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For those of you who received my urgent request for prayer a little while ago, and have come here looking for additional info, yes, the lady who received the phone call heard correctly. I was finally able to speak to my wife a few minutes ago. She and those with her are OK for the moment, but urgently needs our prayers for safety, wisdom, guidance, protection…

Filed by Greg at 7:18 pm under News
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Julie is back home safely in Sydney after blessing and being blessed, Tonya & Jenna are on the way back to Nashville and will arrive tomorrow (the 31st evening), and Shelvi is still in the small town called Kalmunai on the east coast of the West Virginia-sized island of Sri Lanka, hard at work, training staff for the children’s home, overseeing improvements, buying supplies, praying for the sick, and much more! She plans to return to Colombo on the 3rd or 4th and will fly back here on the 7th.

The boys in our home are very happy, shouting with joy, playing cricket, learning to pray, proud of their new uniforms and new shoes, and are glad to be going to school!

Shelvi needs your prayers for:

• Safety – tensions and tempers rose dramatically when rebels attacked a power station in the capital city two days ago.
• Funds – to continue caring for the kids in our new children’s home.

Thanks for praying!

Filed by Greg at 2:12 am under News
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That describes – but only partly – my Sweetheart…my gorgeous, vivacious, exotic beauty who absconded to the other side of the planet so she could island hop and gallivant around with three other ladies (I’ll leave their husbands and friends the privilege of describing them!) But can you tell it’s been 11 days, 17 hours and 38 minute since she left, and another 9 days 6 hours and 47 minutes until she’ll be back?) (Can you also tell that it’s after 7:00 in the morning and that I have been up the whole night writing and working?)

But I did want to fire off this brief update for those of you who kindly ask, for those of you who faithfully pray. Shelvi, Julie, Tonya, and Jenna have indeed been working hard to get the house ready for the 19 small boys who are now happily living there! The ladies cleaned the whole house and are busy furnishing it … have been buying school uniforms, shoes, school supplies – and the kids have already had their first day in school! Shelvi’s been teaching and praying with them every evening, and is recruiting and training the staff.

Prayer points:

• Julie Nixon starts her journey home to Sydney, Australia on the morning of the 30th.

• Tonya Whitaker & Jenna Martin leave very early the following morning for the U.S.

(Remember that Sri Lanka time is 10.5 hours ahead of Nashville time (CST), or UTC/GMT +5:30 hours.

• Jenna has been having some stomach troubles.

• Shelvi will remain there and minister until the 7th of November with her brother Ravi and his wife Shirley who pastor a church in London.

• Funds – the house selected by our national workers was not suitable, but Shelvi found a much better one. The rent, however, is $130/month instead the $40 we had budgeted for. Moreover, she had to give the landlord one year’s advance rent. Costs of furniture, curtains, salaries for staff, etc. are also higher than expected.

Well, me gonna go cook some breakfast for Nathan & Jason. (Naomi lives in Nashville, in case you’re wondering, and by the way, she’s leaving for Uganda to minister to the poor and downcast on the same day the Shelvi arrives home! Pray for her, and for me and the boys, too!

Love you guys,

Greg

Filed by Greg at 7:36 am under News
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Hope nobody feels like I’m pestering the blue blazes out of everybody with my near constant barrage of prayer requests and assorted rantings. Try to remember, though, that between our trips abroad, we hardly pester you at all, and in fact you can hardly raise a peep out of us peeps for, like, five months in a row, which was the length of time between our last two official newsletters.

But our ladies are at the about to start probably their busiest day in Sri Lanka so far, we need to crank up the prayer volume accordingly. In a short while, Shelvi is going to be ministering to a group of about 150, including five of the escaped child soldiers, their families, and friends – all Hindus. After getting them saved, delivered, healed, clothed and in their right minds when necessary, filled with the Holy Spirit, equipped to minister, and sent out into all the world to preach the gospel, then Shelvi, for her next act, will then feed the entire gathering, with the able and gracious help, naturally, of Tonya, Julie, and Jenna and the local Christians.

So, pray for a mighty outpouring that will spread from the little town of Kalmunai on the east coast to the west coast. Pray for safety also – one of the separatist factions is creating a lot of tension which could escalate. Pray for continued unity, anointing, and strength for the team – they’ve been working very hard cleaning and furnishing the children’s home, having meetings, etc.

Remember – they’re 10.5 hours ahead of us here in Franklin, TN and the sun is now rising on the east coast of The Pearl of the Orient, i.e. Sri Lanka. So, pray already!

And thanks for doing so!

Filed by Greg at 8:08 pm under News
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Here’s a map of Sri Lanka. Our team landed in Colombo on the west coast, then drove to Trincomalee about 2/3 of the way up the east coast. Yesterday they drove down to Kalmunai. The Lord is using them wonderfully. Please continue to pray for their safety!

Filed by Greg at 1:39 am under News
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Shelvi and team should have landed in Colombo within the past half hour or so! Keep them in your prayers and we’ll try to keep you posted!

Filed by Greg at 11:29 pm under News
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