Dear Conventions, Churches and friends of India.

I greet you all in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I thank you for walking with us as we minister in India to empower and transform lives. You have helped us reach widows living in poverty, unemployed youth, alcoholics, struggling farmers, victims of human trafficking; as well as help educate kids, create a kids’ sports ministry, ensure ministerial formation of theological students and sustainable projects to generate income. Also, thank you for your support of our Partners to be self-reliant and continue to proclaim and demonstrate the love of Jesus to the vulnerable in Asia.

My expanded responsibilities as CBM Asia Leader gave me an opportunity to visit the Philippines in March 2023 to learn and interact with our Philippines Partner (KPM), as well as a few churches, Institutions, and projects. The visit also paved ways to envision sustainability in their on-going and new projects. I thank God for this fruitful trip and ministry.

It was an emotional and privileged time to inaugurate the new married students’ quarters for 10 families at Baptist Theological Seminary, Kakinada, on March 11, 2023. Baptist Theological Seminary was established by CBM in 1882. CBM Missionaries, Baptist Churches in Canada, and CBM Staff were specially upheld in prayers. Here, students who come from difficult financial situation pursue their call and commit themselves to be trained as pastors at BTS to serve in the rural churches of Andhra Pradesh State.

I preached at the Soura Baptist Conference where at least 100,000 attended. It indeed was a revival. The Souras have taken the gospel to their communities and continue to grow in faith, plant and build churches (today they have more than 960 churches), and manage development projects in partnership with CBM for those in need.

Project Update Success Story:

We celebrate the success of the Empowerment of Soura Widows project you helped to support! For the last 5 years CBM had been partnering with SBCMS to empower selected widows who earned a meager income. As a multi-year plan, we were able to serve 320 widows from 28 church areas and build it as a sustainable income generating program. They are now continuing this program on their own without additional financial support. These widows successfully transformed their lives through rearing goats, cows, sheep, running seasonal businesses, grocery shops and more!

Today these empowered widows have constructed toilets, built small houses, and sent children to school, as well as renovated business units, paid for medical needs, and improved living standards. We thank God for his grace, which is always abundant.

• Please pray for my wife, Prasanna, who is working as a Scientist. She seeks prayers for good health and a new environment for academic research.
• Please pray for my 23-year-old daughter, Selina, as she prepares for her entrance exam for post-graduate studies in medicine. This exam is considered to be one of the toughest in the country. Last year she graduated to practice as a medical doctor.
• Please pray for my younger 20-year-old daughter, Mounica, who is in her third year of engineering, that she continues to do well in her studies.

• Alempang Baptist Church, Yimyu Baptist Church, and Sungkomen Baptist Church, in Nagaland, have started the new project, “Widows Emancipation” in partnership with CBM. The projects provide opportunities such as skills training and income generation programs to Ao tribe widows from mainly rural Baptist Churches in Mokokchung District. Please pray for the widows as they overcome hardships, empower themselves, and provide for their children.
• CBM Team Leaders meeting is scheduled in Canada from May 1-4, 2023. I seek your prayers as we meet to discuss, learn, and strategize new ministerial directions for mission in our respective countries.
• Pray for the on-going projects in India as they serve people by empowering and transforming their lives.
• Please pray for our partners, Soura Baptists (SBCMS), Oriya Baptists (UBCA), and Telugu Baptist church (ECM) as they independently run projects from 2023 with the income generated from sustainability projects like goat rearing; sheep rearing; and buffalo and poultry farming. Pray for strength, guidance, and patience as they become sustainable and self-reliant.
• Please pray for our Partner’s (Alempang Baptist church in Nagaland) projects – Alcoholics Rehabilitation and Transformation; and Empowerment of Mising Tribe that they would successfully complete its multi-year project by the end of 2023. Please uphold our partners as they will run these projects from 2024 on their own as part of the sustainability approach that we have incorporated for the growth of the church.
• Please pray for the 250 pastors and their spouses from the CBCNC churches as they attend a workshop in June on Modern Trends in Theology at ACTC, Hyderabad. Specifically, that would understand new hermeneutics for the good of their church ministry.

Your journey with us is indeed making a positive impact in the lives of those I live with. Thank you. May I greet you with the words from Numbers 6:24-26, “The Lord Bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.” Please do pray for me as I ponder on the words of Apostle Paul in Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill (me) with all joy and peace in believing, so that (I) may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”