SERVE India

Hello dear e-pray friends!

          First I want to tell you thanks for praying! Last month I asked you to pray for us to find a good fare for the airline tickets for the team that is going next month.  We were able to get the best fare that we have found in years!     And, just the night before when I was checking it was the same as it had been for weeks, then, the day I needed to purchase them, that amazing price came up!!!  Thanks, Lord!   

I don’t have many updates from John, since this whole month he has been traveling around a lot and I have not been able to talk with him very much.  He asked us to please continue to pray for the situation concerning the land by the ocean that the Navy is going to occupy, that the bill in their Congress would pass for fair compensation.  And also, for the project of construction work on the buildings at the Training Center to be done well and quickly, along with the accreditation process.  

I also wanted to ask you to remember to be praying for our team that is preparing to go for 2 weeks at the end of March.  Please pray for Jean, Cassidy, Sharon, Brad, Rick, Ryan, and Pastor Larry, along with Josh, John and I.  We are so excited to be able to bring encouragement and teaching to the believers, children, and Pastors there and to be taking part in hosting several medical camps.  We are also very excited to be able to bring along some gifts that the children from our church here are preparing for the children who live there in several children’s homes that we help with.  What a joy to have the children participating in loving the children there!  We are planning to put up some playground equipment for them there, too!   Please pray for John for all the preparations he is making in India for this trip and for us as we are preparing here as a team.  We will send a prayer guide next month and will really appreciate your prayer for us!!    

I was able to talk with Josh this morning on SKYPE, which is SO nice to see his handsome face, :), so I thought I would send you a little bit of his update…  thanks for your prayer for him, too! (If you want to receive his updates you can let him know by sending him an email at nanda.joshjm@gmail.com).

Kate, the PE teacher I am working with at the OM school, and I started an after school soccer camp for 8th and 9th grade boys from the school, who were interested in receiving training. Most schools here do not offer any extracurricular activities and club is too expensive for a majority of the students, so they have never had a proper chance to learn. It has been one of the most fun, exciting, and rewarding things that I’ve done since I’ve been here. We were able to have it every day after school the past 2 weeks, since I didn’t have Telugu class because my professor was gone. There are about 25 boys who come. Kate and I have a great time with them, and it has been a huge blessing getting to know them better and spending time with them outside of PE class.  

            I am approaching the end of my time here in India with less than 2 months before I am back in the States.  Kate, the teacher that I have been teaching sports classes with for the past couple months at the OM school will be leaving India on the 16 of Feb to go back to her home in the UK. I won’t be able to handle classes that we were teaching on my own, so after her departure I plan on finishing the week as my last at the school. Then I will be packing and moving to my aunt and uncle’s house the next week.  There I will be much closer to the university where I’m learning Telugu, and since it’s closer and more accessible I will be able to attend class daily instead of only 3 times a week.  

I’m having an amazing time here, learning a lot, becoming much closer with my friends, and understanding more what it means to have a personal, reliant friendship with God.

Things to pray about:

1. Again, thank and praise God for the opportunity to come here and learn and grow.

2. Praise Him for the chance to travel and to meet new people from new places.

3. Praise Him for the chance to develop relationships with people I’ve met though the school.

4. Pray that finishing up at OM and the move to my aunt’s house will be smooth.

5. Pray I will be a blessing to my aunt, uncle, and cousins staying at their house.

6. Pray I will focus and learn the entire Telugu language in one month.. or at least come close.

       Thank you for praying,  Josh

Yes, thank you, for praying!!!!  We are so grateful for you all!

His peace & blessings, Love, The Nanda’s