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
