AshaHouse

We are all so proud of Brij Mohan. He graduated this year from school as the “Student of the Year.” Now he is heading off to Bangalore, India to go to a YWAM DTS (Youth With a Mission, Discipleship Training School). He will be training for 3 months and then go out on the field for another 3 months. He will be gone from his Asha House family for a total of 6 months, but they are all so excited for him to get this opportunity.

Here is a picture of Brij with a Thank You message for everyone who made this opportunity possible.

Here are some pictures from the evening that Brij left for Bangalore. A bitter sweet good-bye to Asha House’s Brij Baiyah.

Here are some pictures of sweet little Leah with Simini-Mommy:

A little Easter greeting from everyone at Asha House and Back To The Roots.

Rajina who is 5 years old has the nickname “Rabbit” (or “Cargos” in Hindi). She broke her arm a few months ago when she slipped on the stairs at Asha House. In this picture she still has her arm in the cast and sling, but she also has such a beautiful brave smile on her face. She is doing much better now and healing up just fine. Thank you to everyone who supports Asha House and contributes to the care of all the sweet children there.

In India the beginning of the new school year is in April.

It is always exciting to see children who have never been to school get access to education, but this year we are especially excited. Jyoti, who has been battling health issues for many years (worms in her brain that caused dizziness, fatigue, and seizures), is finally healthy enough to attend school. We have been working with her at home, teaching her English and Math. She is very bright and we are so thrilled to be able to send her to school and see her flourish there.

Here are some pictures from Asha House of the children getting ready to go back:

Ashish is the first baby boy born at Asha House. His name means “blessing” and he has truly been a blessing! Here is a video from Caleb, Simini, and all of the babies: Caleb and the Babies

Baby Leah was born on January 9th. She is now home at Asha House and doing very well. As you can tell she is quite a beautiful little baby and everyone at Asha House is so excited about her joining the family.

Praise the Lord! We just got news that there is another baby going to be born at Asha House in March. The pregnant mother has recently come to live at Asha House for the baby to be born.

Leah first opened her eyes to see Lincy Ma'am

Please be praying for everyone at Asha House as new babies take a lot of work and patience. If you want to help support either baby Leah or the baby going to be born in March you can do that here :https://donationpay.org/backtotheroots/ . Please put “Leah” or “March baby” in the Child Sponsorship box. Thanks!

Pictures from Christmas at the new home of Asha House. Thank you to everyone who has given to help us keep Asha House running this past year. We could not have done it without you!

Celebrating Onam this year at Asha House

Onam is a South Indian celebration not usually celebrated in Delhi, but the staff at The Asha House treated the kids to spicy South Indian feast served on banana leaves. YUMMY!

Our partners from Sound of Hope are in New Delhi right now visiting Asha House. Please visit their blog to read about how they are raising money for some urgent needs at Asha House and watch their video below.

Sound of Hope Blog

Asha House from The Sound of Hope on Vimeo.

At the end of October Lincy visited Andhra Pradesh. She got to visit many churches and share her testimony as well as pray for people. The Lord did many good things during her time there.

She got to visit Pastor Suresh and his churches. You can read about our trip there in September here. After our trip four people decided to get baptized (more about baptism). Praise the Lord!

Here are some pictures from Lincy’s time in AP and of the baptism.

Baptism is a beautiful sacrament of the Christian faith. It is a symbol  which identifies you with Jesus Christ showing the world that you have accepted the free grace and love that is available in Him and have fully committed your life to following Jesus. Even Jesus himself was baptized right before his ministry was launched (Luke 3). Baptism  for adults is basically being submersed in water and is usually performed by a pastor or mentor. Sometimes baptism happens in the context of a church service.

While I was in Delhi one of the team members, Julia Franzen, heard that there was a place near the church in the slums that the church used for baptism. She had been thinking about getting baptized for a long while but wanted to wait until the right opportunity. She realized that Asha House and the church in the slums was family and wanted to get baptized in India with them. So one day we drove to the slums and met Pastor L and followed him to the river.  He found a quiet spot away from everyone, then he and Victor baptized Julia. There was no large ceremony just a simple declaration from a life dedicated to following Jesus to the ends of the earth. Afterwards we sang with and hugged our dear sister, and went back to Pastor L’s house for fellowship over a delicious meal.

What you have to know about India and its rivers is that they are a crazy mixture of the holy and the dirty. Many Hindu rituals revolve around rivers. Indian rivers are considered to be one of the holiest things in the world, but they are in truth the dirtiest things in the world. People bathe in them, wash in them, burn funeral pyres in them, and people dump garbage and sewage in them. The Ganges is so polluted that bacteria cannot even survive in it. Now the river Julia got baptized in was not quite this disgusting, but it still was dirty. It was such a beautiful thing to see this symbol of redemption take place in such a dirty seemingly God forsaken place. In a bog post Julia says:

He showed me that Baptism is just knowing that we have not a hope of being good on our own and it is an outward sign of something internal that God has already done, placing His spirit in us the moment when we called upon the strong name of Jesus to save us- He did. He already did it.

It is not about the cleanliness of the river or how put together our lives. It is about grace and the work that God has already done.

You can read more from Julia about her experience you can visit her blog here.

Pastor Suresh is one of the first staff at Asha House. About three years ago he went to Andhra Pradesh in South India to work as a pastor. Now he is married and pastoring three churches in three small farming villages there. He is a part of the Asha House family and society. Asha House is supporting him in prayer and friendship and would love to be able to support him financially but is unable to.

A few weeks ago Victor, Simini, Laura, and our team were able to go visit Suresh, his family and these churches. After spending 8 hrs waiting for our train and 30 hrs in the train we arrived to a huge welcome. We were all amazed at their hospitality, faith, and love. It felt like the early churches from Paul’s letters.

The villages we visited are tucked in between rice paddies along roads lined with coconut and banana trees. Most of the people live in houses made of mud and banana leaves.

The first night we got to do a program with the children. Then we had a meeting with the adults from the church. After that we prayed with anyone who wanted prayer. Many people came for prayer. Three or four people dedicated their lives to Jesus and many were healed. We prayed for one pregnant woman, who was very scared to have the baby. The next day she had the baby with no problems. We got to hold it after feeling it kick in her belly the night before.

One of the other churches we visited was held at the house of a family who was the first of their village to come to Christ. Once there is about 35 members they will try to construct a building. For the meeting we all sat on the front porch in the dark because the power was out. As we sang, prayed, and shared the gospel more and more people came to see. It was such a beautiful time.

This is just the beginning of the many good things that God did while we were there in Andhra Pradesh. We all could tell that the Holy Spirit was really there and doing beautiful things. I believe that the Lord has many more amazing things planned. None of us wanted to leave. Victor and Simini are excited to take more team here in the future. Please be praying for Pastor Suresh, his wife, his family, and his churches.

Aksha and Abigail, affectionately called Akshu and Abbu, are both doing great. Aksha has mostly recovered from her episode with a lung infection a month ago, but the doctor is requiring her to be on medication for a little while longer to prevent a reoccurrence. Abigail is staring to get over a faze of spitting up all the time (it has been nice to not get puked on everytime you hold her). They both are loved by all of their didis (“older sisters”) and biyahs (“older brothers”). Everyone loves to play with the babies.

Both Abigail, who is 7 months old, and Aksha, who is 8 months old, are becoming more and more mobile. Aksha is crawling like a pro and Abigail is almost getting the hang of it. It has been really wonderful to watch their progress.

When Aksha is happy she will become especially vocal. She says “pa pa pa pa,” “ba ba ba ba” and “ma ma ma ma.” Once she starts you can’t stop her. She will talk all the way through prayer time or bible study at night. 

You can tell Abigail is happy when she gives you a huge open-mouthed-grin and turns her sweet sparkly brown eyes to look at you. You can’t deny that she is happy to see you. She also loves to imitate people. The didis have taught her to growl by first growling at her. Her little growl sounds like a little purr.

Please be praying for these little ones as they are growing, especially Aksha and her health as she continues to recover from the lung infection.