Send the Light...the gospel light

March 13th was our 10th Graduation and Dedication Ceremony for Nagpur Training Center! What an amazing service we had.

The ceremony began with the students marching in to the words of "To God be the Glory." We use this phrase often , because the ministry has really grown to be so much more than WE could have done. God has been and is in it! We look forward to what HE is going to do through us in the next 10 years.Nikki Clifton, who was a volunteer teacher this year, read a portion of scripture as a challange for the students. We will be living with us for a total of 6 months before she returns to the US in April. We praise God for her willing and flexible heart. She has been a joy to have serve with us.

The younest girls of the orphanage did a skit to "Seed to Sow" for the graduates. The older children did a powerful drama to "Arise, My Love" for Easter. ALL the children sang "For the Children of the World" as they marched in carrying thier Home flag, with Nagpur Children's Home written on it. They all did such an amazing job that they were invited to do all 3 for a large youth meeting in the city in April! Praise God!
Pastor Ken Pruitt from TX brought the challenging message to the students. It was powerful as each one stood up to accept the challenge to take the light into the darkness- no matter what the cost. We praise God for our 179 who have been taught and sent into the harvest field.

The year is over, the ceremony done, and Sunday afternoon we said goodbye to all our graduates as they left with suitcases in hand, and packed their sewing machines into auto rickshaws. The boys rode their bicycles miles to the train station- with a smile on their face the entire time.
Please pray for these young people as God lays them on your heart. We sent out 17 this year. They left with a fire in their hearts and I can almost be sure before their trains, buses and jeeps even reached their villages- they were sharing the gospel…now before I cry, let me post this.

Thanks to our Student Sponsors who help make this possible. You are their hero’s, and ours to.

RJP

2010 VBS Idea!

Does your church do a Vacation Bible School? Do you take up an offering for mission? Looking for for a mission to give to to make a difference? We have a project!
We have been raising funding for a home for our children for several years now. We have had many churches give their VBS offerings regularly for several years now- and we appreciate it!
This year we are asking ALL churches who take up an offering in VBS to consider helping with this need.

2010 VBS Goal

We are raising funds for 1 orphan cottage - $40,000. This home will house 25 children and house parents.

Please consider how you can help! Together we can do this!

For more information you can email me at: rachelpawar@crosspointofindia.org

February 2010

I admit, I do not use technology to the fullest. I have friends who blog about family and friends and what God is teaching them. It is not high on my list of to-do’s, but I do need to do better at updating through this way! Is it to late to set a New Year’s resolution? I am just in time in India, where everything is extremely late!

I will keep this short and sweet!

Our church grew by 4 members this December! A growing church is a good sign they say- and we had 4 babies born in our church in December alone! All of them were born to young women who have been through our Bible School, several of them married young men from the school! Vilesh and Anita are both our graduates. Vilesh still works on staff with us. They had a daughter the first week of December and asked Amol and I to name her. We named her Sarah! Last Sunday ALL 4 babies were dedicated to God- PTL!

Construction is coming along. We are about ¾ done with the wall and hope to complete it by summer. After that we will need to level the land. This will cost thousands of Dollars. We would prefer to buy a tractor and are asking for God to provide for that urgent need right now. Please help pray with us and give if you are able. After the land is leveled, we will use it for crops and for a lot more construction to come.

Nagpur Training Center is about ready to send out our 10th batch of students! On March 13th we will have our 10th graduation. We have 19 students graduating. Please pray for them as we take them a step further in laying their vision and making plans as they head out for ministry. Pray for their safety. (14 Pastors were killed in Orissa, India just last week!)

Nagpur Children’s Home is doing well. We have stopped growing for a little while. We are trying to care better for those we have instead of adding right now. Honestly, we are way over-crowded in our dorms. We will not be able to take in more children until we can expand to our land. The children had a wonderful Christmas. Crossroads Worldwide sent 2 teams over December that brought backpacks, tye-dye T-shirts, pajamas, school supplies, toys and MUCH, much more for the kids. They had another blessed Christmas. This is a group picture taken on Christmas Day.

Amol’s parents are doing well. Mummy has recovered from her accident almost 2 years ago. She does let her cane keep her from doing anything. She is very active in the ministry and has officially retired! PTL! Daddy’s health is well. He will be traveling out of town this month to attend a seminar and will be refreshed a bit with a break from all the ministry.

My (Rachel) parents are visiting. This is their second time to come and see the ministry in Nagpur. They leave tomorrow and we have enjoyed having them here t help with the homeschooling, cooking, shopping and visiting friends and family. They traded lots for snow days for 83 F days! The weather sure is heating up!

Thanks for your prayers and support. 2009 was a great year, God really restored what Satan was attempting to take- mainly joy from us leaders. Your prayers for our growing family is always appreciated. We love you!
A&R
So much for short and sweet- there is so much to say! Medical camps and circus news coming in the next one, as well as our boy who graduated 1st in a class of over 300- wonder who?

Home Sweet Home

We are back at home in India! After a VERY long flight with an 18 month old on my lap the entire time we are glad to say we have made it and survived! We are glad we will not have to do that again for awhile! Returning reminds me of how small our home is and how desperately our ministry needs to move!

My home office where ALL emails and correspondence flow from!

We had a wonderful visit in the USA and appreciate all the families who invited us in their homes to stay and fed us (too!) well. We were very encouraged and returned with renewed zeal and excitement for what we are a part of here.

While we were in the US Nikki Clifton travelled with us and was a great blessing. She helped manage the kids while we visited and shared. We appreciate her sacrifice since it was also her last days in the US for awhile. She returned to India with us to stay for 6 months!


During our absence the work here has continued strong. I was surprised to find my "Titus Women" continued to meet every Monday. This was a surprise to me since we just began meeting earlier this year. We had grown quickly and I did not know if the group was strong enough to gather on their own. They are! They had a small welcome party for me this past Monday as I returned to my group of ladies. Praise God.


The children are doing well. I see many of them have grown even in just 2 months! Their pants from last year are now 2 inches too short. I have been informed our grocery bill has also nearly doubled this year. We are thankful for the many who sponsor our children so we can care for them- all 65!

Visiting the future home of Nagpur Children's Home!!!

We had a construction team from Memphis, TN come the day after we arrived. They were able to lay some of the foundation for the wall on the campus land and also paint the inside of the boys dorm (our blue building in the city). They painted the downstairs floor the first day and had the boys assist them with the rollers. The paint rollers were a new concept. We do not have them here. They returned 36 hours later to find 40+ boys had finished the rest of the building! The team did an excellent job of teaching the boys how to do it. We appreciate all their hard work.

Now we are preparing for Christmas again. Christmas is a BIG time of year when you have 68 children. We have begun wrapping and buying and are excited about this special time of year. I hope you also will consider how you will share the gospel this holiday season.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. We are happy to be home and appreciate everyone who makes that possible.

RJP

Arrived!

Hey Friends,
We have arrived in the US. We had a wonderful trip without any difficulties. We have moved into our temporary home and are getting ready to travel this weekend. We do not have email at home and are finding it hard to take 3 kids to the coffee shop, so if you can call about scheduling etc. please do. Our number is 828-385-2145. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Amol & Rachel Pawar

The Pawars will be traveling to the US from August 20- October 20 for the purpose of fundraising for the mission in India. Below are dates and places you can meet them and hear personally about what God is doing in the people in their ministry.

Travel/ Speaking Schedule 2009

August 20- CLT arrival 3:20
August 22- PPC Homecoming
August 23- 9:30AM- Buck Hill Presbyterian Church- Newland, NC
August 23 – 6PM Riverview Baptist Church- Erwin, TN
August 30- 8:30 and 10:30 AM –Evangelical Methodist Church-Rutherford College, NC
August 30 –6:30 PM Balsam Missionary Baptist Church- Balsam, NC
September 3-4 Lynchburg, VA
September 6- AM Bartlett United Methodist Church, Bartlett, TN
September 7-10 – California
Sept 13-AM Friendship Baptist Church, Baxley, GA
September 13- PM- First Baptist Church of Grey- Grey, GA
September 20-10 AM- Riverside Christian Fellowship, Hernando, FL
September 23 - 6pm? Dellwood Baptist Church, Waynesville, NC
September 30-October 4- First Baptist Church of Fairfield- Fairfield, TX
October 11-AM First Baptist Church of Glasgow- Glasgow, KY
October 11-PM First Baptist Church of Hodgenville- Hodgenville, KY
October 14-7pm- Snowhill Baptist Church, Ledger, NC
October 17- Day of Prayer for India- Spruce Pine, NC
October 19- departure CLT

If you are interested in having them come and speak to your church please contact them by email at: amolpawar@crosspointofindia.org

Summer Update 2009

4 months has officially passed since I last posted on this blog...read on to find out why!

Orphanage

Over the summer we had over 40 new applications come in to the orphanage. We do not have room for that many new children so we had to select those with the most urgent need. That is a very difficult job! We have over 65 children now in the home.

Priyanka (not shown) is 8 years old. Her sister Priya has been with us for 3 years now. This year her mother brought her as well. She has never been to school and is now officially 5 years behind! She is very poor and has not had a new dress in over a year. We are glad to finally have her in the home. She went to school for the first time this July!

We will be sharing more about the new children in our upcoming newsletter.

Bible School

We had our first day of classes today at Nagpur Training Center. Presently we have 17 students and are expecting a few more . (You can pray for 4 who are coming from Bihar, but have been delayed because of flooding.) This is our 10th year of training workers for the harvest and we are ready to go!

Construction
The wall around the ministry property is coming along! After much delay we have been able to complete nearly half of the wall up to the final height of 7 feet tall. It looks amazing! We have stopped constuction during the monsoon season and will start up again as soon as we are able. We have 2 construction teams planned for the end of this year and hope to accomplish the wall in 2009! Please pray for this!


I have a short story to share. When we began the wall construction the farming neighbors began to dispute the boundry lines, claiming that we were stealing land. We had the land surveyed twice to convince them it was correct. They still would not believe us. Amols father, Daddy- as we call him, called out the "big man" from the office to be present during the survey and witness the boundry for us. In the end we gained 30 feet on one side of the land! Praise the Lord!
Last Sunday I came across this verse, which seemed so fitting:


"Do not move an ancient boundry stone or enroach on the fields of the fatherless, for thier Defender is strong; he will take up their case against you." Proverbs 23:10-11

US visit
We leave for the US in 21 days! We will arrive in Charlotte, NC on August 20th. We will be busy from day 1 travelling and sharing about the needs of the ministry. Please pray for our safety and for many open doors to share about the work in India.
We need a vehicle to use while in the US from August 20-Oct 20. Please let us know if you or your church would be able to help! Please call and leave a message at 828-221-2082.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your continued support for this ministry. God IS working and we ARE growing and expanding! We look forward to seeing you soon!

RP