********Prayer Alert**********

“Do not be anxious about anything, but
in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your
requests to God. And the
peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and
your minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil 4:6-7

There are tremendous opportunities available to bless India with the
Gospel but as you know it is necessary for our family to raise our full support
in order to serve. Thank you for reading
our ministry update and praying for us and Serve India Ministries. Please pray in agreement (Matt 18:18-20) with our family as we pray according to God’s Word
to:

#1 Seek First the Kingdom of God (Matt 6:33.)
#2 As we pray
for wisdom in ministry and raising support (James 1:5-7)
#3 God supplies
our needs (Phil 4:19)

Our written support goals or vision for this spring (Hab 2:4) is to raise up a reserve of
$4500 for our support account as well as find additional ministry partners,
this will allow us to have a consistent amount of support each month. Thank you for standing in agreement as we
praise God with thanksgiving for His
future provision! (Phil 4:6)

*******SEE PICTURES FROM OUR INDIA TRIP BY CLICKING HERE!!!!!!

Serving with Serve
India Ministries April
2012
Helping to Reach
Millions of People with the Gospel by Building Kingdom Relationship

The Inconvenience of Generosity. (Phil 4: 14-19)
Thank you for standing with us the past three years as we have been full time with Serve India Ministries! Many of you have given sacrificially even when it wasn’t convenient. These gifts we receive each month are truly an encouragement to us and help us fight on for another day, week, month and year. This has been a bigger leap of faith for us than other ministries that we have served with, and we need our partners more than ever before. At Serve India Minitries we are similar to traditonal missionaries who receive only the support that comes in and any shortfalls are not covered by our ministry. As we look back over the past three years, we can see God’s showing us that He is our provider. Just as it has looked like our support would come up short, there would be a special donation that we didn’t expect. Again; as we forcast ahead to this summer, we will have a deficit, but God says in His word that He will suppy our needs according to His riches in glory so God has the final say in our finances.

Phil 4:14-19 says it very well: “Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid more than once when I was in need. Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account. I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord (Settling back in from India)
We have been able to adjust back to normal life here in Kansas. My last letter was written from India, and it was an honor to be able to meet many of the pastors and leaders that I have been serving over the past three years. It was very enjoyable for me to hear many testimonies from the pastors as they told of the difficulties they overcame to start their churches. We heard stories that they looked at their hungry children but didn’t have any money to buy food for them. One pastor was within hours of dying of HIV/AIDS, and God healed him after his sister prayed for him in the name of Jesus. I remember the story of the Pastor Vaslon who had been in the ministry for over 30 years and had left the 1984 Indian Olympic team to go full time into ministry. I heard several testimonies from pastors who were so blessed by the month-by-month training that they received - how it so strengthened their personal walk with the Lord and their ministries. Another one of the areas that I was able to visit with Brother Ebey is an area that has a large Muslim population where Serve India Ministries has 20 pastors that are planting churches among them.


Janey and Benjamin
Benjamin is getting back in the swing of his home school routine and violin lessons. He will have a concert in late May, and his teachers say that he is a natural reading the music and likes to play fast. Benjamin will finish his 5th grade studies in a couple of months, and we will start up 6th grade school next September. I was able to find Benjamin another flag football opportunity with the local YMCA; they have a spring league.

Janey was very blessed by her time in India, being able to visit some of the pastors in the tea plantation areas in South India. Benjamin and she were able spend a day with Angel Samuel, brother Ebey’s wife, when they were able visit some of Coimbatore, the city where our ministry headquarters. Here at home, Janey enjoys leading the “Sparks” (AWANA children age 5-7) at our local church and has about 100 Sparkies and their leaders that she coordinates. She was also able to meet the AWANA leader of the Bangalore region in India; this was a great honor.

Here are some updates of the next couple of months:
Now that I am back from India, there are many challenges that lie ahead. I will spend most of the next two month helping Brother Ebey with his travel schedule. He will be here from April 19-May 25. His travel schedule will begin in Kansas City. From there I will go with him to California for some meetings with churches and business banquets. From California we will go Arizona the next weekend. From Arizona, Brother Ebey will fly to Atlanta, where he will spend his last 2½ weeks traveling through South Carolina, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania and back to Chicago, from where he will return to India on May 25.

The goals for Brother Ebey’s time here in the U.S. will be very significant. We hope to find sponsors ($35 per month) for 200 of our pastors, raise funds to deploy 1000 new pastors, and raise support to add 5000 children to our Stepping Stone program.

Update from India: Hindu Priest gives his life to Jesus after 50 years in the occult
While we were in India, we were able to visit with several pastors and hear what God is doing within their villages. One pastor named Peter, who is working in South India among the tea plantations, was working among five unreached villages by doing evangelism outreach and prayer meetings. Last year we were able to get a “Proclaimer” (audio Bible player) for him through our partnership with Faith Comes by Hearing in Albuquerque, New Mexico - www.faithcomesbyhearing.com . Peter took the proclaimer to one of his villages and left it with a prayer group. A very famous Hindu Priest who had practiced for 50 years was in that village and heard the “Proclaimer” broadcasting the Bible and challenged Pastor Peter. He told Peter, “My god is more powerful than your God; if He is so powerful, then he will speak to me personally.” That night, Jesus appeared to him in a vision and in the vision was giving out bread to people. The Hindu priest asked Jesus for a piece of the bread, but Jesus told him that he could not have the bread and was destined for hell because of his unbelief! The next day the Hindu priest found Pastor Peter, repented and gave his life to Jesus and renounced his pagan practices after 50 years of working in the powers of darkness! God is so gracious and kind and His compassion is beyond our comprehension!

Ministry Partner Support Update
We have 2 primary goals concerning our support needs:
#1 Become a monthly Partner. Please agree with us in prayer that we can raise an additional $300 per month support. We have been gaining new partners, but the economy has limited some of our other partners but praise God we’re not losing ground.

#2 Make a One-Time Donation to Help Build a Reserve. Please agree with us in prayer that we might raise a three-month reserve. As in business, it is wise to have a three-month reserve of support to help through the lean months. As we are still praying for more consistent monthly support, we depend upon one-time donations to make up the difference by placing these in our reserve support account. Over the past few months, we have spent our reserve that we built up last year because of the cost associated with our recent trip to India.
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
God bless you,
Michael, Jane and Benjamin Erwin