First and foremost, we so desire to communicate with our prayer team the joy of all that was accomplished on this trip and trainings!

 
Revival is taking place in India and this training is right on time to help them go further and deeper in making disciples and strengthening His Church! The focus of our training was to pilot our new WiW Microenterprise curriculum. We are ecstatic by the progress we made and excited about the future potential. Our WiW Ministry Partners received great encouragement as they saw the women equipped to minister even more effectively to the women in their own communities! Here are some direct quotes and accounts from the women of India:

• Several of the women leaders have no formal education and while they are very intelligent, they cannot read and write. One of them shared that her husband derided her, calling her a buffalo with no value as a worthy human being. After completing the first day, she came back and realized that she does have gifts and abilities that God can use. She even brought her teenage daughter to attend the rest of the remaining so that her daughter can establish a strong foundation also. Along with other women in their community, they plan to start a small business to help poor women afford school supplies for their families- business as mission!

• Many of the women said the Women in the Widow Bible study method enabled them to understand the Word of God more fully. One woman told us that she had read the account of Priscilla and Aquila many times but never fully understood the truths imbedded in their story. The women experienced transformation as a result! They left full of hope for the future of their ministries as women and with their husbands.

Just one comment we will always remember: “We now understand that we can earn for our earthly needs AND for eternal gain.” We are praying that the women in India will continue to carry the vision and dream of all they received and act upon it to bless their lives, homes, and ministries!

We love you all and praise God for your prayers and support! Please continue to pray as we reenter life in the USA with very busy schedules ahead.

With hearts full of hope,
Jackie, Kathy and Kim

We are truly amazed and so grateful for the way God is answering your prayers on behalf of our trainings here in India!

Our first training is complete and the second one is underway. The enthusiasm is palpable. We are deeply honored by the opportunity to provide new understanding of how to study the lives of women in the Bible through the Women in the Window Inductive Bible Study method. We are focusing the Inductive Bible Study on the life of Priscilla and Aquila. AND we are also providing micro-business training too.

It is heartwarming to see these women filled with hope for overcoming poverty and injustice as they learn how to start their own businesses!

One woman brought eight others from her neighboring state. They all left excited about how God has and is using women in business to advance His kingdom.

Another woman shared how her husband wanted her to start a small business to help support their ministry but she refused. Now she has fresh perspective on this entire matter and, needless to say, her husband is thrilled! He even came by the training to say so.

There is so much more to share, but it will have to wait. For now, please continue to pray for our physical stamina, spiritual insight and hearts that radiate His love and truth!

With hearts full of hope,
Kim, Jackie, and Kathy

“I will call those who were not my people, my people; and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved’ and in the very place where it was said to them, ‘you are not my people,’ there they will be called sons and daughters of the living God.”

Romans 9:25-26

Women in the Window International has been invited to serve the women of India once again. As I reflect on my first trip to India, I am amazed by how God orchestrated the events leading up to and during this life-changing encounter, and how He continues to work in amazing and Life-giving ways. Those who were not His people, have become His people, as the burgeoning church of India boasts millions of men, women and children, yet this is only 8% of the total population, with millions who are still unreached and unengaged. In the northern states, where we are heading, less than 2% of the population is considered “reached” or has a Gospel witness among the people of their cities and villages.

In the year 2000 I was invited to visit India for the first time as my church prepared to serve as part of a national team of doctors, construction workers, and evangelists. I labored in prayer and waited to hear God’s answer, “Should I join this team, Lord?” He made it very clear that He wanted to send me there and yet the Scripture passage that accentuated His call had a different tone than I had ever heard before. “For I know their works and their thoughts; the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory.” Isaiah 66:18

Little did I know that this concept —gathering them “from all nations” to serve the peoples of their own nation and declare His glory—would soon become a normal and prominent part of Christian service in the world of global ministry as well as my own personal life and work.

Beautiful memories from the teeming population of cities and tent villages, banana leaf meals, hard beds, and loving welcomes warm my soul as they remind me of myriad opportunities to advance the Kingdom in the second most populous nation of the world, India! Since that time, I have had the personal privilege of ministry in these major cities and numerous villages of India as well: Delhi, Guntur, Chennai, Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Bangalore, and Kolkota (formerly Calcutta). Our Women in the Window teams have also served in the northeastern states of: Assam and Jharkhand.

I am thrilled to be returning to the exact location of my first trip to India 17 years ago, and will have an opportunity to visit with a young woman whom I met on that very first trip. Her warm welcome to her home and invitation for tea became a transformational moment for us both. We will be serving approximately 100 women leaders of India as we provide micro-enterprise training to help them launch their own small businesses and to train potentially hundreds and hundreds more. . .

Please join us in prayer for this trip from June 7 to 19 and the two trainings conducted by our team, Jackie Hilliard, Kathy Caprio, and myself, along with our ministry partner. Here are some specific requests for our trip and trainings:

• With a literacy rate of only 60% among the women of India, pray that as we pilot our new WiW curriculum, it will provide both oral and practical application to the lives of women through the stories of multiple women in the Bible who were successful with their own businesses. 
• India has the most people living in conditions of slavery, an estimated 18 million, and has the largest number of child laborers under 14 in the world, with an estimated 12.6 million children engaged in hazardous occupations. Pray that our WiW micro-enterprise skills training will directly impact the condition of human slavery, especially among women and children in India!
• As we reunite with friends of many years and make new friends, too, pray for God’s Holy Spirit to knit our hearts together in love within our own team, with our ministry partners, and among the women of India!   “…that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself,  in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2:2-3

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
Luke 4:18-19

– Pray for the Gospel to go forth in power despite current legal restrictions
– Pray for freedom for the narcotic qat that holds 80% of Yemeni adults captive
– Pray for the desperate economic situation to ignite a longing for lasting hope and security

Click here for a short video on Yemen.

As our West Africa team returns tomorrow, we thought you would enjoy this short update on their final days of training—the amazing way God worked among them—and prayer request for their journey home.

Women in the Window is known as a field-driven ministry. Just what does that mean, you might ask? It means that we are directed by the needs and dreams of our ministry partners as they envision God’s plans for their own communities and nations. During this training, women leaders requested and then had an opportunity to learn and teach practical and life-changing skills that demonstrate the Love of Christ with words and actions in health and business. The women practiced student teaching among themselves in preparation for the lessons they would teach in the village outreach on Friday. They had the opportunity to teach nutrition, hand washing, facts about menopause, and acted out the story of the woman at the well and her conversation with Jesus found in John 4.  One of them is a public health worker who taught on malaria. They led a demonstration of how to construct a tippy tap from the local resources.  The tippy tap (top left photo above) is a hand washing station made of simple material and allows each village family to access running water to wash their hands. This idea came from one of our participants and is being used in villages in the northern areas where poverty and diseases are common.

Our African sisters organized prayer teams to pray with the village ladies during the outreach and a worship team who led in song and dance.  It was exciting to see the women take ownership of every aspect of this outreach.  Several local women came forward to receive Christ as their Savior. Many people in this village were healed from leprosy and now experience the joy of personally knowing their Divine Healer.

As we prepare to leave Africa, the following 3 points are our biggest take-aways:

• There is a clear need for intensive preparation of a select group of local women trainers to continue to lead and multiply trainings. Pray for this to be included in our follow-up planning with our ministry partners here.
• Praise God that previous WiW trainings have multiplied in health and economic development in their communities; with many women now leading outreach to rural areas.
• We were strongly encouraged by the feedback the women had regarding the village outreach, how it impacted them in confidence, and how it can be multiplied as they return to their own communities and even other nations.

We greatly appreciate of all your prayers on our behalf throughout this trip and training, and ask you to continue to pray for our 24 hours of travel home.  You are a vital part of this team and we simply couldn’t do this work without you!

P.S. for more photos and even videos visit our WiW Facebook page.