India – I would like to report about the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact upon this part of our country especially the impact on GBC.

We scheduled our student’s exam in the first week of April but due to COVID-19, the country declared a countrywide lockdown from March 24. We immediately had to send the students to their respective places but we had to keep the third year year students to write their final exams so that they could carry their degrees and mark sheets with them which could help them for their studies or find a suitable ministry.

The situation went from bad to worse as the government imposed a countrywide curfew. Due to this the third year students were stuck on the campus along with five others; one from Chennai, one from Orissa and three from the country of Myanmar.

For almost two and a half months all the public transportation was not functional, Taluka borders, district border, and state borders were sealed. Initially, the students were comfortable but after a few weeks, they started to panic because they wanted to go home and meet their parents, and some of the students cried.

Finally, in the last week of May, the government, with special passes, permitted the students and migrant laborers to go to their respective places at their own risk. So two of our third year students were able to go home with a lot of difficulties and a lot of expenses. It cost more than Rs. 20,000 ($266) for Ms. Stuti Jadhav to go home where normally it would hardly cost Rs. 400 to 500 ($6)

My family did moderately well during this time. The Lord has kept everyone fine and healthy as we home-quarantined for almost two months. At times food was scarce because the markets were closed, and when the government allowed the market to open there was a shortage of food like milk, bread, fruits, and groceries. During this time I had the liberty to move around within the district since I had a special lockdown and curfew pass from the government. During the weekends I go to BGCH (Boys and Girls Christian Home – an associate and partnering ministry) to help their director, Pranay, as the government has undertaken their campus for the COVID-19 care center.

Even today people are in fear and uncertain about the future. Though the government took off the lockdown, many people are not willing to come out of their homes and are avoiding traveling. This will certainly affect our next academic session. We have already announced that the college will reopen in the first week of August, but I am personally worried as to how many students will come and how many parents will be able to send their children. We have started the admission process and some students have already applied.

We have been investing a lot of our time and effort for the past three months towards accreditation status with ATA, Asia Theological Association, Singapore. This has really been a 10 year project, and we have completed the ATA self-study report questionnaire as of June; it was a lot of effort and work for the faculty, but worth the time. The next step is preparing for the ATA campus inspection when COVID-19 allows travel. ATA accreditation is very important for GBC because it draws in many students to join the college. There are many organizations, institutions and churches which require degrees, diplomas or certificates accredited to ATA when they are hiring.

Thank you for your prayers and faithful financial support which enable us to continue training students with a strong Biblical education and training for future ministry.

– Pramod Tantarpale, Principal, Grace Bible College

Amount raised so far: $10,604. Thank you for helping us get this far!!
Would you help us help many more needy children get back in school this fall?

Still needed: $59,396

A gift of any amount helps needy refugee kids with vital backpack and school supplies.

DONATE TODAY!

Cost for the gift of education: $85/child
(Backpack, school supplies & uniform)

Meanwhile, on the two acre campus, routine maintenance and preparations for the return of students continue. Right, two workers add an outcrop to a roof to shield the cook and helpers from monsoon rains.

Thanks to generous donations, we were able to fund a much-needed renovation and freshening of the men’s shipping container dorms last summer and install air conditioners last fall in the GBC library to stay the invasion of mold due to high heat and humid conditions from March to October.

BECOME A GBC FINANCIAL PARTNER

We are looking for partners who understand the value of investing into the education of an Indian national and gift a Biblical foundation for his or her lifetime. Most students come from villages with very limited family resources and cannot attend without financial aid. Current ministry partners faithfully give monthly and pray for this GBC and their student, which God has used in the lives of hundreds of students through the years. Many thanks to our partners!

Suggested donation is $1200/year per student ($100/month). You receive your student’s profile and information so you can pray with knowledge. One time gifts of any amounts given to “GBC” are very helpful.

Engage online at indigenousministries.org or call our office 719-303-3028. Please make checks out to Indigenous Ministries, include a note marked “GBC.”

FROM THE DESK OF PASTOR ARA, BAGHDAD:

Praise the Lord, we are doing well and serving the Lord God in these difficult times. During this period, I read in the Bible the book of Psalms, and now I have arrived at Isaiah 35. It is really encouraging us to depend on the Messiah’s grace, in the midst of the challenges.

In addition, I read two books about the church in this period. The first one is translated book, titled: What is a Healthy Church? By Mark E. Dever (Arabic version). The second book, which I am reading now, is: Why the Church: A Contemporary Vision for the Roll of the Arabic Church, by a group of Arab Theologians.

Praise the Lord, all of the congregation families doing well, and we continue the Bible Study Home Groups using Viber app with the church families and the displaced refugees. In fact, the social media plays an excellent role in this particular period, because we transferred Sunday sermons online on the YouTube and FB pages of the church – the best way we can keep in contact with the people.

The team of AWANA, which is led by Noora, established a FB page for the AWANA clubs in all of Iraqi churches who use this curriculum for teaching kids in Sunday schools in Evangelical and Traditional churches in Baghdad and Kurdistan. In fact, each lesson takes around 3-4 hours to produce a short video which is around 10-12 min.

Each video is a result of cooperation of 3-4 Sunday school teachers, who are presenting the lesson in different local languages – Arabic, Assyrian, Chaldean, and Armenian to reach the people and kids from different backgrounds, especially with the displaced refugee families, which some of these families are supported by Indigenous Ministries through Child Sponsorship Program.

I would like to share a story of a family who was infected by COVID-19, this family includes 5 persons; Layth 60 yrs, and his wife Eman 52 yrs, and their daughters Rita 16 yrs, and Riva 11 yrs. This family is a displaced refugee family that came from Mosul, and is living now in a caravan in a camp in the midst of Baghdad. This family is recorded in the Child Sponsorship Program through their little girl; Riva.

Eman is working in a private hospital, and she takes care of the family, because Layth cannot work. Eman is a cleaner in the hospital. A month ago she underwent medical examinations and she discovered that she had COVID-19, then Layth and Rita had also the virus .

The pastoral team in the church called them and talk with them about their challenges, and sent the food bags to their house. We stayed beside them by calling and asking about the health development of their cases once/twice weekly until they healed, praise the Lord.

In fact, this period of COVID-19 and the lockdown was an excellent period in different aspects: Firstly, the church families tried to help some very poor families who participate in our Saturday ministry by giving them financial gift. Secondly, the church also helped whole families who benefit from the Relief Program, by helping them with food bags, and protected them from the crowd places.

The verses that touches my heart in the midst of these challenges are: Philippians 4:13-14 “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.” ESV

The Egyptian government has decreased the hours of lockdown from 12 am until 4 am and restaurants and coffee shops have start working again with 25% of their capacity. Churches and mosques are allowed to meet as of July 1, but the coptic and Protestant Egyptian churches have delayed their opening until the end of July because the numbers of people who are infected with COVID-19 is increasing in Egypt.

The weather in Egypt is very hot right now, around 100 to 110, because 95% of Egypt is desert. This fact makes it very hard for the people to wear face masks in the subway or public transportation.

Because hospitals are full of patients, sick people are locking themselves at homes and are very hesitant to share that they are infected. Many people from the medical teams have passed away as the result of working in hospitals or clinics. Millions of Egyptians don’t have medical insurance and don’t have the money to visit a doctor or get medicine.

Many great leaders of the Egyptian churches rested in the Lord (have died) because of COVID-19. The head of the Faith Domination rested in the Lord and six pastors from Assembly of God Church and their families were infected. Many priests from the coptic church have been infected and some of them have rested in the Lord. There are no physical meetings or masses right now, and most of the churches are having an online meetings.

Many members of the churches have passed away and many are in a very critical conditions. The churches are helping some of these families to buy medicines, food and money. So they buy the food bags and put them outside the door and then the people open later to find what they needs. Also churches have groups of people who call the sick people are pray with them on the phone.

The economic situation is very hard because many people have lost their jobs or are in lock down. Even for pastors the financial situation is very difficult. So remember your brothers and sisters in the Lord in your prayers. The education also is very difficult. All the schools have stopped since the middle of March, and there is uncertainty if or when they will start the schools again.

In this hard time many NGOs and Christians ministries have shut down. But Indigenous Ministries is still working in these hard places because of the help and support of our prayer and financial partners here in the US and our teams in the field. Ministry has expanded, because we have been able to help more families than the ones in our program.

One of our team in Egypt, Pastor Emad, who is responsible for the child sponsorship program in Egypt has had COVID touch his family. His mother was infected with corona and she had to self quarantine in her home, but she is recovering well. Pastor Emad sent his wife and their three children to her father’s home to stay there for two weeks and isolated himself. Thankfully we have a large team who are are handling the coming food distribution to the families in the program. One of the children in Egypt, Ramez Reda, lost his uncle because of COVID. Please keep our ministry team, the children in the program and their families in your prayers. God bless you. Reda Khalil, Indigenous Ministries Middle East Coordinator, Colorado Springs office.

This month we’re pushing back the darkness and fear the world is experiencing through COVID-19’s grip. 

Left, our boys in the Egypt Child Sponsorship Program had fun trying on the masks provided in their family’s monthly food packet.  Meanwhile as much of Egypt and the Middle East remains on lockdown, ministry continues. Join us in this issue as we look at getting beyond fear and not just stumbling into the future, but reaching for the future God has in store beyond dark days.

Pushing Back Against the Darkness…Prime Minister Winston Churchill led England through World War II’s turmoil of darkness, evil, fear and terror that surrounded England. A uniquely skilled leader, he turned England’s focus from fear into action; “Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.”

What does God see in these days of COVID-19, riots, isolation and fear?  He sees the same neediness he’s witnessed in men and women from the days of Adam and Eve. The exposed truth in our hearts of varying degrees of loneliness, frustration and fear, yet he also sees faith and courage.  If you’re struggling, even in isolation or illness, he’s right there with you, standing as your strength between you and the darkness you may be facing.

Joshua had spent years in training for the moment God made him the leader of the Hebrews after Moses’ death.  God knew what was ahead, yet he had chosen and prepared Joshua for this next immense challenge.  The similarities of Joshua’s journey and ours are not too far off;  he faced unbelievable odds and fears, and we do too.  We’ve been told COVID-19 will return…a great darkness looming for many of us. But Joshua was also privileged to know God’s promise of his presence and his success.  We do too.  God will never leave or forsake us. How has God prepared you for this unusual crisis?  Can you see his hand in your life even in this darkness? Joshua took courage from God’s promises and as a result took on the task ahead of him.

Countless millions in the world are living in need; they not able to receive stimulus checks or good medical care should they contract COVID-19 or any other illnesses, but most of us are. Many live in a spiritual darkness that has been brought to new light.

As the cost of this pandemic has hit home to our nation, cities, churches, our families and this ministry, the weariness of it all has settled in. But if we have God’s presence and promises, shouldn’t this be the time we push back against the despair, division and isolation?  Should we not stand up for the weak, and sick, help widows and orphans in their distress? If not us, who?  If not now, when?

Because of Joshua’s faith and courage, the Hebrews responded to his leadership and accepted the challenge of their journey into Canaan without fear of failure. God told them over and over, “do not fear, don’t be dismayed, don’t tremble…” Fear of failure or, COVID-10, in our case, has pushed its way into many of our hearts…and gained a stronghold.

God has you right where you are for a reason.  He is with you; he will not leave you nor forsake you in your time of need. He already has the courage you need ready and waiting.

At Indigenous Ministries we firmly believe God has us right where he wants us…standing together with you and with many thousands of the most needy in areas of deep turmoil.  He will continue to be our great strength and shield. Thank you for your partnership in these days.  May the Lord bless you. 

COVID-19 could bring more darkness by stopping education to children, but we are pushing back by raising funds to buy backpacks, school supplies and uniforms for refugees and other needy children in the Middle East. These kids can’t learn online without computers, so they must prepare to go back to classes. You easily can make a difference in a needy child’s life. Join us!

 

 

Cost for the gift of education: $85/child

(Backpack, school supplies & uniform)

Any amount helps! Goal: $70,000; amount raised so far: $8,104.  Thank you to each of you who have given to this worthy project. Would you help us get to $20,000 by July 1.

On June 15, the girls’ (top) father came to our office and began crying as he gently asked… ”please, please take my children into your program.  We have nothing, I need food to give my family.”  Every week our office in Erbil, Kurdistan, receives dozens of phone calls and visits like this.  With no jobs and an economic shutdown the affects of COVID-19 are devastating to refugees. Thank you to our amazing sponsors who are already helping!!

SPONSORSHIPS – Over the past month, we’ve received your heart-warming responses to the request for more sponsors…six children have been sponsored. Thank you so much for the love, prayers and action.

We continue to ask for help as the need is enormous and urgent; we are asking for help to get 154 children sponsored immediately.  Would you help?  You can be guaranteed that you will help change the life of a boy or girl with your prayers and financial help of $39 a month. Your child and family will receive regular food – which is significant need right now.  To sponsor, simply visit our website, indigenousministries.org or call our office.

GIVING FOOD – Until the economic impact of COVID-19 lessens, as we’ve mentioned throughout this newsletter, food for refugees and others in great need in the Middle East is the most urgent physical need.  Your gift to the Rapid Response Fund in any amount is used to help families in desperate need. In May, $6624 was given and hundreds of family have received help.  We will continue to help as resources come in. Thank you!

Central India – Grace Bible College, which normally begins its school year the first week in July, is planning on opening its 2020-21semester in August, as India reopens after COVID-19 lockdowns throughout this massive country.  Next month we will be featuring an update on GBC’s application for accreditation, which we are incredibly excited to share with you! Please pray for Principal Pramod and the faculty and staff and students.