Right Hand Ministries
RHM: PO Box 12385 Oklahoma City, OK 73157 rhmhope1@gmail.com
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A GOD of Miracles!
June Update
Dear RHM Friends,
Greetings once again in the Precious Name of our Lord JESUS.
Another reminder to check out
RHM's YouTube channel, and the
BLOG on the website.
It doesn't seem that many are viewing these tools of information from the ministry here in India. Praying the Lord will lead many to look at the videos and regular blog posts, and thereby a greater interest would be stirred in your heart to give and pray.
"Now to Him who is able to do
far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think..." Ephesians 3:20. Wow, what a Verse! It speaks of a GOD of miracles, a Father in heaven Who not only "is able", but Who desires to do great and mighty things. One such miracle we already shared with you about in the May Newsletter, how one of our 8 year old Sunday School girls was in a coma for 10 days, but suddenly woke up, and has no damage whatsover as a result of the fever and coma. We especially praise the Lord that her parents have removed all their idols and items of superstition, and have come to Christ. Hallelujah! Pray for them, that they will remain steadfast in the midst of the financial debt they have incurred as a result of this (it seems that they already had many debts), and will not be intimidated by the criticism of some of their Hindu relatives and neighbors.
Another miracle which we NEED, and are expenctant for: We've shared many times about financial needs, but try not to belabor the point. I'm confident the Lord will do something soon, but for perhaps a year now, extra donations (those outside the normal monthly giving) have been way down, except for a month or two around the end of last year, and the very first part of January. That period of time boosted us back on top, but again we're quickly coming to a point where cuts will have to be made somewhere. The widows' ministry is completely run by designated giving, and is doing fine, including the widows who come to HOPE for meals and ministry. The ministry in a more volatile part of India is also mostly supported through a sponsor organization. The HOPE School is nearly maintaining itself with the fees of outside children coming to the school. Most of the remaining donations are given either for HOPE or for RHM general purposes.
Because the HOPE children's homes don't have a sufficient amount of designated-for-HOPE donations to cover expenses, then RHM general funds must be used to make up the difference at HOPE. That's not unusual, as it's always been that way. The problem is, because extra giving into RHM general funds has gone way down, last year we had to start borrowing from other designated funds to keep HOPE going. We've made a firm commitment this year that we will not do that again in the future. I'm sure most of you would agree: it's not good to "rob Peter in order to pay Paul", so if this trend of less donations continues, within 2 or 3 months we simply will not have a sufficient amount of funds to fully care for the HOPE homes (boys home, girls home, and children's ministry).
So PRAY for this situation. When people have fear, many false presumptions and accusations begin to fly around, which I also have to deal with. Hope you don't think I'm belly-aching; just telling it like it is so that you will understand the need to pray. Trusting in Him. He is always faithful: always has been, always is, always will be. Hallelujah!
"And GOD is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed..." 2 Corinthians 9:8.
Another prayer request: after perhaps 40 or 50 days of 100+ temperatures (often 105 and above), we are READY for summer to end. Hoping the monsoon rainy season will begin soon, which will bring the temperatures down into the 90's, which is much more manageable. Pray for extra grace upon us until that happens.
Another praise report: the India government has again granted me permission to stay here for another year. Thank You Lord! Scroll down to see more of what is happening in the ministry here in India. Thank you for your prayers and support! Bless you.
Brother Dan
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ABOVE: Precious sight, another miracle in itself, as it seems very difficult to inspire within the elderly a desire to learn how to read and write. We should commend their pastors for encouraging them in this direction. These are women from Karlapalem, all of them part of our widows & elderly ministry. The only ones who are not participating are those who simply are not able. The younger lady (with her daughter next to her) has HIV, so is also part of this WE ministry.
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ABOVE: Two elderly men from the village of Subba Reddy Colony, Yesu Reddy (left) and Vijaya Raju. They have successfully learned the Telugu alphabet (52 letters, as well as a multitude of smaller symbols which go above or below the normal Telugu letters). So they have been promoted to the next level. PTL!
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ABOVE: This is Venkateswarlu (about 45 or 50) from the tribal village of KB Palem, where the HOPE girls also go for Sunday School classes at least twice a month. He's never been married, having some kind of physical and mental issues, but is able to care for himself. We added him to the widows & elderly program because of his needy position. He and his mother were staying inside this village church, but his mother died a few months ago.
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ABOVE: By GOD's grace (and His provision through our donors) we were able to build him this new hut right next door to the church he had been staying in. The motorcycles are ministry bikes, Venkateswarlu not having any vehicle of his own.
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ABOVE: This is the new hut built for Jayamma, also in KB Palem, but in another part of the village (because of caste issues the tribal and non-tribal people don't usually live together). A typical new hut costs between $300-380, depending on the size of the hut, and the exchange rate from dollars to rupees. They usually have about 6 cement poles that go into the ground, strong bamboo or palm tree sticks for the frame, and hundreds of leaves from the coconut and/or palm trees.
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ABOVE: Brother Isaac giving the 1st prize trophy to 5th grader Keerthi for having the best overall marks in her grade in the HOPE School.
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ABOVE: Brother Isaac giving the 1st prize trophy to HOPE School girl Sai Saranya for the having the highest marks in the 4th grade.
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ABOVE: Brother Dan giving the 1st prize trophy to HOPE girl Iswarya for having the best marks in the school's 6th grade Scripture Exam.
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ABOVE: Brother Dan giving the 1st prize trophy to HOPE girl Yamuna for having the best marks in the school's 3rd grade Scripture Exam.
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ABOVE: Principal Isaac with all the children who got 1st, 2nd or 3rd prize for the highest overall marks during the 2018-19 school year in the HOPE School. This is only for academics, not the Scripture Exam winners.
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ABOVE: HOPE School teacher, Miss Santhoshamma, teaching a group of children a Bible lesson during the school's one-day VBS the day before school ended in April. It was only one day because some of the older children were still taking their final exams very late in the school year.
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ABOVE: The first day of school!! Smitha, the HOPE School administrator, is praying as the school reopened today (June 12th). As you can see, not a large number came, 30 of these children being HOPE children. India, in its' effort to keep children in school to get an education, is not very strict about attendance rules, so it's usually a week or 2 before most all of the children are in school.
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ABOVE: A pastor is leading worship in a recent pastors meeting which Brother Wesley and I attended in another part of India. Some of the pastors you see are ones which we are periodically asking you to support, and the girls are part of a girls home which RHM and some other sponsors have been supporting for more than a year and a half now.
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ABOVE: HOPE's Mary (13) was not real sure what to do with this baby. Brother Prasanth's sister delivered this little girl, Akshaya, several months ago. Prasanth is a pastor helping us very much with the widows & elderly ministry.
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ABOVE: HOPE's Sudha Rani (13) enjoying time with the same baby.
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ABOVE: Chandrika (sitting) doesn't seem to need a real baby to make her happy. She had just received this doll on her 11th birthday in March. We didn't know until we brought the baby to the house that it also laughs and makes baby noises, which made Chandrika ecstatic. Dhana, Yamuna, Viswa and Siri are joining in the happy moment.
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"Whatever you do, do all things to the glory of GOD." 1 Corinthians 10:31 |
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