Needs

Prayer Needs

(April 28) We are 10 days away from departure, and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with what we have to accomplish. Please pray peace on Amanda and me, and pray that God would help us know what tasks are important and that we will be able to complete them quickly in His strength.

Jim reminded me of the need for several partners in prayer. I'd like to have at least 10 of you commit to praying for me every day (now until I return). Jim will help facilitating this by distributing via e-mail prayer requests. If you would like to play a very important role in the trip by committing to pray for Amanda and me, please let me know.

Monetary needs:

We have raised $5522.50 plus airline tickets to India. A new estimate of the total we need to raise is $4000 ($2000 each). All that we raise above what we need for the trip we will sow into the ministries with which we work including the orphanage building fund and the Project Rescue ministry in Calcutta. You can donate to the trip through PayPal and People of Mars Hill. Click the button to the right. Remember that what we raise above what we need for travel we will sow into the ministries with which we volunteer.

Our expenses so far have been $150 for immunization shots, $130 for India Visa

Needed for Travel

small water purification filter (meets travel criteria)
Eye-shades for plane sleeping
Malaria Pills
Appropriate back-pack for trip. (Has to be large and capable of being locked)

Orphanage Needs:

Toothbrushes and Toothpaste.
One project that I hope to do on my return is encourage sponsorship of the children in the orphanage. If you would like to sponsor a child, let me know.

Ministry School

Concerning books... Theology books will be great and also books about praise and worship, and family. We are working on a library for the Bible College and our goal is to have at least 3000 books. At this moment we have a good amount of Bibles, but commentaries and sermon books are great. -from Anne Lise (April 28, 2006). I think we will be able to take several books with us, because we plan to pack very light.

We are limited to two 50 pound suitcases on our trip. One request Anne Lise had was for books to increase the library (for accreditation). Let me know if you want to contribute. Also There is a guitar there but it needs new strings and an electronic tuner.

News Videos About Celebration in Nepal

Video: Happiness in Kathmandu

Nepalis cheer climbdown by king

Video: Maoism in the 21st Century (CNN Video about the Maoist insurgence)

King of Nepal reinstates Parliament

http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=71894
(contains video and translated text of proclomation

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/04/24/nepal.protests/index.html?section=cnn_world
Western Comentary

Celebration has replaced protests! This is a very exciting day for Nepal.

Please continue to pray.

Update from Sudip

from Sudip and Anne Lisa's website; they are the misionary couple we will be saying with in Nepal.

April 21, 2006
We would like to update you on the present work in Nepal. Many of you have probably been watching the news and know something of what is going here right now. It is the 16th day of the strike which is meant to get the attention of the King. The protest against the monarchy has been reaching a climax. Still the transportations, banks, markets and all the different offices are closed. Lawyers, doctors, university students and instructors, business men and others have closed down their businesses. Yesterday all of the domestic flights stopped. Since the strike started 10 people have lost their lives and hundreds have been seriously wounded. People are demanding total democracy and for King Gyanendra to resign, but so far Gyanendra has not given up his direct rule.

We are fine, but our work has been totally hampered. At the present our orphanage and church has been badly affected by the strike. There is shortage of the food in the city, so the prices of the food is four times higher than normal. The orphanage and the church needs gas or firewood to be able to cook the food and we are not sure how long we will be able to get what we need. We have lot of people eating together at both places.

Many of you have helped us and prayed for us in the past. We want to thank you very much. We want to continually ask you to pray for us and all the work.

from their website http://www.compassionforasia.org/news.html

Amanda and I are set to fly out of Mobile on May 9 at 12:30 in the afternoon. Our flight is to New Dehli, and we don't have tickets to Kathmandu yet. If political problems continue to worsen in the country, we'll stay in India until things settle down and the time is right.

Thursday I met with the USA Campus director of International Students. That's one thing that makes USA different from a lot of schools, they have an entire staff devoted to International students. Brenda Hinson (the director) is very supportive of the work that Jim (foi director) does. She gave me some promotional materials and she'll help me contact area schools so that I can promote the college to students.

Prayer Requests:
Quick Recovery of Peace in Nepal.
Quick processing of our India visas (we sent our application with passports!)
Strength to finish our projects --Amanda starts finals on Thursday, I have 2 major website projects I have a week to wrap up.

Thanks for your prayers. Feel free to forward this to people you think may be interested. I'm building a email list of those who are interested. If you want to be added or removed, send me an email.

More News from Nepal

http://www.kantipuronline.com/ contains much more local news about the protests including many pictures.

Blessing from God.

God has truly blessed us; at exactly three weeks before departure, we've raised 3137.5 of the 4,000 needed for the trip. Please pray that God will supply the remainder of the trip. Please also pray that our India visas are quickly approved and mailed back to us.

Please also consider committing to pray for us daily.

Let me know if you would like to start getting updates by email. Send me a message indicating so at ben.brenner@gmail.com

The situation in Nepal continues to be bad. You can view free video at CNN. Click on the videos listed in the blue box.

Happy Nepali New Year

Amanda and I attended the Napali New Year celebration in the Ballroom at University of South Alabama. Most of the 120 Nepali students who study here were there as well as the very few Nepalis who live in Mobile. There were also guests. The food was wonderful, and we were able to talk to a lot of people about Nepal and our trip. I was glad to see many of the Nepali guys I hadn't talked to in a while.

The picture is of Amanda with some of the Nepali girls. Nomena (in the blue) is going to do Amanda's hair at FOI Bible study on Monday.

Please continue to pray for Nepal. Protests continued through the weekend calling for the removal of the king. We believe that good will come and democracy will be restored. It may seem to many of you that this is not a good time to go, but what better time is there than following conflict?

Please also pray that God will open up opportunities to spend time with Nepalis in Mobile, before we leave.

Continuing Trouble in Nepal

The following is from one of the missionaries we will be visiting in Nepal commenting on the current political situation. Urgent prayer is needed that the country will move toward peace.

Tomorrow, a very pivotal event will take place. As tomorrow is the first day of the Nepali new year, King Gyanendra is scheduled to make a speech, and it is believed that he will comment on the current political crisis in his address. If he seems reconciliatory in his remarks, then there will be some hope that the situation will begin to improve. However, if the king strikes a negative tone towards the political parties and protesters in his remarks, then there is likely to be a severe backlash, leading to a severe escalation in the amount of civil unrest and violence.

Please Pray: Nepal in Termoil

The following is a e-mail sent from the missionary with whom we will stay in Nepal. Here's a related news article about the situation. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DEL277625.htm

Dear friends and family

Lately the situation in Nepal has been very tense. There has been a general
strike in the country since Thursday and there has been no transportation
and everything has been closed. As many of you might have heard on the news
there has also been a lot of demonstrations and violence. The government has
ordered a curfew and because of this we have been forced to stay indoors
since Thursday. The strike was suppose to be over on Sunday, but the
demonstrators and the Maoist has said that they will not give up until the
king has been overthrown and the democracy has been brought back in Nepal.
We are not sure how long this situation will last, so if you could keep us
and Nepal in your prayers we would very much appreciate it. We are safe, but
our work has been very much affected by this. At the present we have enough
food at the orphanage, the church and at our home, but if this situation
continues we will eventually run out of food.
To all of you who have been praying for Ratna. We would like to give you a
final update on his condition. He is doing very well. He is now able to
speak and walk and God has truly answered our prayers. God is amazing!
Also we have some exciting news. We have a website! Check out
www.compassionforasia.org We believe that this will make it easier for us to
keep you updated.
God bless you!

Sudip and Anne Lise

Destinations: Kathmandu

Sudip was born into an Orthodox Hindu family in 1975. He became a Christian in 1986. He dedicated his life to full-time service of the Lord in 1989. In 2001, he traveled to Pensacola, Florida to attend the Brownsville Revival School of Ministry. BRSM transformed his life. After completing his degree in missions, he returned to Nepal to pastor a church and oversee a church planting ministry. Currently, he provides oversight for more than 30 churches. He also runs an orphanage home for street children and other orphans. Sudip also trains and equips leaders and is involved in social projects to provide safe drinking water and education to the people of Nepal. (from GME Website Their Website (NEW!)

This site provides a paneramic view of Kathmandu. The city is completely surrounded by mountains.

Currently we have 27 children and 4 staff members who live at the orphanage. The childrens ages range from 5 til 17 years. Six of these children are girls and the rest of them are boys.

We have some temporary facilities, which was designed to hold 10 children. But because of the great need in the country we felt like we had to take in more children. We are hoping to be able to have new facilities ready by the end of this year and we will keep you updated on this prosess.

All the children goes to public school and we are hoping that in the nearest future we will be able to provide them with our own school. The children are feed rice and vegetables twice a day and meat once every Friday.

If you are interested in sponsoring any of these children with 30 dollars a month or kr 200,- please contact us for more information.


Sudip and his wife currently supporting 36 churches and their pastors. Here are some pictures from those churches