SERVE India

Hello epray-ers!
First, one more reminder…

SERVE India Appreciation Dinner
Sunday, Aug 4th, 12:30pm
FCC, 777 Carmichael Rd, Hudson
(please RSVP at serve-india.com)

It’s not too late, we would love to see you so hope you can join us!

John will be returning to India in only a few more weeks so we are busy with all that we want to finish up. Please pray for us to be able to finish what we need to before John goes. We have had a busy, but really fun & wonderful time with lots of people this summer, it has gone by so fast!
One prayer request that we wanted to ask is to please pray for the land sale deal to be finished up very soon after John gets to India and that the renovations for the Teacher Training School can resume. Thank you!
Please enjoy what Joan has shared from her experience with the team this past spring that we have included below. It is so encouraging.
We are so grateful for all of your prayer and care for us and for all that the Lord is doing through SERVE India. We couldn’t do it without you!!
We hope to see you soon! Many blessings,
Much love,
The Nanda’s

Thoughts from Joan…

It is now three months since our team of seven returned from our trip to India with the Nanda’s. So many church members and friends ask me about the experience, and I often find it difficult to express the real impact in just a passing of comments. This was my second trip to India and 2013 was very different from the 2010 trip. This second time around the curiosity, fears and anxiety of 2010 were gone and the comfort level of embracing the work God wanted us to do was much fuller, both in awareness and in personal contact. It was so exciting to see some of the same faces and to walk some of the same pathways. This time the great contrast in culture was less stark and fearful and the warmth and needs of this society became more endearing.
Without trying to be overstated, all of us were amazed and overjoyed to see the power of the Holy Spirit unfolding in the presence and commitment of so many new and young pastors. Over our two week stay we saw and met with over 100 pastors in four different locations. Many of these men are young (20 to 30 years old, “barely wet behind the ears” – which I later realized John Nanda did not understand at all when I said it) reaching the needs of villages and cities, and especially in the foothills of the very remote, dark and dangerous areas of southeastern INDIA. They are so eager to see, meet and host us. They cry out for our continued prayer and encouragement. While we were there they were meeting together in groups of 25 – 50 to spend time in prayer and support and mentoring each other. How amazed I am at the challenge these men take on. They are not divinity or college trained, but Holy Spirit chosen and driven. We must stand together with them as they continue to persevere. We must pray for them continuously. AND we must pray for our own John Nanda as he continues this work of SERVE INDIA. His responsibilities and leadership are growing by leaps and bounds, and Pastor John needs prayer for strength, leadership and wisdom to keep his work within God’s will. If there is any message I can share, it is PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY!

To see the fruitful growth in the SERVE INDIA ministry from 2010 to 2013 helped me to realize that our prayer and presence is the missional help that is driving this ministry through the evils of idolatry, poverty, despair, and cultural persecution, and bringing more of the people of INDIA into the love life of knowing JESUS. Our mission team ventures of each year might not be “TIME magazine” featured, but they are CHRIST featured and provide headlines in the kingdom. Each hand we shake, every hug we give, each child we talk to and hold, every dollar we give and all the resources and gifts we bring expresses the love that makes us ONE with them in Christ. SERVE INDIA trips continue to leave the message that we love them and we continue to care about them. We are definitely connected to the churches and work of SERVE INDIA. When we visited the widows home one little lady said she was worried when the team did not come in the beginning of March (the trip was a month later this year). She said, “you can’t forget about us. We need you!”. I am so grateful!