Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Greetings in the Wonderful Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Brother George Ieremciuc and I traveled to the cities of Madras, Coimbatore and Cochin India from May 25 to June 4 to conduct a two day Prison Training Seminar at the Apostolic Seminary in Cochin and then visit the charitable work being done in Coimbatore by Dr. Ezra Kumar and his wife, Margaret Jayakumari.

First we want to thank God because he was with us on our trip and guided and protected us both in this land where the majority of the people there, who are Hindus, worship over 33,000,000 gods. During our time there, we had the opportunity to preach the gospel and give our seminar.  The most significant development was the creation of the Asia Prison Ministry Training Institute, which is now incorporated within the official program of the Apostolic Seminary in Cochin.  We will be soon be sending them additional materials as a part of creating a curriculum for the Institute. Those in the Bachelors of Divinity program speak English and each were given a large print Thompson Chain Reference Bible and as a part of their training, they will be teaching our institute materials to the other students in the local language.

When we arrived in Cochin on the 27th, Sunday, in time to preach in two churches.  On Monday and Tuesday we conducted the training seminar with about 50 in attendance. At the end of the training, eleven men stepped forward for prayer and to be dedicated to full-time prison ministry. On Tuesday, Chaplains for Christ Asian Prison Training Institute was created as a part of the Apostolic Seminary in Cochin, India.  We will be sending an array of training DVDs/CDs to them as a part of the curriculum.  We donated a computer-adaptable projector to the seminary for use in their follow-up training.

On Thursday, we drove to Coimbatore, India to participate in the work of Dr. Ezra Kumar and his wife, Margaret Jayakumari.  We spoke in one service and four Hindu women came forward with tears at the invitation to receive Christ as Savior, one of whom had been involved in witchcraft. Please pray for the lives of those who gave their lives to Jesus that they will become a light in the darkness. We also joined with the pastors in the dedication of a deliverance and counseling center to be built next to the church.  We then visited homes for orphans, widows, the elderly and lepers.  We were welcomed with such gratitude and warmth everywhere we went.  Sister Margaret even arranged for an elephant ride.  What a pleasure it is to work with fully dedicated men and women of God.

The day we left, June 3rd, we made another contact with a pastor in Madras who is interested in starting a Chaplains for Christ Prison Training Institute near that city.  We will be in contact with them about this possibility.

The trip was very demanding physically but seemed very successful spiritually. The people in this country are very poor but we witnessed many who were rich in the things that matter for eternity.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Staff Chaplain Rob Brown