The 2008 Mission Trip to India was a great success. During the 10 days we helped lay the foundation stone for a new church building at the Huda Branch Church and then helped in the dedication of a new building for the Hayathnagar Branch Church. 

A new church to them was really a roof covering a dirt floor.  No padded pews, AC or normal comforts of life.  In fact most of the people sat on blankets that covered the ground. 

We also participated in the groundbreaking of nine houses of members in the church.  These are very small concrete block buildings usually only one or two rooms.  Not much by our standards but they knew they were blessed by God with the ability to own their own property. 

On Saturday morning we visited New Hope School. The team distributed toys to the lower grades and book marks to the older children.  We enjoyed the children singing praise and worship songs to the Lord at the school assembly.

Sunday was a day of worship starting with the early morning English service, the main Telugu worship service at Hope Evangelical Church, and worship at the Hayathnagar Branch Church. This was their first Sunday morning worship service in their new building. 

That afternoon at the prayer service the people stood in line for up to two hours waiting for one of the team members to pray with them.  Their prayer requests were usually like this, 1. Pray for their spiritual growth, 2. Pray for their children's education, 3. Other needs.  Did you notice that Spiritual Growth was almost always their number one prayer request!

The Pastors Conference started on Monday morning with pastors traveling from all over South Central India to attend this event.  The pastors slept on the floors of the school classrooms just to be able to attend this training conference. Over 60 workers worked to care for the pastors, clean the bathrooms and the cooks cooked the food outside on the open fire.  Each night at the Gospel Meetings the school children preformed cultural dances, sang songs and worshiped together with the pastors and members of Hope Evangelical Church.

In their spare time the team members visited more than 30 houses and huts praying for God's blessings upon their home and family.  They also went house to house breaking bread (eating together) and fellowshipping together with the brothers and sisters in Christ, thanking God for His tremendous blessings on the Christians in India.  Thank you for your prayers and support for the 2008 Mission Trip to India.

New Hope International Missions
PO Box 291046
Nashville, TN 37229-1046
www.NewHopeInternational.com