Dear Brothers and Sisters:

The time is fast approaching when Sharon and I will be leaving for India.  We fly to Hyderabad on January 21 to meet up with Roger and Jan and head out to Jangaon for a two-week stay.  In addition to our spending time with the orphans and general support for the ministry of K. M. and Jayamani John in the Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh, I will also be involved, along with Roger, in maintenance and repairs of the Mercy House Orphanage building, a project I became involved with after my first trip there last January.  For Sharon, this will be a first ever experience of traveling to a faraway land and experiencing a culture that shows just what the meaning of “foreign” is.  But she is as excited as I am, and we both go there with a desire to serve God in any way that pleases Him.
There is plenty to do.  There is plumbing to fix, water damage to repair, painting to be done, missing screens to replace if we can get them, work on kitchen facilities; all sorts of physical upgrades of building, etc.  More important, however, is to go there and give spiritual support for all the good work K. M. and Jayamani have been doing in the name of the Lord in Jangaon and the surrounding villages.  Sharon’s presence and support will be very much appreciated in that respect.  Beyond that she knows not what awaits her.
The believers in these villages absolutely love it when we show up at their worship services and hear their joyous singing and wonderful drum rhythms.  They also love to hear us give our own testimonies, and in Roger’s case, some preaching.  They can’t wait to greet us with a handshake after the service is over.  And then they crowd around us and ask us to pray for them.  What strangers have ever made me feel more welcome?
Returning from India last year I required almost a month of reflection before I could truly explain what I saw there and what I experienced.  Then it took another several weeks of writing about it before I realized some of what it meant to me.  A year has now gone by and still things are sinking in.
Yes, as I wrote in that first account, there is much spiritual darkness in India.  Cruel things happen there that the dominant culture either accepts or just ignores; child abuse, abandonment of widows, children and infants, even young girls sold into sexual slavery.  But the good news is that a growing segment of society, the Christians, are no longer part of that dominant culture.  These Christians are spreading the Word, and more and more people there are awakening to the realization of how wrong those things are.
I might go on to say how these poor people need us and our support.  That they are worthy of all the help we can give them.  That they have shown they have the potential to spread God’s word far and wide . . . and so that’s why I am going back.  But while I believe those things are true, the simple fact is that, for some reason, God has put love in my heart for these orphans and believing villagers of Andhra Pradesh, India and if ever I felt He had a plan for my life, I am certain it involves my presence there soon.  I am delighted to discover there is joy in believing God is working through me.
And so now, as the time to leave draws near, we ask for your prayers to go with us.  We ask you to pray that God would be ever present with us as we show Him our faith by taking such a long and costly trip to a country so far away.  And please pray that, even though we don’t have all our activities planned out for us in great detail, our work with the ministry there would bear good fruit for God’s kingdom, whether in our own lifetimes, or after.

Thank you for your support and God bless you all,

Mike and Sharon Monson

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