Praises:

Eric had a safe trip in south India - thank
you for your prayers!

We had a safe trip to Turkey and accomplished a lot while we were there.

Our paperwork is
finally correct and has been sent back to the Vietnamese
Embassy for final
certification!

Prayer Requests:

That our paperwork will be sent to Vietnam this month

That the Lord will provide a different car that is more reliable in preparation for our baby’s arrival.

For wisdom for Eric as he leads the JESUS film discipleship team

Please pray for our brothers and sisters around the world who are being persecuted, imprisoned and beaten for the sake of the Gospel

Verse of the month:

You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
2 Tim 2:1-2

India Follow-up Videos

Eric spent a week touring southern India with some of our Indian Campus Crusade for Christ staff. He trained 450 pastors on how to use, “Following JESUS,” the follow-up videos he produced, to start small groups that will become churches. These videos are now in 10 Indian languages! It was an encouraging time as he began to see fruit from his labor from the past 2 years.

The first night he arrived, he traveled to a village near Bangalore—in south central India. A pastor of a small church in the village invited his congregation and others from the village to watch the videos. Approximately 50 people from the village attended and watched intently as the story unfolded. They watched as Indians, just like themselves, embraced Jesus as Savior and began to follow His teachings. They could see the transformation in the lives of people in the videos and wanted the same for themselves.

At the end of lesson five—on sharing your faith—one man told us that, “The story is touching. It made me think that I should share my story about Jesus with others in the village.” He got it. By making the stories relatable to their culture, teaching biblical principles in a way they can understand, the viewers are absorbing the truths and making changes in their lives.

One of our Indian staff who now works in the US said, “Indians consider Christianity a Western religion, so the fear is that if they accept Christ, they’ll have to lose their culture; they’ll lose a part of their identity. That’s why some go to the extreme of avoiding Christians.”

They think that if they accept Christ they will have to become Westernized—they will have to dress differently, eat differently, and be something they are not. They won’t accept Christ if they have to totally abandon their culture. This is why it is so critical to show other Indians walking daily with Jesus—so they have an example of Indians following Jesus, making some life changes as they grow in their faith, but not completely losing their culture.

Our staff in northern India tell us that they are seeing 4 times as many people
being baptized and joining churches when “Following JESUS” is used in follow-up groups. The videos give them a real life example of how to be a Christian and remain Indian. They said that traditionally, people lose interest and stop coming to follow-up. Now they say that, “They just keep coming back. The numbers don’t go down.” Praise the Lord!

Next month we will share about our trip to Turkey and what the Lord is doing in that area. Thank you for being a part of our ministry - supporting and praying for us as we work to produce these discipleship materials. We appreciate you and pray the Lord will bless you for helping to build His church around the world.

In His love,