We can hardly believe that we’ve been in New Zealand for three months already! Time has flown and it’s been a blur of getting to know a new place and a different culture.
This summer we will be leading a number of short-term missions teams in New Zealand and speaking at churches. In October, we plan to leave for Kolkata (Calcutta), India. We’re learning Bengali in preparation for ministering to the city that is dedicated to Kaili, the Hindu goddess of destruction. The city’s population is 12.8 million and it has the lowest urban standard of living in the world. The population is only 6 percent Christian, and of those, most are nominal.
We will be working with a group in the notorious sex district there, working to free women spiritually and physically. The women are coerced into the trade, often at 11 or 12 years old. The group works by employing the women to work, and then the women share their stories with other women. It is against the law there to change your religion so when we are there, we won’t be using the “M” word.
As we've traveled in New Zealand and been in communication with people back in the States, we keep getting questions about the safety of our children in India.
When I was in Kolkata last year I asked a lot of questions. I spoke with other mothers who have raised or are raising their kids there. The responses I got were along this line:
-Even though we'll be in a prostitution district, it does not make our kids a target since it is only for Indians (no foreigner would go there). In fact, their skin color is really a protection.
-Follow basic safety rules like the kids don't go anywhere alone and are not out and about after dark.
-Their kids have done well!
We know that God has called us to do this and firmly believe that when He calls a family to do something that He has a plan for the whole family in it.
God's been working on our hearts individually specifically about India for years. About six months after the kids and I had moved to the States from Fiji, God strongly began to put on my heart that we would be back out on the mission field before the girls left home and that it was important for them personally in the people that they were to become.
We are tremendously blessed to feel be called as a family.
Please pray for our family for the following:
• Our time in Fiji and the ministry of the teams we will lead there.
• For our study of the Bengali language.
• For the start-up costs we need for Kolkata.
• That a small flat will be available in the area.
CCV supports the Pounds. Learn more about the Pounds at www.poundsprogress.blogspot.com.