...but I might get to climb the Himalayas.
Howdy fellas. I wanted to update y'all and shamelessly solicit prayers for my possible endeavors this summer, so here goes. God has definitely shut the door on Sri Lanka. MTW has been acting funny about sending me there all along, and now Gary "The" Todd (who pretty much runs the mission scene at Redeemer) has jumped on the Sri-Lanka-is-a-no-go bandwagon, citing the impending civil war. With my church and my church's mission organization against it, I figured God was probably telling me something. Anyway, with that out of the picture, it looks like I might go to Pakistan. Gary just got back from over there, and he's pretty excited about the opportunities he saw. He said about ninety thousand people were killed and another three hundred thousand were affected by the earthquake in October. Hundreds of thousands of people are still living in tents in the foothills of the Himalayas. The crisis has pushed the Islamic government to open its borders to relief workers of any religious background, which was not the case five months ago. With this opportunity on the table, Redeemer is currently working on assembling two or three teams to go on two week trips over there. My team, that was planning on going to Sri Lanka, will probably be the second wave, leaving in mid-May. Also, two RUF guys, Joseph Davis and Mark Vinson, and myself are trying to work out a deal to stay for three months or so. I hope and pray this comes to fruition, because it seems like this thing could be big. Now that Christians can go without hiding our beliefs, we (probably) won't even be arrested if someone asks us why we're there, and we reply, "Because Jesus Christ loved us to death, we're here to love you." Wow, that sounds cheesy. I promise I'll work on a better response to that question before I go. Also, the underground churches that have been operating there for several years will most likely be working with us, which will be an amazing connection to have. I'm rambling, so now for the before-mentioned solicitation: please pray for these trips and for the Pakistanis who are homeless and hopeless right now.
Love,
Tom Hart
P.S. Sorry to be a Blog Hog.
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