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Greetings from Jeemangalam, India, home of the Asian Christian Academy (ACA). Since we last wrote our travels have taken us from Kottayam back to Cochin, then to Kanhangad and most recently to Jeemangalam which is about 40 km outside of Bangalore.

We had a great visit to South India where we finished a whirlwind tour of Kerala to see some more of Christo’s relatives from his dad’s side of the family before we arrived here in Tamil Nadu where Melissa used to live when she worked in India. We spent a day in Kottayam visiting with Christo’s dad’s younger brother, Kunjumon uncle. They treated us to some wonderful South Indian meals and we got our first experience on a house boat which was a special treat. The house boat allowed us to see Kerala in a different way than we had ever seen it before. We would highly recommend it to anyone that would like to experience some of the unique things about Kerala, “God’s own country” as it is known here.

On Saturday evening we traveled back to Cochin and experienced Indian driving to the best only to be outdone by our later trip from Kanhangad to Hosur. Our driver Francis, a big help in navigating travel through Kerala, somehow managed to get us back to Cochin alive although there were several occasions on our trip when we were about 2 seconds from death with several halting stops on the way. On Sunday of last week, we had the pleasure of attending church with the believers in Kalamassery, the church that Christo attended while he was in India. It was great to see so many new faces at the church while also being able to see some old ones. When Christo attended church in Cochin, there was only one local church here but now there are many more as the believers here have planted multiple church in locations around Cochin. Christo got to give the message to the church about the Christian response to poverty. This is a topic that has especially been difficult for us as we see poverty always surrounding us here and it is difficult to find out how best to respond to it as Christians. If you would like to see some of the notes from the message Christo gave you can view them here. Let us know your thoughts on how to give to the poor…we would love to get your input because there is no one answer that will seem to cover every situation.

After meeting with the believers in Cochin, we traveled to another part of Cochin to meet Christo’s dad’s sister, Mary and her husband Matthew and son Joel. Melissa enjoyed getting to meet them for the first time and the kids loved playing with Joel. We continue to pray for them because their family and another family on Christo’s father’s side are Jehovah’s Witnesses and thus we continue to pray for them having a true understanding of the Gospel and the great news of Christ’s life on earth and death on the cross for our salvation. We then experienced the Indian railroad system on Sunday evening when we took the overnight train from Cochin to Kanhangad. God was so gracious in where He allowed us to get seats so that we could get the twenty pieces of luggage between us and Christo’s parents all put together in one area. We slept okay on the train (the kids did surprisingly well even with all the bumps). The craziest part of the train ride was our exit off the train at Kanhangad. We had exactly one minute to exit the train with all the kids and our twenty pieces of luggage. We ended up using two exits and with some strategic planning, help from others on the train and tossing the last three pieces of luggage out as the train started to move, we someone managed to get everything off and still arrive unhurt! Praise God for keeping us safe and helping us to arrive okay in Kanhanjad.

We then spent the next two days in Kanhangad visiting Christo’s dad’s older brother, Chettai and his family along with Christo’s grandmother, Injumma, who lives with them. Chettai’s kids all came back from their respective colleges to visit us so that they could meet Melissa and the kids and thus it was fun to see Prince, Prasanth, and Prasuna. We also got to spend some time with Injumma which was a bittersweet visit because she is very ill and had several strokes over the last couple of years. She has been bedridden for over a year and has been fed with a feeding tube during that time and so she was quite debilitated when we saw her. It was sad to see her suffer so much and we prayed for her comfort. We also got to visit Christo’s dad’s family home in Balanthode. That was a great experience for the kids because they got to see and play in the river that runs right next to their property and Melissa got to learn some more about Christo’s dad’s side of the family.

Then on Tuesday night we drove overnight about 500 km from Kanhangad to Jeemangalam in Tamil Nadu where Melissa had worked while she lived in India for two years. That drive was a difficult one to say the least with almost 12 hours of drive time over some very treacherous roads. Thankfully we had a great driver and a friend from ACA who accompanied him and they helped us navigate through this part of the country. Quite a bit of the journey was through the Western Ghats, a very remote mountainous jungle region with very winding roads that somehow we managed to get through without hitting anybody or anything. We were worried about police checkpoints along the way and prayed that we would not get stopped because often the police here will ask for money before they will let you through. Thankfully we weren’t stopped on this trip and thus all the donated medical equipment that we are taking to Makunda arrived safely at ACA.

We spent most of Wednesday at ACA recovering from our overnight trip and spending time with people on campus that Melissa had known during her time in India. We also got to see the kids at the orphanage where Melissa worked as a house mother for two years. We were so amazed to see how tall they had all gotten and it was great to see their heart for the Lord and to see the progress they had made during the last several years. ACA is an organization that has been around for now almost 30 years and Christo’s uncle Dr. Joy serves as the president of the organization. ACA has a wide range of ministry including an evangelical theological seminary, a high school with over 1000 students, a hospital, an orphanage, and several church plants all across India. You can read more about ACA and their ministry to develop Christian leaders for South Asia at www.acaindia.org. We will spend two more days here attending the seminary graduation before going to Bangalore to depart for Calcutta and then on to Silchar to arrive at our final destination of Makunda Christian Hospital.

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for our safety in Calcutta as we’ll spend a day there on Saturday before traveling to Silchar on Sunday. Calcutta is a city that neither of us are familiar with and not necessarily the safest city and so we are a little apprehensive about this stage of the journey.
2. Pray for our last two flights before we arrive at the hospital that all of our luggage, especially the medical supplies would safely arrive there.
3. Pray for our safety while at Makunda in Assam. We just got news from one of the doctors there that one of their administrative staff was physically assaulted in the community. Please pray for him and his family and for us as we work at Makunda and learn about the work of EHA.

Along with this post, we’ve put up some pictures from our time in Kerala including the first gallery which are pictures from Cochin and Mylapra and the second one which has pictures from Allepy and Kottayam.

Our first couple of days have been filled with lots more travel, people to visit and some great South Indian Food. After we arrived in Cochin (located in the state of Kerala, the state where Christo grew up), we spent Tuesday and Wednesday visiting with Christo’s uncle Babu and aunt Sally who work as church planters in the city of Cochin. When Christo lived in India, he attended one of the churches which Babu Uncle had planted and it was while attending that church that Babu Uncle led Christo to Christ. Babu & Sally lived in the US in the 80s while Babu Uncle attended Dallas Theological Seminary from where he received his masters in theology. Subsequently they returned to India to plant a church in Cochin where they served as church planters for 12 years. They then returned to the US for a couple of years while their children went to high school and have since returned to India about a year and half ago as missionaries sent out from Denton Bible Church. Since their return, Babu uncle has taken an active role in providing theological training for leaders from local churches around India. It was wonderful to hear about the work God is doing in the churches in South India, especially as many families from the local churches in South India have decided to go to North India to help take the Gospel there.

Since this was our first visit to South India since getting married, Christo’s parents flew to India to meet us here for the first two weeks so that they could help to facilitate some of our meetings with Christo’s relatives (especially on his dad’s side) who have never met Melissa or the kids. Having them here has been such a big help because it has allowed us to have two more sets of hands to help out with kids who were extremely tired from the trip and all the adjustments they have had to make after coming here. After spending Wednesday in Cochin, we traveled to Mylapra via Allepy. Allepy was Christo’s childhood home where he lived from the time he was born until age three and so on this trip Melissa and the kids got to see a little of Christo’s life that he experienced while growing up in India. We then arrived in Mylapra where we visited Christo’s aunt, Chinnamamma who lost her husband a few months ago. This was a difficult visit because the three month anniversary of her husband’s passing away occurred during our visit. They had been married for over 45 years and now almost everything in their home reminds her of him and thus it has been a long couple of months for her as she grieves this loss. Since she has family in the US, we encouraged her to come and visit for a couple of months so that she has some time way from a place that invokes so many memories for her.

After visiting Chinnamamma, we traveled to Malapilly on Friday to visit Dayle, Thankachayan uncle and Valsammama (Christo’s uncle and aunt on his mom’s side). Dayle is one of Christo’s cousins who works for the State Department and she was visiting her parents for a couple of weeks from Kuwait. She is expecting her first baby and plans to move back to the US for a year for the baby’s birth before going abroad again. After this visit, we drove to the area near Christo’s dad’s childhood home (Kottayam). We had a really enjoyable visit with Dr. Finny Matthew and his wife. Dr. Finny was the person who led dad to Christ many years ago and so it was wonderful to see them again and hear about their heart for India. It is Dr. Finny’s son (Philip) who we met a couple of years ago in Dallas who shared with us about the hospital at Makunda where we’ll be traveling to next week. Dr. Finny served with World Vision India as their national director and now that he has retired he serves as president of Shalom Bible College which helps to train men and women in theology. It was exciting to hear about a new course they have started there in cross-cultural missions where they bring in church leaders and missionaries from Northern India to come to the South to train men here and give them a vision for reaching North India for Christ. It was exciting to hear them share about their passion for reaching India. They have been such a dear family to us over the years and we’re glad that we’ll get to be with their son and his family during our time at Makunda.

After the visit with Dr. Finny, we finally travelled to Christo’s uncle’s house, our final destination for Friday. Kunjumon uncle and his family have never met Melissa or the kids and thus are some of the first people from Christo’s dad’s side of the family to meet them. Our plan is to spend Saturday in Kottayam before we travel back to Cochin.

On Sunday evening we will travel via train to northern Kerala to visit the rest of Christo’s dad’s side of the family.

Prayer Requests:

1. Continued mercies as we have more travel ahead of us.
2. Please pray for Christo on Sunday (this will be Saturday evening in the US) as he will be preaching on Sunday in Cochin regarding the Christian response to poverty. (This will be at the church he attended with his family while they lived in Cochin prior to coming to the US.)
3. Our jet-lagged kids. We are making progress little by little but their sleeping and eating schedules are still off. Christo and Melissa are pretty much over jet lag so all of our schedules are off from one another’s!

Along with this post, we’ve put up some pictures from our trip to India and others taken during our first day in Cochin.