Part of our support for overseas work is for Fredrick and Reeba in Bangalore. We gave money to help build the baptismal tank in their new church and Fredrick has recently written of their first baptismal services there, celebrating Hindus coming to know Jesus as their Saviour.
Reeba has recently written about the tailoring programme we sponsor. There are now 54 women on the current 6-month programme in two different locations and they hope to graduate in January. Please pray for the financial provision for the sewing machines which are given to each woman at the end of the programme to enable them to use their new skills to earn their own living. Since each machine costs about £100, they will need £5,400 to provide these machines.
In addition, Reeba asks for prayer for two women in particular: Nirmala and Anitha (NIrmala is on the left of the photo).
Nirmala is a 22 year old woman who married at 17 years of age and was widowed just three months after her marriage. She was pregnant when her husband died and she and her daughter lived with her parents until her father’s death in 2019. Both she and her mother have worked hard at menial jobs, but got into debt trying to pay for his medical and funeral costs. They live in a small room just 9 feet by 5 feet in what Reeba describes as ‘very pathetic conditions.’ Please pray for Nirmala to be able to pay off debts of £2500 and educate her child.
Anitha is 24 years old and was abandoned by her husband when she was 5 months pregnant, aged only 18. She lives with her son and widowed mother and is the sole bread winner of her family. She too has many debts (health care and schooling are not free in India) and works as a hotel maid, but her dream is to have a tailoring shop or boutique of her own. “If I learn tailoring skills I can someday be a boss of my own tailoring shop,” she says. Fredrick and Reeba long to help her fulfil this dream (to set up such a shop after her graduation would cost about £1500.)
Such stories remind us of the privileges we often take for granted in the UK and should also stir us to prayer and action.