Off and running...

Hello everyone! I have safely arrived in Kolkata and have been in the city for two days now.I am being hosted by a wonderful missionary family, Shaji and Beena (and their two sons Martin and Adarsh). They have been taking good care of me since the first moment of my arrival and I feel extremely blessed to be welcomed into their home and to share in life togethr for the next several days.

My first two days have been spent mostly with the family, as I have been recuperating from the trip and getting my feet on the ground ministry-wise. I've learned a great deal about KCM and their ministry thus far, and suffice it to say that they are doing amazing work in three slums of Kolkata, amongst approximately 1500 adults and children living in these communities. They work to provide a holistic healing experience for thousands of families living on app. $0.85 a day in the midst of deep socio-economic and spiritual poverty. When they began ministering three years ago, not one family in the slums was Christian. In these communities, they orchestrate child sponsorship programs for children's education, spiritual formation and training for new Christians, Bible studies for seekers,healthcare assistance, physical necessities assistance, and Sunday spirtiual fellowshop services in the slums. The ministry literally began three years ago when one man (Shaji) moved in Kolkata with his wife and two young boys and tirelessly worked at building the kingdom among the poorest of the poor. Now KCM contains several ministers and their work is extensive (with even bigger plans to come!). There vision is from the words of Jesus in Luke 4:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Please continue to pray for us I visit sites and sort out planning with Shaji and the other ministers. Their two biggest needs are funding and workers. It is literally a miracle that they sustain themselves every month, but the Lord always provides.

Today, my second day, I spent most of my time touring around the city to many places I have never been before. Kolkata has changed, even in three years. To gather a visual, picture a street lined with dilapidated buildings with black smudge all over them; thousands of people crowd the sidewalk (some of them traveling and many of them living there); they are talking, yelling, shopping, carrying various things, bathing, (you name it and they are doing it); hundreds of cars, buses, autorickshaws, bicycle rickshas, hand pulled rickshaws, motorcycles, and large dumping trucks constantly honk at one another and clog the lanes...there are few traffic laws and the biggest car is the king of the road; sewage and refuse are all over the sidewalks and streets, mostly coming from the thousands of tiny shops, restaurants and markets that are everywhere; and the temperature is about 110 degrees. It is an intense experience. However, there is a great deal of beauty in the activity, and the city has a life to it that grows on you and is quite befuddling. The obvious poverty is heartbreaking, but there is still a great deal of life in the people of the city and it feels like a place ripe for the gospel so many ways. Slums, high rises, broken down shops, hills of garbage,loud noises, fruit markets and wandering cows are all parts of the city God desparately loves and I feel blessed to be in.

Though I have already begun, the next several days will include a lot of travel throughout the city and to the three slums KCM ministers in, along with extensive planning concerning where God might be leading the ministry and how we can support it. I will kepp you updated on all of these things!

Praise God that He has been doing an amazing work already and has more than provided for me. The more I hear about the work He is doing here, the more hope I have for the city, and I am so thankful that His love and gospel are advancing in dark places. Also, praise the Lord that Kyle has received his visa! He will be joining me tomorrow evening when he arrives. I am very excited to minister alongside him.

Please continue to pray that Jesus guides our next steps as we move into some of the more intensive planning and traveling over the next few days. I fully expect to be challenged and overwhelmed, but I know the Lord is capable of all things. Please pray for KCM as they do Kingdom work in the slums with the hopes of inviting Bengalis to come to the Lord.Please pray that the Lord would distribute the provision both KCM and the families in the slums desperately need for survival.

I will be updating you with stories I hear as the trip continues, along with various journal entries. I hope you are all doing well and I thank you for praying for us fervently!

Jacob