Doug Pearson

Hey Ropeholders,

I am in Baltimore only for June, and then Kansas City for July, head back to Bombay ministry August 1st.

Yesterday in Baltimore, I got to share Christ with Nepalese refugees living right near our Greater Grace church. They got kicked out of Bhutan 18 years ago and lived in U.N. Refugee camps in east Nepal for 18 years until the USA took them in 9 months ago. 75 of them live in apartments 3 blocks from my sending church in Baltimore.

They are very open. The college age young men spoke English so we had a great time. The 3 main guys are Bal, Chinta and Yadu.
Hopefully they will come to church next week. And my friends at HBF in Harrisonville, Brian Hedges and Randy Foster’s church, they are doing the same reaching out to Nepalese refugees who were kicked out of Bhutan and living in Kansas City. These refugees are everywhere, I guess 80,000 of them came to USA last year.

So, I can reach Nepal while I am home in USA as well as my trips to Nepal through the year.

There is a Chinese girl here in the Baltimore church who is reaching out to the Nepalese here and she introduced me to them. I spoke some Nepali language and that opened their hearts.
This Chinese girl is named Sherry. She has amazing testimony. Last August I spent 4 days in Budapest, Hungary preaching in our Greater Grace church there. It was a 4 day stop before I went to India last August. Well, I was doing gospel outreach at a metro train station with our Hungarian church, they let me preach on the street after their mime show to attract crowd. I preached with Hungarian translater Viola, and this Chinese girl was in the crowd listening, her name was Sherry……….she came to the Budapest church after that, and really loved it. Then she kept in touch by email as she was working a job in Toronto, Canada……….in January she emailed me saying she wanted to go to Bible College and be a missionary. I told her to move to Baltimore and go to Maryland Bible College and Greater Grace World Outreach   www.ggwo.org

So, Sherry has been here in Bible College for 6 months and doing great,  getting connected with other Chinese missionaries and other great friends here. Can’t believe we only made contact with her when she was hearing me preach on the streets in Budapest only last August.

I will be coming to KC July 3rd to attend my 20th year High School Reunion Washington High School, KCK. Then be with Kansas City Baptist Temple, Heartland Baptist and Midtown Baptist Temple, etc. Busy July as I prepare to get back to India August 1st.

Email me if you want to see me. My cell phone here is 410-812-8665

your brother in Christ,
Doug Pearson

Ropeholders,

Before I had asked you to pray that God would make it clear to me where He was directing me over here in India and Nepal.

God has made it clear: It is the Mumbai Slums! Ganesh will be my partner full time every day. That is great because before it was only once or twice on evenings.

I had a desire to go to Nepal, but that door is closed right now. But I can still take trips there to train native pastors.

But my main need was a full time partner, and God has given me Ganesh. God has already given us so much incredible fruit in our limited times in the slums here this year. Do you recall the slum ministries I have reported in previous newsletters? Well, now it is going to break open in God’s love here. No limitations in God. We will be led by the Spirit FULL FORCE!!!!

The slums are very intimidating at first, and no one encouraged me when I first went into them to make friends of the gospel of Christ. God is always interested in testing our hearts to see if we operating in divine love or only in human emotional perfomance.

Ganesh was the only one who wanted to go with me to this mission. And now my pastor in Bombay, Karl Silva, God has now put it on his heart to be fully supportive of the work Ganesh and I have started and wants us to “GO FOR IT” with divine focus full time.

I pray God’s love will become more real to me as I go into the slums with Ganesh every day. (I sense God’s presence when we sing praises, yet I sense God more strongly when I am investing in poor lost souls. Love is action, not just singing! Amen?) And also we plan to go to unreached villages and remote places in India that no one else goes to. Ganesh does prison ministry also and I can help support that too.

Ganesh is a Dalit. That means he is in the “untouchable” lowest of the low in the Indian caste system. Ganesh is a powerful preacher, kind of like an Indian Billy Graham. He is bold and courageous and has a great sense of humor. He is married to “Bindu” and they have 2 girls, age 8 and 3.

Ganesh and I will take special missions trips together to disciple our churches in Orissa and in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, (that is the church with Pastor Aviram I visited last month after my Nepal trip.) Lucknow church has 30 serious disciples who are all Hindu converts to Christ, and walking miracles of how Jesus has changed them.

Ganesh and I can train them, and develope a “Revival Seminar” that will include 1.)Ganesh training people in anointed evangelism, and 2.) then I can teach “anointed” “Apostle Paul style DISCIPLESHIP……….” (you see Ganesh has the gift of evangelism, and I think I might have the gift of exhortation, teaching and preaching, etc………but all that means nothing if it is not done in sincere love from God, HAVE YOU READ 1 COR. 13? Spiritual gifts are nothing if we are not living a radical life of love for poor sinners. Correct?)

Slum ministry in Mumbai, and Revival Seminars to reach all of India and Nepal and also special trips to the prisons and to remote villages that have never been touched before…….

(I had wanted to take time out and go to language school to learn Hindi, but there is no time for that now as momentum is just starting. I am sure in the next 2 years I will be able to take needed time out to learn Hindi, but ministry must come first as Ganesh is excellent translator.)

Oh my gosh, we need serious prayer because we are not able! I will give you more details as the exact planning will be made in my time in America this June and July, then in August, God willing I will be back in Mumbai and hit the slums with full force of God’s love.

I travel this week to be with my home church in Baltimore, International Convention, then minister in Kansas City in July……..can’t wait till August when I get back here to Mumbai!!

your cross cultural missionary,

Doug

Ropeholders,

Flowing trip to Katmandu and to Lucknow, north India.

Melvin and I trained our 12 Nepalese pastors in Katmandu. We were there 7 days. The nation was in chaos as the Maoist prime minister resigned suddenly after he fired the Army Chief. But we got along OK and I even found my way around Katmandu and surprised some church members by showing up at their house.

No electricity or running water 12 hours during the day, but no problem really.

We taught many home Bible studies for our church members and taught in the Bible College for Nepal pastors.

I taught on “The Apostle Paul’s Powerful Life”………I found 10 powerful characteristic of Paul’s life and my goal is: I want to live as close to how Paul lived as I can, by grace…

AND I WAS TRYING TO STIR UP THE NATIVE PASTORS TO LIVE LIKE THE APOSTLE PAUL LIVED. WE CAN DO IT!!!! Flee comfort correct? PREACH the gospel! Or am I wrong?

Read 2 Cor. 11:23-33 for the adventure that could be awaiting you!!!!??

**ON Facebook, I talked to an old friend from High School I had not seen in 20 years. He said he was coming to Katmandu the same time I was there. This friend, Scott, is working with Southern Baptist missions. I met him at his hotel and we went out for pizza!! Amazing what Facebook can do for you. You can catch up with old friends who happen to be in Katmandu the same week you are!!

(that is what the Apostle Paul and John Mark did. They had not seen each other in 20 years after their church split in Acts 15:36-39. Then at the end of Paul’s life in 2 Tim 4:11, he says, “Bring John Mark, for he is profitable in the ministry.” So, I guess Paul and John Mark must have got reconnected on their “Facebook” and sent a friend request to each other and went out for pizza right before Paul got his head chopped off by Nero. Ha!)

Then Melvin and I flew to Varanasi, north India. That is the holy city of Hinduism(even though it is filthy).

We caught a 8 hour bus to Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. There Pastor Aviram has an “on fire” church of 30 believers. They are all Hindu converts to Christ!!! Aviram was trained in our church in Bombay, and sent out 2 years ago. This is my 3rd visit to build up his church, and I saw that they are now really SOLID, SERIOUS DISCIPLES OF JESUS NOW.  I was so blessed to be with them.

Now we are back in Bombay. Spending time with Alan Muhammed, my precious disciple in the Lord. Visits in the slums continue……..tell you more soon………..

your brother in Christ,

Doug Pearson

Ropeholders,

Greetings from Mumbai. It was good to see some of you at the Summit at KCBT first week of March!

Got back to Mumbai, India, on March 11th. Met with Alan Muhammed the next day, he is still hungry and is really getting knit into the body, making good friends with all in the church here. I started teaching Alan the book of Daniel. It is fun to teach someone who is hearing these things for the first time!

Alan and I did evangelism outreach together the next day along with our Bombay team and Pastor Karl Silva. Then my partner Ganesh and I went back into the slums and renewed friendship with Sagar and Santosh. I gave these friends the pictures I took of them with me. They now hang up our photos on the walls of their slum homes. (My partner Ganesh is available to work with me on Monday and Saturday nights only, and we have visited five slums in the last two months.)

Last night we made our second visit to a Shivaji Nagar Chawl slum. In our Hindi speaking church on Sunday nights, Parvati is the key woman leader. She won a lady to Christ whose name is Ashia (she is about 60 years old, and she is the matriarch of this whole slum that we visited!!) Last night Ashia fed us Chicken Biriyani and we ministered to her family, her teenage grandsons and many others who poked their head in to see who was visiting. Ashia and her family and nominal muslims and now Ashia is fully a Christian with joy in Christ. She wants us to disciple her relatives so that they might also know Christ. This all started when Parvati prayed for a healing in Ashia’s family and God answered and healed tremendously. After the healing, Ashia believed in Christ fully and some of her family beleive now also.

Another slum adventure: On the way home three Saturdays ago, we saw a massive slum on a hill as we looked out of our rickshaw. I saw a big neon cross shining in the middle of the slum. So I provoked Ganesh: “Hey, lets go climb up that slum and find that church and meet the Christians there.” (It was 9:00 at night.)

We found our way up through the narrow maze of this “Shanti Nagar slum” in Dieysar East. We found the church and the Christians in their shacks all around it. There are about 70 Christian families in this slum and it is a Methodist church. All of them are originally from the same village in central India. They are also surrounded by Hindus and Muslims in the slum who tolerate them so far without persecution.

These Christians were so glad that we would come into their world. Their Methodist pastor is “assigned” by the “diocese” and comes once a week, he lives quite far away from them. Yet they have prayer together almost every night when the men come home from their $5-dollar-a-day construction jobs. The people are simple Christians who don’t have much leadership vision, evangelism or Bible knowledge. But they love God and we sang with them and prayed. My partner Ganesh really loved the fellowship with them as they all speak the native “Marati” language.

We visited them again two weeks later. They said that their “assigned” pastor died on the way to do their church service last Sunday, March 22nd. He was at the train station about to come to their slum and had a heart attack and died later at the hospital. This Methodist pastor was only about 40 years old with young children. So now I guess the Methodist Diocese will assign another man to pastor them. I hope we can make a good friendship with the new pastor and offer him help and investment in the men who want training, etc.

Finally I will end this email by telling you I took a quick trip to Bangkok, Thailand, to see what God is doing at our Greater Grace church there and to seek advice from wise Pastor Michael Walsh. He pioneered churches in Hungary, Russia, Siberia and in Nepal back in the 1990’s and now he pastors our church in Bangkok. I had a good session with him (the two key leaders in the Bangkok church are actually Indian: Ryan and Sandon; and another leader there is Steffan from Sweden). I was able to make great friendship with the Thai church and we took a trip to minister to some Burmese churches…

We took a trip to minister to some Burmese churches among the massive flood of immigrants flooding out of Myanmar, a very brutal military dictatorship that has caused many Burmese Christians to come into west Thailand. Our church in Bangkok is training two key Burmese pastors who asked for help there. I took a two-day trip to the border of Burma with Ryan and Sandon, and we even crossed over the border into Myanmar and passed out gospel tracts, which was probably illegal!!!! We were in the city of Myawaddy, Myanmar, for two hours and had a serious prayer time on the Burmese soil, asking God that He would open up door and hearts. After we passed out gospel tracts, we saw two policemen driving on motor bikes but they did not look our way. So, we got away with it!

The city in western Thailand where we ministered is called Maesot. We went with Burmese pastor, Angellay, who translated for us as we preached Jesus among Burmese immigrants. We found a construction site full of Burmese workers, and preached gospel to them on their lunch break under a big tree (it was the same type of tree that Buddha sat under when he got his eight-fold path stuff). Later that night we taught a Bible study at a Burmese immigrant village house and Ryan led four people to Christ, whom he singled out for attention after he could tell they didn’t fully grasp my message. Ryan and Sandon are great soulwinners in Thailand. And the Burmese Christians want Bible training.

In Bangkok we also shared Christ, and I did activities with the church there. We even played basketball as an outreach to some French, Iranian and Thai students. I sank a 20-footer straight through the basket (haven’t done that in a while!).

I will tell you more about the Thailand trip later, and new pictures of my Mumbai slum friends and Thailand pictures are up on the web site (see the post just before this one or follow these links):

• New Pictures in the Ministry (link to last post)
  
• Ministry in the Slums
• Thailand Burma Trip

Your missionary,
Doug

PS. My Best Friend gave me some advice once, He said, “Go into ALL THE WORLD, and preach the gospel.” THAT WAS GOOD ADVICE. IT IS A BETTER DIRECTION THAN WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE IN MY LIMITED THINKING. (Thanks, Jesus, for that advice about what to do with the rest of my life.) Do you know my Best Friend and heard that advice? I wish I could send you a friend request for Jesus on Facebook, but He uses other methods of keeping in touch with you. HA!!!

I am still going into theslums of  Mumbai. Here are a couple pictures of the people we minister to there.

• http://picasaweb.google.com/gregkedro.doug/MinistryInTheSlums

I also a short seven-day trip to Thailand to minister to our Greater Grace church in Bangkok. From there we took a two-day missions trip to the border of Thailand and Burma to minister to Burmese refugees. You can see some pictures of the trip here:

• http://picasaweb.google.com/gregkedro.doug/ThailandBurmaTrip

Hey Ropeholders,

I have been going into the slums here in Mumbai this last month! What a fascinating world to enter into. I guess there is a new movie out that has already won a lot of awards, it is called “Slumdog Millionare,” but I have not seen it yet. It is supposed to show an intimate look at slum life right here in my city of Mumbai.

You know what? HALF OF MUMBAI IS SLUM!!! Really, I could just throw a stone and it will land in a slum that I should go reach. Almost every street you go down there is a slum on one side of the street. I deeply desire to reach those people in slums. Only problem is finding enough Indian partners who want to do it. In the past year we had a regular ministry in “Asalpha Slum” but it was discouraging recently when my main partner in that outreach just suddenly quit going. I was broken hearted as I cannot go there alone, and so that ministry shut down. I am sorry it didn’t continue and I feel ashamed before all those who prayed for that slum ministry, but God has opened up another door.

Ganesh is my partner on Saturday nights, and also on Sunday afternoons and some Tuesday nights. Ganesh teaches at a college. There is a slum right across the street from his campus. So I provoked Ganesh to go with me to those people.

This slum is called “Mithi Bhai” slum. It is a bunch of shacks stacked up double high running along a river of trash. You can see the “river” in the picture of the slum here, just to the left (and this slum is closer to our church, so we hope to bring them to the Hindi-speaking church soon).

One Saturday night Ganesh and I just walked into the Mithi Bhai slum, just trusting God to give us open hearts. This is friendship evangelism and being a white person is the fishhook to draw people. You see, they were all so surprised and full of joy that I would suddenly enter their slum that I got three invitations to have tea in their slum houses. Ganesh translated for me as we talked to the young men at the beginning of the slum. I got a big crowd running up to me to meet me. Then I looked at one promising young 18-year-old boy named Sagar, I asked, “Where is your house?” He pointed down the narrow dark alley. I said to Sagar, “Show me your home!!”

Sagar was so happy to bring me to his house and as Ganesh translated for me I met the whole family and all his immediate neighbors who were sticking their heads in the door and in the small windows to get a peak at who this strange foreign visitor could be?? I shared about Jesus in a friendly, non-confrontational way. They are all Hindus and love to hear of Jesus. We took pictures together and had tea and I learned of how they live life. Sagar’s dad is a rickshaw driver.

Then one 30-year-old man poked his head in and said I must come to his place also. Santosh is his name. So we walked down the narrow maze of slum streets to his little corner and met his wife, children, brothers, and his father Dondo.

Dondo is 85 years old and he began to weep when he talked with me. He grew up in the time when the “Britishers” ruled India and he loved them. He had a few friendships with white British men when he was a boy. AND DONDO SAID HE HAD NOT TALKED TO A WHITE MAN FOR ALL THE 70 YEARS SINCE THE BRITISHERS LEFT. DONDO WAS SO THANKFUL THAT ANOTHER WHITE MAN WOULD ENTER INTO HIS WORLD.

Ganesh and I shared the gospel with this family, but again, in a non-confrontational way because we desire to come back week after week and draw them with sincere friendship. We took more pictures, and then we went back the next week and gave all these new friends a copy of our picture together as a simple act of friendship. Now they hang our picture on their slum walls!!!

Also, God gave us one more slum to visit right near our church in Andheri. One family is newly coming to the Hindi speaking church and Pastor Devendra had us follow them up and visit in their slum.

Finally, God has also given me a Muslim man who comes to church and is asking great questions. THIS IS AN AMAZING STORY.

Naushad (Naw-shod) is a 28-year-old Muslim who owns a blue jeans factory. He has visited our church for five weeks and we went to see him at his factory. (You won’t believe this… but you know what…??) Naushad had been praying for 15 years that he could meet some Christian friends!!! As a Muslim who is moderate and open to other beliefs, he always wanted Christian friends.

When Naushad was a young boy, a Christian woman in his neighborhood in New Delhi was teaching a Bible study for children. This older Christian saint had a motherly love for all the children in their New Delhi neighorhood, even children from Hindu and Muslim backgrounds. Naushad remembered the love of that Christian woman and even though he remained Muslim, he had deep respect for the Christians.

Guess how he met our Greater Grace church here? He was walking along the road near our church and picked up one of our gospel tracts someone had thrown on the ground! We go soul-winning often on that street and sometimes people reject the message we are preaching and throw the gospel tract down. Well, I guess that day, God saw our faith and honored one of our tracts that was rejected, and Naushad picked it up later and came to church. He loves our church and stays afterward to ask questions. He is not offended when we show him how Jesus is the only way and how that Jesus is God. As a Muslim he has a hard time believing these things but he is slowly coming to believe. Pray for him!!

I am focusing still on discipling many young men in our church. Alan Muhammed, Dominique, Chetan, Justin and recently reconnected with Abhi, the 16-year-old boy whose father died long back. I discipled him some last year and this year he has been busy with pressure of exams to get into a good college. Now he is more free and we are spending time together again.

I am not teaching Bible college this semester since this year we are focusing our schedule more on the church prayer meeting and “one-on-one” discipleship. Sometimes we have been out of balance; so now prayer and personal discipleship are getting more of a priority.

Well there is more to tell but I will save it for later.

Thanks for your prayers holding me together, and my health has been great. I have key decisions coming up so praying for discerning God’s doors for me in the future.

Your missionary,

Doug Pearson

P.S. Did you see my Orissa trip pictures? If not, please follow this link and you can see those and the others I have to share.

Ropeholders,

I just returned from Orissa state. Made it back to Mumbai safe (and met for discipleship with Alan Muhammed and Dominique the first day back).

You may have heard reports from Voice of the Martyrs and others about the over 600 Christians killed in Orissa in 2008. Hindu mob violence erupted many times last year and many churches were burned, and people brutally killed.

With the help of financial gifts from friends in KC we were able to start our Greater Grace church there in March 2008; the pastor — Pradeep — got two bungalow houses for a new church and Bible college with a vision to reach all of poor Orissa. The Christians in Orissa are very weak in the Bible so we want to see a “Word of God revival” reach all of Orissa in the next 30 years if God allows our church to reproduce there.

We help Pradeep pay monthly rent of $100 dollars for the two houses next door to each other. Good price huh?

Pradeep and I are close because I personally discipled him for a year. He is one of the few who are “actual” fruit of my time here in India. So, I flew to a city south of him and he picked me up as I payed for a driver to take me into Orissa. (As soon as you cross the border into Orissa state, the roads become bumpy, and the fields become barren and stony ground.)

I was there for a week and had a joyous time teaching the Bible all day long to Pradeep and his four hungry Bible College students (Gopal, Samuel, Jibit and Neeranjan). I have four new pictures of my trip to Orissa in my Picasa album.

Also, we had a special church service on Thursday, January 8th and about 50 adults and 30 children came. Also five other Orissa pastors came more than once during the week to receive Bible training. We did not offer them any financial help, just our friendship. Many are from different tribal backgrounds. On Sunday,  January 11th, the main church service had about 30 adults came and 20 children. Pradeep’s wife Sumitra did amazing cooking for me. And his children are adorable.

Pradeep was worn out with joy after translating for me all day for seven days. I stayed on the house church property all week and did not venture out in city. Did not want to attract any attention or persecution. Pradeep and the students went out evangelizing and visiting houses one day while I stayed home and prayed. Normally they are out doing home bible studies and evangelizing every day!! Diligent!!

Two of the Bible college students, Gopal and Neeranjan, come from Hindu backgrounds and have already been beaten and ostracized for their stand for Christ. It was an honor to teach them. They should be teaching me.

With the four students and five pastors, I taught them, in one day, the whole Book of Genesis. The next day we studied the Book of Romans. The next day I taught them the Book of Revelation while another day we covered the Books of Acts, Psalms, Proverbs, did an O.T. Survey… and also covered true salvation by grace through faith (from Acts 10, etc). We covered 1 Timothy 3 and the characteristics of church leaders. Then I answered many good questions, along with giving marriage advice to two of them!!! (Ha! Yes, I can tell the husbands they must tell their wife verbally that they love them each day, and treat them as equal, and invest time in them, etc. Actually we spent a lot of time in 1 Corinthians 13 studying what is true love.)

When the church members came we had a great time. They enjoyed meeting me because I was the first white man they had met. (If these people really knew me, they might be disappointed.)

Many Hindu converts come as Pradeep is a very effective evangelist/pastor. Even a local policeman comes to church regularly so I felt a bit safer. It actually seemed very peaceful there but I am sure there were many dangers around me I was not aware of. Through your prayers I was protected and I hope our young church there is protected in the future.

We help support the four Bible college students so they can exist on $20 dollars a month. I hope I can return again at least twice a year. They have Bible College every morning, and outreach every afternoon and night. They are busy for Jesus and not afraid. (Maybe they should be afraid? The situation of Hindu vs. Christian could erupt into a “Rwanda” if certain things go wrong.)

Jesus is all-powerful and He knows. We have to keep going and not let threats scare us into not going with the gospel.

I will email you again soon with an “overall big picture” of what God is doing in India through our churches and how I am fitting in. I think I will email you in a couple weeks with a personal five year Plan — which will include learning Hindi language more intensively (knowing that as soon as you make 5 year plans, the Lord is likely to change them!).

Please e-mail me your ministry news. What is God doing in your mission where you are?

Your missionary,

Doug Pearson

Hey Ropeholders,

Christmas was busy with many special evangelism outreaches and banquets. My disciple, Alan Muhammed, brought 5 visitors to the Christmas play we did. Alan is really growing in the Word of God and in body-life of the church. Alan is getting to know many new friends in the church and he is a blessing to all. And Alan is reading the Bible on his own with a great fire in his heart now.

Also, there was some persecution here in Mumbai recently. Hindus attacked a pastor and his church in the middle of a baptism service where they were baptizing Hindu converts to Christ. That pastor and his church are very close to where I live in north suburbs of Bombay. So, Ganesh and I went to visit him and we prayed with that pastor and encouraged him. We had never heard of his church before, and yet it was all over the newspapers here. Praise God we were able to stand with him after it happened.(this kind of persecution rarely happens in Bombay, but it happens often in village areas, especially in Orissa.)

• Voice of the Martyrs has some information on the Orissa persecution.
• They also have an entire section dedicated to persecution in India (lots of good information on India in addition to the persecution issues).

We finished our Christmas ministry with a 2-day camp where 90 people from our Bombay church went 2 hours south to a hill station for great fellowship. I was able to build up some new people in the church.

January 6-13: I will be travelling to Orissa to teach

Now, I am travelling to Orissa soon. For 1 week, January 6th through 13th I will be in Orissa teaching our new church there and training Pastor Pradeep. Pradeep is the young, 30-year-old pastor I have wrote about before. I discipled him for 1 year in Bangalore, then brought him to Mumbai 2 different times so Pastor Karl could further train him as he is beginning a new church in Orissa (that is the state of India you may have heard from “Voice of the Martyrs” how this last year Hindus burned many churches and killed many Christians there). They are already the poorest state of India, now they suffer more as Christians. Orissa is just south of Calcutta and north of Hyderabad, east side of India. Maybe you can see me on the satellite photos of Google Earth if you look for this part of India.!!!

Pray for protection of me and our church there.

I will email you after January 13th when I return from that trip.

Your missionary to India,

Doug

Hey my friends,

Two hours before the terror attacks started in Mumbai, I took a Jet Airways flight to visit our church in Rajkot, Gujarat. (the city is pronuounced RAJ-COAT).

We were so surprised to hear of the attacks later, and I was thankful that God had scheduled this trip for me so I could escape the chaos of my home city of Mumbai at this time.

I travelled with one of my good Indian friends, Jomy. We are visiting our pastor, Arpit, here in Rajkot city. I am here five days. I will fly back to Mumbai on Monday and hope things have calmed down there by then.

That Wednesday afternoon before the attacks, I met with my disciple Alan Muhammed. We had a great time studying Gospel of John, and he is still on fire for Jesus. I feel so honored to disciple a young man who converted to Christ from his old Muslim background. I hope Alan is doing okay in the midst of the chaos in Mumbai these days. That afternoon we also watched a video called “More Than Dreams” which tells true stories of Muslims who are visited by Jesus in their dreams and they convert to be a Christian. (You can buy it on Amazon.com or Christianbook.com, etc.) Jesus is touching so many Muslims. It is really happening!! Let us rejoice and not let Muslim terrorism intimidate us. Satan is always fighting the Church. We have the victory over him, so let us act like it and let us feel like it!! So many Muslims are coming to Christ all over the world at this time!!

It is good to be in Gujarat for a few days. Actually the newspaper was saying that Pakistani Muslims and Muslims from Gujurat may be responsible for this attack. The paper said the terrorists did a sneak attack when it was dark, and came in by boats from the sea. The Taj hotel and other targets they hit were right off the shore of the south tip of Mumbai.

The terrorists used Gujarati coastline to travel to Mumbai on stolen boats. So I am now in Gujarat, the area the terrorists launched from???

I am as safe as being in God’s arms. No worry.

Our church here in Gujarat is amazing and Pastor Arpit has five Bible college students that are really on fire for God to take India for Jesus!!! If the terrorists can be so radical in their hatred; then in the love of Jesus for sinners, let us be more radical to love and serve people with the gospel and kindness. Let’s premeditate a love blitz of the gospel in word and deed!!! What do you think?

So, Jomy and I are here training the troops in Greater Grace Gujarat. Lets take all of Asia for Jesus!! Pastor Arpit and the five Bible College students have that bold Great Commission desire. We need some of you to join us over here! God is your protection, so come on over here!!

My pastor in Mumbai, Karl Silva, told me by phone that everyone in our church is OK, yet we have one member of our Mumbai church, Richard, he works at the Oberoi/Trident Hotel that was attacked and held hostage for about two days now. Just two hours ago, the news reported that the police finally killed the remaining two terrorists and freed the hostages in Oberoi hotel.

Well, our Greater Grace church member, RICHARD, he is a cook there and he got off work at 9:20pm that Wednesday night, the 26th, and the terrorists attacked that Oberoi Hotel at 9:40pm!!!!!! Our Father God got Richard out 20 minutes before the attack. Yet he told Pastor Karl Silva that one of his best friends was killed by the terrorists as they held that hotel hostage for almost two days. Pray for Richard as he must be grieving, and will probably have to look for a new job as that Hotel may have problems in the aftermath.

Well, I will update you later when I get back to Mumbai, where Jesus never sleeps, nor slumbers.

Your missionary,

Doug

Hey everybody, hope you have a great Thanksgiving.

This picture is of me and Alan Muhammed. He is the young man I am discipling. He comes from a Muslim background and he met us on the streets last year, and Jesus changed his life after he started coming to our church here in Mumbai. I meet with him at least once a week and study John, Romans and Genesis with him. He asks great questions and shares all he learns with his college friends. What a treasure to be able to invest in him.

I will try to get some more pictures up later.

Your missionary and your brother,

Doug Pearson