Fredrick and Reeba gave us an update of the work that is going on through their ministries. In January, 58 women graduated from the tailoring programme and there are currently 55 women on the programme which runs in Bangalore and in Andhra Pradesh. These women, mainly widows who have no means of support, are taught how to sew over six months so that they can become self-supporting to help their families. One lady at the January graduation confessed she had been on the brink of suicide when she heard about the programme because she could see no way of supporting her two children; through the programme she has come to faith in Christ and she brought gifts from her first pay packet to the programme as an expression of her gratitude.
Fredrick has recently been in the north of India distributing talking bibles to the gypsies there. The talking bibles are made in Israel and then shipped to India so that the Bible can be recorded in any one of the almost thousand languages spoken in India. The bibles have a solar panel on them and so 2 hours’ charging in the sun means up to 10 hours of listening time – crucial in areas which have no reliable electricity sources. One bible is given per family so that the whole family can listen each day; street vendors often hang these on their carts so that everyone can hear!
The vacation bible school (at which some church members helped last year) was attended by 125 children from the slum area around Bangalore and many HIndus attend services at Fredrick’s church, often coming to faith in Jesus as they see miraculous answers to prayer.
We are so grateful for the privilege of supporting these ministries and Fredrick and Reeba thanked the church for their support and urged us to continue praying and to visit again!