VISION 2020 ASIA         

“Where there is no vision the people perish.”

 

Dear Friends of Christ:                                                                         July 5, 2002

 

 

Greetings in our Lord’s matchless and wonderful name.  I want to thank you for your prayers regarding my recent trip of June 2-19^th to India.  In spite of the many travel warnings given by our government and their request for Americans in India to leave, I felt compelled by God to proceed by faith.  He honored my faith and greatly blessed our efforts.  Our graduation program went very well.  Our first eight graduates have gone out to serve the Lord.  I just received word from Brother Athem that Santay Lepcha, one of our graduates, has recently won nine former Buddhists to Christ and begun a new church.  These are indeed encouraging reports.  Another of our graduates, Sanjiv Rai, has returned to Nepal.  He also has recently won two people to Christ and plans to begin a new church in his home town in Nepal.  Please pray for Sanjiv’s mother who recently has been diagnosed with cancer.  Another of our graduates, Angela Dukpa and her husband are working on the border of Bhutan establishing churches.  They both attended our conference and have returned to this needy area.  Please pray that the Lord will provide donors to assist these recent graduates.  Your monthly support would enable them to focus 100% on their ministry.

 

After graduation on June 6^th we began a six day Leadership Conference.  Dr. John Thomas who had  been the Principal of Calcutta Bible College for 32 years joined me for this conference.  We had a most blessed time of fellowship and sharing the Word of God.  Dr. Thomas is seventy years old.  His years of wisdom and experience added greatly to our conference.  He has a tremendous zeal and passion for reaching India with the Gospel.  It was certainly an honor to spend time with this dear man of God.                                     

 

Attending this years conference was one pastor from Nepal, one pastor from Bhutan, three pastors from West Bengal and ten pastor’s from Sikkim as well as others.  On the third day of our conference a young Buddhist businessman was saved.  I baptized him the day prior to leaving Sikkim.  Please pray for Karma Bhuttia and his wife Diki.  Karma is the brother of our graduate, Tshering Bhuttia.  

 

 

 

 

Early one morning Pastor Joseph Tamang asked me to go with him to a place not previously known to me.  We ended up near the hospital at Gangtok.  Just adjacent to the hospital is the structure below.    It is owned by a lady who works in the government of Sikkim.  She would like to sell this property.  It would require approximately $60,000 to purchase and complete the construction of this building.  Our ministry at Ranka can be seen from this building directly across the valley.  She handles the paperwork for organizations who are trying to get the government’s approval for official existence.  It is very difficult to get registration for any Christian ministry within India.  She has offered to help Pastor Athem obtain registration for Grace Academy and our other related ministries. 

 

Please pray for us as we seek to follow our Lord’s leading for our lives.  We want to be found faithful.  Please contact us if we can be of help to you or your ministry in any way.  Should any pastors or churches be interested, I am available for mission conferences, revival or evangelistic meetings.

 

In Calvary’s Love,

 

Brother Jim Starr, Psalm 2:8