Closing Time

Hi everyone!


     I can't believe it's already August, and I'm sending my last update from India. We're traveling around in the plains for the next few days (it's very hot here, and very different from the mountains I've been living in), and then we'll be on our way back to America.

     So much has happened this summer, and I'm not sure that I can even articulate all the things I've learned and the ways God has been changing me.

     There's a lot to rejoice about: 4 new Christians in two of the villages we visit most often, three of them the first Christian girls in Deolsari; a new friend from Kashmir named Ashfaq, whom we had the privilege of praying for and giving a Bible to in his own language; and two of the long-termers here, Jana and Joni, will be moving to a town very near the villages where we've been ministering, allowing them to disciple the new Christian girls and make many more friends and contacts as well.

     There's also a lot to be praying about here. Pray for the 7 Christians in Deolsari, all of them teenagers from Hindu families. Pray that they will grow closer to God and to one another as the body of Christ. Pray that they can be a witness for God's love in their families, loving and serving them humbly and following the example of Christ in serving and loving us. Pray also that the gospel would continue to spread in the villages of Deolsari and that God would continue to grow His church there.

     Pray also for our friend Ashfaq. I don't know that anyone else has affected me as powerfully as meeting him has. Only 22 years old, he's been running shops for his uncle selling textiles since age 15, and he's become one of our good friends here. He'd been suffering from insomnia for two months, only sleeping about half an hour a night; when we started praying for him, though, he began sleeping again! We've also had the chance to give him a Bible in Uldu, his native language, as we learn from him about Islam. Pray that as he reads the Bible for the first time and interacts with some of the Christian residents of Mussoorie that we've connected him with, that he would encounter Jesus in a powerful way. He's become our good friend, and I couldn't want any better joy for a friend.

     As we leave India, pray for the long-term team here, that God would continue to protect and provide for and sustain them and fill them with His love and nearness as they serve him in the Himalayan foothills.
Namaste, and see you all soon!
Brittany