Editor’s note

I greet you all in the Almighty name of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This month is a special month for all of us at the Rose of Sharon church. We have completed 11 years of the formation of our church on the 14^th of this month. I thank and praise God for all His love and grace by which He has guided us through all these years.

Many types of people came to see our compassionate God and to hear His graceful voice.

 Many mothers also brought their children to see Jesus and to touch  Him. The disciples were angry with the mothers for they thought the children would trouble  Jesus. Jesus saw the innocent faces of the children and His heart melted and was filled with  love for the children. Mark 10:13-16 And they brought young children to him, that he should  touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he  was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and  forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall  not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them  up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.

 Jesus thought: are they not also the creation of my hands? He hugged them and blessed them. Today also He is blessing His children.

One day a company owner in Chennai came to meet me in Chennai with his child. The grandmother of the child also had come with them. Tears came to my eyes as I saw the child. Sadly one hand and one leg of the child were twisted. The child’s father sorrowfully said we are not Christians and we do not know Jesus. But he tearfully beseeched me to look at the child’s face and pray for him. I took the child in my hands and laid him on a sofa. I prayed to Jesus to heal the child. I prayed over some oil and gave it to the father and told him to apply on the child regularly. After some months, he came to meet me; he told me the child is completely healed. Not only that, he and his family have received Christ. They have totally committed their lives to Jesus.

Will you give place for Jesus in your heart so that God’s love comes on your family? Jesus’ loving voice is calling all the children to Him.

 Jesus’ voice is a comforting voice. Luke 7:12-15 Now when he came nigh to the gate of the  city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a  widow: and much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had  compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and touched the bier: and they  that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was  dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.

 They were taking the dead body of the only son of the widow. Jesus in a minute understood  the agony and pain of the mother, and He comforted her.

 Man can see only your face; he cannot understand your heart. But God can understand your heart; there is nothing that is hidden from Him.

Jesus had compassion on the mother; knowing her pain Jesus raised her son from the dead.

In the Bible, we see whoever has come to Jesus in tears; Jesus has wiped away their tears and comforted them.

King Hezekiah was sick unto death and he cried out to the Lord in tears, and the Lord heard his plea. Isaiah 38:1-5 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.

King Josiah cried out to the Lord that God’s anger should not come on his people. God heard his prayers.

Whoever came to God’s feet in tears and prayed, God heard every request and answered it.

Once a ruler of the synagogue came and fell at Jesus’ feet saying his daughter is at the point of death. Jesus comforted him saying, “Fear not, your child lives.”

When a Canaanite woman came to Him pleading before Him to deliver her daughter, Jesus comforted her and delivered her daughter.

Since Jesus is unchanging, today also He comforts us and wipes our tears.

Jesus calls us all with great desire to hug us all, Jesus calls us all…

God’s arms are open to receive us all, so let us all turn to Jesus, He will comfort us.

May God bless you all, till we meet again.

Pastor Saroja M.

Praise the Lord!

My name is Radhika and I am from Chennai. My 3 year old grandson, whatever he ate, the food would go into his windpipe. It was very difficult to feed him.

Pastor Amma prayed for him. After that he has no difficulty in eating.

I praise and thank God for healing him. I also thank Pastor Amma for praying over him.

Sis. Radhika – (Chennai)

Praise the Lord!

My son when he was born, his right hand and left leg were twisted. We tried a lot of massages but they were of no use.

In November 2014, I took him to Pastor Amma – at that time he was eight months old.

Pastor Amma prayed with tears over him. She gave me prayer oil. We continued to apply the oil over my son. Now my son is 1 year, 4 months old and I am giving this testimony with a joyful heart; my child is just like other normal children of his age and can stand and move. His hand is also alright.

We thank Pastor Amma from our hearts. We are ready to help Pastor Amma and her ministry. Thank you Amma, thank you Jesus! God bless you Amma.

Bro. Hriday Raj – (Chennai)

Praise the Lord!

L ast week I had a nightmare, in which I saw a woman with very big eyes and she was terrible looking. I used to feel she is around and looking at me. Then after one healing Saturday, I told this matter to Pastor Saroja. She fervently prayed over me. By God’s grace now, I am not getting these nightmares anymore.

I give all glory to Lord Jesus for saving me from such nightmares and I also thank Pastor Saroja for her fervent prayers for me. Thank You Jesus!

Sis Jyoti Surti (Vakola)

Firstly, I am sorry for giving this testimony late. One day my daughter’s health suddenly became very bad; she started vomiting continually and had high fever too. I immediately called Pastor Saroja and told her about this. She assured me of her prayers. Within a couple of hours my daughter’s vomiting stopped and her fever also started receding. Next day she was completely okay.

Thank you Jesus for healing my daughter. Thank you Pastor for your fervent prayers for my daughter as well as prayers for our family always.

Praise the Lord!

Sis Radhika Khushwa, (Jogeshwari)

Praise the Lord!

God is good all the time! I thank my Lord Jesus for proving to me again and again that He never changes, even though I have changed many a times. Once again He has shown mercy upon me by blessing me with a new job. I was not happy with my previous job; many a time I have grumbled about many things and have disobeyed God and Pastor Saroja whenever she has counselled me. Because of this disobedience, I lost my job without any notice.

After this, I realized my mistakes and Pastor Saroja prayed for my job. It is only because of her unceasing prayers, within a short time I got a new job. I give all glory, praise and honour to Lord Jesus for this miracle in my life. I also thank our dear Pastor Saroja for her great concern, counselling from time to time and her prayers for me.

Thank you Jesus!

Bro Lancelot Lobo, (Mira Road)

Praise the Lord!

My sister-in-law was not well. She was having diabetes due to which one day she became very serious and also had complications with her heart too. She was unconscious and was put on oxygen. I immediately called Pastor Saroja and informed her of this and requested for her prayers. By evening the oxygen mask was removed and after 4 days she was discharged from the hospital. Now she is completely fine.

I give God alone all glory, honour and praise for healing my sister-in-law. Thanks also to Pastor Saroja for fervent prayers for her. Praise the Lord!

Bro. Arikswamy Richardson, (Goregoan East)

Praise the Lord!

Firstly I thank the Lord God for giving me this wonderful opportunity to testify His Mighty name.

By God’s grace alone I have delivered a baby girl on February 13^th, 2015. During my pregnancy I faced some complications. Before completing 9 months, my water bag burst and the baby was not in the right position for normal delivery. I had to go through a caesarian and my baby was born. But, due to the water bag burst, the water went into the baby’s mouth and thus she got some infection and also suffered from breathing problems.

We immediately called Pastor Saroja and informed her of this problem; she assured us of her prayers. The baby was kept under observations for two days. The baby’s condition was not good and she was not taking any feed and vomiting constantly. We called Pastor Saroja again and informed her of this matter. By God’s grace alone, the doctor informed us that the baby was now recovering and had started taking small feeds. After two days I was able to feed my baby. She had to be kept for another 8 days under observation and then was discharged from hospital. Now my baby is completely alright.

I give all glory and honour and praise and millions of thanks to Lord God for healing my baby. Also, thanks to Pastor Saroja for her faithful prayers for me and my family whenever we have needed it.

Thank you Lord! Praise the Lord!

Sis Renita Jackson, (Mulund West)

THE PEARLS

The cheerful girl with bouncy golden curls was almost five.  Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them:  a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box.  “Oh please, Mommy.  Can I have them?  Please, Mommy, please!”

Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl’s upturned face.  “A dollar ninety-five.  That’s almost $2.00.  If you really want them, you can save enough money to buy them for yourself.  Your birthday’s only a week away and you might get another crisp dollar bill from Grandma.”

As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her penny bank and counted out 17 pennies.  After dinner, she did more than her share of chores and she went to the neighbor and asked Mrs. McJames if she could pick dandelions for ten cents.   On her birthday, Grandma did give her another new dollar bill, and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace.

Jenny loved her pearls.  They made her feel dressed up and grown up.  She wore them everywhere — Sunday School, kindergarten, even to bed.  The only time she took them off was when she went swimming or had a bubble bath.  Mother said if they got wet, they might turn her neck green.

Jenny had a very loving daddy and every night when she was ready for bed, he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story.  One night when he finished the story, he asked Jenny, “Do you love me?”  Oh yes, Daddy.  You know that I love you.”  “Then give me your pearls.”  “Oh, Daddy, not my pearls.  But you can have Princess — the white horse from my collection.  The one with the pink tail.  Remember, Daddy?  The one you gave me.  She’s my favorite.”  “That’s okay, Honey.  Daddy loves you.  Good night.”  And he brushed her cheek with a kiss.

About a week later, after the story time, Jenny’s daddy asked again, “Do you love me?”  “Daddy, you know I love you.”  “Then give me your pearls.”  “Oh Daddy, not my pearls.  But you can have my baby doll.  The brand new one I got for my birthday.  She is so beautiful and you can have the yellow blanket that matches her sleeper.”  “That’s okay.  Sleep well.  God bless you, little one.  Daddy loves you.”  And as always, he brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss.

A few nights later when her daddy came in, Jenny was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed Indian-style.  As he came close, he noticed her chin was trembling and one silent tear rolled down her cheek.  “What is it, Jenny?  What’s the matter?”

Jenny didn’t say anything but lifted her little hand up to her daddy.  And when she opened it, there was her little pearl necklace.  With a little quiver, she finally said, “Here, Daddy.  It’s for you.”

With tears gathering in his own eyes, Jenny’s kind daddy reached out with one hand to take the dime-store necklace, and with the other hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case with a stand of genuine pearls and gave them to Jenny.  He had them all the time.  He was just waiting for her to give up the dime-store stuff so he could give her a genuine treasure.

So,to receive a precious gift from our heavenly Father, what are you  hanging on to?

Pastor Saroja M

The Lord is our Keeper

Proverbs 3:6 “In all your ways acknowledge Him. And He shall direct your paths”.The word says: acknowledge God in all our ways and He will direct our paths. He will make every crooked way straight. We must ensure to walk hand in hand with God every day, so that He will make all our crooked ways straight. Not for a few days nor a few months, but every second of the year let us acknowledge Him and He will guide us through the year. When Jesus Christ lived in this world, He was always entwined with His Father God. Hence, Father God did not ever leave His Hand. Similarly even if we only pursue to do God’s will, He will never leave us alone. John 8:29 “And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.”Remember that because Jesus Christ was always entwined with His Father God, He was never left alone. Thus, we must always abide everyday according to God’s will, plan and love for us and He will walk before us and lead us and make every crooked path straight. This is the promise for us. Our prayers to God must be “We also want your wish to be fulfilled in our life, do not forsake us Lord”. Psalms 121:5-7 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.Yes, the Lord is our Keeper and shade at our right hand. This promise is not only true for today but for every day in the year. Let us remember this promise everyday of the year and the God who promised will keep His word, He will guide our paths; He will be there in our every going out and coming in. He will protect us and He will prosper the works of our hands. God will put His mighty fence around our families and us through the year.

We all know the story of Job and how God p rotected his family and put His fence around them. Job 1:10 “Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.” God not only put his fencing upon Job and his family but also around his home and wealth too. Yes, God is amongst us even today, He makes a promise to us today like He did to Job. He will protect everything that belongs to us viz. our home, wealth and family. God does not promise a life free of trials and tribulations; but He has promised us victory in all our trials and tribulations. A righteous man may fall a thousand times but God will lift Him up every time he falls. Yes, this promise holds true for us today. God has made an agreement with us. Like Father God made an agreement with His Son Jesus Christ, He remained entwined with Him. So today, even if we remain entwined with God, He will never forsake us. When Jesus lived on the earth, He also experienced sorrow and pain – He had many more enemies than we have today. Jesus lived His life without blemish and blame, yet people always tried to find faults and falsely accused Him. When Jesus healed the man at the Bethesda pond and left, the Jews searched for Jesus to kill him. Even when Jesus Christ did not baptize people and his disciples did, still the Sadducees and Pharisees spoke against Him and said that Jesus baptized the people. We see the people of this world always followed Jesus so that they could find fault in Him. We know that Jesus only strived to do His Father’s will on this earth, yet the evil one did not leave him. But Jesus defeated his enemy Satan on the Cross and once again reigned on this earth. We have to realize that in this world we will face trials and tribulations, but we must be of good cheer for God has overcome the world. There is no crown for us if we do not face tests in our life. But we must endure it all and pass the test and overcome these tests in the world to gain the crown of life. Jesus also faced these tests – He just ignored the people and continued His work in this world f or which He was sent. Jesus knew that these people are unrighteous and untrue and they are against the works of His Father God. John 4:1-3 “When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,(Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.” We know that there are untruthful people in this world. God knows all that is spoken even in the secret of our bedrooms. The truth was that Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples did it. Even today, the same is happening in this world, but Jesus ignores it all and walks away John4:4 “And he must needs go through Samaria.” Yes, we too face the same opposition today, but we must continue to do good and ignore the wrong spoken of us. We must fulfill God’s works on this earth and fulfill God’s plans for us and remain entwined with Him. God will never l eave us alone, He has warned us in advance “if they have done this to me they will not spare you.” We must derive our strength from God. This is why we have been able to fulfill God’s will and plan in all these years. If we would have feared men, we would have died spiritually and would not be able to do God’s work on this earth. Those who are afraid of men, are as good as dead spiritually. Disbelief in our faith will ruin us and make us dead spiritually. In our life too if we face such ‘do or die situations’, we must remember our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and His Promise for us: we must never fear anyone. Proverbs 3:6 “In all your ways acknowledge Him. And He shall direct your paths.”

Jeremiah 32:27 “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me? ”Is anything hard for the Lord?No nothing, for our Lord God is a God of all flesh and there is nothing difficult for Him. Thus, let us remember His promise for us and move ahead with renewed vigour and strength. He will walk ahead of us and make all our crooked paths straight. In times of trouble we should cry out to God and call out to Him. He will hear and answer us. He will make all things right in His time alone. Today we may be facing problems, we may be facing persecution, we may be sorrowful or sad, but in His time He will make all things right for us. There is nothing impossible for Him. Psalms 50:15 “And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” In times of trouble when we cry out to our Lord God, He will surely hear and deliver us from our troubles.

David faced a lot of trials in his life. Once, he lost everything in His life; all his wealth and his family were plundered. But God blessed him once again and asked him to go and bring back all that was plundered. He went and did as commanded by God and did bring back all that was plundered. Similarly in our lives too, we may have lost many things in our life, but we can cry out to our Lord God. He will hear our cry, make our crooked way straight and deliver us out all our troubles. We can gain back all that is lost in our life viz. wealth, peace, etc. only if we keep our Lord God with us and walk hand in hand with Him.1 Samuel 30:8 “And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.”

God gave David the assurance that he will get everything back – God promised him victory in this troubled time. According to Psalms 50:15, when we call upon God in the day of trouble, He will deliver us and thus He will be glorified. 1 Samuel 30:19 “And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all.”This is the promise of our living God; let us put our faith and trust in this Word. Remember, when we walk hand in hand with God, He will make us the head and never the tail. Is anything difficult for God? No, nothing is difficult for Him! He is a God of great things and great works. Proverbs 3:6 “In all your ways acknowledge Him. And He shall direct your paths.”In all our works we must glorify God and do it according to His will and plan; then God will be with us and He will direct our paths every day. This is a promise. We will always be givers and never takers; we will become a blessing and not a curse. It is our pride which is the reason for our downfall. In the Holy Scriptures we have seen, the proud were always put to shame and the humble were lifted up. Thus, let us humble ourselves for the Lord. We are yet to do a lot of things for the Lord and glorify His Holy name through us. Whatever is the Lord’s, we must give it to Him. As it is quoted in the scriptures “The Lion will be hungry, but my people will never go hungry, I will quench their hunger”.

Psalms 90:15 “Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. ” Let our prayer to God be “Lord, take away the pain and sorrow, the afflictions we have faced, and give us victory from the enemy’s plan”. Many of us may have suffered pain due to sickness, ill health, lost jobs, and in many other different ways. But let our prayer to God be “Keep us happy and free of pain and sorrow”. Our God will definitely hear and answer our prayer. What is God’s temple? It is a place that God dwells in and where His mighty presence exists every moment. So our prayer to God should be such that whatever we ask in His name in this Holy temple where He Abides, we know and are sure our prayers will be answered. When our worldly father can give us the best, imagine our Father God, the creator of Heaven and Earth; how much more will He love His children and will give unto us!2 Chronicles 7:15-16 “Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.” Our temple is God’s throne, He is seated here always. His eyes are upon us and His ears inclined to

our prayers, thus He hears our prayers and answers each one’s prayer in this place. We should not be lazy like the man lying at the Bethesda pond for 38 years. Yes, our God is dwelling in this place and He is alive in this Holy temple of ours. For God to hear our prayers we must be entwined with Him always. Before we ask He knows and He will answer. He will set the table for us in the midst of our enemy.

In a believer’s life, after his family and home, church becomes the next important thing in his life. This is the truth, as it is in this Holy temple that we meet God through our praise and worship to Him. As we read in 2 Chr chapter 7 that God dwells in the Holy temple, let us also read Psalms 84:10 “For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” It is in this place that we can experience the presence of God. Psalms 135:14 “For the LORD will judge his people, and he will repent himself concerning his servants”.We will get this judgement only in this Holy temple, because God will judge His people. A holy temple thus becomes an important place in our life for it is here that we get the love, forgiveness and grace of God. Psalms 18:6 “In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.”In our times of distress, when we call upon the Lord in His Holy temple, He will hear our cry and come before us and become a judge for us. He is never a partial God but is perfect in His judgment. Our God can fulfill His will and plan in our lives when we are totally entwined with Him every day. We should not be selfish and call out to Him only when we want and we wish, then He will not hear.

James 5:16 “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Who is a righteous person? Those entwined with the Lord always. Those who desire always to do God’s will. Those who are ready to carry His Cross every time. Those who treat God’s sorrow as their own. Those who work for Him to fulfill His plan in this world. We know how Paul and Silas were imprisoned and were in great trouble and darkness. Through that darkness, pain and sorrow they prayed and God heard their cry because they cried out in faith, remembering that He is a God who hears and will pull them out of their trouble. They thanked God rather than cursed Him, thus He heard their prayer. We are the type who disbelieve easily. With little pain and sorrow in our lives we start cursing and murmuring against God. Unlike us,

Paul and Silas cried out to God in faith and God heard their prayer and delivered them. This is the meaning of righteous men and righteous prayer. Thus God said “Where two or three are gathered in my name, in unity and oneness in righteousness, I will hear them and answer”. This is also where the evil works; when two or three are gathered, the evil will come and dwell within one and thus break the unity and oneness between the two or three. The evil will never allow God’s word to be fulfilled. We must therefore pray to God “We are children before You and you have heard every child’s prayer; thus we plead that you will hear our prayer and answer our prayers. We need your love, we need your counseling, and we need your wisdom and understanding. Have mercy upon us and grace us with your love.” We should never have pride over the years and think that we have achieved great things, rather we must be humble and think that what we have achieve in these years is nothing. We have still to do much more. Psalms 116:5 “Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.

”Our God is gracious, righteous and merciful. He does not like unrighteousness and untruthfulness. We are not even worthy to stand before God, our highest righteousness is but filthy rags before Him. Father God loved Jesus very much because He was perfectly righteous. When we are righteous for God, He will wait silently till we are about to go to the furnace and will pull us out of it before we enter it. Thus we need to go through the furnace of cleansing to be washed and cleansed. We know that till the last minute that Jesus was crucified, He did only His Father’s will.

We know the story of Daniel and his friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and how they did not bow down to the King, but rather preferred to go into the furnace instead. We know how Noah was tried and tested and he went through the furnace when people mocked and laughed at him. They did it all for the love of God. Likewise our God says to us that the evil will give us pain and sorrow but for 10 days we must endure it; on the 11^th day victory will be ours. Thus we must be righteous and stubborn to fight with the evil one and win our battles with him. We must stay entwined with God and then He will make all our crooked paths straight. Exodus 34:7 “Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” It is important for us to fear God. He is kind and merciful; His love is so vast that He gave His precious life on the Cross for our sakes. He is an impartial and just God. Mark 10:15-16 “Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.” God loves His children very much. Even today we are His children. Let us do His will alone. Even though we may be physically adults, let us come to Him as children and humble ourselves in His sight. We must be dependent on Him then He will s traighten our crooked paths. In times of trouble we need to cry and call out to Him. There is nothing impossible for our Lord God. Thus let us ensure to call out to Him in our every troubled time and whatever we have lost in the past, let us gain it back with our renewed faith. Just as David cried out to God and gathered back all that was plundered and lost, similarly let us keep God with us every day and He will make our paths straight and will restore back all that is lost in our lives.

May this message be a blessing to each one of us. Praise the Lord!

Pastor Saroja M.

Rose of Sharon Old Age Home

Greetings to all our dear readers in the matchless name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus of Nazareth.

In this edition of the monthly magazine, I would like to share about Granny Delia Gamree who was a part of our home from January 2014 to June 2015.

I remember the first day when Granny Delia was brought to the home. Silver haired, at 82 years of age, she slowly walked inside the home with her four daughters around her helping her to the bed she would be in. It was a nice corner of the room, close to a window which overlooks a big garden and beautiful scenery.

Once she was settled down in the home, she was a big hit amongst all the people, even with those who visited the home. Delia Nana as we used to lovingly call her in the home was a chirpy person who used to love to talk and would come in to any conversation that would happen in the home. Whenever our neighbour who helps us in the folding of clothes used to come to the home with folded clothes, she used to call him a dhobi and say “See the dhobi is come” having each one of us in splits. She was of a gentle and polite nature, very rarely we have seen her getting upset for anything. She was a very jovial person with a wonderful smile.

Every visiting day, the family members of all the residents come to visit their dear ones, Delia Nana’s bed would be always surrounded with her children, grand children, great grand children and other members from the family. Since Delia Nana had a big family with 9 children, most of them would be there with their families on the visiting day to see her and to spend time with her. It was obvious that they loved her very much and used to cater to her smallest of needs.

Then one day while in the home, Delia Nana had a freak accident. Hallucinating that she was in her house she started walking towards the kitchen and just after a couple of steps she had a fall which broke her hip bone permanently; it could not be operated because of complications due to her age. After this incident, though she could sit, she was never able to walk again and was permanently bed ridden. It was a testing time for the family and for us too in the caretaking, but by God’s grace there were 2 to 3 staff members always by her side for her care and attention. Delia Nana came out of this strongly and though she was always on the bed, she recovered in health and was back to her normal chirpy self again.

It was only from May 2015 that Delia Nana started having some complications; she had gradually started losing weight, though her behaviour remained unchanged. On the 3^rd of June, Pastor Saroja had come to the home for her routine visit and Delia Nana requested Pastor Saroja to pray for her. Pastor prayed very earnestly for her and blessed her in the name of Lord Jesus. The next day of June 4^th, after her afternoon lunch, granny decided to go to sleep, never to wake up again – giving us a moment of shock and grief, but also a joy and hope that she is with our heavenly Father rejoicing in heaven where there is no sorrow or sighing, but everlasting joy.

Praise the Lord.

 

 Praise the Lord!

So here we are… in the rainy season of the year! A time for all the umbrellas and rain coats to come out of the cupboard and a great time for the children to enjoy the rains!

This month at Sunday School was focussed towards teaching the children the importance and the power of prayer.

The children were taught how the different servants of God in the Bible prayed and received answers to their prayer.

They were taught about the Prayer of Job, Prayer of Hannah, Prayer of Abraham, Prayer of Hagar and the Prayer of Jacob

After the teachings of the prayer were done – the children were grouped in teams and asked to locate each prayer in the Bible; which was an exciting exercise for them.

We hope to instill in the children, at this young age, the importance and power of prayer, and the endurance and patience to wait upon God and receive the answers to their prayers made.

Do continue to lift up our Sunday School children in your daily prayers; that God will bless them as they grow.

Praise the Lord !