Update from Cynci

Hello to you from Vijayawada! We have been very busy in these days... having a great time and seeing God at work, yet not much time for any of us to email letters or pictures. Know that we are all well. We will have many pictures later. We got some good pictures of all the pastors and families here in Vijayawada. We got here by plane on Wednesday night, 6:45pm. We drove right to our first meeting, arriving there around 7:30 p.m. It was a joy to see everyone again for me. I began to tear up as our plane landed... so excited to see these people who have grown so dear in my heart. I don't care if they live in a dirty place-- I'm a people person and I was so glad to be here. So when we got to the meeting, they were all ready singing and worshiping. Then Jeff and I both spoke some greetings to them and then Tom Walker gave a message. Challenging for him as it had been a very long day and we were hot and tired and the children were a bit rambunctious, but he did a great job. Yesterday, Thursday and today we split the men and women up in the morning and had three hours of teaching each day. It went great. The men also did some interviewing that morning, as well as in the afternoon and all day today. The men are being taught by Tom, Richard Crocker and Jeff about how to equip the people in their churches to do ministry, how to keep God as their focus, how to be good husbands and fathers, all very good stuff. We are teaching the women more about how to study the Bible themselves as we teach them about women in the Bible and characteristics they displayed in their personal lives, family lives and church life. We have taught a lot more on prayer too which is SO NEEDED. It was brand new just to model how to pray with and for each other... they always have the pastor pray for them. It is just so exciting to see them begin to "get it" more and more. Know that we appreciate you and see how God is using us all together to build His church here in India. it is working and it is advancing the kingdom of God. Thanks for your partnership with us. Much love from all of us, Cynci