The Joy of Generosity even Without Money - Non Cash Giving!

For the Christian, giving should be a natural reaction when
God's grace begins to change our hearts and attitudes. Jesus takes our giving very seriously and remembers what we give. We learn of the Widow's Mite in Mark 12:41-44, and it has been used as an illustration for centuries in the area of giving. The most important thing we can take from this scripture is that every one of us can give and should give. Giving is great medicine and reflects the character of Jesus!

What if we don't haveany money to give? Donate Your Stuff!
When we don't have money to give, that is when our imaginations can kick in. Just this week, Benjamin and I were cleaning our storage room in the basement, and there was so much stuff that we had not even unpacked yet from two years ago when we moved to this house. We were able to put together four large boxes of good stuff that we were able to take to the local thrift store and donate. The thrift store could possibly get $200-$300 for the items. Also located in a corner was our old desktop computer. It is outdated for our needs,
but it still has value so we took it to Integrity Communications http://www.integritycsi.com/cpr), our partner that helps us with donated cell phones and electronics. Integrity Communications will refurbish most items, sell them and give proceeds from the sale to any charity the donor hooses. In my case, I chose for the proceeds to go to Serve India Ministries.

You can click on the link above and see how you can donate many electronic items that can benefit ministries like Serve India Ministries.

Serve India Ministries also has partners that can receive your vehicle donations, and almost any vehicle out there has value to help Serve India Ministries fulfill its mission through the proceeds from vehicle donations. You can also donate jewelry, fine antiques, real estate, business inventory and even publicly traded stock. PLEASE CONTACT ME WITH ANY IDEAS THAT YOU HAVE CONCERNING NONCASH DONATIONS: mikee@sim2020.org or call 913-406-3495.

Watch for the Morning Psalm 130:5-6

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in His word I do hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
More than those who watch for the morning—
Yes, more than those who watch for the morning. (Psalm 130:5-6)

During the times when Psalm 30 was written, the city of Jerusalem was a walled city and the soldiers would be required to watch the alls at night to protect the city from attack. If you have ever worked the night shift, you may have observed how eerie and frightening the night is around 2 and 3 a.m. The sentries anxiously awaited the sun’s peeking over the horizon, bringing light and removing the darkness. Light always makes us feel more secure and sure of where we are going. This was the context that the Psalmist was bringing to our attention, that in his deep despair he nticipated the Lord speaking to him and bringing light onto his situation. If you’re in a season right now that seems very dark, watch for the morning—wait on the Lord for His light to shine on your situation. Your answer is coming!

Erwin Family June 2012 Update

Building Kingdom Relationships

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Phil 1:3-6

As I am writing this letter, I am in Orange County California following up on some of the relationships Brother Ebey and I established last month during our time here.

One of my life verses is Phil 1:3-6. It flows well with the vision statement for Erwin Family Ministries it is to: "Helping to Reach Millions of People with the Gospel by Building Kingdom Relationships" Paul built ministry relationships as he shared the Gospel.

Building relationships is absolutely key to the ministry that the Erwin Family is called to do. God is very big on relationships, paticularly our relationship with Him! From ancient times, man has establish relationships through blood covenants that formed great alliances and partnerships that changed the world and established history.

Today is no different as I go about the United States sharing the vision of Serve India Ministries with like minded Christians who have a heart to see the Great Commission fulfilled in our generation and the relationships that we have established around God’s purpose will change the history of the world by God’s grace. Thousands of villages in India are being changed forever as God’s message of reconciliation and grace is going into unreached villages in India.

Janey and Benjamin:

As I write this letter, it is Memorial Day and I am in California for the week. Janey and Benjamin are driving to our hometown in Harrison Arkansas to visit our family. Janey is still doing very well as Costco and has favor with the management and customers. I pray for her every day that God would bless her and give here great joy in her work and she would prosper the company she works for to the Glory of God. She still enjoys working with the children at church in the AWANA program. They have completed AWANA for the season and will begin a new term in August.

Benjam in is finishing up his 5 grade work and will begin 6th grade home school in September. I am amazed at how easily he picks up the complex math problems and once you show him once how to do a problem, he buzzes right through the rest of the homework. He needs very little help with science and history/geogrphy because he loves these subjects and is constantly researching science and history. The pool is open for the summer so he will be excited to go swimming as often as possible. He had taken up a great love for the game of chess so is any of you would like to challenge him to a game, please let us know; he would love to share a game. With the end of May came the end of the semester for violin his orchastra had a great concert on May 19th and Benjamins skill has greatly improved since he began last fall. We hope to continue some private lessons during the summer so he will be sharp when the fall semester comes along.

Former Bootlegger Finds Christ, Amends His Ways

In the fall of 2011, Ebenezer Samuel, Serve India’s director, visited with a new believer in Kerala named Gilbert—a man whose life took a 180-degree turn when he received Christ after conversing with a Serve India pastor.

When Gilbert moved deep into a forest with his wife and children, squatting illegally on several acres of land, his plan was to get rich quickly by making and selling illicit liquor—a lucrative industry across India.

He dug a moat around his house to keep the elephants and other wild animals at bay.
In that secluded spot, alcohol began to consume Gilbert’s life. He brewed it, drank it—almost a gallon a day—and sold it at a good profit. Worst of all, he strong-armed his wife and children into selling the moonshine in nearby towns.

When his wife objected to their dangerous lifestyle, he beat her and sent her away with the children. He would carry on with business by himself.

Troubled over their broken home, Gilbert’s wife began attending worship gatherings led by a Serve India national pastor. The Lord heard her cry and began to work in the hearts of her loved ones. First Gilbert’s wife surrendered her life to Christ, and then her mother-in-law was also saved.

It wasn’t long before Gilbert himself was introduced to the pastor, who spoke boldly to him about his need for Christ. He repented of his sin and gave his life to the Lord.

From the day he received Christ, Gilbert abandoned bootlegging and did not feel the need for even one more drink. After bringing his wife and children home, he purchased a few acres of land close by and moved there—a new beginning for the whole family.

Intent on making an honest living, Gilbert began to cultivate ginger as a cash crop.
"In the worldly sense," said Ebey Samuel, who had the privilege of baptizing Gilbert, "this family looks anything but rich, living in a little shack in the forest. But their joyful faces tell you they are rich in another sense. Gilbert is clean now, and an ardent follower of Jesus.

God has Done Great Things! – Support Update

We have very good news concerning our support needs. Thank you for praying and thank you for giving. As we shared with you last month, we have 2 primary goals concerning our support needs:
#1 Monthly Partners. Goal: $300 per month of additional monthly support. Update, we have a commitment for $100 per month of new support.
#2 Building a Ministry Reserve.
Goal: To raise about $3000 for our ministry reserve. Update, we have raised the $3000 and met o our funding Goal!

We give God the glory for His great provision and I pray that God may richly bless each one of you who have been so kind and generous toward our ministry support.

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

God bless you, Michael, Jane and Benjamin Erwin

****You can see some of our photos from India:
https://picasaweb.google.com/102642539464370347618/April12012

********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

February 2012 Update. India Tour Update

We are Getting Closer to India
Just a couple of weeks away and Janey, Benjamin and I will be boarding a plane to fly to India to see our ministries work in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. The purpose of our trip is to ignite our vision for reaching India and sending pastors to 100,000 villages. It is so easy to get distracted from the vision while living in the United States. Sitting down with our pastors and leaders in India, hearing the testimonies and enjoying corporate worship; will give us a greater understanding of God’s great love for this nation and how He plans to reach every village that is without a Gospel witness. As many of you have visited with me in the past, I am sure you will recall how much I talk about India and how much I have learned about India. Much of this zeal and knowledge has come from my past 3 trips to India. These trips add fuel to our fire!

As you can see from this map of India, there are 52 districts that we currently have mission fields (groups of pastors) that are equipping 953 pastors to each evangelize 5 villages and ultimately planting churches. With these pastors we are currently working in nearly 5000 unreached villages.

Janey and Benjamin will return to Kansas City on February 27th but I my time will be extended until March 6th. Brother Ebey and I have an important opportunity in Delhi on March 3rd. We will be receiving a leader of a Christian businessmen’s group call the Barnabas Group. He will spend two days with us meeting many of our North Indian missions leaders. While in Delhi, we will also be receiving a group of leaders from a teen missions group called Global Tribes Outreach. This group deploys young people for 2-6 month missions outreaches.

We are very thankful for each of you as you have prayed for us, encouraged us and given generously to support our ministry. We have made important progress during 2011 in many areas. Here are some highlights:

Last month, I shared with you about these following projects: Here are some updates:

* Photo Journalism Tour – Raise funding for travel to and throughout India (need funding by mid-January).
o We have two photographers, one videographer and two writers on the tour. Please pray that they will gather much-needed media content for our website and communications for 2012. We were able to raise about 70% of the needed funds for this project.
* Raised support for an Inductive Bible Study Training (160 pastors in two locations) (need funding by mid-January).
o We have been able to raise enough support to train about 100 pastors. Please pray that we can raise enough for all 160 pastors in the next couple of weeks. This project was completely funded and the training has been completed with the targeted number of pastors. This project was a great success!
* Launch new website and fund the web development project (need additional funding throughout 2012).
o Web site looks great (http://www.serveindiaministries.org/). Pray that we can have 5000 new visitors per month of people who have a burden for India. This website has been launched and now we are ready to build a robust traffic increase!
* Raising funds to travel to India in February of 2012. (We have raised $4500 - only $1000 to go!)
o We are getting ready to go to India on February 15. Janey and Benjamin will return on February 27, but I will travel to North India with Brother Ebey and return on March 6. We have raised the $5500 but I will need to raise an additional $1000 for the extended time in Delhi.
* Year-end campaign that will fund unsponsored pastors, unsponsored children, and new mission fields.
o We have seen good response so far. The campaign will go through next year, and we are praying to raise the funds needed to cover expenses for our unsponsored pastors (300 pastors) and unsponsored Stepping Stone children (500 unsponsored children). We also need funds for our U.S. projects for our website and development. We have raised about $40,000 of the $108,000 goal, we hope to reach the goal by the end of April.

Family News – India Prayer Request
* Health (protection from all sicknesses)

* Safety (protection from accident, injury or attack) as we travel
* Endurance to handle road and air travel

* Strengthen our vision and resolve to fulfill God’s purpose
* Pray as God leads you by His Spirit

Support Update: The end of February will mark 15 years that Janey and I left Arkansas and started full time in missions. Over these years so many of you have cheerfully, prayerfully and sacrificially given support that allows us to bless the nations (particularly India;) Thank you! With your support over these many years we have touched thousands of villages and millions of people through the pastors and missionaries that we have supported. By God’s grace, may we have many more years of ministry and may we see the completion of the Great Commission (Matt 28:19 & Matt 24:14.)
We celebrate that we have been able to raise the needed funds for our India trip later this month. Because my time in India has been extended, I am praying that I might raise an additional $1000 so the it will not cost Serve India Ministries additional money. We are asking if any of you that have interest in investing in this important trip to help us with these expenses.
Our goal in 2012 is to be an encouragement to our current partners and raise up additional partners that will give an additional $300 per month support. In the meantime we trust that God will supply! We are very thankful for all you do and how much you encourage us. Because we are partners, you make us more effective in ministry! As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
God bless you, Michael, Jane and Benjamin Erwin

“Over 1 Billion People are Waiting to Hear the Gospel in India – Let’s Partner Together to Help the Hear the Good News and Bring Glory to God!”

Donate to The Serve India Ministries Fund

Donate to Serve India Ministries Fund

Donate to The Serve India Ministries Fund

How American Churches can be most effective in Church Planting

See a testimony from one of Serve India Ministries American church partners showing how American Churches can be much more effective when they apply themselves to training the trainers.

You can read Pastor Tim's blog post at: http://worldchristians.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/map-of-global-status-of-evangelical-christianity/

Help Support the Erwin Family for their India 2012 Mission Trip. Just click on the donate link below to support.

Donate to The Erwin Family Ministries Support Fund

Erwin Family News

Our family seems to be getting along well. We are enjoying the normal fall outings like the pumpkin patch and corn maze. Benjamin is progressing very well with his violin and is a defensive specialist in flag football. Benjamin and Janey both have their passports now and we will be applying for visa's as soon as we are able to purchase our airfare for India. We will be traveling to Arkansas on November 6th to speak at our home church; Grace Christian Center to bring an update about the ministry. Benjamin is now two chapters in on each of his subjects and is keeping pace to finish 5th grade by the end of Spring. He has recently created a new musical instrument he calls the 3 string violin. He has actually written some music for his instrument and he and his Grandma Nana have been learning to play. Benjamin and I have been enjoying watching some of the Louie Gigleo teaching about the vastness of the universe. When we try to grasp how big the universe is, we can grasp how awesome God is. Janey has been very busy helping lead the Awana Sparks at church and enjoys coordinating all the teachers and sparkies with their schedules and activities.

Countdown to India

Dear Friends, As we progress toward the end of the year there are many task that need to be finished with our major website rebuild, our year-end funding campaign. With Brother Ebey's fall tour nearing an end, we still need to find about 200 plus sponsors for our pastors; some of whom have been working, for over a year through our training.

With our year-end campaign, we hope to raise support for our unsponsored pastors as well as unsponsored children. We also have two additional projects that need funding. First there are four American pastors traveling to India to teach inductive bible study to 160 of our pastors in mid January. Second, we have a photo journalism tour with a group of four collecting video, photos and stories for our communication needs for 2012.

I am just returning home from two weeks on the road with Brother Ebey where we traveled from Kansas City to Hutchinson KS, Dallas TX, Jacksonville, IL, Milwaukee, WI, Chicago and then Charleston, IL.

Now that I am home, I am coordinating with our other staff as well as our communications consultants (5Q) to complete our web re-design and year-end campaign.

If we can get all of this done by the end of November, we hope to really focus on raising the addional funds for our families India trip with hopes to travel by the end of November. The good news is that we have 1/2 of the $5000 needed for the travel cost and we are very grateful for our friends that have given sacrifically toward our travel cost.

Support Report - India 2012

One of my favorite Bible verses for ministry would come from Phil 4:3: "In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now,"

My ministry to Serve India Ministry primarily involves find partners and the root word of partner is "part," indicating that you are part of our ministry and we could not as effective without you. This is the way that God wants His ministry to work throughout the world to involve as many people as possible. No one who call Jesus Lord is exempt from participating in the great commission to take the Gospel throughout the world.

We are still need financial partners to help us monthly, we have had a couple of our partners who have recently lost their jobs and others are giving at great sacrifice; the more financial partners we can bring on our team the easier the burden is for us all. God loves partnership and so do we.

Thank you for your sacrifice to enable us to minister to 5000 unreached villages of India. Together we can see 100,000 villages impacted with the Gospel message.

Thank you for blessing us and honoring God by your generosity.

Michael, Jane and Benjamin Erwin

Donate to Support Erwin Family Ministries

Donate to The Erwin Family Ministries Support Fund

Erwin Family Ministry Update

September has been a whirlwind but one that is producing great fruit for our ministry. The month began with a return visit from California where I attended a banquet of businessmen and was able to speak at a church in LA. When I got back to Kansas I continued work on coordinating our web development strategy which is in the design stages and right now going into the actual building of the new website. In my next letter I should be able to show the new sight to you. Once this web project is complete, we should be able to see 30-50 new missionary sponsors coming into our ministry via the web. This the rate of new sponsors to keep up with the speed That Brother Ebey can add new missionary pastors. Each new sponsor represents funding for 5 villages to be evangelized and churches planted.

On September 22nd, I met Brother Ebey at the Minneapolis airport as he began his fall tour that will go through November. We began our time at the "Desiring God Ministries" national conference hosted by Pastor John Piper. We were not able to have a booth at the event but were allowed to place one of our videos in each of the 3000 attendee's conference bags. Please pray that we will see good fruit from this opportunity resulting in missionary sponsors and church meetings with these mission minded Christians. You can learn more about Desiring God Ministries by going to www.desiringgod.org ; there are many great resources on the site and many upcoming meeting opportunities that you might enjoy. From there Brother Ebey flew to SC and will be having meetings in KY, TN. He will then travel to Kansas where I will drive to meetings in TX, OK, KS, WI and IL. On October 20th, Brother Ebey's wife Angel will fly to the US where we will pick her up in Chicago and then they will continue with meetings in OH and PA. Pray for much fruit from his time here in the states as we need to find financial sponsors for 300 of our 1000 pastors. God is good and he will supply where He guides to His glory!

Donate to The Erwin Family Ministries Support Fund

Pastor Jailed for Preaching the Gospel

Karnataka is a state with over 50 million people and only .7% Christian. This is a vastly unreached state and Serve India Ministries has 180 pastors working in 9 different districts. Many Christians are persecuted in India and right now more are persecuted in Kantataka than any other state in India. The following is a report of a pastor that was recently arrested because of preaching the Gospel:

One of our pastors from the Hassan mission field in Karnataka was jailed on false allegation of forced conversion yesterday. He went to a nearby town to meet with one of his new contacts and while he was praying with him, a group of anti-Christians entered the house, dragged the pastor out and beat him up severely and handed him over to the police. A case has been registered against the pastor alleging that he was compelling his contact to accept Christ. Since that time, the pastor has been released on bail and is awaiting trial. His fellow Serve India Ministries from the Hassan district pastors have gone to the police station on his behalf.

# Please pray that as the team meets the Chief things will work out favorably.

# Please pray that the pastor's accusers will repent and to withdraw their case against the innocent pastor.

# Please pray for this district that has witnessed much persecution in the last four months. Pray that God would be glorified in its 2000 unreached villages and the Gospel will go out and churches would be planted.

Donate to The Erwin Family Ministries Support Fund

Janey's Update

Along with keeping a busy schedule of work as well as overseeing Benjamin's home school. Janey is ministering at our local church to oversee the sparks program for AWANA. If you have ever been a part of AWANA, you will know that it requires a lot of planning and detail but the fruit from this labor would be children that are introduced to the Gospel and will live a life of ministry to the glory of God.

We continue to seek solutions to help improve the pain she has from migraine headaches. The reality is that there is not a quick fix to the problem outside of a miracle from God. There is one more stage of mouth pieces that the TMJ dentist wants to try but it will cost another $2000 but we need to pay off the past treatment first.

Thank you for your continued prayer for Janey's enchantment as her contribution to our ministry effort is vital to our success in reaching the nation of India. Pray that God would be glorified in our family as we seek to serve Him and show ourselves faithful to His calling.

Donate to The Erwin Family Ministries Support Fund

From Violin to Football, Benjamin Update

The fall brings a very busy time for home school families in Kansas. After the slow pace of summer, September launches in many fall activities and programs. Benjamin is no exception. Starting September 6th, he began a semister of beginning violin. Benjamin specifically chose the violin after trying out 4 other insturments and he is doing very

well. Already his instructors have taught 3 basic violin songs. Benjamin is part of a homeschool orchastra that will finish their semester with a Christmas concert.

Also as fall comes so does football.

The local city recreations department host several youth leauges for sports and one they offered was flag football. Flag football is great for young boys because they have so much energy and they have to let it out somewhere and flag football is the perfect medicine. The team Benjamin plays on is called the Ravens and they will play 7 games through November and when they are done, we will begin with Upward Basketball.

Donate to The Erwin Family Ministries Support Fund

Glorifying God Through Church Planting

Picture the scene. A village church in rural India with 40 or 50 believers that are sitting with focused attention on the message that the pastor brings to them. They may spend 4 or 5 hours together singing praise to Jesus, praying for one another and giving testimony of God's great grace and glory and how He has changed their lives. Now picture the scene just a few months before; no preacher had ever come and share the redeeming power of God through Jesus' death and ressurection. Before this, each of these believers were living in great dread and fear that the local gods in the temple might attack them because they were not pleased with their sacrifices and worship.

What joy the Gospel brings to their lives, your investment in our ministry helps us send hundreds of pastors into these unreached villages and bringing the liberating gospel and setting the captives free! Luke 4:18 gives us a glimps of the ministry that Jesus has intrusted his church to carry on throughout the whole earth " “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,"

Right now, there are nearly 5000 villages in India that are part of being introduced to the Gospel for the first time; God is being gloried in their midst and His grace is abounding among His people!

Donate to The Erwin Family Ministries Support Fund

Greetings

I trust that you are having a blessed day. Thank you for taking time to read our update. We are so blessed by the generosity of God’s people to help us serve India with the love of Jesus!

The scripture that has blessed me recently is Habakuk 1 verse 1 “The BURDEN which Habakkuk the prophet did see” KJV. The letter begins with the Habakkuk petitioning God about the evil and sin around him; the injustice and oppression. God would spend the rest of the letter answering Habakkuk’s concerns and revealing God’s vision (Hab 2:4) to bring justice to Israel and eventually restore Israel. So the lesson that I learn from Habakkuk is to talk to God about the things of the world that bother us or grieve us; it may be that God wants us to do something about them.

Family update

Our family continues to grow in the grace of God, we are studying the book of Judges together along with reading the daily proverb. We are also reading through the biography of Adoniram Judson, the first American missionary who gave his life and family for the nation of Burma.

Jane’s Birthday

August is birthday month for our family with Jane’s, Ben’s and my mom’s birthday and this year we were able to travel to Minneapolis MN for Janey’s birthday where I was able to visit with the ministry of John Piper called Desiring God Ministries and share with their outreach director what Serve India Ministries does. I was also able to speak at a church on Sunday evening. During our time we were able to visit the Mall of America. What an enormous place that is. I guess you could say it represents America’s materialistic culture and need for entertainment and stuff.

Ben’s Birthday

Benjamin will celebrate his 9^th birthday on August 26^th and we will begin his 5^th grade curriculum September 1^st. Also on September 6^th will begin his violin lessons. We appreciate his love for classical music and we hope it will translate in a love to apply the disciple of learning the violin. Then for physical exercise, Benjamin will be in a local flag football league and he will be able burn some energy off.

India – January 2012

Later this week we will be sending out a letter asking for help raising the funds for travel to India. We 3 of us going, it will cost between $5500 - $5800. We have already been given $600 toward our goal and we thank everyone in advance for their generosity toward this project.

Ministry Update

Brother Ebey coming in late September

Brother Ebenezer Samuel will be coming to the US on September 22^nd and will arrive in Minneapolis where we will attend the Desiring God Conference hosted by Pastor John Piper. Pastor Piper is one of the best missions teachers in America and has inspired many to give their lives for the unreached world. Later in October Brother Ebey’s wife Angel will fly to Chicago and accompany him on the last part of his tours. Please pray for us that we might have favor because we have 300 unsponsored pastors.

Barnabas Group Meetings

On August 27^th I will be traveling to Los Angeles to attend two banquets hosted by The Barnabas Group which is a gathering of businessmen who invest in different types of missions and ministry work. Our hope is that we will be able to connect with key businessmen that might partner with Serve India Ministries by providing resources, services or networking that will help us advance our mission.

Web Project

Over the past few months, I have been keeping you updated about our Web project to bring our website up to industry standards and our goal is to bring 30 – 50 new sponsors per month through our web site and this will allow us to keep up with the growth on the field and we won’t have a surplus of 300 unsponsored pastors that we are scrambling to find partners for through church meetings and traveling.

Please be in prayer for this web project as it will take a lot of detail and finances to complete but net result will have a major impact on India.

Thank you for your generosity.

We love you,

Michael, Jane and Benjamin Erwin

Support Update

Support Report

Thank you again for all your generosity, sacrifice and love for our family. As many of our supporters are struggling with decreased finances, retirement and loss of jobs we don’t take for granted the gifts that God’s people so graciously give. Before the summer began, we were able to build us a reserve so that our support would be consistent but now we have depleted most of our reserve through the summer so please pray for us to raise new support and one-time donations that will help us continue. We would love to bring new partners into our ministry because there are 100,000 villages that are waiting to hear the Gospel and be blessed with a local church. Thank you for your generosity.

We love you,

Michael, Jane and Benjamin Erwin

Leverage and Synergy - the Secret of Partnership!

Dear Friends,
Thank you for your partnership in the Gospel. Effective partnership creates leverage and synergy. Much is said in the business world about these these two powerful concepts of leverage and synergy but there is much that can be applied in ministry as well.

Not only when you help our family serve but in every way that you partner with anyone fulfilling the great commission, your support should be multiplied. Our family helps us serve 1007 pastors in India that are working in over 5000 unreached villages, thats multiplication.

Leverage: The ability to influence a system, or an environment, in a way that multiplies the outcome of one's efforts without a corresponding increase in the consumption of resources.
In other words, leverage is the advantageous condition of having a relatively small amount of cost yield a relatively high level of returns.

Synergy: A state in which two or more things work together in a particularly fruitful way that produces an effect greater the sum of their individual effects.
Expressed also as "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

The Apostle Paul was greatly strengthened by believers who supported him with finances and hospitality and these gifts were a major part of reaching of most of the Roman Empire with the Gospel in the 1st century. Even more so, this partnership that Paul had with the Church of Phillipi has an even greater impact today.

Phil 4:18 Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. An my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

The Philippians created great synergy and leverage for Paul by their partnership and it was a great struggle for this small church to give and an even greater struggle to send Epaphroditus 1000 miles to Rome to deliver the gift. We are still reading about them 2000 years later and are encouraged to support the Gospel; now their gift is impacting millions of Christians all over the world!

Just like the little boy who gave 5 loaves and 2 fish that fed 5000; your gifts are multiplied and God brings the increase. God isn't interested in just adding to to His Kingdom, He wants to multiply His Kingdom!

We invite you to partner with the Erwin Family as we work with Serve India Ministries, your donations will strengthen us to serve India more effectively and eventually we can see 100,000 villages reached with the Gospel.

Support Erwin Family Ministries Monthly or One-Time Donation

Family News

Janey and I are very pleased with Benjamin's progress in school. He has completed 4th grade and we have purchased his 5th grade curriculum. This fall he will be adding to his regular instruction beginning violin. A home school orchestra is starting up in September and Benjamin is very excited about playing. Along with the music lessons, he will be able to make new friends which he is very interested in doing. He usually is a social butterfly. What is interesting is that Benjamin loves classical music and doesn't care for any of the contemporary style. When he visits his grandma Erwin, they listen to classical music and it has had a very positive influence on him. Bennie dreams of one day being a conductor of an orchastra; I don't think he understands the extreme complexities of being a conductor but we will let him dream and save the complications for later.

Janey continues to serve our ministry by working at Costco where she is able to get our health insurance as well as enable us to pay our bills and get out of debt. We took a big hit on selling our house in Dallas several years ago and we are still trying to get out from under the money we lost. When I joined Serve India Ministries, I took a 50% pay cut from the ministry I worked at before which was subsidizing my salary along with what support I raised. Now that I am with Serve India Ministries, we are having tremendous success reaching thousands of unreached villages but I have to raise every penny of my support. Continue to pray for us as we trust God to be debt free and more able to serve un-hindered. Our dream one day would be that we could raise our support level to a point that Janey would not have to work and we could still get health insurance.

Ministries will always come and go and God's work will be done God's way in God's time but he only gives us one family and I want to make sure that I take care of them. My pastor from Arkansas, Pastor Tim Phillips always admonished me to "take care of your family!" Don't neglect them for the sake of ministry or your will loose both.

We will be traveling to TX for a couple of days next week to greet the Teen Mania team; we want to give them t-shirts to commemorate their mission trip as well as lots of information about Serve India. It would be nice to see many of these young people continue their love for India by supporting a pastor or some children and best of all, becoming a staff member or volunteer for us!

Later in August, our family will have the wonderful honor of traveling to Minneapolis and visiting with John Piper's ministry. John Piper is one of the most inspiring teachers of today and is a real strong advocate of world missions and fulfilling the great commission. Pray that somehow we might be able to build a strong partnership and this church might help reach thousands of villages in India through supporting many pastors. After the meeting with John Piper, I will be speaking at a church and then we hope to stop and drop some materials off at BILD International www.bild.org ; our partner that has developed the curriculum our pastors use. We are now the process of translating the 1st 4 books in 8 different languages. This will be 32 booklets that need to be translated and then printed for pastors all over India to use.

Teen Mania Group Ministers on Serve India Ministries Mission Field

We are very encouraged by the results of the outreach being done by 80 teenagers that are currently ministering in South India. The group will be in India for 3 weeks and they have a jam packed schedule of ministry both is public schools and in rural villages. We have seen these young people show tremendous maturity and a strong work ethic and they are a great inspiration to our village pastors. These teenagers have learned the secret of washing the feet of these village pastors; the clarion call that Brother Ebey has been proclaiming for 5 years of our history. By humbling themselves and serving these pastors and working to build their ministries in these villages, the Lord has brought several miracles among the group with a deaf girl that was healed in one villages which prompted her mother to accept Christ on the spot. This miracle lead to the salvation of many in that villages. Another man who couldn't walk was healed and walked with the group throughout the village inviting everyone to hear what they had to say. A few days one of the teams did their outreach right in front of the village temple and 17 people gave their lives to Christ. God is moving powerfully and I will be honored to meet with the group when they return to the Teen Mania headquarters in Lindale Texas early next month.

You can see hundreds of photos that are posted on the group's Face Book Page; they are amazing photos. Here is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Global-Expeditions-India-B-2011/165066606844812?sk=photos

July is in the Books - August Awaits!

Greetings,

We have made good progress in our ministry since we last communicated. Brother Ebey's tour went well with sufficient support raise to help many of our pastors continue their outreach. We have some key ministry tours planned for August to MN and TX. Lord willing, Jane and Benjamin will be able to travel with me to both of these meetings.

Web Development Project Underway
We were also able to get additional funding for our web development project which will bring our web site up to a standard with our contemporary ministries. Currently we only have about 200 visits to our website each month and very few of our pastors have been sponsored via the web. Our goals after our web development project gets off the ground will be to see 30 to 50 pastors sponsored per month. This kind of response will enable us to keep up with the growth in India and allow Brother Ebey to add 300 - 500 pastors each year. These pastors are the key part of reaching 100,000 unreached villages in India. As you may well know, we currently have 1007 pastors working in over 5000 unreached villages.

As we have been talking with our web development consultants, they are amazed that we have been able to accomplish what we have without any web presence. All the donors we have found thus far have come from church meetings and personal contacts. Word of mouth will still be a major emphasis for Serve India but by bring our web site up to standard, our growth will be accelerated. Right now we have 300 unsponsored pastors and we do not have the church relationships to find enough sponsors for them. The web site can be an important tool to help us.

If you are familiar with web development, you know that it is can be very expensive. If we decide to go cheap or try to get work donated, we find that we usually get what we pay for. We have had a couple of key donors who have given so that we can get a feasibility and a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) study done. These are now complete and we have a writer, a graphic artist and a web developer working on all the changes. Our goal will be that we can bring in 5000 new visitors per month and the nice thing about utilizing the web for our donor acquisition is that people coming to are web site are actually looking for our type of ministry but they would never find us if we didn't have the right search engine rating. They would not respond to us if our web site was confusing without a clear call to action. Once the changes are implemented, people coming to our web site should quickly know what Serve India Ministries is all about and they should know how to partner with us in planting churches with clear action points.