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Ministry: Updates
| Updates: News from India | <<FIRST <PREVshowing 6-10 of 10 NEXT> LAST>> |
| HAPPY THANKSGIVING |
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| Dear Praying Partners, Happy Thanksgiving! We miss you all on this occasion. There is no turkey here but two hearts filled with gratitude toward God and His people for many blessing we have received thus far. Many thanks for your prayers. Sonam is celebrating thanksgiving with other international students at Dordt College. She called this morning to ask for recipe for the Turkey. Neema and Joshua were sick last week in Woodstock but they have recovered and they are doing well. I could not write to you earlier. My internet was down for five days. After several visits to the government office, they have finally corrected the fault. People in India do not have any thanksgiving day. Probably, most people including me, as they end the day with disappointment and frustration in the midst of corruptions, chaoses, and confusion, have no mind even to think of thanking somebody. This Sunday, AK is going to Baptize four individuals early in the morning. Two of them are from Hindu background. After baptism we will have the Communion service. This will be AK’s first Baptismal and Communion service in the Church. AK will also preach in a Zeliangrong community advance Christmas program this Saturday. They are expecting more than 150 participants. Please pray that the Lord will help AK in all these. Wish you a very blessed and meaningful thanksgiving AK and Asangla Shillong, India Nov 23, 2007 | |||
| November 1, 2007 |
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| Dear Prayer Partners, Last week, Asangla and I were in Delhi to minister for five days in the CMN mission conference. AK took seven sessions and Asangla two sessions. About 30 youths surrendered their lives. For some youths, it was for the first time they heard the Word of God so deep and precise meeting their needs. Many youths sought personal time for counseling and guidance. Many admired us as they saw us as a couple serving the Lord together. Praise the Lord! Of course, we are very tired. AK is down with cold and he has lost his voice, but he is recovering. AK has also begun teaching Hebrew in John Roberts Theological Seminary on Monday and Wednesday (7:30-9:30 am). There are 34 students and they are all promising. The ministry at the Shillong Baptist Church is also very fulfilling. On Sunday, we have about 300-350 attendance. Most in the congregation enjoy AK’s biblical preaching. On Saturday, AK teaches Bible Studies, which is also growing in attendance. Since the Church in still in developing stage, much has to be done on the administrative front to make the system work better and smooth without consuming much of our energy. Children are doing well in their schools. We are looking forward to their coming during Christmas. We miss you all and we miss America, especially when the things move terribly slow and does not work, when AK has to run around for days pleading people to get a very small thing done, and when things are more expensive than it used to be. However, we also realize that it has been comparatively easy and smooth because of your financial support and prayers. Thank you all. AK and Asangla | ||
| Family Update Sept 9 |
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| Dear Prayer Partners, AK's brother in law, who was suffering from Cancer, passed away on Sept 5. We had to rush driving 540 killometers (one way) to be with the bereaved members. We are glad that we could pray and comfort them. Please pray for AK's sister who will have to rebegin her life with her one son and a daughter. We are glad to inform you that our children (Sonam in Dordt college Iowa, Neema and Joshua at Woodstock in Mussoorie) are doing well. Our luggages, shipped from Birmingham, may arrive in next 2-3 days. We are likely to rent another house which is bigger than the current one. We will have to rebegin our living in the new house by the next week. We are also glad to inform you that finally now we have phone and internet connections. But once we shift to the new house, probably they may take another month to transfer the connections. Anyway, please note that our house phone number is 913642210474 and AK's cell phone number is 9862561157. We deeply appreciate your prayers for us. Blessings. AK and Asangla | ||
| Smooth Transition to India |
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| August 2007 Transforming Leaders in Asia Dear Prayer Partners, Thanks for your fervent prayers for our smooth transition to India. We left Birmingham on July 24, leaving Sonam with Jim and Eleanor Thomason (TLA leaders). Sonam will be with them and then she will go to Dordt College on August 22. We are grateful to God for Jim and Eleanor who volunteered to take care of her and even drop her to Dordt College. We arrived in Delhi on July 25 and stayed with our friend Mr. Richard Mashih (an old ministry associate) for five days. Richard lost his wife few years ago and he does not have any children. Our time was very fruitful with him, except for the heat of the summer. Delhi is well known for its extreme climate. We missed the air-conditioned room and the ice water. Then, we moved to Mussorie to put Children in the boarding School (Woodstock). We stayed there for nine days to provide a smooth transition to Neema and Joshua. We were glad that Mussorie was cold (unlike Delhi) but Neema and AK suffered with food poisoning for five days. By God’s grace, they soon recovered without much complicacy. Thanks for your prayers. In Mussorie, we also met the leaders and the staff of the TEAM ministry Retreat Center (a ministry of the Evangelical Alliance of India). They provide Bible Correspondence Courses and discipleship training programs. There was much to learn from their commitment and zeal for the Lord. At the Woodstock school, we attended orientation for three days. We were very much impressed by the faculties and staff and their commitment to provide excellent education. We finally bid goodbye to Neema and Joshua on August 7 and traveled back to Delhi. In Delhi, we had very fruitful time of fellowship with two of our old disciples. One is currently involved in the campus ministry, another left the ministry with some discouragement. The time spent with both was valuable. We arrived in Shillong on Friday 2 am after seven hours of traffic jam on the road. We have been provided the previous pastor’s house. The Church has been kind to provide a bed, some furniture, some household items to begin with. We have been here without internet or phone connections for last 8 days. Our shipments have not yet arrived. We plan to find a bigger house that we may be able to use as our office and a center for TLA ministry. Probably it will take another 2-3 months before we begin to settle down. Although, we are back into the same city after nine years, some of the things are same while others have changed. For instance, we went to the Bible study yesterday thinking that we knew the place, but only to find that the place has been moved to another location. So we arrived 30 minutes late. Another surprise is the hike in the prices in the market. One business man teased me, “Sir, its not the same, we are now a rich country, we don’t use small bills.” Unfortunately, he did not take into account the poorest of the poor in our country who remains unaffected. Thanks to outsourcing of US jobs that has inflated India markets unrealistically, un-affordable for those who does not have corporate company jobs! On the family front, my younger sister had an operation yesterday. Her husband is still struggling from cancer. Our nephew (a Hindu) underwent some mental trauma last month, has come to stay with us. He wants to take Baptism, so we are spending time together to consider Christian discipleship. My older sister-in-law is gradually revering from the loss of her young daughter in an accident last month. Please pray that we will continue to be blessing to our family who are yet to know the Lord. On the ministry front, people seem to have high expectations from us. As we observe and listen to the people, we see ministry opportunities on every front. It is overwhelming because the need is not only in my pastorate, but also in the Churches in our home state and other organizations that I have been associated in the past. Please pray for God’s godly wisdom, discernment, and of course patience that AK needs. For now, this is what we have to update you. We will soon be back with more update. Please pray as AK is being installed this Sunday (Aug 19) and preach his first sermon. We both are enthusiastically looking forward to serve His people here in our country. Thanks for your partnership. Blessings. AK and Asangla Shillong, (India) | ||
| Please Pray |
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| Aug 19: Installation of Dr. A. K. Lama as the Sr. Pastor of the Shillong Baptist Church. Aug 24: Sonam begins her life at Dordt College, IA. | ||
| Updates: News from India | <<FIRST <PREVshowing 6-10 of 10 NEXT> LAST>> |