Merry Christmas 2009 From the Erwin Family

Greetings!

I pray that you are having an enjoyable Christmas holiday and your knowledge of God's love is growing each year as we serve God together and look for his soon return. I heard Pastor Tom Nelson of Christ Community Church, who is known for his great knowledge of the Bible and the end times, preach a sermon today. Pastor Nelson said that he is often asked about when he thinks Jesus will return for his Church. He will always tell them, "I don't know the exact date of His return, but I know that it is closer than ever!" Jesus said that we will not know the day or the hour of His return but we should work while it is day. Your wonderful generosity toward our ministry has allowed us to work effectively while it is day!

Major Changes - Same Vision

2009 has been a major year for change for our family. What hasn't changed is the vision that God gave us back in 1996: "Help Reach Millions of People with the Gospel."

In March of this year we took a major step in fulfilling that vision by beginning our service with Serve India Ministries. In just 3 short years of existence, Serve India Ministries is now working in over 3000 unreached villages as we are honored to serve 638 pastor-missionaries seeking to plant 5 new churches apiece.

Great Generosity

We have seen our ministry financial support stay amazingly steady in 2009 even through the difficult economy, and I know that it is because of the sacrifice of our friends who know the urgency of the days we live in and they are motivated by the Love of God for us and the lost world.

We have seen our ministry reserve grow continually in the past months and are now very close to our goal of 90 days of reserve. This reserve will allow us to maintain our momentum serving our Brothers and Sisters in India without getting too distracted with our personal support needs. It is a great blessing to see God provide month by month by month.

Think Again Before Buying Firecrackers

(Article Posted in the India Times October 13, 1998) For anyone with a conscience...One can't perhaps imagine a Diwali without the glitter and noise of firecrackers. But how many of us know that with each cracker that we light, we help destroy a child? This year, before we buy crackers or burn those gifted to us, we may like to consider the following: Most crackers are manufactured in the Sivakashi area in Tamil Nadu. The factories here employ children as young as three and a half years. Some surveys report even two-and-a-half-year-old tots being recruited for the job. A majority of the children employed in the firecracker factories are girls. The proportion of girls to boys is reportedly 3:1. At any given time 45,000 to 60,000 children are employed in these factories. Parents of child-laborers employed in the firecracker factory are extremely poor and live in villages around the factory towns. The factory owners have agents stationed in the village to recruit children as laborers. It is common practice to give parents advances against work by their children. This not only helps the child-labur market to flourish but also motivates parents to have more children, pushing them further into the depths of poverty and deprivation. It is unbelievable but true that such transactions take place even against babies in their mother's wombs! The children in a way are rendered bonded laborers even before they are born. The factories send out buses to collect the laborers early in the morning. The agent sees to it that the children pile into these buses. They are awakened by 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. and are half asleep when they board the bus. They return at 6 or 7 p.m. Most of these children have never known a school. They work in conditions that are hazardous to health. They handle dangerous chemicals for a minimum of 12 hours a day. They work in poorly ventilated rooms. They have to sit in the same position for long hours, putting a strain on their yet-immature bone structure. Their eyesight and respiratory system suffer as a result of the below-average conditions. They suffer from loss of appetite and consequent malnutrition and growth retardation. All the material used is explosive and inflammable. The fire safety measures are generally absent or very poor. This has caused serious fire accidents maiming and killing several children. Since the payment is on piece rate, the children work longer hours without respite. They get between 6 to Rs.15 per day if they work for 12 hours a day. Their mental development is restricted. There is no opportunity for education, play, recreation, or a simple commodity such as parental love and attention. They return home tired and half asleep. The family atmosphere is rarely good with alcoholic fathers and mothers with poor health striving to make both ends meet. Factory owners continue to make this profit-making venture because there is an ever-growing market for firecrackers. First we used them only during Diwali. Now, no marriage or any other celebration is complete without bursting of crackers. Be it a test-match victory or a minor family celebration, crackers are a must. In fact, a cracker is burst for every four or six runs hit by a batsman - meaning harm to one child at least. It is we who create the market. The more we buy, the greater the number of children pushed into this industry. If our celebrations are incomplete without firecrackers, can we at least insist that those that are manufactured in child labor-free industries clearly say so on the wrappers? The carpet industry was another major employer of young children. This is a largely export-oriented industry. With a growing awareness about children's rights, prospective buyers world-wide now refuse to buy carpets unless accompanied by a "child labor free" label. Can we not insist on child labor-free crackers only? Fun with crackers? Yes. But with crackers manufactured by children? No.

By Anuradha Sahasrabudhe.
Source : Times of India October 13, 1998.

Family Update

Everyone is doing well, and we are very encouraged. It is enjoyable to read the Bible together as a family. A friend of mine showed a great way to do family devotions by reading the Proverbs together daily by each family member taking turns reading a verse. Benjamin loves reading with us, and it really encourages him in practicing reading. When we all read together, it isn't like homework but a bonding experience surrounding the Word of God.

Benjamin has just lost his 3rd tooth, and the dentist said that his teeth are growing perfectly and the new ones should come in just fine. We were starting to get concerned when he didn't lose any teeth until after his 7th birthday.

Janey and I are both helping in our children's church on Wednesday night. I am helping the 1st and 2nd grade boys in Royal Rangers and Janey is helping with the girls Missionette program. It is wonderful to see these children grow in their faith and watch them praise the Lord during the children's services.

Lord willing and funds permitting, we are hoping to travel to Florida next month; Benjamin would like to see the shuttle launch before they retire the fleet next year. I have a lot of church visits that I will need to make, and we will be able to visit my brother along the way so I know it will be a fun experience.

Benjamin is keeping good pace with his home,school and he is moving quickly through his Shurley English 2nd grade and Saxon Math 3rd grade. The challenge is keeping him interested when he is doing repetitive learning. He wants to jump right to calculus but doesn't always realize that he has to learn multiplication and fractions first. Next month Benjamin will begin basketball; he seems to progress really well, and I am cautious about getting him involved in too many sports.

Janey and I were able to celebrate our 29th anniversary of our first date last October 3. Just like in 1980, we went to Pizza Hut; I got her a single rose and a Pepsi, just like back in high school.

Church Without Walls - Only a Tarp

From a young age, mental disease blighted his life, keeping him home from school, even forcing others to physically restrain him. His family, very devout Hindus, regularly worshiped idols, practiced black magic and participated in temple rituals. But temple rituals did not help Amit. Even medical science did not help him. His family, searching for a cure, looked everywhere and tried everything. Fortunately, in the end, the cure found its way to them. While Amit was a teenager, a church formed nearby and his mother and sister became Christians. At the church, Amit’s mother shared about her son, his mental illness, how it blighted their lives, and their search for a cure. The church prayed for Amit and he was healed. Now sane, Amit accepted Jesus and longed to know more about his healer and Savior. He learned to read, which his illness had prevented; he grew in the knowledge of God; he grew in the grace of God. His powerful testimony attracted to the faith many from his community, so many that a group of them began to meet and worship together, a group that now numbers 150 people. Their church “building” is nothing more than a few poles and a tarp, but the Lord is present. Amit is their pastor. One day he took Ebenezer Samuel, who was visiting, along with him to a family he had been witnessing to for several months. That day, the family accepted Jesus as their Savior. Ebenezer felt great joy at seeing one more family added to Amit’s church. Amit is just one example of thousands of independent pastors that the Lord has raised up in India. The mission of Serve India Ministries is to help such pastors plant more churches. Amit, along with twenty other pastors, all in the same region, is now part of a Serve India Ministries Mission Field. Each pastor who joins a Mission Field agrees to a goal of planting five more churches. To facilitate their work, Serve India Ministries puts the pastors through the BILD curriculum (see http://www.bild.org/), valuable weekly training that develops the skills they need for ministry and gives them fellowship with other pastors, which they find to be a joyful source of encouragement and prayer support. The pastors carry back home what they have received, using it to teach children in Stepping Stone Centers and to train elders in their churches, elders who pass on the skills and knowledge to their congregations. There are many ways in which you can become a part of this story. You can support the development of whole new Mission Fields, just like the one Amit is a part of, by giving to the Mission Field Development Fund. You can support individual pastors. Or you can help children by supporting a Stepping Stone Center. Amit’s region is an extremely poor area. Stepping Stone Centers, while teaching the Gospel, assist children with their school work, which helps to lift them up out of poverty. $150 per month provides for 50 children. There is an enormous potential in the Mission Field of which Amit is a part: only 0.01% of the population is Christian. Thousands of churches could be planted. Millions could come to know the Lord. Help us bring in this harvest.

Exciting News and Breakthroughs in August!

Some of the exciting successes we have seen in the past months are two new, very skilled volunteers who are helping with proofreading our mailings and a writer who will volunteer his time and skills. We also learned of a 30-minute TV program that airs on CTN called “All Over the World” (http://www.aotw.tv/),which highlights a different mission organization each month. When I first saw the program, I was very impressed with its quality and thought how great it would be for Serve India Ministries to have a piece like this. The problem was that these types of documentaries filmed on location usually cost about $1,800 per minute to produce professionally, which would run about $54,000. I called the program anyway just to learn more and was very surprised to learn that the airtime was donated by the network and the producer raised his support so that he could produce the documentaries at a minimal cost: $4,000 plus travel expense to the field! This was great news, but we still didn’t have the $4,000, so I began to spread the word to people I knew. I was glad to tell a small mission organization here in Kansas City about the opportunity, thinking that they would jump at the chance to have a video made about their organization, but they called me the next day and told me that they would like to pay for our production cost! Imagine it - another mission organization is paying for our video! Now this show will be filmed on location in India in January and air in March on a network of 40 million people and another network of 150 million people worldwide. Please be in prayer for this project because it can be a great help in recruiting not only donors but volunteers and full-time staff as well.

Beware of Charging Elephants

(Pastor tells of dangers while visiting area villages)
Pastor S grew up among the tea plantations in the jungles of South India. He and his family were laborers on this tea plantation for many generations. Tea plantation workers are very poor and often go without education and proper medical care. As a child, Pastor S grew up badly affected by sickness and was not able to enjoy a normal childhood. The family constantly prayed to their idols, but he only became worse. Finally at the age of 21, Pastor S was invited to a church meeting and heard the Gospel message. Touched by the Word of God, he eagerly trusted the Lord for his salvation and over time received God’s grace to be healed of his afflictions. Pastor S began to be discipled in a local church, growing in his love for Jesus and love for lost souls. As God was equipping Pastor S, he began to assist his pastor, and in 1987 he surrendered his life to full-time ministry. Now Pastor S has planted a church and has partnered with Serve India ministries to plant 5 more churches in area villages. The area where Pastor S ministers is deep jungle where there are many dangers among the trails, including wild elephants that have been known to kill those who cross their path. Pray for Pastor S and the other 19 pastors who work with him as they each have a goal to plant 5 churches in the unreached villages around them. Imagine that in 5 years, there will be 100 new churches in this unreached district, preaching the Gospel and making disciples! Pray for the safety of these pastors that as they walk along the jungle trail, they will always return home to their families. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!

Sponsor a missionary pastor for $35 per month

What is a Development Plan?

• As I have written to you in past months, I often refer to our “Development Plan.” I have our development plan taped on my wall in front of my desk. The development plan is the outline of all of the planned activities for the next 18 months to help grow Serve India Ministries to fund our work in Asia. We hope to grow from 450 pastor-missionaries that we partner with to 800 by the end of the year so it will take many new donors to accomplish this goal. Our development plan consists of items such as:
  
  
  Key Initiatives:
• milestones, goals
• Home school conference booths
• Mission conference booths
• speaking engagements at churches and home
  meetings
• special mailings, newspaper articles
• video projects, web projects,
  brochures, radio interviews, annual reports
• online giving projects, volunteer
  recruitment goals, sponsorship goals
• database growth, organizational goals and
  social networking to name a few
  
  The bottom line for all of this activity is that it must enable Serve India Ministries to complete its mission of partnering with 20,000 pastor-missionaries, which in turn will fulfill the vision to plant 100,000 churches. Our “Vision” is our compass, letting us know where we are going, and our “Mission” is our road map telling us how we are going to get there.

Donate to Support Erwin Family Ministries

Erwin Family News

We are thankful recipients of God’s grace, which has allowed us to partner with you and serve 450 pastors in India that are now working in over 2,000 villages preaching the Gospel of Salvation! Janey and I are so blessed to see Benjamin growing up to be a man of God. He is doing well in his schooling in math, English, spelling, history, science and Bible study. I was looking over his math paper the other day, and I was impressed with how easily he figured out some math problems on his own that I thought he would need help with. Needless to say, we are very proud of our boy!

Janey is doing a wonderful job homeschooling Ben, learning patience and the art of persuasion of a strong-willed child. Benjamin has enjoyed learning the game of golf after a successful summer of bowling. It’s funny, the feedback that we received from his golf coach is that he doesn’t follow instructions and he is unsafe with the clubs. I guess we have some areas to work on! I think we have a normal 7 year old. Please continue to pray for Janey that she might receive relief from headaches as she continues to receive therapy from a headache specialist. On October 3 we will celebrate our 29th anniversary of our first date: homecoming 1980, Harrison, Arkansas.

Donate to Support Erwin Family Ministries

Does Your Church Make Witch Doctors Lose Sleep?

(“My powers became powerless when the TRUE GOD’S power empowered me”)

Serve India Ministries partners with 60 pastors in the South India state of Karnataka. Karnataka has a population of 53 million and about .7% are born-again Christians. There is much opportunity for the work of the Gospel in this state but also much opposition from anti-Christian elements and witch doctors.

One of Serve India's pastors, Pastor G, working near the city of Bangalore in Karnataka recently ministered in a community where a man named Kumar, who was a witch doctor operating through demonic powers. Kumar made a lot of money through his magic with the help of evil spirits. Pastor G's church grew and was affecting this community as the Gospel was being preached and many people were being saved. These local people were no longer seeking out the witch doctors services.

Kumar was determined to disrupt the church's service by using his black magic. For three years, Kumar tried all his magic but to no avail. Finally he decided that he would attend a Sunday service and see what really went on at this church. The evil spirit did not allow him to sit at the church and he was forced to go back home. From that time on, Kumar could not have a peaceful night's sleep and feared for his life. Often the very demons that these witch doctors serve will in time kill them. Now, Kumar could no longer perform magic and all his evil powers were gone.

Fearing the evil spirits, Kumar approached the pastor with his problems, and Pastor G showed the love of Christ to him and shared the message of the Gospel. As they prayed together, the power of Jesus was present and the evil spirit left him. Kumar was filled with the joy of salvation! Our new brother in the Lord later testified,
"My powers became powerless when the TRUE GOD'S power empowered me."
Now he attends the church regularly and is helping Pastor G in outreach as he partners with Serve India Ministries to plant 5 more churches in the surrounding communities.

You can help pastors just like Pastor G preach the Gospel to others like Kumar who are mired in sin and demon worship.

Click Here to Sponsor A Missionary Pastor for $35 per Month

Doing the Math on India - 1,400,000 churches needed

The vision of Serve India Ministries is to help plant 100,000 churches in India. Why so many churches? Over the past decade much has been reported about the possibility of an awakening of the low caste of India. There are 700 million low caste in India who are scattered across India’s 500,000 unreached villages. India is one of the greatest harvests in history!

Doing the math

Doing some math, one could estimate that if only 10% of this 700 million people would turn to Christ in the next 10 years that an additional 1,400,000 churches would be needed to disciple them. This is a very conservative figure estimating that the average village church is 50 people. Serve India Ministries’ goal of planting 100,000 churches fits well with God’s plan for the low caste of India.

Where there is smoke there is fire

One example of these massive conversions can be seen in the state of Orissa in Eastern India. **In one district near the area where the Australian missionary Graham Stains was martyred, the Christian population has more than doubled in the last 10 years. **So many have been turning to Christ that approximately 100,000 Christians had to flee their homes and thousands of others were murdered.

We must go to them

We cannot assume that the low caste people of India are able to hear the Gospel without someone telling them. Churches must not only send the Gospel out to every unreached village (Mark 16:15-17) but they must also make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). We invite you to help us reach the low caste of India and plant 100,000 churches by sponsoring a missionary pastor for $35 per month or supporting a Stepping Stone Center, teaching 50 children for $150 per month.


Sponsor a Missionary/Pastor for $35 per month

Sponsor a Stepping Stone for $150 per month

**Read Orissa violence report from the "All India Christian Council".

How Does Serve India Plant Churches? (A true life example)

How Does Serve India Plant Churches?

Serve India Ministries is all about church planting; specifically, partnering with local churches to plant a church. After 10-20 pastors are identified in a district, each will agree to target five area villages to plant churches in and meet together once a month for two days of prayer, training and fellowship. Serve India Ministries assigns a facilitator train the pastors through a 5-year curriculum that was written by our partner organization called BILD International. Getting this many pastors in one room together is an incredible time of encouragement and greatly builds the faith of soldiers of faith!

Pastor Rajan M (A new church is born!)

One of the recent updates we received from India tells of Pastor Rajan M* in Tamil Nadu. Pastor Rajan was very excited to take part in this valuable training and identified 5 villages that needed to hear the Gospel and have a local church.

Pastor Rajan initially focused his attention on a particular unreached village called T M* The key strategy for effective church planting in India begins with daily prayer for the village along with regular visits of house visitation and tract distribution. Pastor Rajan was particularly gifted to share the love of the Lord with villagers. It was many months of visits without any good response to the Gospel. But without losing hope, Pastor Rajan continued to pray and visit and finally a family came forward to offer their home for a prayer meeting. As God began to minister, more people began to come to the prayer meeting. Now the prayer meeting has developed into a church in which 15 people attend regularly. Pray that this church will grow in its ability to minister to this community.

Pastor Rajan is an example of how the current 450 pastors partnering with Serve India plant churches. The goal of each pastor is to plant 5 churches in 5 villages in 5 years. Currently these pastors are targeting over 2,000 unreached villages where a Gospel witness has never existed.

To sponsor a missionary pastor for $35 per month click here

* Because of anti-Christian elements, the full name of the pastor and this village he is working in are not given.

Ben's News

Benjamin is finishing up his bowling with the home school league and has been scoring in the 80’s with the help of the bumpers, but he won’t need bumpers much longer. I was interested in getting Benjamin some teaching about golf, and I know there isn’t any way I could afford lessons or green fees so I did some research and found out about 1st Tee. 1st Tee is a program that the area golf club host, to teach young people the game of golf. One of their main goals is to teach character, and the great part about the program is that it only cost, $40. He receives three hours of instruction per week, and they have golf clubs available for him. I think that Benjamin can be a lifelong golfer if he can be properly mentored in the game at an early age.
Janey started Ben off with his 2nd/3rd grade home school August 1, and he is picking everything up very well. Ben is studying Shurley English, Saxon Math, Beginning Hebrew, Spelling, The Light and the Glory (History) by Peter Marshall, Handwriting and Science. Of course, he is also getting some PE with basketball, bowling and golf. It is wonderful to see Ben learn new things, and it won’t be long until he is doing complex equations, physics and all of that fun stuff.

"The Prodigal God"

It is already the middle of August and we are busy getting ready for our fall schedule. I am praying that I will be able to fill Brother Ebey’s travel schedule from September to November. We currently have 100 pastors that need supporters, and Brother Ebey will be bringing 250 new pastor profiles with him in September. In 5 years these additional 250 pastors will impact 1250 villages with a church!
Leadership Conference
Last week, a friend was kind enough to pay my way to a leadership conference in Minneapolis. I was very challenged by the speakers. I was amazed to learn about an organization called Kiva (http://www.kiva.org/), a microloan ministry started by some young people. Kiva has done some amazing things; they have loaned out 100 million dollars to 3rd world entrepreneurs in only 4 years! Another speaker was Dr, Tim Keller, a pastor in New York City who was teaching about “The Prodigal God” focusing in on the parable of the prodigal son. From what Dr. Keller told us, the parable was more about the older brother than the younger brother. The older brother’s heart attitude was evil, and Jesus was actually telling the parable to the Pharisees. The part of the message for me was about repentance and our motives for doing good, not just motives for doing bad. As you look at the older brother in the parable, even though he did not live in sin like the younger brother, his motives for “doing good” were not pure. The older brother did good, but he still had bitterness in his heart toward the father. I realize that I often need to examine my motives for why I do good; is it for the right reasons or because it is just expected of me> Dr. Keller has written a book by the same title, “The Prodigal God.” I have it on hold at our library. If interested, it can be purchased at Amazon.
“True Repentance” - I ask myself: Why do we go to church, tithe, give to missions, give to help the poor, witness, or resist temptation? Is it because it is expected of us or because of God’s love in our hearts? Maybe this is what Jesus was referring to in John 15:8-11? It certainly has me thinking more about my motives.

imultitude.com (A Prayer Community to Pray for India)

We have just launched a new website called http://www.imultitude.com/. This web site is still in the beta testing mode but when finished, we hope to bring thousands of people to the web site to pray for India and create a prayer community on the web site and eventually have designated web pages for each district where we have a mission field. The donors of their specific mission field will be able to log in and post prayers for their mission fields as well as build a relationship with the other donors. I will keep you updated but I encourage you to go to the web site and create a log in and pray for India every day!

Haryana, India Report - "A Great Mission Field"

Haryana is a state located in the far northern parts of India. This is a very industrious agricultural state. Operation World tells us that there are only 265 Christian workers in the entire state, a state with a population of 20 million people. Of the 92 unreached people groups in Haryana, only 15 have a congregation. Serve India Ministries has 20 pastors working in this state and is currently recruiting another mission field with 20 more pastors beginning this fall.
Introducing Pastor Singh, a testimony from Haryana:
Pastor Singh was born to very religious Hindu parents and throughout his life, he grew up trusting only in the power of their Hindu gods and goddesses.
Pastor Singh came to know the Lord when he met a pastor ministering in his neighborhood. Also in the crowd was a man who was blind from his birth. Like the stories from the Bible, this blind man had been taken to many temples but there was no healing. In the end the preacher prayed for the blind man and a miracle happened. The blind man began to see for the first time in his life! Seeing this miracle before his very eyes, Brother Singh deeply touched! Realizing that Jesus is the only all-powerful God, he gave his life to him. Later his whole family accepted Jesus and began to attend a local church. As Brother Singh began to grow in the Lord, he sensed the call of God during a time of prayer to give his life for full-time ministry. Now Pastor Singh has planted a church and is partnering with Serve India Ministries in Haryana along with 20 other pastors in his district to each plant 5 churches apiece in 5 years. Think of it - 100 churches where there aren’t any churches today! Please pray for Pastor Singh and the 450 others who partner with Serve India Ministries.

Witch Doctor Touched by the Power of God!

(“My powers became powerless when the TRUE GOD’S power empowered me.”)

Serve India Ministries partners with 60 pastors in the South India state of Karnataka. Karnataka has a population of 53 million and about 0.7% are born-again Christians. There is much opportunity for the work the Gospel in this state but also much opposition from anti-Christian elements and witch doctors.

One of Serve India’s pastors, Pastor G, working near the city of Bangalore in Karnataka recently ministered in a community where a man named Kumar, who was a witch doctor operating through demonic powers. Kumar made a lot of money through his magic with the help of evil spirits. Pastor G’s church grew and was affecting this community as the Gospel was being preached and many people were being saved. These local people were no longer seeking out the witch doctors services.

Kumar was determined to disrupt the church's service by using his black magic. For three years, Kumar tried all his magic but to no avail. Finally he decided that he would attend a Sunday service and see what really went on at this church. The evil spirit did not allow him to sit at the church and he was forced to go back home. From that time on, Kumar could not have a peaceful night’s sleep and feared for his life. Often the very demons that these witch doctors serve will in time kill them. Now, Kumar could no longer perform magic and all his evil powers were gone.

Fearing the evil spirits, Kumar approached the pastor with his problems, and Pastor G showed the love of Christ to him and shared the message of the Gospel. As they prayed together, the power of Jesus was present and the evil spirit left him. Kumar was filled with the joy of salvation! Our new brother in the Lord later testified,
“My powers became powerless when the TRUE GOD’S power empowered me.”
Now he attends the church regularly and is helping Pastor G in outreach as he partners with Serve India Ministries to plant 5 more churches in the surrounding communities.

An Indian example for Americans for Church Security

Indian Churches face the possibility every day of violence against the pastor and the church members. Thousands of Christian homes have been burned in India in recent months.

A report that we received from one of our churches in South India can be an ecouragement to American churches that are in fear of their security.

After the service finished and everybody left, a young man was seen waiting for the pastor at the back. The pastor approached him and the young man was in tears. "I was sent by an anti-Christian group to kill you if possible. I sat in the front row, wanting to stab you when the opportunity came. When the church was praying with their eyes closed, I took out my knife to stab you, but my hand froze! I tried to withdraw my outstretched hand, but I realized that I could not do so. See, even now I am unable to bend my hand."

The pastor comforted him and praised God for protecting his life. Afterwards the pastor prayed for the young man and his hand became normal again.

There is much fear in American Churches these days because of recent violence that has come, but maybe the answer isn't more and more security guards but prayer.

God is good! When in fear, pray!

Your Financial Support Is a Great Blessing! Update.

Greetings, Friends:
Thank you for everyone who prays for us that we will see God's provision for our ministry. I am amazed each month as the bills get paid even though we receive significantly less each month than we are accustomed to. But our joy is full as we see God provide through so many means. We have our health insurance paid for and we are able to simplify our lives in material goods but we are very rich in joy as we feel this is where God has called us to serve, and where God guides, He provides.

Please pray for us as we seek to raise an additional $500 per month of support and that we grow in our faith so that we can truly be a blessing to Serve India and make a major impact on the villages of India.

We are continually humbled by the generosity of our friends and supporting churches. We have had two of our supporting churches that have kept us on their missions support roll even though they are going through financial hardships. Both of these churches needed to cut their budget, so they reduced everyone 10% and 25% so they wouldn't have to stop supporting any of their missionaries. This is such a blessing to us; it is almost like getting a raise! Their commitment truly honors God.

My prayer is that God will bless these churches greatly for their steps of faith. As well as churches, many of the families that support us do so out of sacrifice, and I know that God is pleased with their faith and commitment to reach India with the Gospel. I pray that God would bless each family that has sacrificed to support our work at Serve India, and I pray that their giving would be a continual work of joy.

Just as the native pastors are the unsung heroes of missions in India, so are the donors in America who have made church planting and evangelism a priority! I know that your commitment will be a legacy of faith that will glorify God.

Benjamin News and Photos

Benjamin and his friend Randy at the
Pine Wood Derby at church.










Benjamin with his Cusions Jace
and Jessica and Mia the dog.










Benjamin helping with with a
booth at a Home School Conference.











2nd Place Best of Show for
his pinewood derby car.











Look Mom! No Training Wheels! :)









Home School Bowling League,
ready for a strike!














Benjamin singing with Janey
at our home church in Harrison, AR.







Colorado Home School Conference.
A display that had several chess
games set up, Benjamin was
able to win several games!

Sunday at our home church in Harrison, Arkansas

We were very blessed to travel to Harrison, Arkansas, to speak to our home church, Grace Christian Center. Janey and Benjamin sang together the song "Praise Adonai," and it was a great blessing to see them worship God in song!

We were able to share the vision of Serve India Ministries and have the joy of visiting the church family that first put us in ministry 20 years ago. It was in 1989 that we first began to minister to the youth of Grace Christian Center and now some of the young people we first ministered to are nearing 40 years old!

While at Grace Christian Center, we began to go on missions trips with our pastors as well as taking our youth on several mission trips.

Now we are able to return 20 years later to Grace and share the vision for the future that our partnership will help plant 100,000 churches.

We praise the Lord for 250 new pastors this fall! Now we need sponsors.

As you know, we are now serving 450 independent pastors in India. You can feel the momentum in India start to build as more and more pastors are starting to get a vision for being a part of planting 100,000 churches. Isn't that a wonderful God-sized goal!

As of now we have 350 of these pastors sponsored, so PLEASE pray for the USA staff that we can quickly find the sponsors that God has prepared for our ministry.

I am preparing to send out some mailing to people we met at recent home school conferences asking them to sponsor a pastor or a Stepping Stone child. When Brother Ebey comes to the USA in the fall, he will have 250 more pastors. It is very important that Serve India Ministries Development Department goes to the next level. We hope to have our community-based web site launched by the end of the month, and it will be a tool that our key friends can use to recruit 20 donors to sponsor a specific mission field and they will be able to encourage each other and pray together on a community bulletin board specific to their mission field. We also plan on hosting an online prayer meeting.

We are also preparing for a two-month tour that Brother Ebey and Gene Mackie will be going on from September 18 through November 25, and during that time our prayer is to schedule speaking opportunities on each Sunday and Wednesday and personal visits with donors during weekdays. They will be traveling from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, then back to Iowa and Illinois before flying back to India in late November. The goal will be to sponsor 250 pastors and 1500 Stepping Stone children.

Denver Home School Conference

I was very blessed to take Benjamin with me to work the booth at the Denver Home School Conference. We got one of the worst booth locations in the building, but Benjamin was so enthusiastic we were able to get 96 people to sign up for a drawing of a Archaeological Study Bible and many of the people requested our e-newsletter and additional information. Benjamin is just like a street preacher and he asks (insists) people to sign up for the materials.

Benjamin is a great partner and his enthusiasm is contagious.

Good job Bennie Boo!

Jesus Has Need of Your Donkey

Greetings:

Recently I was preparing a message for my home church in Arkansas, and I thought to ask Benjamin what scripture he thought I might share. Benjamin told me to use

Matthew 21:2-3 (New King James Version)
2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. 3 And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”

What I found so compelling about this scripture is that it described to a tee what our role is as we serve the Body of Christ and the ministry of Serve India. We are like the disciples whom Jesus sent out to retrieve the donkey and its colt.

This is a perfect picture of how we are to approach our fund-raising.

#1 The disciples heard from the Lord what to do.

#2 Jesus knew the need before the disciples, that very soon he would need a colt to ride on so to fulfill the scripture written in Zechariah 9:9 (New King James Version)

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.

We can be sure that Jesus knows our needs way before we do and has prepared a provision that is waiting for us.

#3 The donors were waiting for the right opportunity to give the donkeys because God had already put it on their hearts to give them. All they needed to hear from the disciples was "the Lord has need of them."

#4 The Lord provided more than enough. A friend of ours pointed this out to me that Jesus needed only the colt but the donor supplied the donkey as well. We must remember that as we work to find the provision for the missionaries that God will also supply our family needs as well as the administrative cost needed to go find the donkey colts.

Thank you for your kind support and prayers for our ministry.

Michael, Jane and Benjamin Erwin

Helping reach millions with the Gospel

100 NEW PASTORS BEING ADDED!

Even with a struggling economy, Serve India continues to grow. Last year we saw a 50% growth, and we hope to grow significantly this year as well. Brother Ebenezer Samuel is in the United States for the month of May, and we are working to schedule him at as many churches and donor meetings as possible because he has 100 new pastors that need support; that is 5 mission fields.
These fields are located in states Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tripura, Andra Pradesh and Karnataka. Please pray for us as we seek to share the vision with as many potential donors as possible. Each mission field costs about $950 per month to fund, but the exciting part is that there should be at least 100 new churches in unreached villages in the next 5 years. That is great return on investment (ROI.) If you know of a church that either I or Brother Ebey might be able to speak at, please let me know.

"I SERVE INDIA COMMUNITY GROUPS" Our Online Community :)

One of the roles of a development director is to make sure that a ministry is communicating regularly and effectively to its donors and potential donors. The web has so many tools to help accomplish this task very inexpensively. With the rise of the social networking sites, we are working on developing an online community that will help support the churches in India. Since a mission field is 20 pastors and a facilitator, why not find key volunteers in the states that will rally 20 donors to come together to support a mission field? $950 per month would be divided among the group and they would be able to log onto a password-protected web page that would be exclusive to their group and focus on their specific area where their mission field is. The effect can be in several areas:
#1 Greater missions awareness
#2 Connecting the donors to their specific mission field
#3 Creating community with the donors
#4 Greater prayer focus for the pastors
#5 Greater accountability to support the mission field
#6 Creating a viral effect that will encourage members to create their own group

As you can see, the possibilities are enormous, and if we build this web site properly, it should bring in the bulk of our new sponsors for the next 10 or 15 years.