Thank you for your prayers over the last few weeks. Marty arrived safely back from Asia around midnight Saturday. Just a bit of recap of his travels:

         INDIA: On July 5th, Marty flew out to Hyderabad, India, via Singapore, along with BCM's media producer Larry Tomlinson. There they met up with BCM's VP of International Ministries, Dr. Vararuchi Dalavai, and BCM Canada director Bill Ricketts. On Sunday, July 8th, the team traveled to a village about 4 hours from Hyderabad, where they dedicated a  bore well project and new church. The entire village council came to the dedication, originally only to give a few words on the new bore well, but they ended up staying for the entire church service.

          That week Marty spoke at a pastor's conference held at the BCM conference center in Hyderabad. Some 20 pastors were not able to arrive because of flooded roads, but there were over 250 in attendance, and 26 new pastors were ordained. Among those in attendance was the pastor for whom we recently requested prayer (name withheld), who had been beaten, his head shaved (a gesture of contempt in the culture), and dumped in the river for dead. He was actually beaten and left for dead four years ago as well. He was offered sanctuary at the BCM Hyderabad Center, but is already preparing to go back to continue sharing the Gospel in his own area. A praise: an offering that came in for him has allowed the purchase of a motorcycle for his ministry travel (see attached photo of one of the other pastors with his motorcycle from the bike project; THANK YOU those of you who contributed).

         In Orissa as well, another state where we have a number of pastors, the government has passed a law decreeinga seven-year prison sentence for anyone getting baptized without their permission--which they never give. As a theoretical democracy, this law is actually against India's constitution, but freedom of religion basically depends on which party is in power locally. Currently the churches in Orissa and several other states have been driven largely underground. Please pray for courage in preaching God's Word. From Hyderabad, the team traveled to Channai, a city in Tamil Nadu province, where they celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the ministry there (see attached photo). The BCM missionaries in Tamil Nadu reach almost 100,000 (yes, a hundred thousand) children every week in Bible clubs and release time classes.

      NEPAL: From Channai, Marty and the others flew through New Delhi to Nepal, where they met with the six BCM missionaries there. Marty spoke Sunday at a BCM house church (see attached photo). A family of six accepted Christ. A goal for the Nepal team is to purchase land to build the first BCM church sanctuary.

      MYANMAR: From Nepal, the team flew to Myanmar. It was upon leaving Nepal that they began to find themselves tracked by security. From Nepal through Myanmar and Indonesia, they were regularily stopped and searched at every airport. Security had their names and information, knew Dr. Dalavai by sight, and wanted to know what they were doing in these closed countries. But their papers were in order, and they were allowed to go. In Myanmar they met with BCM missionary-pastors as well as a Christian publisher (CLC Publishing) who is translating our BCM curriculum, Footsteps of Faith, into Burmese. A main BCM ministry is in Lisu country, where Christianity was once growing rapidly before Myanmar was closed to the Gospel (see Isobel Kuhn's wonderful missionary books). They are also doing outreach into China and Tibet.

     INDONESIA: In Indonesia, Marty and Dr. Dalavai both took part in the wedding ceremonies of BCM field director, Rev. Doddy Prisadja's daughter. Over 1500 people showed up for the reception, which involved coming up with a five-course meal for all. But it also allowed a wonderful opportunity to share the Gospel. That Sunday they were able to share in two different churches. In Indonesia BCM also partners with Compassion International, running projects for 2400 children through their churches.

     PHILIPPINES: Once the team arrived in Manila, they no longer had problems with security. The three main ministry areas for BCM churches are Metro-Manila, southern Philippines, and the Muslim area of Mindanao. The Manila churches are largely self-supporting and support missionary pastors to the Mindanao and southern areas. Many of the BCM pastors also work as tent makers in agriculture and small businesses to support their ministry and families. Marty and the team arrived for the last days of their annual pastors conference, so spoke at that. By then all were down with severe head colds, so it was just as well we'd packed a small pharmacy into Marty's luggage. They made it through preaching and travel on lots of cough drops and Nyquil. Marty is recovering, but Larry and Dr. Dalavai are both still quite sick, so please do continue pray for their healing.

     HOME: Now Marty is off the road for awhile, though BCM candidate school and North American annual conference is coming up in August. Jeanette will be traveling overseas next August 20-26 to Guatemala and El Salvador where she will be doing some workshops with the Tyndale team at the ExpoCristiana and secular Central American Book Expo as well as some promotion for her Spanish-language title Zona de Despeje.

      Otherwise our travels will be restricted to Stateside for the next few months. Again, thank you for upholding us in prayer. For more, summer pictures will soon be up on our website (www.windlemission.org) Keep an eye out as wee for the next issue of our on-line mission magazine, BCM World, focusing on the Western Europe fields we visited this summer.

 

            In the service of the King,

Rev. Martin and Jeanette Windle

BCM International

309 Colonial Drive/PO Box 249

Akron, PA 17501-0249