Dear Family & Friends,
Greetings in the name of our Lrd and Svr who is worthy of our praise and worship.
Work Update
For a long time now we have hoped and prayed for an opportunity to partner with nationals. God has given both of us a love for God's Word, and a love for opportunities to communicate the truths of His Word to others. While we firmly believe God can and does use foreigners like us in "front-line" EV-ism, we also believe that training, equiping, discipling, and mobilizing nationals in EV-ism, discipleship, chrch-planting, and leadership training is a very effective and strategic way to work towards the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Last month Ch@d traveled to the Capital City and met with the leader (M.P.) of a large national mssn organization.
Though this organization has hundreds of national church planters out in the field, there has been no intentional focus on Mslms. The leader of this organization has recently felt a burden to reach out to Mslms (who have been largely forgotten / ignored in this country). During their time together in December, M.P. expressed to Ch@d his desire to start a Mslm focused wing to their work, and asked Ch@d to play a key role in leading these efforts.
This past Monday (3 days ago), Ch@d had another meeting, in which he shared (among other things) his vision and strategy for reaching the Mslms of our state with 6 MBBs (Mslm Background Believers), and about 6 others interested in reaching out to Mslms. Among those present was a MBB (A. K.), who has been a believer for 42 years (59 years old). After 30+ years of pastoring and teaching Bible, he has been doing chrch planting with this organization the past 8 years (and has seen much fruit).
Now M.P. has asked him (A. K.) to turn his focus (in partnership with Ch@d) to reaching the Mslms of our state. A. K. is a humble, godly man who evidences a real love for Christ, for his glory, and for seeing Christ's Kingdom furthered. We are amazed at God's kindness to us in allowing us to come along side of this man and partner with him in being used of God to provide the (40 million or so) Mslms of our state with the opportunity to hear the truth about who Christ is and what he has done for sinners, and to have the opportunity to trust in Him (alone) for eternal life. The next meeting / training time is scheduled for Feb. 16th.
Please pray for this meeting, and for this partnership that is still very much in the infancy stage.
Please pray for those Ch@d will be training, and specifically for 6 MBBs, who will play a key role in this process.
Pray they would develop a real burden for their own people (2 of the 5 are Ansari), and would bear much fruit. Monday's meeting included some simple teaching on how to talk with their unbelieving family and friends about Christ, how to share their testimony, and how to share the story of the demon-possessed man (Mark 5:1-20).
Pray that they would do their homework. Those present were given the "home work" of writing down 5 names, praying for those people, and sharing with those 5 people how Christ has changed their lives (their testimony) and the story from Mark 5 (of a man whose life was radically changed by Christ) before we meet again on Feb. 16th.
Pray, in fact, that they would share not with 5 or even 10, but with 50!!
Pray God would use their testimonies and this story that reveals Christ's power for his glory among those who hear.
Personal Update
We continue to thank our Father for the gift of life he has given to our family. If pregnancy can be measured in degrees, and if one's "pregnant-ness" is based on how sick you are, then Ch@rity has been very pregnant! Her so-called "morning sickness" more often than not lasts
all-day. We had hoped that the nausea and vomiting would cease as she entered the 2nd trimester, but such has not been the case.
This past Saturday, anything and everything she tried to get down ended up coming right back up again; even half a glass of water. The result was that she got so dehydrated that we ended up needing to spend the night in the hospital where we could get her on a water I.V. to hydrate her body. We stayed until late Sunday afternoon. Though the care (and cleanliness!) here is different than what we would have in the States, we were thankful for a relatively uneventful time in the hospital. She is doing better now. We praise God that she has not vomited since Saturday.
Please continue to pray that God would give her strength, health, grace, patience, and joy. Despite these health / pregnancy-related challenges, Ch@rity has done an amazing job (this is Ch@d telling you this), setting up our new apartment, hosting visitors (photo above), going to language lessons, studying, getting out into the community, and caring for her husband. She is a remarkable woman indeed! We covet your prayers for the protection and health of our child while we live in a place that presents more risks to health and safety than Minnesota.
We are very happy to report that we are now living in our own apartment. It was a long wait, but now that we are in, we are so grateful for the place that God has kindly provided for us. A big thank you to Steve & Ellen (and Anjali & Jaiya) is in order for your generosity and hospitality for hosting us in your home for so many 
weeks (err, months that is! We get the record for the longest stay in their home. Not a record we had hoped to hold. Ugh.). Thank you! It feels good to be "in the hood," and to fall asleep with the sound of looms in our ears. Please pray for God to use us mightily for his glory in L-pura.
That's all for now. As always, we are so very thankful for your partnership with us in the Gospel. Thank you!!
till all have heard,
Ch@d & Ch@rity
Yesterday (Jan. 27) was Ch@rity's birthday. The kids from next door brought over a cake with Ch@rity's name on it. We were very blessed by their thoughtfulness and kindness.
