Theological College
After leaving our first objective, we travelled into the foothills of the Himalayas, where a Theological College trains young, tribal Christians for ministry. The school is situated on the side of a high mountain, looking out over a vast panorama of mountains and valleys.
The beauty of the natural arena is only surpassed by the beautiful souls and songs of the students. We stayed with them for about 10 days, having the opportunity to teach the students about the books of First and Second Thessalonians (those classes are on the website), and answer many questions that they raised. Nan led the students in a devotional class from Isaiah 58 on ministering to the needs of others.
Our time there culminated with the celebration of the 25th year of the school’s existence. In the celebration, the students reenacted how the local villagers and farmers originally offered plots of land for the school to be built upon. From very rough and humble beginnings, the school has grown into a beautiful but simple campus, and over 250 graduates have gone out into Christian ministry. One real highlight of this day was meeting members of the Kihoto family. It was their father who, after being led to Christ by an American missionary, forged into these high mountains with the gospel message. His son told us how he died, “He always said he wanted to die preaching, and that is how it happened. He was teaching the Bible in a church and suddenly went to be with the Lord!”
It was a great joy for us to meet former students, who we had taught on previous visits and are now serving in Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, and India. These humble servants live in very primitive and sometimes dangerous conditions, in order to carry the gospel message and sound teaching to those they serve.
Following the celebration, which included several speakers, there was a feast for the over 300 people who attended. It was a barbeque of roast Gaur—a wild ox, native to the forests. A group of men had gone into the forest and captured the Gaur, and with many ropes and much prodding brought it to the campus, where it was dispatched, along with several pigs.
Library
One of our major projects for the immediate future is to help the College build a suitable library to house their books. The current building is very old, made up of woven mat walls and is not good protection for the large number of books they have. One day, Nan and I went into the library to browse among the books. They have an amazing amount of good Bible study, theological, and Bible commentary books available for the students. They have the ground cleared and leveled for the project but are waiting and praying for funds to bring the library to completion. We have taken up the challenge to help them build a good building to house these treasures. Please pray for us to accomplish this task as quickly as possible.
Following our time at the College, we visited the Children’s Home, where 20 precious little orphan girls are wonderfully cared for. Some of these children have stories that would break your heart to hear. How wonderful to see them laughing, playing, working, and singing happily! The girls gathered every evening in the orphanage chapel and we were honored to share some words of encouragement from God’s Word with them. They have all been provided new dresses made by ladies in our home church, Living Truth Prescott.
Vienna
One of the places we have long wanted to visit is Vienna, Austria. As we were making travel arrangements (around Christmas), I told Nan, “If you can get us to Vienna on the way home, and it is affordable, I’ll give it to you as a Christmas present.” She was able to find us tickets from Delhi to Vienna for $200! Not only that, but we had enough travel miles to cover our accommodation. In the end, we got home cheaper than if we had travelled straight back.
We were able to walk around the city and marvel at the amazing architecture, like St. Stephen’s Cathedral. We spent a delightful hour watching the exercising of the Lipizzaner stallions. We visited the Vienna Military Museum as well. For those who may not know, it was at Vienna, in 1683, that a siege by the vast Ottoman army of over 150,000 that lasted for two months was broken and driven back by Christian forces under King John III Sobieski of Poland. It is considered to be the last, great battle for Europe between Christians and Muslims. Tragically, in our own time, the battle is being lost by the spiritual lethargy and spinelessness of Western Europe.
Prayer Requests
- Provision to build the library for the college.
- Continued support for the children’s home for clothes, food, and school fees.
- Prayer for Throngji’s wife Ayungla as she is facing some health issues.
- Prayer for Asola, the warden of the orphanage as she is leaving after many years of caring for the girls. The Lord has led her into women’s ministry in another town.
- Prayer for the new warden coming in to the orphanage this spring and for the girls as they adjust to a new “mommy.”
- We will be returning to this area in late April. Please pray for the team, which will include Nan and myself, Blair Buselli, Daniel and Katie Zanich. Blair will be speaking at the graduation of the Bible College; Daniel and I will be training village pastors while Nan and Katie do children’s Bible schools.
Once again, we thank all of you who have joined us by your prayers and gifts to make possible all that we do. Your names are written in eternity, and your sacrifice and service will never be forgotten.
May God richly bless and keep you all. And may The Lord of Hosts protect our President and his team and grant spiritual restoration to America.
By grace alone,
Gene and Nan