Quilts That Warm the Heart

We were blessed to have Uma Shankar from Orphan Outreach visit us last month. He’s always a hit with our girls! This time he brought blankets for each of them--all lovingly made by Joyce Baarspul and the women she ministers to.

It is a beautiful story.

Joyce was born in Denmark with Spinabifida more than 60 years ago and came to the U.S. soon after. Today, she is almost completely wheelchair-bound, but amazingly, she still finds ways to reach out. Joyce teaches quilting to immigrant Korean women. While they work, she teaches them English and ministers to their hearts. She also instructs elderly women at a local assisted living center who have few to no visitors or no outside contact. These two groups (and Joyce herself) made the quilts for our girls.

These quilts are testimony to God's grace and Joyce's beautiful heart. She ministers to women in need--and together, they make quilts that warm orphaned children on the other side of the world. It warms our hearts as well.

Reasons to be Thankful

As many of you know, Beth underwent two surgeries to remove a tumor in her chest. She is well on the road to recovery but still needs prayers that the tumor does not recur.

We have been able to make small improvements to the present home to make it more comfortable for the girls by adding:

• new furniture (Attar & Parmila Singh)
• a television & dvd player (Lali and Jada)
• refrigerators (Karen and Graham)
• water purifier, new electrical wiring, new flooring, repairing leaks, fresh coat of paint (Vicki Mullins and her team)
• a new sand box (Cathy and Stephanie)
• play equipment etc.

We also now have a new van for the use of the girls' home and a new jeep for the ministry. No more untimely trips to the mechanic!

We are so very grateful to all of you for continually thinking of ways to make life easier for us and our girls!

A Permanent Home for Our Girls

Dave Williams came out for a visit in November and we had a fruitful time praying together and discussing the future direction of the ministry. We want you to join us in prayer as we work towards buying a piece of property in the name of Redeeming India in the outskirts of town to provide a permanent home for the girls and to centralize the ministry encompassing a school that will serve the girls and the local community, a Bible training and vocational center (which is in the plains at the moment) and a retreat center for God’s ministers everywhere who need a place to rest.

This project will initially cost us a quarter of a million dollars. Please pray that God will provide for these needs in His time.

Building up the Church in India

We are amazed at all God has done this year to strengthen the church through Redeeming India! Thank you for being a part of this valuable ministry!

Our First Graduates: Our first batch of students graduated from our church planter’s training center in May. They are now in their respective fields and working under the supervision of East West Ministries.

Discipling Leaders: We have partnered with Dynamic Churches International in training local church leaders and their members through their discipleship course. The training has proven to be very effective with new believers.

Encouraging Local Pastors: Local pastors meet regularly once a month to undergo training, exchange ideas, exhort one another and share resources. They also get a yummy lunch!

Loving Women and Children

We want to take a moment and share some of the ways Redeeming India has been able to reach out to women and children over the last number of months. Thank you for the valuable part you play in enriching the lives of women and children in India! None of this would be possible without your love, prayers and support!

• Camp Fun: We conducted children’s camp in various places this year including Palapatti, Batalagundu, Madurai and Periyakulam where children heard of God’s love and participated in story telling, arts and crafts, dramas, puppet shows and games.
  
  
• Learning to Care for Kids: We have been able to provide ongoing training to childcare personnel from our home and interested parties on how to meet basic needs and encourage physical, mental and emotional development of a child from 0-4 yrs.
  
  
• Aid for AIDS : We support 6 patients and their families through Daniel Foundation by providing part of their monthly provision. We also work with them to spread awareness in the local villages.
  
  
• Reaching Out with English: We partnered with Daniel Foundation to provide a one month spoken English course during the summer break. We had people ranging from age 5-50 attending!
  
  
• Healing Bodies: Our staff underwent training along with several other local village health officials on emergency medical care to women and children in areas that lack hospitals or doctors.