Every morning our phones are filled with just such text messages…
Undoubtedly, you have seen the news from India! Hundreds are dying daily. The US government has issued a Level 4 travel advisory due to life-threatening risks and requests US citizens leave immediately. And while it is heart-wrenching to hear these news reports, how much more horrible it would be to hear that more than 100+ of your close friends have passed away due to covid-19 in the past week?! That is precisely what we heard just yesterday…
Please join our First Friday prayer gathering on Friday, May 7th to hear firsthand from Koki Desai, our WiW Regional Ministry Associate. Jesus promised that when we pray together, God hears & answers. Matthew 18:19.
Read the following prayer letter from Koki Desai, and as you read, PRAY:
Happy and Preeti are our closest family friends. We are in mentoring relationships for many years. Happy does business as mission. Preeti is one of our WiW women leaders and teaches in a local school. Last week their whole family became Corona positive. In our city Happy and Preeti got the beds in hospital. Parents had to be sent in other town hospital. Children were home quarantined alone. This is the common story of so many here in India!
BUT because God is good, there is also cause for PRAISE:
This morning Happy was on the phone, said, “God let my mother live as long as He wanted and then called her Home. The Lord spoke to me from David’s life, “My mother was down with Corona in the hospital, I thought, who knows? The Lord may be gracious to us and let her live, but now that she is dead why should I grieve. Can I bring her back again? I will go to her, but she will not return to me.” (from 2 Samuel 12:23)
“God gave her to us and then took her back” Happy then said with tears, “We know the Lord and have hope of eternity . . . what about the others who do not know the Lord?”
We praise God for such testimonies. We also praise God that the churches and Christian institutions are opening their doors to become Isolation Centres. ALL of our several hundred hospitals are full as they are across the sub-continent of India! Churches are also providing free food to people.
PRAY
People are dying due to lack of oxygen and injections. One report says that at least one person is dying every 4 minutes. They wait long hours for ambulances to take them to hospitals where there are no beds available.
In our city alone among the Christian community, in one week time we have personally lost more than 125 people who were in our circle of friends and colleagues. Some families have lost 4-5 members in just a few days’ time.
Every morning our phones are filled with such text messages. Sadly, we know many of these people personally. It is heart breaking because we cannot go and hug them or give them a shoulder to cry on. We cannot visit them in hospitals and cannot attend the funerals. Their despair is deeply distressing.
Please pray that the Lord will intervene now and visit India and His people in a new and fresh way.
Koki
Join us this Friday, May 7, at our First Friday Prayer Gathering to hear firsthand from Koki. Here’s the schedule. Choose the best time for you to join the call:
11:30 to 12 noon – Fascinating Facts—our WiW prayer team will bring you fascinating facts from South Asia to help us all pray with understanding.
12 noon to 1pm – Koki Desai, South Asia WiW Associate Regional Director, will update us on the current conditions in India, the way God is using the situation to move throughout this region, we will join together to pray for these dire needs in Asia; AND the needs of all of our ministry partners in Africa and the Middle East as Ramadan draws to a close in just two weeks from now.
PLEASE plan to join us for our May First Friday prayer gathering. Your prayers make a tremendous difference in the lives of these women and those they love.
Persisting in Prayer with you,
Kim
