Christmas is over and 2006 has come to an end.  We hope you have had a wonderful holiday season.  We would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Happy New Year.  May the Lord bless you with more than enough this coming year.  May it be a year of joy, peace, health and prosperity. 

We have been back in India for about a month and a half.  It has been quite a busy time as we have been preparing for the holiday festivities.  Here is a quick update:

Slum Outreaches: We have continued with the slum outreaches.  We still try to visit the slum near Ashram in New Delhi on a weekly basis, as well as the slums near our home in Faridabad on a monthly basis.  We have also started visiting a new slum in Delhi near the Priya Marketplace

on a weekly basis.  The ladies and children there have been very receptive to our coming and eagerly await our arrival every week.  Some of the teen-age girls from this slum have started to come to the Sunday prayer fellowship we conduct in Delhi. 

Sweaters for the Children.  Thanks to generous donations from friends in the US and India, we were able to purchase and pass out 300 sweaters to slum children in Delhi and Faridabad.  Last year we had felt the need to hand out sweaters to the children when children would show up to our home, in the cold of winter, with no warm clothes.  They either did not own any warm clothes, or the one sweater they did own was in the wash. The children were excited to receive the sweaters and many of them modeled them for us over the days to come as they visited our home for various reasons. 

Christmas Play: We put together two Nativity plays, one in Faridabad and one in Delhi.  My sister, who is a missionary in Japan, was visiting, and made all of the sets for the production.  We bought yardage in various colors to make costumes.  We just draped it on the actors in various ways.  Amazingly the costumes looked pretty good J 

Youth Group.  In Delhi, the youth group put on the play at our afternoon prayer fellowship.  They were not able to practice as much as the children, but were able to pull it off quite well.  We took the youth group to a couple of slums in New Delhi to perform the Nativity play.  It was very well received.  Most of the audience were seeing and hearing the Christmas story for the first time.  They watched carefully as the story of Jesus’ miraculous birth unfolded before them.  After the play, we were able to pray for the sick and needy. 

Not only was most of the audience hearing the Christmas story for the first time, but also, most of those who performed the Christmas play had never heard the Christmas story before they performed.  But, through my constant drilling, I think most of them can now recite the Christmas story verbatim J 

Slum Children.  In Faridabad, the slum children performed the play for an audience of approximately 200 people on Christmas Eve during our Sunday prayer fellowship.  They were very excited to participate and religiously attended practice at our home on Sundays and Wednesdays for weeks in preparation.  The children did an excellent job.   

Supporting Other Organizations: On December 29, was invited to be the Chief Guest and keynote speaker at the PKR Jain Senior Secondary School Annual Function in Ambala.  It is an awards gala the school holds every other year to recognize its students.  I was given the honor of addressing the children with an inspirational message.  I shared a message on my motto: Concentrate on what you can do rather than on what you cannot do and God will make all things possible.  The speech was well received by the over 3000 students, faculty, parents, families and friends in attendance.  Countless children came up to me for my autograph afterwards.  But, what made my evening was when a mother told me that her daughter had given up on the idea of pursuing a particular career path because she feared she was not capable, and after hearing the speech, she changed her mind and decided not to give up before at least giving it a try. 

Other Activities: We continue on with the other activities we were involved in before we left for India. 

Tutoring. We still have children come over for tutoring three times a week.  We have a core group of five children, but recently have been having up to 20 children come.  We have expanded our tutoring efforts to New Delhi, where a young boy Saddam, came up to me and told me he was thinking of dropping out of school.  I asked one of the members of our youth group to tutor him.  The sessions have made a drastic difference in Saddam’s attitude, abilities and confidence level. 

Together we are striving to improve ourselves and to reach out and improve our community as well.   

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