Right Hand Ministries
RHM: PO Box 12385 Oklahoma City, OK 73157 rhmhope1@gmail.com
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School's Out, Summer Has Come!
May Update
Dear RHM Friends,
Greetings once again in the Precious Name of our Lord JESUS.
Remember to check out
RHM's YouTube channel, and the
BLOG on the website. We're trying to make posts more regularly, and these avenues will keep you informed concerning some of the ministry going on here, and also what to pray for. I believe you'll enjoy seeing the videos of the various ministries, perhaps making it more real to your hearts.
School ended for most all the children in India in March or April. Only a few colleges or institutions have any classes or exams during May, usually the hottest month of the year. I don't know what the temps are in reality, but some days the sweating is almost non-stop except for a few of the night hours. HOPE's lawyer, a believer from Hyderabad, is currently in a hospital, having had some kind of stroke. Many of the HOPE children have rashes and various little issues due to the heat. Pray for them, and for the widows & elderly who are surely suffering more during this season. School reopens in early June.
As you scroll down this page, you can see photos from HOPE's "Graduation Day". We distributed prizes for the children who had the best marks in their classes when we had our Scripture Exam in March, and the highest overall marks for the 7 exams held during this last school year. You'll see one photo of the 17 HOPE children who received prizes, a total of 34 HOPE children attending the school. A few of the prizes were for best attendance or good behavior. Continue to pray for HOPE's financial situation, as it certainly needs more designated funds in the months to come.
The children in this HOPE area have lots of opportunities to attend "CBC's" (Children's Bible Club", very similar to Vacation Bible School). Several churches have their own CBC or VBS programs during this 6 or 7 week summer period. The HOPE children helped to lead a CBC in the town of Karlapalem this week, 162 children attending the final day. It was awesome, but excessively hot. I definitely attribute these 3 days of pouring sweat to the resulting health issues which I had a day later. But the Lord is faithful ALWAYS, and so getting strength again.
Pray for those in the ministry we are a part of in another area of India (as I've said many times, security risks prohibit us from using their names and location). The brother leading the ministry, his wife, and at least 3 of the girls in the girls home have been sick recently, I'm sure the heat playing a part there also. Pray for Brother Wesley and I, as we are scheduled to travel to this area of India in about 5 days (the 16th), not returning to the HOPE area until the 22nd. The brother has already notified me that, due to a recent "cyclone" in that area which brought high winds and heavy rains, the electricity may be lacking while there. I wish I had an emoticon to help express to you my anticipation of possible 100 plus days and hot nights without even a fan (haha). Praying for a miracle to get the power on, or grace to endure. He's faithful. We need to go to this area about 3 or 4 times a year to distribute funds for a girls home, prisoners families and widows.
The widows & elderly ministry is going great, brothers Wesley, Prasanth and Raju leading that ministry in different areas. With the rainy season ("wet monsoon season") possibly hitting sometime in June, we're trying to get as many huts/homes built or repaired as possible while it is dry. Continue to pray for His anointing as the brothers go and do the various ministry among the elderly. Because of the affect of the heat, I'm not planning to join these younger whipper-snappers in ministry until sometime in June.
Thanks for your prayers and support! Bless you.
Brother Dan
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ABOVE: HOPE children with their trophies or other smaller prizes for their accomplishments in the HOPE School Scripture Exam, or in the academic exams (overall marks for the entire year). If I'm not mistaken, 11 prizes were given to HOPE children for the Scripture exam, 8 prizes for academics (2 girls not in the photo), and 3 prizes for attendance or good behavior.
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ABOVE: Brother Isaac (HOPE School principal) giving a trophy to teacher, Subhashini. This sister has been part of the school since about 2007, and was honored as the teacher of the year for 2018-19.
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ABOVE: This trophy is going to Miss Suseela, the main Hindi teacher (India's national language), for her hard work. She's been part of the school since its inception in 2006, and has been a hard worker and a faithful teacher for many years.
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ABOVE: Brother Isaac is giving a 1st place trophy to 7th grader Buelah, who got the highest number of overall marks in the 7 exams during the 2018-19 school year. The HOPE School is nursery through 7th.
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ABOVE: 1st prize in 6th grade went to Syam (Sam) Visal. Syam has been a bit of a source of frustration to HOPE girl Iswarya, who almost always comes in 2nd in the exams. She got the 2nd place prize.
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ABOVE: HOPE child Kranthi (Iswarya's little sister), got the 1st prize in 2nd grade. She seems to have a remarkable memory, as she didn't even miss one mark in any of her 7 exams this last year.
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ABOVE: Brother Dan giving a trophy to Ratna Manjari, who got 1st prize in this year's Scripture exam. Buelah got 2nd and HOPE girl Mary got 3rd.
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ABOVE: Fifth-grader Asha Tulasi got 1st prize in the Scripture exam. The HOPE children have a little bit of an advantage over the outside children, as they are going over these Scriptures regularly downstairs in the girls home also. It's nice to see the non-HOPE children also learning the Scriptures and songs nicely. Of the 230 or so students in the HOPE School, 34 (about 15%) are HOPE children.
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ABOVE: Subba Rao from KB Palem is part of the widows & elderly ministry. Here he is in front of his hut which was badly needing a roof repair. We eventually decided that building a new one is better.
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ABOVE: This is Subba Rao's new hut in KB Palem. Each new hut (sticks for the frame, leaves, cement columns and labor) comes to around $325, depending upon the exchange rate at the time.
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ABOVE: This is an enclosure which was built for Ramulamma (foreground with the towel on her head) in the village of Bangarakkapalem. She is partially paralyzed from a stroke, and was staying under an unsafe lean-to outside one of her children's home. This is the pastor, Yesuratnam, showing us the work that was done. This should at least keep her out of the rain.
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ABOVE: HOPE girls are in the foreground, leading in action songs in the CBC at Karlapalem. Thankful how the Body of Christ worked together, as youth and adults from several different churches and villages were represented in this CBC.
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ABOVE: The young woman standing and talking is Mary, the teacher for the smaller children in the Karlapalem CBC. HOPE girl Angel (15, standing to the right of Mary) was a good helper in the class.
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ABOVE: HOPE girl Yamuna (9), is giving an answer to teachers Elizabeth Rani and Sindhu in the class for those around 8-10 years old.
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ABOVE: Brother Bhaskara Rao, who was the main leader of the CBC, is talking with HOPE boy Gopi. Gopi got a gold medal for having the best behavior in the CBC. He's a very nice boy.
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"Whatever you do, do all things to the glory of GOD." 1 Corinthians 10:31 |
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