New Life Masih Ghar Report

We have been teaching a class on the church this autumn and it has been encouraging for all to say “We are not alone here at Masih Ghar! We are a connected church – you have brothers and sisters praying and supporting you.” This class during our “College of the Bible” time at Sunday’s at 4pm is also functioning as our new members class this autumn. We are praying that we can take in about 10 new members on Dec 14 and have one lady from a Muslim background who is considering membership and therefore baptism.

We are currently preaching through the book of Mark one chapter at a time. Obviously this has been from the “10,000 foot level” so the challenge has been where to place the focus each week as we quickly work through the book. We started this series to coordinate with Christianity Explored, which we ran in September and October at the Asha Charity Shop. Each Wednesday evening, we have had a group of committed Christians, nominal Christians and those exploring the faith from a Muslim, Hindu and Sikh background meet for curry and then Bible study. After CE finished, the momentum of the group “forced” us to continue so Bob Heppe has led a study from Philippians using Discipleship Explored as a guide.

On Halloween evening, we hosted an “Autumn Mela” at the church building we rent. With games for the kids and lots of sweets, this has become an annual favorite for about 250 children and parents in our community. Included in the goody bag, was a leaflet explaining Jesus’ power over the forces of darkness – a real concern of people in our neighborhood. We see this as one of the steps in our outreach to the South Asian community in which results may come years down the line.

Several other items:
· We hosted a “Walk through the Bible” seminary with about 30 in attendance
· Our oldest member, a Sikh man who came to Christ in his 80’s, is in the hospital and ready to meet Jesus – this will be an emotional time for Papa J’s family as well as the NLMG family
· There are 3 other weekly Bible studies this autumn
· Our worship team has been joined by a young guitar/bass player from India – a real blessing
· The couple behind the development of Glory TV, the first Asian TV station on Sky, are regular attendees and we continue to have visitors each week who here about NLMG from the station
· Sunil Raheja has taken a sabbatical from leadership for one year – our prayer is that he will return next autumn to the session with one or two others
We continue to struggle through our sin as we seek to be the body of Christ in the Southall/Heston communities. Thank you for your prayers and concern – may God be glorified through it all.