The Currier

New Hope International, 5th Annual Retreat, 20 June 2009

Left-right:  Tom & Elsie Reese, Warrenton, VA; Ernst Lutz, Rockville, MD; Lois & Tom Ford, Warren, PA/Moscow, Russia; Sharon & Don Lee, Campbellsville, KY/Bangalore, India; Mark & Chris Currie, Virginia Beach, VA/Moscow, Russia; Carl & Becky Byrd, Germantown, MD; David Onufer (friend of the ministry), Charlotte, NC; Jodi & Conrad Weaver with Spencer and Laken, Emmitsburg, MD.  Not pictured: Jimmy & Hulda Bennett, Gaitherburg, MD/Pardubice, Czech Republic; Philip & Grace Lee, Bangalore, India.

 

Open Doors in Europe.

We continue to encourage our associates Jimmy and Hulda Bennett in Pardubice, Czech Republic. Their ESL school and their association with the Word of Life Church (a mission church based in Uppsala, Sweden) show great promise. New mission associates, Tom and Lois Ford, are raising financial support so they can join Hinkson Christian Academy in Moscow next year. They have church contacts in Moscow and will be a welcome addition to the missionary community here. Our relationship with Russian Karelia and the Swedish-speaking Free churches of Finland also continues. Mark spent an extended period in Vaasa, Finland at the Mission Church during his visa exile in April. This contact came through Roman Gulik, our friend and missions associate who operates a humanitarian aid exchange between Russian Karelia and these Free churches. Our vision for Reflection Band is on the back burner once again as Roman must spend much time on the road, particular during the summer months, operating his passenger transport service between Petrozavodsk and several Finnish cities.

Open Doors Beyond India

We can help a national ministry in India establish mission bridgeheads in unreached areas beyond northeastern India. Don and Sharon Lee work with Angam Haokip, director of the Biblical Theological College and Seminary in Bangalore, India. This month he became our newest MPATs mission associate. Angam comes from the Haokip clan of the Thadou-Kuki language group in the hill country of Manipur, a state in the northeast India near Myanmar (formerly Burma). The disciples who study at Angam’s school are from the same area. Their vision is to cross borders and plant churches in neighboring Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet; they have already begun to work in Myanmar. We would like to match Western churches with Angam’s church planters as they pioneer the Kingdom of God in areas virtually closed to non-Asians. [See the side bar for a photo album featuring Angam’s work.]