On our way!

The team is reunited! Please pray with us for a safe and easy flight. We are looking forward to whatever God has planned for our time in India.

NOW it's time to go!

Friends,
We covet your prayers as we plan to go to India this January for our 10th trip to work with Flora, her team and the hundreds of children they serve.  Thank you for your prayers for our family and work situations, they have resolved enough to allow for travel.

As you may know I was contacted in June about coming to Thailand for an English training session by a friend of Flora’s.  After praying and talking with a great friend about us taking a Thailand side trip this year, he said “Send Flora, she’s closer and knows the curriculum as well as anybody.”  What a great idea!  Flora has found time and will make the trip in the Spring.  Pray that God will give her confidence she can do the training and do it well.  Pray that God will make the extra funds available to us to send her.

For the January 2017 trip we plan to visit Flora and a possible second location on which I am working now.  In the South with Flora we plan to spend a few days viewing classes, discussing Thailand and spurring Pastor’s church to “go out into India and preach the Gospel”.  In this other location I hope we'll be able to plant the seeds of the Gospel and our vision of "English for the oppressed".
 
Pray for the travel team, that we’ll be spiritually prepared and healthy when we leave for the other side of the world.  Pray for our families as we prepare to travel that they’ll be safe from the adversary who tends to attack them instead of us.
 
If you can support us financially please give online at our website, www.thehelpnetwork.org and find “Donate”, top right section of the site.
 

Blessings,
The Help Network Team

UPDATE: The Help Network 2016 Trip postponed to January 2017!

In our ongoing prayer over this trip, we have decided to move the dates of our travel to January. God has always been faithful to meet us where AND when we go, and to bring us into contact with exactly the right people and circumstances-- we have every reason to believe this change of plans is just part of His perfect timing. All gifts received so far for the 2016 trip will of course be put towards purchasing our tickets for January. We are still in need of funding, so please pray about donating to the Help Network for trip, as well as for continued support of our partners in India.  We are excited to see what God has in store for us and the Help Network in the coming months!

Flood Relief

This picture was sent to us by Prince, a long-time Help Network partner and teacher. Prince lives and works near the Ganges river in Northern India. In recent weeks, the Ganges has overflowed its banks in the monsoonal rains, and flooded the densely populated surrounding areas. Prince works with orphans and abandoned children, helping to provide a loving home and an education-- please pray with us that God will be glorified, even in the flood, and that He will sustain Prince and his ministry through this trial!

The Help Network has sent emergency funds to help Prince's ministry. If you'd like to contribute, please donate here-- all extra funds that come in will go to Prince. Thank you! 

Prayers for India

This week we have received two troubling updates from our partners in India. Please take a moment to read these stories and pray with us.

First, Help Network teacher Flora asked us to pray for Tarun, a 15 year old student. Tarun ran away unexpectedly, and ended up arrested and jailed in a district far from his home. He initially told authorities he was an orphan, but after a few days, he began crying and confessed his story. He is back home now, but unwilling to talk to his parents or friends about why he ran away. Flora and her church are praying and caring for Tarun and his family, but are understandably worried.

Second, we've received news that the pastor of the growing rural congregation we visited on our last trip was in an accident. Our friends tell us there were injuries as a result of the accident, but that their biggest concern is the spiritual oppression suffered by the courageous believers in that area. They report brokenness, hurt, and attacks from the powers of darkness and witchcraft. While we don't know the details, we know their plea is real.

Please pray with us for the Help Network partners, and all believers in India. May the Holy Spirit intervene on their behalf, and protect them from all enemies, spiritual or otherwise. May God continue to strengthen and empower his workers to follow His call. May He continue to spread His light in the darkest of circumstances!

Missing India

We're home safe, and realizing we never updated you in our last couple days in India! We visited an elementary school and met with the teachers to demonstrate our curriculum, and discuss how to best integrate spoken English for the benefit of their students. Please pray that the school administrators will allow our Help Network teacher to begin providing training and courses! The rest of our time was spent meeting with our ministry partners and praying over their current and future projects... God is doing some incredible things there!  

We were sad to leave India, but are so happy to be back home, especially given the tense situation around the world today. We are praying for peace and healing in Paris and everywhere else affected by religious extremism.

God is good, and we have seen it with our own eyes! We're praising Him as we rest up. Thank you all for your prayers during the trip! Please continue to pray for our friends and for the Gospel work happening all over India!

Nine years of prayer

The Help Network was born out of a relationship between two church families across the globe. On our first trip to India, we prayed over a pastor friend and encouraged him and his church to reach an unreached community in a rural area. We had all been given a heart for these people, but we knew it was our Indian partners that God would use to speak to them. The Holy Spirit set that church on fire for missions, and they began a church-planting outreach shortly thereafter. In the last couple days, we were blessed with the opportunity to see the fruit of nine years of prayer! We attended a house church service and worshipped alongside families that came to Christ as a result of that ministry. We met the first man to be baptized from the people group we had originally sought out. Our God is so good! He truly blessed our time, and kept us safe, despite some political unrest in the area. Please continue to pray for our last few days in India while we make a few more connections. 

Traveling today

The team is traveling by car today so pray for safe travels. We may not have wifi for a day or two. We'll update when we get back.  

Happy Sunday

Today we had the honor of worshipping with our brothers and sisters. Praise God, music transcends all languages! We've had some time to catch up with old friends, and meet some current English students. Please continue to pray for our team, and all of our friends and ministry partners! 

Made it

We made it! It was a long flight but we have made it to our destination. Team is doing well and after a couple hours rest, will be ready for a new adventure. Good night! (actually, it's morning but we're sleeping anyway)

 -thn team

Update from Nepal: Real Needs

We've just heard from our partner who has visited the victims of the earthquake. Here is his update: 

“Dear brother we are planning to go again to visit Nepal VICTIMS because before going to Nepal we were not aware of their needs now we know what is lacking and what they need one pastor need water tank one need to rebuild the Church building one to rebuild his house some people need clothes and some need food material. So we are planning to visit Nepal VICTIMS again second time if you will send the help we will supply their needs. So if Lord leads you to help more you can send the help it’s in your hands. Thanks for your help and support. May the Lord bless you all and use you all for HIS work Amen.”

All Help Network donations over the next couple days will go straight to him to meet immediate needs of food and clothing, as well as the specific rebuilding projects he has mentioned. PRAY with us that God will direct his paths and connect him with those who would most benefit from aid. Pray also for the churches and pastors he mentioned, that God will sustain them and be glorified in this season of hardship.

-The Help Network Team

Growing by the grace of God!

We just received a note that has us praising God...Growth means life, and we are overjoyed to hear about it! 

One of our teachers in southern India tells us that she recently began offering a two-week Help Network English program, with a wonderful turn-out of 20 adults! Such success has encouraged her to offer similar special programs in other places. This is in addition to her regular classes, which she says remain well-attended (even though it is added classroom time for kids at the end of a long school day!) She is also getting multiple requests to provide English training all over her city, but practical obstacles are in her way. She asks us to join her in prayer that God will provide the people and the means necessary to expand her reach. 

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Here is her update in her words (with identifying info redacted, for her safety): 

We have started the regular classes (xxxxxxx, xxxxxxxx (my area)), good attendance!! and some other school’s and adults are asking me to start classes in there place (xxxxxxxxx), but the distance, timing and the teacher has become a problem.. pls do pray that god should strengthen us and provide all things.

I have started summer camp (15 days ) in my area, very good respond!! 20 adults are attending and some of them are non Christian, we are planning for an another batch in my area as well as xxxxxxxxxxx.
 
Please do pray for us
In Him
xxxxxx

Please join us in praying for this teacher! She is a woman of God, blessed with all she needs to do His work in tangible ways in her own community... pray that God will throw open doors and align her with the people and resources He has already ordained. Pray with us that we can connect with more believers in India, to whom God has given a heart for reaching His children. This network relies on the body of believers staying connected spiritually, to the Father and to each other. God is so good! 

Please also consider partnering with us financially, to support teachers like this one, who sacrifice comfort, safety, and tons of time for sake of the Gospel. It is our blessing to be able to provide resources to help them do so. What you can spare goes a lot further that you would think, by the grace of God! We would love for you to join us!