Last month with the arrival of our 6-months here in India, we headed up to a mountain town called Mussoorie in the foothills of the Himalayas of Northern India! We attended a language school there for four weeks, where we discovered more of the ins-and-outs of Hindi grammar. God also brought us an amazing conversation partner, who is a believer! We had heard about her from some friends, and were walking along the road one day when we met her outside her house doing laundry! She told us that, just last week, a large number of her students had left and she was praying to God for more work. And now she just so happened to have 5 free hours in her schedule every day! So each of us met with her to talk in Hindi for an hour a day, four or five days a week, and we couldn't have asked for anyone better! Pray for God to continually give her strength, endurance, boldness, and a deeper love for Him as she allows God to use her in mighty ways to reach her people! Thank God her brother has come to faith in Jesus!! Pray also for her sister-in-law, who is not yet saved, that God would soften her heart to accept the truth and stir up in her an unqenchable desire for Himself!
Emily celebrated her 23rd birthday while up in Mussoorie and wanted to go white-water rafting on the Ganges, just a few hours away! We had a great time, felt safe, and got to meet some tourists from Argentina and South Africa! After language school ended on May 9, Jessica and I decided to take a vacation further up into the Himalayas. We took a taxi over many winding roads to a little town called Janki Chatti. From there, we hiked a paved path deeper into the mountains. The path is a common pilgrimage site for Hindus, as there is a temple at the end of the trail. Jess and I may have been the only ones hiking this trail not for pilgrimage purposes! We decided to use our hike as a time to pray for those walking this trail, trying to find peace outside of the one true God. The Himalayas were absolutely breath-taking; I have never seen any mountains so tall! During our vacation, God gave us the opportunity to share some Bible stories with our taxi driver and pray over some nice people who had invited us into their home. Pray for these people, and everyone who climbs to Yamunotri, that the Holy Spirit would open their eyes, ears, and hearts to hear, see, and understand their state before God and that Jesus has provided the only way to have a relationship with God!
Please pray for our team, as we have returned to Lucknow and are trying to find more ways to use our language on a daily basis. I am praying for time with a host family again, as it was so beneficial in helping me learn Spanish, I thought it would hopefully do wonders for my Hindi! We are also doing an intensive workshop this coming week with OM outside of Lucknow. Operation Mobilization in Lucknow offers a three-month-long Bible school/discipleship training every year for people who want to become pastors or anyone who wants to learn more about the Bible. This year, they had a lot of interest from illiterate people, but didn't have a curriculum that would work for them. So they asked our team to train their teachers how to teach oral peoples! That training is coming up this Monday and Tuesday!! Pray for wisdom, discernment, and understanding for our team and the teachers we will be training on how to bring these Biblical truths to oral peoples in a clear and accurate way! Pray that we would all be humble and surrender to the Holy Spirit and His work in our lives.
Many thanks to you again for all your prayers and/or financial support!!! I am again reminded how abundantly above and beyond God has blessed me through you!!