Update

Hey everyone,

I hope you are all doing very well. Just wanted to give you a quick update on how everything is going. Kyle and I are both doing very well and enjoying our time here in the city. We spent all of Friday traveling around the inner city of Kolkata and visiting some of the boys I built relationships with during my last visit. It was great to see them, as the Lord has been doing so much through the ministry they are a part of over the last few years. A couple of house fellowships have even sprung up! We also visited Kalighat, the biggest temple to Kali--the oppressive and evil goddess of death and destruction that the city worships--and returned to the place in the middle of the city that I lived in 2008.

The trip was good for both Kyle and I to get reacclamated with Kolkata, and to engage with some of the deep brokenness and death that is present in the city. Unfortunately, I ended up with a horrible heat stroke from the stiffling heat and spent the entire night with a fever and a lot of nausea, until I got rehydrated. Praise God that he has brought be back to full health!

We will visit a village outside of Kolkata tomorrow, where a sister organization is doing work, and will return to Kolkata on Monday, when we will visit the last of the slums KCM is working in. From here on out, we are trying to get a lot of planning and prepping work done for the long terms commitments we are making with KCM. More on that to come. Please pray that the remainder of our visits would go smoothly and that we would integrating the experiences and knowledge we are gaining into a framework that helps us to do good advocacy once we return.

Overall, I am seeing some amazing things that KCM is doing and it is bringing a lot of hope to my heart. This trip has been significantly different from my last, in the sense that I can see Jesus clearly moving and calling me on mission with Him in areas that I can clearly see His Kingdom expanding into. PRay that I would listen to His voice well and know what He is calling Kyle and I to do! Towards the end of the trip, I will try to update you more comprehensively on all the specifics of what KCM is doing!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and please continue to remember us before God. We've still got a long way to go!

God Bless,

Jacob