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Rahab's Rope Update
Dec. 22, 2005
Dear Friends,
WOW!!! What an incredible year we have had. I would
like to recap but I have
so much exciting NEW news that it would be too long.
First, let me say a
heartfelt thank you to each one of you! We could not
have done it without
you, seriously! Only God will one day be able to
tell you how much your
prayers, encouragement and financial support have
meant.
God continually shows up and shows out! First, let
me tell you about
Anathula. Anathula was not a csw but was raped,
which in their culture is
just as bad, the girl is not considered the victim
and is cast out by
friends and family. Anathula was very downcast when
we were there in June
and now God has completely transformed her life. She
is very happy and takes
great responsibility in caring for and helping with
the operations at
Rahab's Rope Women's Center. We are so excited about
this. David Dass says
she is no more the old Anathula and she feels a
sense of belonging.
Everyday our field workers are on the streets, they
are now working 15
different areas in the city. The time is spent in
counseling, motivating and
urging them to seek an alternative life.
We assist them with food and various pressing
financial needs. We have had
several women to receive Christ however they are
afraid to openly profess
him in their community, fearing persecution. They
have assured our staff
that when the time comes they will. Please pray for
them concerning this
issue. The women say they know they have Jesus in
their hearts and that they
know he looks into their hearts!
On average we have about 20 women living at Rahab's
Rope, on a monthly basis
we currently have between 150-175 women coming to
the center for reading and
writing classes as well as vocational training. And
of course, Bible study
and prayer are part of every day. At this point, our
field workers have made
contact with some 750 CSW's. Please pray for them,
their task is both
physically and emotionally draining, as well, it can
be dangerous.
Bangalore experienced the heaviest rains this year
than they have had in
over 40 years. Several of the CSW's lost their
homes, some of them moved in
with us and we are working with the Government to
help replace their
housing. The Government is willing to help, please
pray this goes smoothly
and timely. Also, the Dass family experienced much
damage to the roof of
their home. There has been so much widespread damage
that David has been
able to get the materials to repair his home but
cannot find anyone to do
the repairs. They are partly living at his brother's
and his sisters and
part of their damaged house until the repairs are
done. Please pray for this
situation.
Many or you know last year we had a Christmas
Celebration and were able to
help 100 women. Well, this year I had been waiting
to hear from David Dass
how many women we would have for Christmas, in the
meantime, within a couple
of weeks I received a $1000 check from someone at a
church in which I spoke,
I received another $1000 check from someone that had
never heard me speak
only knew our story from talking to me, then I
received an email from David
Dass saying we would expect 250 women for Christmas,
which meant we needed
$2500 extra dollars for the Christmas Celebration.
The same day I received
the email I received a check for $500!!! Can you
believe that, God is so
good!!
You may remember this summer we had a team from
Rome, Ga. visit the women
and act out stories from the Bible that had to do
with Jesus and women, it
was so powerful. Because of this many of the women
wanted to act out Bible
stories as well. Please keep in mind these are Hindu
and Muslim women, they
have not yet received Christ. David Dass informed me
that the women are
memorizing the entire first two chapters of Luke in
order to present the
Christmas story to the other CSW's!!!! Can you
imagine? Doesn't that make
you laugh and cry for joy all at the same time? It
is so God, lost women
acting out the story of Jesus' birth to other lost
women. Don't you wish you
could see that?
David Dass was here in Gainesville last week. I wish
you all could have met
him. He was only here for one day and it was really
unexpected, if you can
believe that. David had planned on being in the U.S.
for about a month but
due to so many things going on in India he had to
cut his trip short and was
not supposed to be coming here. At the last minute
he decided he could not
return without stopping by to see us. He changed his
flight to India, called
us on a Sunday afternoon and said "I will arrive at
5:30 pm in Atlanta". We
picked him up he spent the night in Gainesville, we
quickly arranged a few
meetings for him on Monday morning and then back to
the airport that
afternoon. It was so good to see him. I hope next
time we can plan for you
all to meet him.
While David was here he said the Christmas
Celebration was planned for the
20th of Dec. and we were all anxiously awaiting and
praying for that day.
This morning I received and email from David and
once again God gave us more
than we could EVER imagine. As stated earlier we
were planning for 250 CSW's
to come to the hall we had rented for the
Celebration. Well, 570 showed
up!!!!! SCREAM JOY!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!
David Dass writes: WE'RE WITH TEARS OF JOY, WE KNOW
THAT LORD IS DOING
EVERYTHING, EVEN THE STAFFS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS
WERE WITH TEARS OF JOY,
BECAUSE WE THOUGHT THAT MAYBE 200 WILL COME, BUT,
MORE TURNED UP!!
EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE PLACED ORDER FOOD FOR 250
PEOPLE, WE HAPPEN TO ORDER
MORE FOOD. BUT, WE COULDN'T DISTRIBUTE ALL THE
GIFTS, SINCE THE CROWD WAS
UNCONTROLLABLE, WE HAVE DECIDED TO GIVE IT TO THE
GROUP LEADERS, SINCE WE'RE
RUNNING OUT OF GIFT ITEMS, YESTERDAY SHOBA WENT TO
BUY 250 MORE SAREES AND
OTHER GIFTS, TODAY WE ARE GIVING TO THE CSWS WHO
COULDN'T GET. ALL OUR TEAM
MEMBERS ARE WORKING ALMOST ROUND THE CLOCK....
IN THE HISTORY OF BANGALORE, THIS IS THE "FIRST
TIME" THESE MANY CSWS HAVE
GATHERED TOGETHER, MANY OF THE CSWS WERE WITH TEARS
TO SEE HOW LORD CAN
TOUCH THE LIVES OF CSWS!! ALL OUR RR WOMEN HAVE DONE
GREAT CHRISTMAS PLAY,
MANY OF THEM HAVE SHARED ABOUT THEIR PERSONAL
EXPERIEN CE AT RR AND HOW THEY
COME TO KNOW THE LORD.
THE BEULAH HOME STAFFS ALSO SANG SEVERAL CHRISTMAS
SONGS. PASTORS, VENKY,
STEPHEN, AND UMANATH ALSO HAVE SHARED; AFTER LUNCH,
AS THEY CONTINUE TO
CELEBRATE, FIRST TIME ALL THE 570 CSWS HAVE SHOUTED
WITH ONE VOICE,
ALLELUIA... PRAISE THE LORD... JESUS CAME TO THIS
WORLD TO SAVE A SINNER
LIKE ME...SHOBA DID THE DEMONSTRATION OF SALVATION
MESSAGE THROUGH FIVE
COLOR BANGLES, EACH ONE GOT A SET OF BANGLES, NOW WE
NEED MORE. SEVERAL OF
THEM ARE GOING TO SHARE THE SALVATION MESSAGE
THROUGH BANGLE ON THE STREETS
TO OTHER CAWS!!!!
WE HAVE MORE STORIES TO SHARE AND HUNDREDS OF PHOTOS
TO SEND.
YOURS IN HIS GRACE
DR. DAVID DASS D.Min
Praise God from whom all blessing flow!!!! I pray I
never get over this! God
is so incredibly awesome! I don't know when I will
be able to stop crying
tears of joy and gratefulness over this news. I feel
so small and unworthy
for God to use. He is so good to me. I have so much
to be thankful for. This
news is the best Christmas gift I could have
received. Thank you, thank you,
thank you for being a part of this great adventure
with me. Pray for our
workers, they have a tremendous task before them.
Pray for the CSW's that
God will make Himself so real to them and they will
fully come to know Him.
Thank you all, I love you!
Gratefully Yours In Him,
Vicki
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