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On Monday October 1 Steve and Peter Ray Cole left for a month long mission to the people of India. Please check back for more details
Dear Brethren: We arrived safely into Hyderabad at 4:30 AM (India Time) Weds. morning. We got a few hours sleep and then went to Ron's office to meet some of the India brethren. We have gospel meetings scheduled for tonight. They do not waste any time putting you to work once you get here. Our flights all went well and we had no problems getting through customs. We will be in Hyderabad today and tomorrow and then Friday we are leaving for Bidar to work there. I will update you as often as I can. Steve
Brethren: We are leaving tomorrow for Bidar and I may not have as easy access to a computer as I do in Hyderabad , so I decided to send another note. I had one meeting last night and am scheduled to have two this evening. We have met with Indian brethren all day discussing the work in several areas and trying to determine where we will be working as the month continues. The weather is almost ideal. Typically it is still very warm this time of year but due to the monsoons it is very comfortable even during the day.
I hurt my back at the airport in Pittsburgh and have been struggling a little with that but I am feeling a little better today. Hopefully in another day or so it will be fine.
Both Peter Ray and I are having to adjust to India time and found ourselves wide awake at 3:30 in the morning this morning. Hopefully we will get full nightsʼ sleep tonight. Tomorrow we will travel for several hours and then will have meetings in the evenings. I think we will be away from Hyderabad for several days. My meetings tonight have been arranged by the family that lost their daughter a few weeks ago as a result of an infection caused by mosquitoes. She left behind a husband and an 8 month old daughter. I am sure it will be a sad reunion when I see them tonight. Keep us in your prayers and I will send another note as soon as I can. Steve
Today is the 6th and we are in Bidar. We arrived yesterday afternoon and had two meetings a piece last night. We are going to teach preachers classes this afternoon and then hold meetings again tonight. We will be on the road until at least the 13th and then will return to Hyderabad. I need to be back in the city on the 14th to speak at a memorial service. (More about that later) Things are well with Peter Ray and myself. We both are feeling fine and have had no problems so far. The Indian brethren continue to take very good care of us. I will do my best to let you where we are as we move about. I have to go to a computer center and rent time in order to have internet access on the road. It is not very expensive though, so it is not a problem--if the computers are working! Keep us in your prayers. Steve
We are still in Bidar and will be here Monday and Tuesday. We will moving to another town Weds. but I am not sure where yet. Yesterday was kind of a rough day. I woke up not feeling well and it only got worse as the morning progressed. I ended up going back to bed and slept until time for services here at the local congregation. I spoke there and went back to bed and slept all afternoon. I got up and felt well enough to go and preach two more times Sunday evening. By the time I got back I was feeling much better and am fine today. I think Peter Ray spoke 6 times yesterday. He had a busy day. The work is going well and we are having good meetings. We will be teaching some special classes this afternoon and then holding meetings again tonight. We begin our second week today! Time passes quickly here and before we know it the trip will be history. I will be in touch again soon to let you know where we are going next. Keep us in your prayers. Steve
Today is our final day in Bidar. We are having good classes for the preachers during the day and really good meetings at night. I had two meetings last night that will probably result in 60-75 people being baptized today and tomorrow. It is an amazing experience to speak to people who just want to do what the Bible teaches. Peter Ray had a long day yesterday and didn't get in from his meetings until 1:30 this morning. We will leave Bidar in the morning and will move to Gulbarga and will be there through Friday. After that we will head back to Hyderabad for a few days. I should be able to send updates from Gulbarga since it is a pretty good size city. We are all well and very grateful for that. Keep us in your prayers. Steve
Dear Brethren: We have been in Gulbarga for three days and the work is going very well. Like Bidar we teach classes in the morning and afternoon and then hold meetings at night. I spoke five times on Thursday and will speak at least four if not five today. After our meetings tonight we are supposed to catch a train back to Hyderabad for a few days and then back on the road again. We are staying in a hotel in Gulbarga that is OK by India standards but would be acceptable by American standards. We are paying to whooping price of $20 a night for this room! All is well and time is passing quickly. See you soon. Keep praying for us. Steve
Dear Brethren: It is Monday morning here and I am trying to catch up on a few e-mails. We had a busy day yesterday but not as busy as most Sundays. We spoke three times in the morning (Peter Ray and I) but only had one meeting last night. It was the memorial for the young wife and mother who died just shortly before we came here. Peter Ray and I both spoke and it seemed to go well. There was a meal afterwards and we got to visit with the family and they seem to be doing as well as anyone could expect. The father and baby moved in with her family so they could help care for the baby. We will be in Hyderabad today and then hope to "hit the road" again on Tuesday and will probably be on the road most of the rest of this trip. There has been a lot of sickness in the Clayton family, but Peter Ray and I have been able to avoid it so far. Ron is not well now, but doesn't seem to be as sick as the rest were. We are teaching or preaching every day so far and the meetings are going well. I will stay in touch as often as possible while on the road. Steve
Dear Brethren: I am afraid I spoke a little too quickly in my last update because Peter Ray and I have now both come down with the "bug" that everyone else has had. We got started immediately on an antibiotic and we are hoping that will keep it from becoming full blown. Ron is still not feeling well and it has been several days for him. We got 30 capsules of an antibiotic for less than $1--you can actually afford to be sick over here! Peter Ray and I both held meetings last night but both had trouble speaking. We are getting ready to leave in a little while for Khummam. Ron is not going to make this trip because he needs to stay in Hyderabad and be here to meet some other folks who are coming in tomorrow. We will be in Khummam through Weds or Thursday and then have to get back to Hyderabad to catch a flight Friday for Bangalore. The work is still going well and we are having good meetings. Please keep us in your prayers that this "bug" does not get us completely down. This is a long way to come to be sick and not able to do what you came to do. I will hope to be able to send updates while on the road. See you soon. Steve
Dear Brethren: It is almost 11 PM and Peter Ray and I have finished up two days work in Khammam. We have had good work here and they have kept us really busy. As in a lot of the places they have preachers classes for us to teach in the day and then gospel meetings to conduct at night. We are both feeling better and I am hoping that we are close to putting this little "bug" behind us. We are planning to leave in the morning to go back to Hyderabad but will be there only one day. We are scheduled to fly to Bangalore on Friday and spend a few days working there. I always ask you to remember us in your prayers, but I am asking in a special way now. Over these last two weeks will be flying 3 or 4 times to different locations. They are short flights but I never feel quite as comfortable on these little "in country" flights as I do on the long ones that bring us here. Just a little quirk of mine I guess. Anyway, we covet your prayers for our continued safe travel. We are having good success with the meetings and the people here continue to be deeply appreciative of our efforts. One elderly man today told me to "please thank the Christians in America who make it possible for you to come to India." I am keeping my promise that I would do that. I'll be in touch again soon. Steve
Dear Brethren: We are now in Bangalore arriving after a nice flight from Hyderabad. It has been raining hard the last two days and that keeps it cool but it affects our holding meetings. Many of our meetings are outside and they have to be cancelled and even if they are inside it will reduce the number of folks who are able to attend. We held meetings tonight and have two appointments apiece in the morning. I am not sure what the schedule is for Sunday night. We will be here until Tuesday and then we fly to Belgaum for three days. From there we fly to Bombay to catch a flight to Araungabad. We will not be back in Hyderabad until a day or so before we start home. We are feeling much better, but still have a lingering cough that bothers us a little. The areas we will be working these last few days are not as developed as what we worked early on but they need encouragement and help in building up the work. We are looking forward to seeing a lot of new country (for Peter Ray especially) and hopefully finish our stay here on a positive note. I'll stay in touch as often as I can. Steve
It is Weds. Oct 24th and we are now in Belgaum. We arrived here yesterday morning and will be here until Friday morning. This is my first time here and I believe we are going to enjoy being here. As has been true most of the time we are on the road we have classes to teach during the day and then meetings at night. We ran into rain issues in Bangalore and it slowed the work down dramatically. (The rain actually caused all our meetings to be cancelled Monday night). We got to visit "Violets Children" which is a children’s home in Bangalore. I had never been there before and it was nice to visit and see the good work she and her family are doing. The weather continues to be very nice as the rain has kept things much cooler than normal. We are all feeling fine and looking forward to a more regular routine of work these last few days. The results are still good--had four people request to obey the gospel at a birthday party last night! I've told you before about how these folks turn every important occasion into a gospel meeting. Our accommodations here are good and so far the food has been excellent. Can't ask for much more than that! Time is quickly running out and I am looking forward to seeing everyone on Nov. 4th. Steve
Today is our last day in Belgaum and I thought I would send another quick update in case it is a few days before I have another chance. We have had good work here. We had two days of classes with over 150 in attendance. Some of those were not Christians and as the class wound up yesterday several expressed a desire to obey the gospel of Christ. There is no class today but we will have our evening meetings tonight. We catch a flight in the morning for Bombay in order to catch another flight for Aurangabad. We will be there until late Monday night and will then catch a train back to Hyderabad. I hope to be in contact from Aurangabad, but you simply never know. We are all well and that is a blessing. We have really enjoyed our first trip to Belgaum. Keep us in your prayers as we travel on Friday and as we wind this trip up. We have a week to go and then we start the long journey home. I am sorry there was no bulletin article last week. It was a combination of forgetfulness and little computer time. I will try to do better this week. See you soon. Steve
We are now back in Hyderabad and will spend our last three days here. We just completed a road trip that took us to Bangalore, Belgaum and Arungabad. We had good work at each place and good day classes at Belgaum and Arungabad. We caught a train last night at about 9:30 and arrived in Hyderabad around 10 this morning. We had "sleeper" compartments so we were able to stretch out and get a few hours sleep during the train ride. The last few days will be busy tying up some loose ends, holding some meetings locally, and simply getting everything packed up and ready to go. It has been a very good trip with lots of speaking opportunities and very good results. I am looking forward to being back home but as always have really enjoyed this work. The brethren here are so appreciative and so encouraging that I always feel that I am blessed and made stronger as a result of my association with them. It is always sad when we have to say goodbye, knowing that it will be at least a year before we are able to see them again. Please keep us in your prayers that we will have a good last few days and that we will have safe travel home. Look forward to seeing everyone on the 4th. Steve
In less than two hours we will be making our way to the airport in Hyderabad to begin the journey home. We fly out of here a little after 3AM India time but have to be at the airport a couple of hours early to get checked in. It has rained a good bit the last two days here and that has hindered some of the things we had hoped to do, but it has been a really good month. We have each spoken more than 60 times and hundreds have obeyed the gospel of Christ. The time has passed quickly, but we are both ready to get back home. Keep us in your prayers and I hope to see all of you Sunday morning. Steve
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Leave Pittsburgh 3:15 PMLeave Detroit 7:15 PM |
2Arrive Amsterdam 3:05 AMLeave Amsterdam 4:30 AM Arrive Bombay 1:20 PM Leave Bombay 5:45 PM Arrive Hyderabad 7:00 PM |
3Hyderabad |
4Hyderabad |
5Bidar |
6Bidar |
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7Bidar |
8Bidar |
9Bidar |
10Gulbarga |
11Gulbarga |
12Gulbarga |
13Hyderabad |
14Hyderabad |
15Hyderabad |
16Khummam |
17Khummam |
18Khummam |
19Hyderabad |
20Bangalore |
21Bangalore |
22Bangalore |
23Belgaum |
24Belgaum |
25Belgaum |
26BombayAraungabad |
27Araungabad |
28Aurangabad |
29Aurangabad |
30Hyderabad |
31Hyderabad |
1Leave Hyderabad 5:00 PMFlight NW 8444/KL874 |
2Arrive Amsterdam 3:10 AMLeave Amsterdam 4:10 AM Flight NW 67 Arrive Detroit 2:20 PM Leave Detroit 5:20 PM Flight NW 975 Arrive Pittsburgh 6:30 PM |
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