Erwin Family Update

Dear Friends,

I pray that you have made it through this spring weather without any damage. It seems there have been more flooding and tornado damage than we have seen for a while. Here in Gardner, we have missed the severe weather and received only seasonal rain.

Ministry Update

Ministry is going at a frantic pace for the next 5 weeks. I will pick Brother Ebey up at Los Angeles airport on May 24th. I have been spending a lot of time on the phone and email the past month trying to schedule as many meetings as possible. The biggest challenge is finding churches that will allow Brother Ebey to speak on Sunday and Wednesdays. Once I have found church meetings, we fill in the rest of the time with visits to key donors, missions committees, pastors, businessmen and partner ministries. In all the 5 weeks will require about 60 appointments to be scheduled. Along with the appointments, travel schedules must be set and each night to find a place to sleep. Our goal is that each night we are able to stay in the homes of friends of the ministry. In the 5 years of Serve India Ministry we have only stayed in a few motel rooms.

This will be a very important summer because we are really behind on getting our pastors sponsored. We currently have 450 pastors that are not sponsored but they are going through the training and doing outreach to the unreached villages. We will need to raise an additional $150,000 of new support each year to fund the growth on the field. We are praying to raise some general missions funds along with getting100-200 new sponsors, that should be enough to get us well into next year. Thank you for your prayers for this spring tour so we are able to keep up with the rapid growth on the mission field. There are now 1007 pastors we are working with and they are targeting over 5000 unreached villages.

Benjamin and Jane Update

Benjamin in all done with AWANA and finishing up his 4th grade school work. He is very excited to begin a band class this fall but he hasn't decided what instrument he will play. He is leaning toward trumpet but hasn't actually played one yet. In early June the music store will host a week long band camp. The band camp is simply meeting for 5 nights and the students will test several types of instruments so they can find which one they would like to learn. The actual band lessons will start in September.

Janey is still going through TMJ treatments and it will be a slow process of gradual improvement. Our last appeal to the insurance company to cover the treatment was denied. They said is was not medically necessary; I guess who ever made that decision has never had migraine headaches? Either way, we will trust God for healing and financial provision for the treatments.

Support Report
Thank you agian to everyone who has so generously given to support our ministry. Please pray for us as we seek to find partners who will provide that last bit of our monthly support. We are closing in on our 15th year of full time ministry and God has provided year after year, month after month even when so we give Him the praise. Many doubters don't believe that missionaries can raise support these days but we keep seeing God's provision.

Family Fun

Our family is doing well. I thank each of you who have sacrificed to help bring God’s provision for us while we minister on behalf of India. We give God glory and thanks for your prayer and concern.

Benjamin completed his AWANA for the year and did very well, he also traveled with me to South Carolina to help with a home school conference booth that we had for Serve India Ministries. As a family we will be able to attend “School Day at the K” and event hosted by the Kansas City Royals in conjunction with a local tv station. They will be doing science experiments along with teaching about weather related subjects. After the presentation, we will be able to see the Royals play baseball.

Janey also completed her time with AWANA where she taught the 1st and 2nd graders and really enjoyed working with the children. She is a great help and encouragement to me as we work to support the development work for Serve India Ministries.

I am planning to lead a donor tour to India in November and I would really love to take Janey and Benjamin with us but finances will need to be raised, for the three of us to go it will cost at least $4500 so we will make sure we have God’s leading and from there we will have His provision.
Support update.

Here Come the Millinnials !

There is a major shift that is about the hit all charities in the next 5 years. As you can tell from the graph above, the baby boomer generation (those born between 1946 – 1964) will begin retiring in droves. Currently this generation is retiring at a rate of 10,000 per day. The problem that is pending is that the baby boomer generation accounts for 90% of current charitable giving while the upcoming millennial generation only accounts for 1% of giving. As you can see from the graph, there will be a 59% shortfall in charitable giving in just 5 years. Ministries like Serve India must adapt as quickly as possible and find a way to engage the younger donor. This is a real urgent dilemma but knowing that God has called us to a specific task, may we have the faith and wisdom to prepare for this major shift.
At Serve India Ministries we are working to upgrade our web site and rapidly increase our ministries presence on the web in order to introduce our ministry to millennial Christians who have a heart for church planting. Please pray for us that we will have wise council and financial provision to make these changes and keep pace with our mission field growth.

Faith vs Planning

Faith vs Planning Ahead
As I contemplate the future of donor relationships with Serve India Ministries, I realize that planning is needed along with wise council. We as a ministry have this amazing goal to plant 100,000 churches in unreached villages. Only God can accomplish this goal but he expects us to have faith and “plan” for our success. Our success will require 20,000 trained pastors and it will require 20,000 financial partners that God leads our way and believe in our vision.

Proverbs 15:22 tells us: “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” Where does that leave faith? Hebrews 11:1 also tells us “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Faith asked us to do the impossible, to dream big dreams. With this bid dream, God wants us to trust Him to provide the provision for the goal or vision He has set for us. Nehemiah had a God-given burden to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem but with that burden took tremendous leadership and planning along with God’s miraculous provision provided by the king of Persia.