9 November 2010
Dearly beloved,
Greetings with love in Christ’s precious Name!
Thank you very much for your prayers for the Old Paths Retreat, Karaikudi, 1-3 Oct 2010. It was nothing short of a time of visitation of God among His people through His Word and His Spirit. The good Lord did “exceeding abundantly above all that we asked or thought.” To Him be all praise! It was nice seeing several of you in the Retreat. I’m sure you were re-ignited in your passion for God. Testimonies from the delegates keep coming in. One Pastor says, “I have received enough food atleast for the next 10 years!”
The six theme Talks I delivered in the Old Paths Retreat are being edited now to be released as DVDs. Once it’s ready, shall I send you one set? A set of 6 DVDs would cost Rs. 300/- plus Rs. 50/- for forwarding.You may book your orders. Anyone who watches these DVDs will experience a revival and restoration.
God willing, our next programme would again be a 3-day Retreat which would be called Jesus’ Footsteps Retreat. The dates are fixed as 13, 14 & 15 August 2011, Saturday thru Monday. The place is Karaikudi. Mark these dates on your calendar of the next year and start praying even from now on for a glorious gathering in God’s presence.
Biblical illiteracy is sadly on the increase in Christendom. Christians know a few Bible verses but not the Bible. To motivate and help Christians to be systematic in their Bible meditation, I’m preparing a 50 to 60 page attractive booklet titled Bible Calendarfor Meditation & Memorization, in English, Hindi and Tamil. Anyone who would follow the plan in this Calendar would read through the entire Bible in two years, Old Testament once and New Testament & Psalms twice; and memorize atleast 100 select Bible verses per year. You can order copies in bulk as 25, 50 or 100 to gift or sell to your friends. Each copy costs Rs. 10/- only. 10% discount on bulk orders. It will be a revolutionary idea to send this booklet itself as a Christmas-New Year greeting to your friends. A reasonably good greetings card these days costs anything above Rs. 15/-, and that becomes almost useless after that! Our Calendar booklet comes with an appropriate envelope also for posting.
God willing, the Gujarati language edition of Better Everydaywill be released, as the 10th language edition of this 432-page daily devotional, on 27 November in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The first language edition, namely Tamil, rolled off the press in 2003. My heart goes to God with tears of gratefulness for enabling us to publish this book in 10 languages within a span of less than 10 years! We would take up this work next in Napali and Chinese. I would greatly value your prayers. Not one of the many tens of thousands of buyers of this devotional classic worldwide has been disappointed. Make sure no Christian friend of yours misses this book. What was sold for Rs. 150/- per copy earlier is now Rs. 100/- only. 25% discount on bulk orders of 10 copies and above. Keep sufficient quantities with you.
The one hour Talk I delivered in English in the 39th General Body Meeting of the Blessing Youth Mission in Chennai on the 29th August, titled God’s Ministry & His Mercy, is available on an audio CD. Though it was delivered to a specific group, I believe the message has a wider application to any zealous Christian. Each copy costs Rs. 50/- plus Rs. 25/- for forwarding. You can take as many copies as you need for your own distribution, without any obligation. The three Talks I delivered in the National Staff Retreat of the Blessing Youth Mission in May-June 2010, titled Revival & Rebuilding, English to Hindi, are also available as a pack of 3 DVDs, 9 hours, at Rs. 150/- per pack. These forthright messages on Restoration will be an asset to anyone who is passionately longing for God’s visitation in his life and ministry.
The hand of the Lord is very much on us in the weekly Telecasts of Sound Doctrine, English to Tamil, Thursdays, 9.30 to 10.00 pm, in the Tamilan TV. The topics covered so far are: How not to Pray, How not to Meditate, How not to Give, How not to Worship, How not to Battle, How not to Minister, How not to Think, How not to Repent and How not to Believe. Presently we are doing How not to Suffer as the 10th in this series. The 100th Telecast, God willing, will be on Thursday the 18th of November. I invite you for a day of Thanksgiving & Prayer to Kariakudi on Saturday the 20th November. We will begin at 9 am and close by 4 pm. Please get in touch with Mr. E. Samuel Ratnasamy (94434 67329) or Mr. D. Samuel Devasitham (98947 14702) for the details of the venue. Do come. In case you are not able to come to Karaikudi, will you gather for praise and prayer, as a small group of your friends in your own place, on Saturday, for an hour or two? The first Telecast was on 20 Nov 2008. What a mighty God we serve! God willing, by January 2011, these 10 titles, each with a running time of 5 hours, will be made available as a single pack of 10 DVDs. So many TV cable networks in India and the Holy God TV in France are retelecasting these precious studies. Keep this humble endeavour in your intercessory prayers.
One of the Bible Wheels vehicles, a Maruthi Omni Car, has been sent to the Karaikudi Team this month for their distribution activities of Bible teaching materials in their region. I thank God for all those who take sincere efforts to spread sound doctrine everywhere. The testimonies of several beneficiaries of our distribution ministry are uniformly like this: “I have been attending a spiritual Church for so many years. Never once was I introduced to such Study Bibles and Bible Study aids. In fact, I never knew that there’s so much of rich materials for self-study!” Whenever I hear such words, I immediately rededicate myself for a deeper commitment to equip God’s people. God willing, I will be preaching in the Rajasthan Christian Convention in Ajmer, 5-7 Nov. Pray for a revival in this desert State of India.
Sorry, I could not finish this year the work on my next daily devotional, Brighter Everyday. I’m cutting down on my outstation programmes next year so I can allot more time for this book. Keep me in your prayers. Grace be to you!
—R. Stanley
