The Horn.
South Asia
Pat and Dianne H
Raleigh Springs Baptist Church
Memphis, TN
It is best to make all contact
through the home church.
Pat H.
Home Church:
Raleigh Springs Baptist Church
5322 Banbury Street
Memphis, TN 38135
(901)386-9701
(Note - please send your
monthly support to:
Raleigh Springs Baptist Church
PO Box 34788, Bartlett, TN 38184.
Be sure and include
a note that the support
is for Pat H.
Also, if the support is
designated for
any particular matter, be sure
that is
also written in a note or on the check.)
Pastor:
Jack Duplechain
Email:
jvdup1@hotmail.com
Web site:
raleighspringsbaptistchurch.org
Welcome
Meet Pat and Dianne H...!
We hope you will enjoy learning about all of the wonderful things that the Lord is doing in South Asia.
Read about their goals and burden to carry out the Great Commision.
The Mission
September 12, 2007
South Asia
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Greetings in the worthy name of our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
This prayer letter is larger than most primarily because it has so many photos associated with it. As you know, we are able to function upon our field of labor as God's people at home carry a burden for the work here and commit to sacrificially give for the cause of God in missions. It is my desire, to set forth before you some of the needs we are facing and at the same time my hope is that this prayer letter will not add too much to the already heavy burdens many of you are carrying.
In the next few letters, I will take time to more clearly set before you the needs we have relating to the schools and to the medical clinic. This letter relates to the private English school.
I have been mentioning the need for a school building to be built before the end of this year in T... so I thought I would take this prayer letter to give you something of a history of our involvement in schools here and to share with you that which we are planning at this stage.
For now, we will call the school a private English school. We are doing this for three reasons: 1) it is private and not public, 2) the classes are taught in English and not in Bengali, Assamese, Hindi, or some tribal language, 3) though many of the things of Christianity will be taught to the children, yet we will not publicly put anything in the school name that refers to Christianity.
We are seeking to help to establish these schools in various villages where the poor or neglected are located. The population of these villages is primarily Hindu. Remember that the population of true and biblical Christianity in this country is probably between .50 to 1 percent.
Even though the people are poor, we will be charging a small tuition. I am persuaded that all men should be responsible in some measure to pay their own way. Christian charity does not seek to cause the poor to be more dependent but it seeks to do what it can to raise them up and out of their poverty. It seeks to make the poor responsible, in some measure, for their own life. In the Old Testament, the poor were cared for by allowing them to glean the fields. If they wanted to eat, they had to work. We will take that same approach. If they want a better education for their children, they can help (at least in some small measure) provide for that education.
In addition, we will seek to include the newly formed churches in helping with this work. Eventually, it is our hope that the churches can carry on in this work. We, in no way, want to establish schools that will require many thousands of US dollars, a large staff to oversee, or the construction of huge buildings that will cost many thousands of US dollars. What I am hoping for is that in a few years, the churches and concerned Christians in this country will take this burden upon themselves and carry on.
However, we are not at that point yet, so even though we will charge a minimal tuition and we will seek to enlist the help of as many Christians as we can, we know this will not cover our costs. For now, we need some outside help.
Some History:When JSyt and I came here in 2005 we were immediately faced with the fact that thousands of children had no access to any form of education. Most of these lived in the villages. They were either too far from any school or were too poor to cover the cost of school uniforms, supplies, and transportation to get to school. In addition, most of them by the time they were 9 or 10 years old were already helping their parents earn a little more money for the care of the family.
It is in villages like this that we hope to start private English schools to help those who cannot get any form of education.
So, we determined to do what we could to help in some measure. JSyt and I personally covered the cost to start in K... B..., an interior village near to G... B... . In this village, there was a vacated bamboo building which had previously been used by an agency for education. But, it had not been in use for more than two years. We started with that and now there are two schools, one in K... and one in G... .
This is a bamboo building with a dirt floor and a tin roof where J and I started the first school.
These are pictures of the interior of the school building.
The Lord has only recently opened a door of opportunity for us in T... . As a result, we want to develop the commitment of the Christians in every area of their lives. We want to start in a simple way and help them care for "little things" (Luke 19: 17) and "few things" (Matthew 25: 21) while we wait upon our God to entrust to them bigger things.
Thus, it is our desire to start with bamboo buildings like the ones above.(see update letter above - 9-15-07)
This kind of construction will last about 3 years and if we are careful, perhaps a little longer and will not cost as much as concrete construction.
It is in a small village in T... that we have the need to build a building that will hold 100 or more students. Parents are literally standing in line and waiting for us to allow their children into school this coming February 2008. We have already started cutting wood for this project and we have started clearing and leveling the land. We must start construction on the building by the middle of October to finish in time for the next school year. As a result, I need to hear from you as soon as possible so that I might know how to proceed.
I believe we can start with dirt floors and bamboo walls and slowly, over a period of 2 or 3 years, put cement floors in and cement walls. Bamboo construction will last about 3 years between the rain and the termites destroy it. This will be a small, but good beginning.
Please give prayerful consideration to all that I have presented to you in this letter. If you have any questions you may feel free to contact Jack Duplechain or me at the email addresses below.
We, both, greatly appreciate your prayers on behalf of this ministry as well as your faithful financial support. I am constantly reminding those with whom we labor here that we have a number of co-laborers in the States which make what we are doing here possible. D and I pray for you often. The brethren here pray for you, too.
Prayer Requests relating to the Schools:Pray for the needed funds to build some bamboo buildings and to provide a small salary for the teachers until the schools become self-sufficient.
Pray for the needed teachers. They need to speak English, have a Christian testimony, and be willing to make the sacrifice of living in a village situation.
Pray for the needed leadership for the school. We need principals who have integrity and compassion.
Pray for those involved to undertake this project with a long term commitment of heart.
The Lord bless you all for your kindness toward us. We greatly appreciate you all!
The Lord bless you,Pat H
The Place
The many countries of South Asia
The Family