Journal from TheEdge: By Geneva Donoho*

May 21
The volunteer team arrived last night. They all seem like sweet girls. It’s cool having them here. We are leaving for the village soon. Father, please keep us safe as we travel, be our protector, keep the men from staring, help no one to get sick, and may Your presence be known among these hills. Lord Jesus, I praise You for interceding on my behalf. Father, as we go and come these next days, be our support. Rescue us from our enemies. You’re my strength.

May 22
Lord, thank you for this wonderful day. Thank you for this team of girls. They are all so sweet and I really like them all. Father God, You are so good. What a blessing to get to have these experiences. It’s so cool to be on the other side – for so many years I was the one going on mission trips. Now, I’m the missionary that the team is coming to help.

Yesterday, we met at the office and talked about the expectations, what will happen, etc…  We took three land cruisers up. We stopped at the waterfall and at the Woman and Child Center to pray over it. I have been able to talk with all the volunteers (five of them) and am trying to get to know everyone.

Today, we left really early for the village to conduct a medical clinic. All 12 of us girls rode up in one jeep, quite the crowd. It was fun and dangerous at the same time. Two girls worked with me to take care of the kids. We did mehndi (dark brown paint used to draw traditional designs on women’s hands and feet), games, Bible story dramas, songs, balls, and bubbles.

Some of the other volunteers took weight and height measurements and registration for the clinic and told oral Bible stories. The team was so helpful and we couldn’t have done this without them. We gave out soap to all the patients and more than 82 ladies and children were seen by the doctor. One little baby fell asleep on my shoulder. It was so sweet.

May 23
Oh Lord, you are so good to me. Your face is all I see; Your grace abounds to me. Your creation is so beautiful. There aren’t words to describe the beauty of the mountains, the snow, and the lake. Thank you Lord, for these volunteer girls. This morning after breakfast, we all went on the roof and had a share time and sang a few songs. Then today, we hiked up to this lake. Quite the experience, very cold, started to rain, a few people slipped on the way down.

May 25
Father God, Most Holy Savior, Risen Lamb, thank you for meeting me right where I’m at. Lord, I’m really worried about these three days in this new village area. What are we going to do all day, etc.? Father, I just lay it before You. You prepare the way. Give us the words to say. May the people be open to Your truth and bring us the right relationships.

May 28
Lord, my heart rejoices in You. I’m amazed by You, Your goodness, and how You reveal all things in Your time. I was able to talk last night with the volunteer working with me and we really connected. We were both able to share things about our past and You showed me steps for the future.

June 1
Lord, may this country declare Your praises and boast in Christ. Lord, bring out Your people to salvation. My heart hurts for those beautiful friends of mine who need you. Father, I thank you, I exalt you for leading me and the girls (volunteer and translator) to every place last week.  Thank you for the stories and testimonies we were able to share.

Thank you for the ladies we got to meet, the health lessons we shared, families we prayed for, and the dear friends we connected with. Lord, these nationals we came close to are heavy on my heart. God, I weep for them. Save them; do the work that only You can do. Let them watch the Jesus film and receive Your truth.

This past week was one of the greatest weeks of my time in this country. The volunteer girls were awesome. I love them all and miss them. God, I praise You for Your protection all the time, especially this past week when the police were watching us.

In one area we went to, the Christian ladies got together and brought a drum and hymnal for singing. We sang songs, told three stories, and then had a prayer time. Then we did the health lesson. One lady shared how her two sons were in an accident and went blind for a month. They prayed and God healed them. Praise the Lord! Another lady shared how her husband left her when she was pregnant and everyone told her to have an abortion. But she kept the baby and she is a beautiful little girl.

Two of the volunteer girls wrote the sweetest notes that made me cry. They shared how much they looked up to us and were in awe of us and had grown because of our example. Lord, You really exceed my expectations and answered all our prayers.

–30–

*Name changed for security purposes

Geneva Donoho is a Journeyman serving on theEdge in South Asia.

Your sacrifices will result in eternal praise from every nation (and) tribe

We want you to know how grateful we are for your faithful giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Your gifts make our ministry – and the ministries of more than 5,300 International Mission Board missionaries serving around the world – possible. Your sacrifices will result in eternal praise from every nation, tribe, language, and people.

We fully understand the financial hardship many are facing during these unstable economic times. And we know that a rough economy hasn’t changed your heart for the lost any more than it’s changed our call to reach them. Below is a list of how your gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering are used to reach the lost tribal people of Bangladesh:

• $0.50 will buy a songbook of indigenous hymns.
• $1 will provide a meal for one person attending a leadership meeting. Since these are rural farmers, if they don’t work, many don’t have money to eat.
• $1 will buy a complete Bible for a new believer.
• $10 will cover the costs of a team taking the JESUS film to remote villages. LMCO gifts from last year bought a portable projector and generator for showing the film.
• $25 helps to cover the monthly travel expenses of trainers as they travel to give Bible and leadership training for new church leaders.
• $30 will send one village pastor to a weeklong, intense Bible training to receive formal Bible teaching from seminary-educated and field-experienced instructors.
• $50 will fill a tank of gas, enabling missionaries to travel to leadership trainings in district towns and to remote areas to share the Gospel.
• $50 will cover one month’s tuition for one of the tribal team’s children to attend a local, national school, providing a beacon of hope to their Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist classmates lost in darkness.

Thank you for your faithful and sacrificial gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.

The Galvins*

*Names changed for security reasons for missionaries serving in South Asia.

We appreciate your part in our lives and in our work

We attend a house church that currently meets in a colleague’s home. There is a certain freshness that comes from this type of situation, especially in our setting. Two weeks ago, a first-time visitor was passed a small Bible to use during the service. When the leader told everyone to open their Bibles to a certain spot, Rohan* blurted out, “This is a Bible?” When we answered affirmatively, he grinned widely and said excitedly, “I am holding (for) the first time the Bible!”

Last week, our teen-age daughters had a long conversation, though a stilted one due to language differences, with a 17-year-old girl from a neighboring state. (There are at least four languages represented in our small congregation.) There has been a lot of persecution of Christians in her state during this last year. In order to be safe, Rashmi* had come to our city to stay with her uncle’s family, members of our church. Rashmi was talking about her family and how much she missed them and her life in the village, especially at Christmas time. She particularly misses her older brother who taught her how to play a type of Indian drum and who, in her words, “knows everything!” She doesn’t like it as well as the drum, but she will laughingly play on a pot if we push hard enough.

In other areas, please pray for the training sessions Lonnie* is doing. Some of these are really taking off as attendees take the material and do their own training sessions with others. Exciting!

Your gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering help provide training materials, Bibles, and evangelistic materials among other things, as well as help provide for our family’s needs and for many others like us. Please consider prayerfully what the Lord would have you give.

May God richly bless you and yours during this holiday season and in the year to follow!

The Teppers*

*Names changed for security reasons in South Asia.

God often uses you all to be His hands and feet – and His Voice

It’s that season of the year that one’s heart turns toward home and the joy of memories of family, friends, food, and lots of fun. After following a friend’s blog the other night, I found myself growing a tad homesick. Praise God that His mercies are new every morning and that He always knows right where we’re at! As I began to ponder my feelings, He gently reminded me of a few things – you know, those things you know, but you just need help remembering sometimes. I heard Charles Stanley say a long time ago, “Feelings are satanic slush.” It’s something I’ve held on to because I tend to be one of God’s extra-emotional beings. Feelings are just that – feelings; they are not fact.

So as we head into this season, pray for us – and so many others like us – who would love to be at “home” for the holidays but whose deepest desire is to honor the One who paid a debt He did not owe to obtain for us eternal life in a heavenly home with Him. Now that’s something to be thankful for!

Please know also how very thankful we are for the support you give us through your prayers and your notes of encouragement. God often uses you all to be His hands and feet – and His voice – as He ministers to us through you. We are blessed beyond measure!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your generous support to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering in the past. It is because of your unselfish giving that we, and 5000-plus like us, are able to live on this side and minister in Christ’s name.

The Cargills*

*Names changed for security reasons for missionaries serving in South Asia

Thank you:  Taking Jesus to the people in the high pastures

The donkeys struggled under the heavy load of medicines, tents, food and other supplies as we trekked up to the high pastures in a mountainous area of South Asia. Our little daughter rode a pony to enable her to go with us. We were going to share the love of Jesus in a tangible way with families who had taken their flocks up to cooler air and rich grass. When we arrived and set up camp, ladies and children came from the scattered settlements to be checked by Josie*, who lovingly distributed medicines and vitamins provided by Southern Baptists. She shared words of encouragement and advice on hygiene and nutrition and prayed for the sick patients.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen tent, Isaiah* turned a hand-crank cassette player to share a story from the Bible with the men. After the story, we talked about the miracles of Jesus, then about God’s loving plan to redeem mankind through our Lord’s sacrifice. For most of the men, it was the first time they had ever heard the Good News.

As we came back down the mountain to our little town, exhausted but happy, we reflected on the privilege we have for such an opportunity to live among these lost souls and touch them with Christ’s love. Thank you for making that possible!

Please pray for all of these in whom the seed has been sown and for a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit in this place!

The Gabdons*

*Names changed for security reasons in South Asia.

Thank you:  Your gifts are changing lives!

The Lord called me to the field when I was 9. Several years later, I went to India on my first volunteer trip. As I shared testimony about the Lord during that trip, a Hindu woman proclaimed to me that when I returned to India, the idols would be gone from her home. In just a few short days, the Lord forever bonded my heart to the Indian people. I would return!

For eight years now, I have served the Lord full-time in South Asia, which includes India and the surrounding six countries. My service here is possible because of your prayers and your gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. I thank you deeply. My national friends also thank you. Your gifts have not only supported me on the field, they also have helped train nationals in evangelism and church planting and as a result, every day more and more South Asians are denying their gods and giving their hearts to Christ. They are learning that the Lord is unlike any other. He created them, loves them, offers forgiveness to them, and He alone is worthy of their worship.

Your gifts are changing lives throughout South Asia. Many still have yet to hear. As you continue to pray and give, more South Asians – Indian Hindus, Sri Lankan Buddhists, Pakistani Muslims and others – will have greater opportunity to hear. Thank you for advancing the kingdom of God in South Asia.

Goldie Frances*

*Names changed for security reasons for missionaries serving in South Asia.

Real Monkeys in South Asia

By Boyd Uppenhouse*

Mrs. Suma* works in an office where there is no air conditioning and there are no screens on the windows that are left open during office hours.

One Tuesday afternoon, Mrs. Suma was in the kitchen having a nice, relaxing cup of tea with a co-worker when she heard some rustling of papers coming from her office. She went to investigate and found three monkeys in her office going through books and papers. They had their hands full of markers, pens, glue and other office supplies. The intruders were reluctant to leave, but Mrs. Suma used all of her persuasive skills and shooed them out through the same window which was the point of entry.

As they left, she realized that one of the monkeys had her cell phone in his hand. The monkey with the phone climbed quickly up the tree outside her office and sat on a limb defending his new phone against attempts by the other monkeys to steal the stolen phone from him!

Mrs. Suma, knowing that she needed to do something quickly, picked up the office desk phone and called her cell number, thinking he might put the phone down when it began to ring. However, when the phone did ring, the monkey placed it to his ear as if trying to answer…. Really!

By now the security guards, the cook, the cleaning lady, and a host of others were there to witness the spectacle. Someone quickly found a banana and held it out to the monkey, trying to trade for the mobile phone. But the thief was too smart! He took the banana but kept the phone and climbed to a higher limb in the tree where he ate the fruit. He seemed to be thinking he was being rewarded for stealing the phone. Mrs. Suma called her cell phone number again and received a recording that the subscriber was out of range.

Suddenly the monkey began to try to satisfy his curiosity about his new toy and started to take it apart, dropping the pieces to the ground. When he had only one piece left he lost interest and threw it at his audience.

Mrs. Suma retrieved all the parts to her cell phone, including the battery and SIM card, from the ground, reassembled the phone, and made a call. It still worked!

Upon reflection, this story can tell us a lot about our own lives. Satan does all he can to steal us away from God’s plan for our lives. He will try every trick he knows to get to us. He’ll break us apart, piece by piece, when we leave a door or window open for him. It is only by God’s grace that we aren’t like that phone in pieces on the ground. Even when things do “fall apart,” God is always there to pick up the pieces and put us back together because we belong to Him.

– 30 –

*Name changed for security reasons.
Boyd Uppenhouse is serving in South Asia in the Master’s program of the International Mission Board.

What does it take to make God happy?

By Rosalynn Tendler*

SOUTH ASIA–This morning I was awakened by the noise of women and young girls haggling, presumably over a puja plate. Puja plates contain the food items that are “fed” to a Hindu idol and some flowers and red paste. I don’t know exactly how much they cost, but I can’t imagine they are too expensive. The very heated bartering went on for 15 minutes or so and finally died out. Shortly thereafter, someone was ringing the bells in the Hindu temple, so everything must have been worked out.

Each time we walk around the Buddhist stupa, we see people busy praying and spinning the prayer wheels. Some even lie prostrate on the ground every few steps along the way. One time on our way to a friend’s home, we saw a father desperately stopping the spinning wheels while running after his well-intentioned young son. The boy was spinning the prayer wheels “backwards” and his father was trying to stop the “bad luck.”

Here in South Asia people do these things in order to appease their gods and bring good fortune. Our desire to please God is based on His love for us and our love for Him. Here the devotees seek to manipulate the gods by their good deeds. As Christians, we are the ones who respond to God. He’s the one in control, and He can’t be manipulated.

So, what does it take to make God happy? What really makes God happy is a heart that is wholly devoted to and dependent on Him.

–30–

*Name changed for security reasons.