the children had a great time.

Christmas day dawned early with the 4:00 Am Christmas morning service. And on New Years Eve we again held Old Year and New Year services.

We also visited an all boys orphanage and blessed them with the t-shirts that KRT (Kennedy Road Tabernacle Brampton) left behind. Thank you KRT, You are still being talked about in the Chennai area. You put a smile in a lot of children’s faces.

On January 22nd I and five of our pastors had an opportunity to visit a tribal area and minister among the people there. These people live on a mountain area called Ooty. This is supposed to be a summer paradise for people but in January it did not prove to be that. I felt like I was back in Canada at least early in the mornings when the temperature dropped to about 6C. While we were there we really got back to basics there was no hot water so every morning we had to use freezing cold water.

Otty is situated high on a mountain 2000 meters above sea level. The driving is very treacherous with no guard rails so we had decided to hire a driver to help us, unfortunately the driver never showed up and I had to drive up the mountain myself. There was a lot of praying on the way up the mountain, I thank God that he kept us safe at all times.

Our ministry took place among the tribal people who live 700 meters above the town of Ooty. These people are extremely poor and make their living picking tea leaves.

We had a wonderful time of ministry there. Sometimes we had to walk up to 10 Km up the mountain because there were no roads to reach the people. We were able to share the gospel with so many, it was such a blessing to pray and minister to these tribes.

We were involved in a medical ministry as well; there are no hospitals in these remote areas so they depend on the medicines and basic medical care that they receive from time to time.

As winter slips away we now are looking to the summer months (April and May in India), just as the weather heats up so does our schedule. We look forward to hosting teams and individuals this summer season. We also look forward to coming home this summer during the months of July, August and September.

God Bless,

Prasad, Dawn, Hannah and Asha

"Love is the root of missions; sacrifice is the fruit of missions" -- Roderick Davis

Greetings From India

2006-11-01T20:46:00.000+05:30

Pastors and friends,

These past few months have been busy ones. It is hard to believe that our family celebrated our first year in India. It has been a year of challenges, culture shocks and learning curves. But all in all God has blessed us and it has been a great year.

In July we had visitors from Thailand. Our directors Peter and Sandra McIntosh visited with us. Peter and Prasad traveled to Nagpur to take part in meetings discussing the future plans of the PAOI in India.

While Prasad and Peter were away, Sandra and Ashton spent time with us in our home. They were able to visit all of our churches and meet our orphanage children. After retuning from Nagpur, both Peter and Sandra spoke in the village of Singaperman Koill, better known as the 'roof top church' for now.

We want to thank the McIntosh’s for buying shoes for all of the orphanage children and for deciding to sponsor one of the children.

Also in July we baptized three new converts from our church plant in Singaperman Koil.

Recently we successfully built our first temporary church building in the village of Nelambakum. After a lot of threats and harassment the church has been built. There is still controversy over the church; some villagers believe that if we build a church the spirits that inhabit the area will leave. Still we press forward and are holding weekly prayer meetings there.

On August 15th (Independence Day in India) we held special meeting where over 300 people attended. Also in August, two of our churches held there annual three day conventions. The meetings were held in the villages of Kollapakam and Kavanoor both meetings had very good attendance.

The months of September and October were very busy. We had special guests with us from Canada. Carl Verhulst came to be with us and spent four days teaching the book Revelation. Daily we had approximately 35 to 40 local pastors and there spouses attending. The next week he spoke in several different prayer meetings and churches.

Carl also brought with him a suit case of clothes and toys from Canada on behalf of WM and Helping Hands Ministries. Passing these things out to the children in the orphanage was a great blessing for us. The children were so excited to get the new clothes, toys, candy and books.

On October 15th a team form KRT (Kennedy Road Tabernacle) came to visit us and stayed with us for 13 days. What a great time we had together. The team focused on four ministries which were children’s ministry, visiting schools and villages. Medical ministry providing free medical camps and medicine to people in the villages, construction team building our children’s home and our ministerial team who spoke in revival meetings.

Threw our children’s ministry we were able to visit 9 schools. The schools ranged in size from 75 to 650 children. What a joy it was to see the children’s faces light up as the team sang songs and told stories. The team also ministered in 7 villages. In the villages the team was free to talk about Jesus and to share his love openly. During their time of ministry they passed out hundreds of gifts and crafts and after the evening services the whole team worked together and passed out hundreds of t shirts. We pray that the seeds that were planted in the children’s hearts during those 13 days will bare much fruit.

The medical team took part in four medical camps over 200 people were treated and given free medications. Twenty seven people had eye examinations and will receive free eye surgery and glasses. Thanks to Operation Blessing for providing us with free medicine.

After a lot of hard work the construction team was able to complete our children’s home to the half way point. Because of late monsoon rains their efforts were hampered but not their spirits. Rain or shine all the ministry teams labored together in a joint effort to see the home built.

Our ministerial team Charles and Marlene reached many people with the good news. Several responded to the alter call and they will be followed up by our pastors.

It was a great 13 days and we want to thank the KRT team for coming to Chennai. Many of the team members left families, jobs and friends behind to be with us. Also we want to thatnk Charles who resighned form KRT several months ago but made a commitment to return and lead this team. Charles has great leaderhip qualities because he leads with a servants heart. This team really worked hard together to achieve a common goal. We both feel that although they came as the KRT team they left us as friends.

Please pray with us that we will be able to finish the children’s home so that we can move the children in to their new home before the end of this year.

If you are interested in coming to India in 2007 as an individual or as a team please contact us as soon as possible so that we can coordinate a time.

Click on the two different Links on the right side... Samson's PhotoBucket and/or Samson's PhotoFlix (November #1 and November #2) to see a good selection of our new photographs.

"Let my heart be broken with the things that break God's heart" -- Bob Pierce

In Christ Love
Prasad and Dawn

May 2006

2006-05-22T12:16:00.000+05:30

"Grace be un to you, and peace, from God our father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ” Phil 1:2

Dear Pastors and Friends,

Just wanted to say hello and update you on the work we have been doing. The ministry is going strong amidst all the testing we communicated with you.

Our ministry plan is to plant two churches a year. We have been working on two different villages (Nallambakam and Singaperuman Koil) and we are ready to plant churches in both villages. We baptized new converts and there are at least 8 more asking to be baptized. We have bought land in Nallambakkam and yet to buy land in Singaperuman Koil to build the church. If your church has a building team help build churches in the mission field, we would like to invite you to come to India to help us build these two churches. The church buildings we are planning to build will cost approximately 10 to 15 thousand dollars. If you would like to help us financially to build one of these churches please contact us and we will give you all the details that you may need to allot the funds.

We had our first Open Air meetings in March and April. Many were healed, delivered and ministered to. The meetings were powerful. Please take a look at some of the pictures that were taken in the meetings. (see photos below..)

Two weeks ago we played the Jesus movie in one of the villages where we have a church. The results were excellent. Over 20 people accepted Christ as their personal savior.

In April we had visitors from Canada. One special visitor was Kelvin Honsinger, from ERDO(On line http://www.paoc.org/- click on ERDO), with his son Jordan were here. While Kelvin and Jordan were here we had 3 days of special services. Kelvin ministered to the congregation for two days and we had our first youth service with Jordan as the special speaker. At the end of the youth service there was an invitation for anyone who felt a call to the ministry to come forward. Four young people came to the altar and dedicated their life for full time ministry.

By now most of you have heard about our car accident and how one of our staff got hit by lighting. Amos is improving but still has some trouble walking.

Dawn’s finger is improving; there is no more infection or swelling. The doctors recommended that they operate and remove the nail but we have decided to wait and let nature take its course. We thank you for your prayer covering.

Thanks to the Child Care Plus Program you can now become a sponsor one of our orphanage children. If you would like to sponsor one of our children please contact Child Care Plus by going online at http://www.paoc.org/ and clicking on Child Care Plus. Please specify that you would like to sponsor a child in Chennai, India.

Many of you will remember when we made a special prayer request for Pastor Paul Daniels and his wife Elizabeth, when their two year old son Philip passed away. It was announced a few weeks ago that Elizabeth is pregnant. God is good! Continue to keep this family in your prayers, we are praying for a safe pregnancy and delivery and a healthy happy baby.

Please continue to keep our family in your prayers. We are in the process of trying to enroll Hannah and Asha in a Christian school. Also in June we will be traveling to Bangkok, Thai Land to attend our regional retreat.

Every Blessing.

In Christ Love,
Prasad, Dawn, Hannah and Asha.

"God uses men who are weak and feeble enough to lean on him." -- Hudson Taylor

Praise the Lord! February 2006

2006-02-13T21:01:00.000+05:30

Praise the Lord! It has been a long time since we have spoken to you. We sent out a few small updates, but ministry wise there has been a lot that went on since we arrived here. Please don’t forget to check the pictures below.

I am not sure where to begin but I think it will be appropriate to start giving thanks first to God and then to ERDO for sponsoring the flood relief work in Chennai, India. Ever since we came to India in the beginning of October the monsoon rain pounded Chennai up until the end of December. Heavy rain and floods swept away houses and killed hundreds of people and animals. One of our churches (please see the picture) was the victim of this flood. Some of our church believers lost their homes. There were relief work being done by other churches and charity organizations. We contacted ERDO to see if we can do something for some of these victims’ on of behalf of ERDO and PAOI (Pentecostal Assemblies of India). ERDO immediately sent some financial aid and during the first few weeks of January we were able to give away over 400 10kg bags of rice to the flood victims in 5 different villages. We also gave a small amount of financial aid to some families whose house was damaged by the flood. Many thanks to ERDO for making the relief work possible.

In December we helped the widows of our churches with saris (Sari is a kind of dress women wear in India) and put a small amount of money in their pockets for Christmas. These widows here basically have nothing. There isn’t anyone to take care of them and no financial help or pensions from the Government for them. One amazing thing is when we stretched our personal funds to do this and ran out of money for one church, A Hindu man who owns a company in the city heard the story and was moved by what happened. He bought 80 saris for this church more than enough for the widows in that church. God is so good. Now Dawn is writing to her friends and other ladies to see if we can support these widows with a small amount of $10 a month.

At Christmas time we bought Christmas gifts for the Orphanage children here. This was the first gift they had ever received. The joy they had when they received the gift brought tears to all 4 of us. It was definitely worth it all to see their eyes when they received those in-expensive plastic toys and school back packs. My children Hannah and Asha decided that they will buy some toys next Christmas for these children from their own money (I know it will come from our pocket to their little purses anyway). In December also Peter McIntosh (South East Asian Director) visited India. We had a meeting and members from all 5 churches attended the meeting. Peter spoke and we were blessed.

In January over 20 people got baptized. Praised the Lord! Please see the pictures below.

Last Sunday February 5th I was invited to speak in a church. God showed up with His Spirit. It was powerful. After the service many people reported seeing a wave of anointing during the service. I am still receiving some amazing testimony from the people what happened and what they saw that day! May to God be all the glory and honor. Several people received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and received the gift of speaking in tongues. Several got delivered. This experience made me so humble and I have been praying early in the morning ever since this happened, asking God to help me to be more sincere if you are going to continue to use me in this way.

We have been complaining to you and to the house owner that the house we rented when we fist arrived had a lot of problems. Water, plumbing, electricity to name a few. Finally we moved on February 1 to a new house. This was our third move in six months.
We are looking forward to the months ahead with a lot of activities though we are not looking forward for the hot days ahead. It is February now and we can not stand outside for few minutes. We may be scrambling our eggs using the suns heat saving our cooking gas!
Special Prayer Request:
A few weeks ago we added a new Pastor to our staff. His name is Paul Daniels. We are asking for special prayer for Phillip who has Sevier heart complications. The doctors have told them that there is nothing more that they can do for Phillip and that he cold die at any time.
Please pray for this precious child that God would do a complete healing in his little body. Also please pray for this young pastor and his wife that God will encourage them and give them strength. We will continue to keep you updated on the situation.
(Before we could publish this news letter, baby phillip has gone to be with the Lord. Please see the updat below)

Update on baby phillip:Last week we sent out a email to you asking for prayer for baby Phillip. So many of you responded and we are so greatful to you.
I wanted to let everyone know that on Sunday at 6:30 PM Phillip went home to be with Jesus. His funeral was held Monday morning at 10:00 AM.
Please pray for Phillip's parents Pastor Paul and Elizabeth Daniels and their family as they grieve the loss of their only child. Pray that God will comfort them in these difficult days ahead.
Thank you again for your prayer support.

We will continue to update you what is happening in India.

Please visit our Web Page at http://www.samsonweb.org/ for more photos.

In Him
Prasad Dawn Hannah and Asha
“You are either a missionary or a mission field”
---Nugget Notebook

The Stresses of Moving are Great

2006-02-08T21:19:00.000+05:30

We have not been able to spend much time on the Computer lately. We have been very busy with moving. Not yet unpacked but that will happen over the next few weeks we hope.

The following are a series of photos of recent activties that we have been involved in.

Thank you again for praying for us. We are very much aware of God's wonderful guidance and presence.

Prasad and Dawn, Hannah and Asha

Above is a photo of Prasad being welcomed to a church. The custom is to present the guest with a gift.

These two photos following are of an outdoor service. Dawn is speaking in and I am interpreting for her. This is when your wife can tell you what she really thinks - and you have to receive it. The second photo shows Hannah and Asha singing in this outdoor meeting.

Asha found a new pet - a grass hopper - a little bigger than the Canadian kind!

January 1, 2006

2006-01-01T04:57:00.000+05:30

Happy New Year to each of you! May God bless this new year for all of you. We are continuing to pray for each of you. Thank you for praying for our family.

Christmas this year was very different from the Christmas holidays we remember in Canada. What is the difference? NO SNOW. No Cold and no ice to slip on. We miss it - a little.

The warmth of our new home does not require a furnace to repair nor windows to keep out the cold. How can we possibly describe the warmth, the beauty and the wonder of this country. You will definitely have to come to visit us!

For Christmas this year we were able to have all of the Orphans come to our home for a meal. We bought Christmas presents for each of them - stretching the personal budget to some degree - but it was worth it all. What joy to have them in our home. In the near future we hope to be able to have you help us with sponsoring these children.

The PAOC World Missions department is helping us set up the sponsorship program for these children. It will be such a blessing as you join us in helping each one. We are your hands and arms in India as God allows us to minister to each one on your behalf. Please begin praying about sponsoring a child in 2006.

We would love to hear from you soon. Our email addresses are prasaddawn@hotmail.com OR psamson@paoc.org

May you have a Peaceful and Blessed Christmas

2005-12-17T08:34:00.000+05:30

At this Christmas season we miss all of our family and friends in Canada. But in an amazing way God has give us our growing family in India. It is so good to be where God wants us to be.

Would you please pray that the Lord will open new doors for us as we settle in our new home.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Our hope is that you and your family will find Peace and Blessings from the Lord.

Prasad, Dawn, Hannah & Asha

Samsons - November 25, 2005

2005-12-17T03:57:00.000+05:30

Greetings to you from India! The girls and I arrived safely in India on the 27th of October. We had a safe and smooth journey; it was wonderful to see Prasad at the airport. He was a sight for sore eyes!
The girls and I have settled into life here beautifully, we didn't' suffer from jet lag at all. Praise the Lord! Although the fist time we saw a cow on the city street we realized we weren't in Canada any more.

Last Tuesday I met the orphans that have been livening with my in-laws, such beautiful children with such sad stories. All had lost at least one parent, I met three brothers their father just walked away one day and never looked back. Their mother unable to take care of them on her own had to give them up so that they could have a better life. The heart ache is that because of lack of funds they had to send some children away. We look forward to giving these children a proper home and the love they deserve.

Sunday the 6th we took part in a church service the people were so humble. The church is located in one of the villages outside of Chennai, many of the people are illiterate and all of them are desperately poor. We were late arriving due to the monsoon rains that we have been having here many of the roads were flooded with water. When we did arrive they were so excited to meet us. We were greeted by little girls who hung wreaths of flowers around our necks. Their enthusiasm to worship and to listen to God's word was powerful, even after sitting on the cement floor for many hours (the church doesn't have any pews). Please pray that we will be able to bless these brothers and sisters in the Lord.

We just got connected to the internet and I am trying to get caught up on all our emails. I am righting you in semi darkness; we have had a power outage something that happens almost daily here.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers; the house that we have rented was abandoned for a year after the tsunami. There is something that always needs fixing. We would like to move to a house that we would have room to build housing for the orphans.

Much love and prayers,
Prasad and Dawn