The Franks Family

Making disciples of Jesus Christ in Kolhapur, India
– sent by Brackenhurst Baptist Church, RSA

“And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God.”  Ephesians 5:2

From June 3 - 5 Kolhapur Bible Church had its first church seminar. The subject chosen for the week was Marriage and the Family. Our guest speakers were Pieter and Dianne Swanepoel, from Nashik Reformed Fellowship. The theme for the week was taken from Ephesians 5:2. Our newly formed church seemed to soak up as much as they could. All of the ladies morning sessions as well as the family sessions in the evening were well attended. We were spiritually well fed that week plus we got to enjoy the company and fellowship of the Swanepoel family.

All of our churchs’ regular ministries started up again in the second week of June. The schools academic year runs from June till April. As a result all other holidays revolve around that. April till May are also the hottest months of the year, here in India, with temperatures reaching a record high of 47 degrees celcius this summer.

Our Kings Kids playschool started in our new community centre. The first week we had 15 children and the second week we had 20 registered. Please pray for this ministry, as all the children come from Muslim or Hindu homes. When admitting their children, the parents signed a “No Objection Form’ for the Christian Curriculum we have formulated for the playschool. We have also planned regular parents meetings, where Ps. Kaushal will speak from the Bible about parenting. A visitation schedule has also been drawn up, so we can visit the children in their parents home, and share the gospel with them. Three of our ladies in the church have been employed to run this ministry. Please pray for Santoshi, Manisha and Savitri, and for our efforts to reach these little hearts and their homes with Christ – the hope of all nations.

The other ministry we started this academic year was the English literacy program. As I mentioned in our last letter, we use the Scriptures to teach people English. So far we have had two families come to our church as a direct result of this ministry. Please be praying for Ramesh and his Hindu family who have shown an interest in Christ. The other family that has attended our church is the Bora family. Mrs. Bora who is my English student, is a follower of expired Guru Acharya Rajneesh. Rajneeshs’ teachings advocate sex as a legitimate means of salvation. He said that when Jesus taught “you must be born again”, He was saying you must have sexual meditation in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. His argument is simply that reality is one. Duality is evil, and the only way to transcend this duality and experience heaven, is through sexual intercourse, when two become one. His teachings get more perverted, he says once you reach samadhi (superconsciousness) through sex you don't need to have intercourse with a member of the opposite sex. You can then have it with the whole universe. He was very dogmatic on the point that reason cannot know the truth and words cannot express it. God, self, or heaven is consciousness within us. Truth or God – in fact, everything – is rationally unknown and unknowable according to Rajneesh. He goes on to say that the universe’s impersonality has neither a cause nor a purpose.

If you know anything of this infamous guru who ran a multi million dollar ashram in Oregon, USA, as well as in Pune, India, you will have heard the many criminal charges against this spiritual leader, rape, molestation, drug smuggling as well as cash and gold, tax evasion, are just to name a few. But yet thousands upon thousands of people still blindly serve this dead guru, and faithfully visit his ashrams. Please pray for the Bora family especially Mrs. Bora who is aspiring to become a female Saddhu – a teacher of Rajneesh. She told me the reason she wants to learn English is so she can teach Rajneeshs teachings in English. Please pray for her, as she learns english through the Holy Bible, she will come to see and believe that Jesus is the Way, the Life and the Truth, and that nobody comes to God except through Jesus Christ.

Included in our new venue is a cement water tank on the roof terrace of the church. We have obtained permission from the landlord to fix this tank and to use it for our baptismal purposes. This is a huge gift from our Lord, as you may remember the difficulties we are forced to go through to find a secluded river or body of water in order to perform our baptisms. Please pray for four candidates we are currently preparing for the waters of baptism, Vinay and his son Anuragh, Savitri and Tabita. All of these candidates have unbelieving family members who come to our church. Please pray that this public testimony of the gospel will change the hardened hearts of their loved ones and they too would come to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

Thank you to those who are financially supporting our community outreach program. This month we were able to help many poor & HIV infected families with practical needs. We trust and pray that our good works will be noticed by the unbelievers and they in turn would glorify God. A detailed report is available for interested parties.

We believe as a church the Lord has been leading us in more active evangelism. We have been teaching through the book of John verse by verse and were convicted about our complacency towards evangelism especially in chapter 4 when the Lord turns to his disciples and says “..Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white already unto harvest. He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal; that he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.” I found a very apt illustration that is worth sharing, from Mahatma Gandhi’s book, My experiments with truth. pg 133. He says gift from our Lord, as you may remember the difficulties we are forced to go through to find a secluded river “(while in South Africa) I came in contact with another Christian family. At their suggestion I attended the Wesleyan Church every Sunday. For these days I also had their standing invitation to dinner. The church did not make a favourable impression on me. The sermons seemed to me uninspiring. The congregation did not strike me as being particularly religious. They were not an assembly of devout souls, they appeared rather to be worldly minded people, going to church for recreation and in conformity to custom. Here at times, I would involuntarily doze. I was ashamed, but some of my neighbours, who were in no better case, lightened the shame. I could not go on like this, and soon gave up attending the service.”

Please pray for Kolhapur Bible Church’s evangelism efforts, that we would indeed “lift up our eyes and look” and share Christ that people would be saved and that fruit would remain for the glory & honour of His Name.

Keri’s column

“O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34

Thank you for your prayers for Tabita Rukadikar! On the 4th of June, baby Mercy was born to Tabita. Almost one year to the date of the birth of their first daughter. Sadly, their first little girl died, surviving only one month. What a terrible time this was as they watched their little girl fade away. As I reflect on the birth of Mercy,I am filled with joy and thankfullness at what God has done. The Lord used this great loss in Tabita’s life to bring her to the Lord, and then mercifully, filled her empty arms again with this new precious little bundle! Truly “Mercy” is the perfect name for this baby girl.

June saw the start of a new outreach ministry into the town of Morshingi. Here, the Dinawade family has opened the doors of their home for us to have a Bible study each Monday evening. After one of the Bible studies, their daughters asked Gareth, “How do you know what we are thinking? Every time we sit under the Word you answer all the questions we have on our minds without us even asking!” This family, hungry for the word, gathers with their neighbours to hear what God has to say to them from His Word.

And certainly, the Lord has shown such mercy in allowing all to be well with our family as well as baby, who is Lord willing due at the end of July. Only one month to go and we get to meet our new little one. Ezra and Eden are so excited! :-)

Jesus truly is a merciful Lord and we have seen His underserved favour in so many ways over the past few months. Not only in His hand over me during a difficult pregnancy, but we are amazed at how the Lord is adding to the ministry! And to think that just a few short months ago, we were pleading with you all to pray with us as we faced, what we thought, were major trials and difficulties in the work here. Our ways are not God’s ways and He has worked all things for good, as He promises to those who love Him.

Gareth, Keri, Ezra, Eden & ?

Prayer Requests

Please pray for:
* For continued guidance in the ministry
* The students attending the language classes and playschool
* The bible study at Morshingi – Dinawade family
* The safe delivery of baby in July- safe travel for Keri’s mom and aunt here to help

Praise the Lord for:
*The safe birth of Mercy Rakhudikar
*God adding to the Church - those who have come to Christ, being discipled and seeking baptism
* The new admissions into the school
* God’s mercy in the ministry as well as our personal lives