E-Pray April 2017
Hello our praying friends!
I have been trying to get a hold of John every day these past few weeks, hoping to catch him when he is in a place that has a wifi connection since that is the way that we are able to chat on the phone. Finally, yesterday we had a chance to talk! The good news is that the main director who was holding up the whole process (since November!) for the teacher training school application process to move forward DID give his go ahead and told the next office, YAY! … but… when I asked John why he didn’t seem very excited about this he said that when he talked with the next office they told him that they didn’t have time to prepare the paperwork for a couple of weeks….more waiting!
SO, now this is the week they asked John to come so we are praying again! Please pray that the office will to do their part in typing up the correct form and get it officially sent to the main office in Bangalore. Once the office in Bangalore receives this form (that they have been patiently waiting for), they will set an appointment for their official inspection. If the date is very soon then John will wait and attend to that, or if it is set for several months from now then the plan will be for John to come home now and then go back for the appointment. Please pray for the appointment to be set soon and for John to be able to finish up that work so he can come home and be home for awhile!
We are hoping that it will all go through sooner than later so that the school can be started this next school year. We are trusting the Lord’s timing on this, because although it can be SO frustrating to wait, He always works His perfect plan and that is always what we want more than what we can see.
Thank you so much for praying!!
Please take a moment to read what another one of our team members has shared about her experience in India on our last trip. We really love sharing their thoughts with you!
We are so thankful for you all!
Blessings! His joy, Love, The Nanda’s
Thoughts from Brianna…
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that the Lord may dwell in your hearts through faith-that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of the Lord that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in the Lord throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
– Ephesians 3:14-21
It’s difficult to put into words the experience of India. As someone who had not had much in the way of cross-cultural experience prior to this trip, I think to say I was underprepared is an understatement. I had been prepared in all of the practical ways (packing, cultural faux pas, food situation, etc.), but there were a number of things that surprised and challenged me, for which no explanation could have prepared me.
First was the amount of people! There. Are. People. Everywhere! As somewhat of an introvert, it was a continual challenge for me to be surrounded (literally) by people almost constantly. Part of being a foreigner in India is that you are somewhat of a phenomenon everywhere you go. I have never shaken so many hands, taken so many selfies, or had so many people come up and introduce themselves to me on the street.
It was wonderful and exhausting!
Second, I was not prepared for the poverty and darkness. Third world poverty, juxtaposed against the grandeur and opulence of the wealthy and of the temples was hard to comprehend. To see a nation devoting its resources to dead idols instead of its living, eternal, suffering people was heartbreaking. So many people are living dutifully in poverty, on the basis of a lie that will never rescue them.
Finally, I never expected to find family on the other side of the world. To meet and rejoice with workers and believers in India, to see their joy, and to celebrate in what God has done and is doing felt so much like finding home. It is amazing how joy transcends a language barrier. I had been praying Ephesians 3:14-21 for the people of India in the weeks leading up to the trip, and it was such a huge blessing to see what God is doing and be able to pray that passage for them, and see that they are also praying it for me/us.
God has answered so many prayers in my life in the past six months as I planned for and went on the trip to India, and to be able to see God working there and say with my family in India “Yes, He is faithful here just as much as at home”, is something I hope I never forget.