Sunday Crowd

Today was the first service at our new location for Grace Baptist Church, our house.

We thought maybe the numbers would be down today, since we moved to a new location.  We had 60 in the morning service!  Some even walked the 1.5 kilometers from the building where we used to meet, because they were too late to ride in the church vehicle.

We had a teenage girl leave our church in anger a couple of years ago.  She said, at that time, that she would never set foot inside our church again.  Last week, she came for the service.  This week she and her cousin walked the 1.5 km to church, and she raised her hand at the end of the service for prayer.  It is a blessing to see God changing someone who seems (to us) unchangeable.  Please continue to pray for God to work in hearts at Grace Baptist Church.

A House Warming

Recently, one of the members of the Chandigarh fellowship (ZCFC) was married in Manipur.  Brian was able to travel to Manipur to attend the wedding.

When the newlyweds arrived in Chandigarh we had a house warming and welcome fellowship.  Here are some photos from our evening of fellowship.

Looks like trouble...

Too nice...she should have made him wear a little frosting!

Congratulations Gainingam and Janpuina!

Melody is 10!

On March 4th, Melody turned 10 years old. 

Melody has spent most of her life in India.  We were in India for a year, and then returned to the US for a few months, because of some political problems in the country.  While back in the States, we found out I was expecting, so decided to stay in the US for her birth.  At that time, honestly, I was not comfortable giving birth in any of the hospitals that were available to us near our home in India.  Since then, things have obviously changed, since Melody was the last of our children to be born in the US. (Ethan was born in Kerala, and Kara in Punjab)   Melody was 6 weeks old when we returned to India.

Happy Birthday to our tenderhearted 10-year old, Melody Joy!

Praises

Things have been busy around here, and we so appreciate those that are praying for us!  A couple weeks ago I posted some prayer requests, so I thought I would give a short update on some of the answers to prayer we have seen recently. 
       We have been praying for a couple months for a new place to meet for the church, because the rent went way up, and we just were not able to handle it financially.  It came down to the last few days, and every place that we checked out, fell through for one reason or another.  Brian went to talk to landlord of the house that we live in to let him know that we would be moving out of the house and putting our things in storage while we went to the US, in order to save money on rent.  He was so upset at losing us as tenants that he agreed to let the church meet in our house for the time that we will be in the US. So, we will store our stuff in one of the bedrooms and the church will use the hall for meetings.  This is actually a double blessing, because we really did not want to move out of this house (especially me!)
         This week we were able to purchase the tickets for our trip to the US.  Also, Brian talked to a friend of ours in the US, who told him that he is buying a full size van for us to use during our time on furlough.  This is a great blessing, since their vehicle is a missionary family's second home while on furlough
          Continue to pray for us, as we are very busy with both the Mohali and Chandigarh churches.  We have 2 1/2 more weeks of school for this year, and I have started organizing and packing up the house, so things are very busy at home as well.  So thankful for the prayers and support!