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Waldron Mission Fund |
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Under the oversight of the elders of the Crossville church of Christ, PO Box 211, Crossville, TN 38557 |
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Vol. 41 September 2007 No. 9 |
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A TSUNAMI REPORT
Often those called on to take part in an exciting mission project give with joy and are thrilled to hear reports of souls won and churches planted, but as time passes interest drops off and other events crowd out the special project. It has now been more than 32 months since the Tsunami (December 26, 2004) ravaged the coast of Tamil Nadu in southern India, thus I thought it good to bring you up to date concerning that work in which so many of you participated through your prayers and gifts of love. First, let me give a brief reminder of the horror of that disaster. If one checks with “Google” on the internet they will find that there are about 28,500,000 articles on the subject, but the first one or two give the major facts. The United Nations now puts the death toll at 229,866 and of these, eight died on the coast of South Africa 5,000 miles from the source. The number of those destroyed in India has been set at just over 15,000 with nearly 8,000 of those in Tamil Nadu.
In the first nine months of 2005, with your help and that of other saints, we were able to render physical aid to about 25,000 people. In these two and one half years more than 3,000 have been baptized in the devastated region by Tamil brethren trained in our schools of preaching and over sixty congregations established along the 350 mile coast. Also, this past June Don Iverson spearheaded the effort to organized four new schools of preaching among those new saints. This was accomplished with the efforts of faithful Tamil gospel preachers. This brings to sixteen the schools of preaching that he and I are working with across Tamil Nadu
By the grace of God, your prayers, your fellowship and that of many like you, the two of us are working with twenty-three Bible Training Schools in five states of India with more than 755 enrolled. On a yearly basis Don and I share the needs of all the schools, but when it comes to day-to-day maintenance he looks after eleven of the twenty-three and I work with the others. For these joyful things may the God of all grace receive all the praise, honor and glory, always.
At this moment I am teaching Old Testament Survey in Shillong, Meghalaya in the Northeast of the country, which is about 1800 miles from Tamil Nadu. This school, which was begun in 2002, is an example of the work we do here to train native Christians to reach their own with the gospel. There are twenty-three brothers enrolled. This number does not include a young brother, Steve Cookston of Dunlap, TN, who is spending five weeks here with me. He is also studying in the school and doing personal evangelism with the other students. Ernest and Shirley Underwood of DeFuniake Springs, FL are here also. Ernest is teaching the second year students and Shirley is cooking and keeping the apartment for us.
MORE GOOD NEWS FROM ARUNACHAL
To tell of an exciting letter that I received at the end of August let me repeat a few facts that I wrote about in the most recent Newsletter (NL). Among the twelve schools, with which I work, the newest one, as I noted in that NL, is in the state of Arunachal, some four hundred miles north of Shillong. The possibility of this school existing in a very remote and inaccessible area where there are severe restrictions on foreigners came about due to the fact that there is a strong local congregation of God’s people in the town known as Gandhigram. And it was from this congregation that thirteen brothers walked four and a half days to join the preacher training school in Dibrugarh, Assam. Instead of admitting them in Dibrugarh, two brothers who graduated on July 1st from Shillong became teachers in Gandhigram itself. The elders of the church agreed to have the preaching school meet in their building. It opened at the beginning of August with fifteen enrolled.
Here is a portion of a report that the brothers sent after the first month of classes:
“Greetings in Christ on behalf of Gandhi School of Preaching (GSP) from Simeon and Nguaphosa Yobin. Here all the student of GSP are doing well in the study because this school is new and first Bible school in our village therefore elders, deacons and all the members of the Church were glad to have this in our village. Sending their gratitude to you and the churches over there. At present we are being reported 30 to 35 men would like enroll and study in our Bible school this year, so please suggest us for this reason.”
My reply was for them to have the thirty or so brothers come to Dibrugarh to meet me for an interview on the 22nd of September. This I did because I want to try to ascertain if all of them are sincere. Not only so, but the 4.5 days’ walk should give some indication as to their interest, and even if they pass the interview they must sit for the week of study and tests to see if they can do the work.
If as many as twenty-five of these brothers qualify there will be forty in this one school. To use a big word, this work grows exponentially and not always with my direct input. By that I mean, not only is the Gandhigram school under way in a restricted area, but on the 12th of September two other gospel preachers (one is a 2004 graduate of the Shillong school) from yet another state due east of Shillong are coming to see me about helping with the school they have started in their area, which they are operating of a shoe string. The need for these schools, and by the grace of God, others like them, is why Laura and I will be traveling in the coming months. If you would like for us come to your congregation you may reach me at jimewaldron@hotmail.com or Laura at 865-376-9947.
PETER AND MERCY
Before I close let me tell you some very good news about Peter and Mercy Wilson. Most will recall that this young couple, both being graduates of our Bible Schools for young men and women at Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, were married back in 2002 in spite of the strong objections of Mercy’s Hindu parents. Both were 25 at the time and two years later (August 16, 2004) Mercy gave birth to a baby girl, whom they named, Jemi, which is a shortened form of Job’s daughter’s name (Job 42:14). Now for the latest good news, Mercy on August 27th gave birth to a baby boy, who weighed in at 6.6 pounds. Not only so, but Mercy’s folks are now extremely delighted with Peter as a son-in-law and especially with the grand babies.
With love to all, Jim E. Waldron
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