2nd Update from Jeff

Hello Friends! Greetings from Bangalore in South India. It is Saturday evening here. In two days we will begin the long trek home. It has been a marathon trip. But truly unbelievable as we have seen God do such great things. I don't have much time but let me tell you briefly about the last few days. On Thursday, Cynci and I headed to Gurgaon, Haryana (outside of Delhi) to do interviews for our new ILA set to begin there. It was so great! We met with the leadership and shared again our vision for partnering together to launch a church planting movment in Haryana as well as CP movements throughout India. The leadership in this place is, again, EXCELLENT. And it is so evident that God is the one who has put these things together. He has been working on both sides of the world leading us toward a common vision. The director for this region has a burden and plan for putting churches in every village (there are 6000 villages!!). It begins with a church planting pastor in every district and gets smaller from there. Our new Berean Fellowship of Haryana will have the opportunity to target 4 strategic unreached districts. All areas desperately needing church planting. But the exciting thing is that God is really at work in North India! This has been (and still is) the darker and more needy part of this vast land, but many are coming to faith in these days. When we got to Gurgaon we discovered that we had so many candidates that it would be impossible to complete the interviews on schedule. So after some phone calls to shuffle our next stop we rebooked our tickets for a later flight on Friday and then spent two days interviewing 24 men who had come to apply. From this 17 men were selected for the new Berean ILA. One of the really striking things is that time after time the men we talked with were men who had been raised as Hindus but were now believers and were now serving Christ in various ways. For some they face great opposition from family and others. One man said his family now hated him. But still he knew that serving Christ is what he was called to do with his life. But others shared wonderful stories of how entire families have now come to faith. Many are responding in these places, but again, the great need is for effective church planting and God has raised our fellowship up for this day. One comment from the leader was that there are mainline churches and pentecostal churches but what North India really needs is a solid evangelical church. We are definitely in the right place doing a great work as we truly seek to plant churches, make disciples, and reach the world. Thank you for your prayers for this work! On Friday evening, we flew 2.5 hours back down to south India for our final set of interviews and then for the leadership meetings we will have tomorrow and Monday. Today was-- again-- simply amazing. Today we met 17 OUTSTANDING men. These men had come to be interviewed for the new ILA and church planting movement we are beginning in the state of Karnataka. I know I keep saying the same thing, but the leadership is just fantastic. The director for this region and his team have put together a tremendous plan. Once again we shared the vision God has given us as a Berean Fellowship and once again it was just so clear that God has prepared the way both in America and here. The leaders in this region were, again, so excited about a solid Bible teaching fellowship being established and the plan we have to work together to launch effective churches in this part of the country. And once again, the need is enormous. The director here told us that he selected the city where we'll be having the training center because it is in a very unchurched district. In fact, he said that as they traveled throughout this state, when they were driving to this place, they went through a 250 km stretch with absolutely NO churches. Soon this will change. By summer, new trainees will be preparing to become pastors and they will be going out into villages with NO church to start new works. One of the things that was so encouraging about this region is that it is really a textbook example of the vision we've had in partnering with ICCC. Every single candidate selected is a man who has been working with the Jesus Film ministry and now desires to be a pastor. And time after time after time I asked them, Why do you want to be a pastor. And over and over and over the answer was the same. We have shared the gospel with so many, but who will take care of these people. I want to go back to the villages to follow up the people and start a church. I want to be a pastor now. And many of the new discipleship groups that have been started will be the beginnings of the new churches that will be birthed in the coming months. We have selected 12 excellent men here with the possibility of adding a few more in the coming days. Please do continue to pray for India and for us. The opportunity is awesome. The needs are staggering. We have so much work to do and God is throwing the door wide open. Pray that all of us in the US will join God in what He is doing through our fellowship in these days. Tomorrow we begin leadership meetings in Bangalore. Crockers and Walkers will be wrapping up in Tamil Nadu and then joining us here. Late Monday night we start the trip home. Thank you so much for your prayers and partnership in this time. Please do continue to pray for all of us (and our partners here). Pray for God's protection, stamina, and focus to finish the work well and pray for safety as we travel back around the world. Thanks! Yours for HIS glory, Jeff