Dear Praying Friends,

“My girlfriend lives in Bangalore. Our parents won’t allow us to marry because I became a Christian two years ago. She won’t become a ‘Christian’ because she thinks it means she has to convert to European culture and leave behind her Indian identity.” Ravi* sat across the table at the company cafeteria telling Jason his problems. He is one of Jason’s coworkers, training recruits at a major outsourcing company here. Jason felt a thrill when he heard Ravi’s story, and knew he had to tell him about our friends, the Yeshu Bhaktas, Indian followers of Jesus whose worship and lifestyle are culturally Indian rather than Western. That conversation happened just a few days ago. Ravi is now in Bangalore meeting with our Yeshu Bhakta contacts there, finding out that there is a way to follow Jesus and the Bible while still identifying with Indian culture. His girlfriend, her parents, and his parents can all follow Jesus without having to renounce their culture. That is “good news” indeed! 

This month, we celebrate four years since we moved to India. In that time, with your help, we have embraced the culture, become close friends with several Hindu families and become acquainted with many more, encouraged Indian Christians to think beyond the conventional norms for reaching Hindus with the Gospel, gotten to know several Yeshu Bhakta households in our region and have been invited by their leaders to influence them to be more biblical and more bold in their faith, have gained new teammates, started a business, and our family has grown from two to four (number four is almost here).

Thank you for walking with us, asking us questions – some curious, some challenging – about our efforts, and above all, thank you for praying for us.

Baby II update: She’s due on August 11^th, she’s healthy, and we still don’t have a name picked out for her. She’s a strong kicker!

Ben update: Ben started his second term of ‘play school’ this month. His teachers report that he is “very active” and “full of energy.” We think that's teacher-code for "doesn't sit still." He loves school though, and each day reports what he did: “I played with kids!”

Please Pray:

• Thank God that we’ve made it through the four-year mark and that we’ve seen so many good results from our efforts
• Thank God for our teammates who helped a ton with our responsibilities while we were out of the country; they really went above and beyond the call of duty
• Thank God for those who gave extra over the last couple months to help us with our unforeseen expense of traveling back to the U.S. to deal with visa complications
• Ask God to inspire another two churches to join our provision team
• Ask God to help our family to be healthy – physically, emotionally, and spiritually – as we deal with the busy-ness of life here and await the arrival of Baby II

Thank you for being there for us. Please drop us a line sometime and let us know how you’re doing!

For Christ’s Kingdom,

Jason, Karyn, Ben, and Baby II

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*name changed
 

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