March-April newsletter

Dear Supporters,

The first part of March saw us finishing final preparations for our next trip.  We made a trip to Healing Hands in Nashville, delivering books, plus our normal weekend visits to supporting churches.  We also visited our daughters and grandsons one more time before we left.  Leaving our family for nearly two months is one of the hardest parts of making these extended trips, but we are thankful that they are only three hours away.  Many people that we talk with comment that their children are many hours away, sometimes in different countries, so three hours is not bad.

Sri Lanka Here We Come
On March 20^th we left Memphis bound for Sri Lanka, an island just off the southern tip of India.  We finally arrived in Sri Lanka about 5:30 am on Friday after traveling nearly 36 hours.  Lilani Thomas met us at the airport, which means she had to leave her house about 4:00.  Needless to say we all took a nap when we arrived back at her house.  Harold & Liliani always keep us in their home, and we enjoy visiting with them each time we are there.  After resting Friday, Jerry continued his study of Romans with several Christians on Saturday and Sunday.  They request us to come about twice a year to continue this study, and we are glad that we are able to do this.  We had a free day on Monday, and Harold Thomas gave us a tour of his factory that he manages.  They manufacture many tons a month of metal roofing, which is shipped all over Sri Lanka.  That was an interesting tour, and we were thankful to have an opportunity to do that.  Harold is very busy as he also preaches and teaches several Bible studies as he has opportunity in addition to his secular job. 

Myanmar (Burma)
You have probably heard much about this country in the last few months.  It is definitely changing fast, which mostly is good; nevertheless, the change has also brought some problems for us.  The hotel prices have doubled in two years, and most of that change has been in the last year.  This is due to the tremendous increase in tourists and business people now visiting the country.  The people have much more freedom than before, and economic opportunities will likely follow. 

In our previous visits, we had only taught in the Hmawbi Bible School just outside of town; however, for the first three days this year, Jerry taught some lessons from Romans at a house gathering of Kyaw Sein.  This whole family is very evangelistic, making several trips to their native area to teach.  They were very hospitable to us, feeding us lunch every day, even giving us a taste of some of their native foods.  One such oddity was Tamerin leaves, which is as it sounds, small tree leaves.  It was cooked with spices and some minced chicken, and it was quite tasty. 

We visited two congregations on Sunday with several of the Bible students also attending.  One never knows the makeup of the audience in these foreign countries, as visitors often attend.  Just a few days before, Winsome had met a woman and invited her to come to church.  She did, was very friendly, and seemed to really enjoy the service and the lesson.  Hopefully, this may lead to more Bible studies.   Winsome will certainly follow up on this contact.  The next week, we both taught at the Bible School.  The classes were a wide mixture of ages from 13 to 40.  In addition, the students were from varied backgrounds, several non-Christians and some older Christians.  Paula taught several lessons on the women in the book of Acts, and Jerry taught the work of a preacher.  Everyone seemed to enjoy our lessons, and all delighted in the watermelon treat the last two days since the temperature was between 100 and 105 every day. 

Kangayam, India
Our first stop in India was with one of our TV speakers, Rajanayagam.  He and his son-in-law also translate the Voice of Truth into Tamil.  He preaches for a rather large congregation in addition to his translating and evangelistic work; thus, he keeps very busy.  Sunday afternoon, was also busy, as four other men from the Tamil Nadu area met us.  We always bring checks and money for the TV programs, printing work, etc., so they are always glad to see us.  It is always interesting to us that once a check is deposited, it takes about a month for it to clear the bank.  We enjoyed our short visit with them, and we took them out for a treat for supper. 

On Monday morning we drove about three hours to a three-day retreat that Rajanayagam had arranged for about 30 preachers and 10 women.  This was a nice break for us as this was in a mountain area; thus, the temperature cooled off to be quite pleasant. The flowers were beautiful and abundant and Paula gave up trying to count the different varieties.  Paula taught on the Christian woman’s role in the church and society.  Jerry taught some lessons on the parables of Luke 14-16, which contain several principles that are badly needed in India.  He also taught briefly on the organization of the church.  Few churches have elders, and after discussing this, many of the preachers thought that we need to bring some of the potential elders from the various congregations and have some special teaching on the subject.  That was one purpose of the discussion on leadership, so we will put that into future plans.  

Visakhapatnam

We made a quick trip to Visakh to attend the second graduation of the Visakha Valley Bible School.  Our sponsoring congregation is also the sponsoring church for this school, so we work very closely with this good school and its directors, Samuel Raju and John Dean.  Thirteen students received their Bachelor degrees in Biblical Studies.  We might say they are now ready to go preach, but in actuality, many of them are already preaching regularly, and are doing an excellent job. 

World Evangelism’s coworker, Joshua Gootam, was a featured speaker for the occasion.  He prints a large number of books, tracts, and translates the Voice of Truth into Telegu, so he gave a stack of books to each graduate.  After the ceremony, we went back to our hotel for a couple of hours to visit and talk about the work.  Of course, we also gave him some checks for his work.  Included in that was $800 for Bibles, $600 for printing and mailing an Orissa bimonthly magazine, and a $750 check for tracts.  As we come, we always bring the checks and money with us in order to save mailing.  We have never lost any checks by mailing them, but it is expensive and sometimes it takes a good while for them to arrive. 

Chandigarh 
From Visakh we journeyed north to the North India Bible College.  We stayed for one week while Jerry taught a course on the Work of a Preacher.  Being at one place for a week is a good way to rest a little.  It is tiring being on the move all the time, spending the night in different beds, and the week before this was a busy week in that regard.  In addition to the school, Jerry preached on Sunday and Wednesday night, and Paula had a ladies class one night. 

This school is not a big school, but it is doing a good job in a tough area.  We met two young ladies from the state of Manipur in East India next to Myanmar, and we were encouraged by them.  They were sisters, and they had a job talking to people from the U. S. about medical bills.   Since their jobs included talking to people in the U. S., they worked all night.  They went to work about 8:00 pm, but they made time to attend Wednesday night worship just before they hurried off to work.  Not many young people would be that dedicated. 

Ernest also translates into Hindi and prints the Voice of Truth for us.  He had just finished one issue, and we picked up a copy of it and left some money for the next issue.  5,000 copies are mailed out each time to places all over north India. 

Raipur
The next place was Raipur in the state of Chattisgarh, a new place for us.  Raipur is located in the middle of India, but it is still considered north India.  Most people in this area speak Hindi.  We met Philemon Raja from the state of Tamil Nadu, who had arranged this meeting for us.  Escapana from Orissa also made the long trip from his state to help with the meeting and possibly translate.  Philemon is hoping to start another class of the J C School of Evangelism in this area.  He is a hard worker and a true evangelist, traveling to many different parts of India to encourage Christians to be more evangelistic.  We had a two day meeting with an audience of 35 Christians, many of whom were preachers.  They seemed to enjoy the lectures and were greatly encouraged and strengthened. 

We were also to enjoy two unexpected benefits of this seminar.  We were able to meet the in-laws of Vinay David in Delhi.  We had heard much about his wife’s parents from them and knew they were faithful Christians, but we had never had the opportunity to meet them.  They attended this seminar both days, and we were thrilled to be able to meet them.  It seemed we had a special connection to them, and they virtually made us promise to visit them in their area with Vinay and his wife, Reshna, the next time we come to India.  He is a factory worker and also preaches at a large congregation of about 120 members.  Whether we are able to make that trip remains to be seen as it is a very long train ride from Delhi. 

The second benefit was to be with four graduates of the North India Bible College.  As we have said, many students travel a long distance to attend this school.  Three of them were from this area and were recent graduates, but one traveled about 900 kilometers to attend this seminar.  He had graduated in 2005, and he translated for me both days, doing an excellent job.   Seeing these graduates helped us realize the benefits of the school.  The results of a school cannot be measured simply by the number of students you teach or what they do while in school.  These men work for many years after graduation, and only God knows what ultimate good comes from the school. 

Manipur
Our last stop was in Northeast India, close to the Myanmar border.  This was Jerry’s second trip to this area, but Paula’s first, and she was eager to visit this area.  This area is quite different from the rest of India.  It has only been in the last couple of years that foreigners could even enter this area.  Church buildings abound, and the predominant religion in this area is some denominational version of Christianity.  It is close to the mountains, so you can see mountains in any direction.  The weather was also moderate, so it was nice to finish our trip without sweating. 

The churches in this area are very suspicious of newcomers.  The people here generally have not traveled very much, so they are especially suspicious of foreigners, similar to how mountain folks used to be suspicious of newcomers in the U.S.   A second reason is that divisions have occurred over instrumental music and anti-ism in recent years, and this was brought by foreigners.  Our contact here is Thang Lien, who is translating and printing the Voice of Truth into the major language of this area.  One issue has been printed thus far, and the second is almost ready for printing.  He carried us to four different local congregations, mainly just so they could get to meet and know us at least a little.  I think this was an important visit for us. 

At the last service, a local brother was doing the preaching.  Paula noticed that he was holding a book from which he was looking during the lesson.  She thought it looked like our little orange book (circled in picture), the Church of the Bible.  Of course, we could not understand what he was saying, but we did understand that the lesson was on the identity of the church.  After the service was over, we talked to him and sure enough, it was the Church of the Bible that had been translated into his language.  He had received it in 1998, and it had been well used.  Once again this shows the long term effect of literature.  That is why we are currently publishing the Voice of Truth into the Paite language, and hopefully it will have the same long term effect on the growth of the church.  We stress how the individual member can use it for evangelism. The church all over India is still very immature; there is much teaching that still needs to be done.  Things that we take for granted, such as literature for children’s classes and supporting orphans, are not usually a part of their efforts.  The congregations are also reluctant to cooperate together and are somewhat self-absorbed.  However, progress is being made, and for that we can be thankful. 

Overall, this was a good trip.  We accomplished what we intended, we were healthy, and we met with almost all our co-workers in India.  All our flights were on time except for the last one.  Our flight from Manipur to Delhi was delayed about three hours.  It was no problem; however, since we still had about eight hours to wait for our international flight.  It was a long trip home, taking about 43 hours from the time we left the hotel in extreme eastern India to arriving home.  We continue to be thankful to be involved in this great work, and we sincerely thank all of you for your support.  May God bless each of you.

Jerry & Paula Bates

January - February newsletter

Dear Supporters,

                           January and February were two busy months again.  It seems all of them are, but Paula always says that I asked for it, so I shouldn’t complain.  The two weeks in January were hectic finishing our newsletters for the last of 2012.  I was also finishing preparations for my classes in the Vizakha Valley Bible School.  We were hoping that our newsletters would arrive from the printer before I left on January 17^th, but that did not happen, so Paula had to send out the newsletters with Betty’s help. 

As I mentioned, I left on January 17^th, journeying to India for two weeks to teach in the Visakha Valley Bible School.  I say I went by myself, which only means that Paula was not with me, because I was not alone.  Gary Fallis from Dallas, TX accompanied me to teach.  We had traveled together on this same trip two years ago, so this was a repeat performance as one might say.  Paula did not come on this trip for two reasons.  Since we would be teaching in a school of preaching there would be little that she could do, and she does not want to just come along for the ride.  The second reason is that there was too much work to do in the office.  So she stayed behind to finish our newsletters and other work while I made this trip without her.  I think she was somewhat glad I left.  That gave her a good excuse to spend a few days with our grandkids.  I’m sure all you grandmothers can relate to that. 

Visakha Valley Bible School has two programs of study, a graduate level and an undergraduate.  That provided a good chance for both Gary and I to teach all day.  One taught the graduate course for one week and the other taught the undergraduates.  On the second week we swapped groups.  I taught the Work of a Preacher the first week and Advanced Homiletics to the graduate students the second week.  We were privileged to attend the graduation ceremonies of the first graduate class.  Nine students received their Master’s of Arts in Bible degree.  All of these men are gospel preachers and also teach in one of two schools of preaching.  Since I often visit this school, I feel a special connection with this group of men. 

In April of this year, the second group of undergraduates will receive their diplomas, and Paula and I plan to be there for those ceremonies.  While I was at the school this time, I also asked the director regarding the first graduates.  There were 16 graduates in the first class, and I wanted to know what they were currently doing.  I knew what a couple of them were doing because I had seen them at various times but I wanted to know how the whole group was faring.  I was very pleased with the answer.  All were still faithful to the Church.  All but one were either preaching regularly or working very hard with a local church.  I thought this was very good, because we must remember that in India there are no established churches to which a new graduate can go and immediately receive a full-time preaching job.  Since they leave school with no job, it is hard for them, and several in similar situations do not preach at all or worse, join denominational groups for promise of support.  I was pleased that none of this group had done that.  I think this shows the good instruction and grounding that the school provides. 

While in Visak, I received a call from Philemon in South India.  He was requesting funds to print 100,000 tracts.  There was a Pentecostal healing convention covering a period of three days.  A huge crowd of nearly 100,000 was expected and Philemon wanted to pass out as many tracts as possible.  I was glad to be able to help them in this endeavor.  However, before they could distribute the tracts, all had to be folded by hand, because in India the printer does not fold them.  How would you like to fold 100,000 pieces of paper?  He and several church members worked and passed out about 90,000 tracts, Bible lessons, etc.  They have received several contacts from this effort.  This illustrates the brave hard work that many of the Christians in India are willing to do for the cause of Christ.

Back in the States

Just as tracts are important overseas, they are useful here as well.  In late February a woman from Duluth, GA called and asked for a free Bible correspondence course that had been offered on a tract.  Paula asked her where she found the tract, and she replied a doctor’s office.  All of our books and tracts have our address and phone number.  About a week and a half later she called back stating that she received the lessons, completed them, and requested more information.  We have 80 different tracts available, costing only 10 cents each.  Many of these tracts are also sent free of charge overseas. 

I returned home just in time for the Freed-Hardeman lectures.  I arrived back in Memphis on Saturday night, February 2^nd, but didn’t go home.  Paula picked me up at the airport with a trailer full of supplies for the lectures.  The first stop was at Backyard Burger for supper.  We traveled to the Selmer, TN area, where we met Betty and visited two churches on Sunday.  That afternoon we trekked to Freed-Hardeman and put up our display for the lectures.  We were able to visit with many contacts and friends during the week long lectures.  We also visited the Maury City congregation on Wednesday night of that week.  Betty journeyed back home on Tuesday, and we finished the week out, packing everything up on Thursday afternoon and making the trip home that day.  It was good to finally be home again, but on Friday I was back in the office trying to get caught up on some things.  

As we came in on Friday from Freed-Hardeman, our co-worker, Louis Rushmore, left for Guyana, South America on Thursday, and was gone for most of the month of February teaching preachers and leaders throughout that country.  It seems we are not together in the office very much since both of us travel so much both here and abroad.  We are thankful to have both of them back in the office, just in time, because Volume 75 of the Voice of Truth came in March 5^th. 

We have continued to be very busy reporting to congregations in Tennessee, the boothill of Missouri, Mississippi, and Monroe, LA.  We were gone every Sunday and every Wednesday night except for the last one in February.  This takes a lot of time away from the office.  I have also been doing some extensive research on some of the teachings of Hinduism and working on my next lessons that I will be teaching on our next trip.  The first weekend in March we were back in the Nashville area.  We had a meeting with all the World Evangelism team members including several elders of the sponsoring churches at the Liberty church in Dennis, MS.  Saturday night we journeyed north to the Hohenwald and Centerville area to visit two churches.  On Sunday night we traveled to Nashville, and on Monday we delivered about 1800 pounds of material to Healing Hands.  Most of the material will be shipped to Jamaica on a container.  This is the first time we have shipped anything to Jamaica other than the Voice of Truth.  There are many churches in Jamaica including a School of preaching that also trains preachers from Cuba.  The rest of the material was Spanish which will be shipped to Honduras a little later.  In addition to this material, the Voice of Truth is also available online free of charge to anyone in the world.  We have plans to make the other materials available online, but we have not completed that project yet.    

Jerry & Paula’s Future Plans

                  Jerry has made two trips since the time Paula has gone, and she is eager to leave again for the mission field.  We leave March 20, and our first stop is Sri Lanka.  From there we travel to Myanmar, teaching for about a week and a half.  This is our annual spring stop at a school there.  From there we spend April in India in various places.  We will visit both schools of preaching in India, teaching at Chandigarh for a week, and attending the graduation of the other school.  We are going to two new places on this trip.  One stop is Raipur in the middle of India for two days of teaching.  Our last stop is Manipur doing some preaching and also meeting with the man who is translating the Voice of Truth in the Paite language.  The first issue was recently printed so we will be talking at length about that project.  I have been there briefly before, but Paula has not, so she is very eager to see this new area and meet some new people.  We return home on April 30. 

We continue to thank you for your support and interest in our work.  We could not do it without you, and may God continue to bless you as He is blessing us. 

 Jerry & Paula Bates

October - December newsletter

October 6^th found us back in the U.S. after being in India and Nepal for nearly two months.  We arrived back in Memphis and the next day we were visiting Jerry’s father and two of our supporting congregations in the Trenton, TN area.  After being overseas, we are always glad to be back, and arrive re-energized to do the work that needs to be done.  The next issue of the Voice of Truth was waiting to be shipped until we returned, and so about two days after being back in the office the new issue arrived.  Betty and the Rushmores were overseas, and for about ten days, there had been no one in the office.  It always takes several days to get caught up, but it was good to be back to some semblance of a routine, which is what we do not have when we are overseas. 

Tanzania

Jerry barely was over jet lag until he left for the Chimala Mission in Tanzania, Africa.  This is a large work sponsored by the New York Avenue congregation in Arlington, Texas.  This mission effort includes a primary school, hospital, and a school of preaching.  This school includes both a graduate and undergraduate program.  He taught Gospel of John and Advanced Hermeneutics to an excellent class of 14 graduate students. 

Jerry was honored to be there for the undergraduate graduation.  Nine students received their certificate of completion from the school, which is always a joy to see.  Several of both the undergraduate and graduate students are from the neighboring country of Malawi.  There is no Bible school in Malawi, and many journey to Tanzania to receive their Biblical training.  This school plans to admit a record class in 2013, and they will have about 35 students next year.  If that holds true, then this school would be the largest school associated with Bear Valley including Denver.  It will also be one of the largest brotherhood schools in the world. 

Jerry was also privileged to again witness the value of good literature.  The undergraduate students were each given one of our “preacher boxes.”  This is simply a mixture of sermon books, study books, etc, that we packed and sent to them on a container.  This container was actually shipped nearly a year ago, but was tied up in customs for 7-8 months so it only arrived at the mission a short time before Jerry arrived.  Also on the container were several boxes of individual titles which were distributed to my class of graduate students.  He will always remember one man’s remark after seeing the many books that he was given.  “I can’t believe this.  Are all these mine?”  These few books were probably more than he thought he would ever own and was overjoyed at the prospect of having so many good study books.  Reactions similar to his are common as we receive many thank you notes and letters from churches and preachers in many foreign countries that have received the Voice of Truth or other study books.  We could not do this without the good support of many individuals and congregations who realize the great need and immense value of good literature.

While in Tanzania Jerry was also able to begin discussions of possibly translating the Voice of Truth into the Swahili language.  Swahili is spoken by 4 countries in Africa and this would be a tremendous asset to the growth of the church in this large area of Africa.  Hopefully, some of the ones associated with the mission will be able to begin this work.

Changes in India

Even though we travel to several other countries, the work of World Evangelism is primarily focused on India, because the Choates had lived and worked in India for nearly 50 years and the people there are dear to their hearts.  As you might expect, things have changed tremendously in that time, some good, and some not so good.  We have even seen some changes in our five years, but

Betty Choate was able to return this fall for the first time in eight years.  She could hardly believe the great changes.  Changes in infrastructure such as airports, subways and new roads mark India’s transition to a fast developing country.  She also noted how much prices have increased, remarking upon her return that she could find nothing that she considered cheap any longer.  People are becoming much more materialistic with a correspondingly increase in incomes.  Associated with this is a significant emphasis on education, sometimes even to the extreme, at least in our estimation.  However, much of this increased wealth is limited to a relatively small percentage of the population, most of whom are not Christians.  Thus, the church is still mostly composed of poor individuals and families. 

Betty thoroughly enjoyed visiting all the ones with whom she and JC had formerly worked.  She also was able to find out much more about the new Hindi TV program which just recently began.   Hindi is the largest Indian language with nearly half of the population able to speak Hindi.  This will work hand-in-hand with the Hindi translation of the Voice of Truth, which began last year.  One highlight of her trip was witnessing the opening of the new church building in Delhi.  This project has long been in the plans, but various lawsuits by the local Hindus prevented this until now.  She commented that the building was beautiful and functional. 

Goings and Comings at the Office

While Jerry was in Tanzania, Paula was alone at the office.  It reminded us of the movie “Home Alone.”  Fortunately no thieves or catastrophes materialized while everyone was away.  Paula said that things were peaceful, with no shipments or big events.  It is imperative that someone is at the office most of the time.  Obviously, we prefer to travel together, but we both know that there will be times when it is advantageous and cost effective for only Jerry to travel.  I appreciate her willingness to stay home alone. 

The end of November found everyone back home, and it was good for the team to be together again.  On November 20, John Dean and Irven Skinner visited the office.  As you may remember John Dean works directly with the Visakha Valley Bible Institute as well as Skinner’s Garden.  Thus, he was visiting many of his supporters.  While traveling in the states, he collected quite a bit of Bible material, and he brought it by for us to ship to him in India with our regular shipments that we send to preachers all over the world.  Including his books, we sent about 1,000 pounds on this one shipment. 

Things are constantly changing around here, and we never know what might come up.  For example, on the Monday after Thanksgiving, we received a call from a man with Gospel Chariots.  This is a mission effort in Africa that uses semi-trucks to hold gospel meetings, distribute literature, etc.  They were planning to add another truck to their work based in Ghana, Africa from which they could then travel to surrounding areas.  Anyway, they were sending a container of materials to Ghana with which to outfit the truck, and they were hoping we could help supply some literature.  Of course, we are always glad to help mission efforts such as this one.  The container was soon going to be shipped from Arkansas, and they were collecting materials in the Little Rock area.  Providentially, that following weekend we had already planned to visit a congregation on the western side of Arkansas and would be passing through Little Rock.  Thus, we loaded about 1800 pounds of literature on our trailer, including a few boxes of material that we had collected from various congregations and transported it on our way.  In addition, we “backhauled” material as well.  On Sunday morning we visited two congregations that were very close together near Murfreesboro, AR, and we collected some old material from one and song books from the other.  In addition, we stopped at Des Arc, AR on Sunday night and collected some more song books.  We arrived home late that night after a busy and fruitful weekend.

Furthermore, the following week Betty had planned to travel to Dallas to work with Justin Hopkins on the new graded literature program.  Mission Printing was sending a container to Nigeria in January, and one of their co-workers in Nigeria had requested some of our literature.  Thus, they had already called and asked if we could send some material.  We had planned to do that in January along with visiting congregations in the Dallas area, but since Betty was going, we just packed her car full with about 1,000 pounds of books that she carried to Mission Printing.  If you are keeping track, that is about 4,000 pounds of books and materials shipped out.  We do not do this all the time, but that is one thing we are busy doing while we are here in the states, as well as constantly visiting various congregations.  It keeps us very busy; nevertheless, we still enjoy the work. 

A Personal Note

                  Jerry’s father passed from this life on December 3^rd.  He was 91 years old, and even though his physical body had slowed, his mind was pretty sharp.  He enjoyed family and friends visiting and was blessed to live in the same town all his life.  Jerry’s brother, Wayne and his wife, Connie, along with other family members were good to care for him.  We were able to visit him quite often even though we were out of the country so much.  He was a great example of living the Christian life.  He was a deacon for many years at the Trenton Church, never missing a service and was usually among one of the last to leave the building.  He loved singing, and he and my mother used to go to all the county singings.  Several memorials in his honor were given to us as well as the Dorris Chapel and the Trenton congregations.  We appreciate the kind thoughts of so many.

Future Plans

                  We have to plan our work at least tentatively nearly a year in advance and our trips have to be planned and tickets booked a couple of months ahead of departure.  Jerry plans to make four foreign trips this year.  He will travel in mid-January with Gary Fallis from Dallas, TX to Visak, India for two weeks teaching in the Bible school located in that city.  We plan to be at the F-HU lectures in February.  Both of us will travel to Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and India the end of March and April.  Near the first of August Jerry will travel for two weeks to Tanzania, Africa and about the first of September both of us plan to travel to India, Sri Lanka, and probably Nepal.  If any of you would like to join us, let us know.  May God bless us with the ability to carry forth on these plans. 

 Recap of 2012

2012 was a very busy and fruitful year.  Our co-workers in India and other countries have baptized hundreds of people.  We regularly read of baptisms, Bible studies, meetings, etc.  We do not tabulate and report large numbers of baptisms as some missionaries do.  We do not feel that God wants us to try to take credit for something of which we are only a small part.  We are all, including you, only co-workers together, but to God be the glory. 

Jerry actually made five overseas trips this year, which included visits to India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal, Honduras, and Tanzania.  Paula visited the countries of Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and India.  The Voice of Truth is currently being printed in 5 foreign languages, Tamil, Telegu, Hindi, Nepali, and Paite.  The first issue of the Paite edition was printed near the end of 2012.  We facilitated the shipping of approximately 7 tons of literature sent primarily to the countries of Tanzania, French speaking countries, Trinidad, Philippines, Nigeria, Gyana, Ghana, Malawi and India.  In addition, the English version of the Voice of Truth was distributed to numerous countries, which amounts to about 58,000 individual copies.  Furthermore, there were several titles translated and printed in other languages that have not been included in the above figures.  We hope that this helps you grasp the wide scope of our work with which we are privileged to be associated.

Both preacher schools are doing a great job of training future church leaders and evangelizing their respective parts of India.  Some of the activities of the students of the Visakha Valley Bible Institute are listed below:

Number of People Baptized: 84

Number of Bible Studies Conducted: 617

New Congregations Established: 4

Christians Restored: 28

Gospel Meetings Conducted: 153

August-September 2012 report

Dear Supporters,

When It Rains, It Pours
As you might imagine, it is always very busy getting ready for an extended overseas trip.  It was even more so this time.  Near the end of July, we came in on a Sunday night after visiting churches, and found that water was leaking from our living room ceiling. Obviously, it was time for a new roof.  It was not a very good time to be involved with that, but we had no choice.  We were hoping to get the job completed before we left, but that was not to be.  Due to time constraints from the roofer, ordering shingles, etc., we had to leave with the job only about half completed.  Fortunately, we were able to have a good trustworthy man doing the job.  Don Robertson, the preacher at the Coffeeville Church of Christ, replaced the shingles as well as seeing that the repairs needed inside the house were also completed.  It is truly wonderful to have fellow Christians that you can trust. In addition, we had our annual meeting, completing our lessons and last minute details, making one final visit to our grandchildren, and of course, visiting churches.  Sometimes, we are glad to get on the plane so we can rest!

Sri Lanka
We left home on August 22^nd, and our first stop was Sri Lanka.  This is a small island country with no Bible Schools, so we try to hold a weekend seminar twice a year to further ground the Christians with some deeper teachings.  Several of the Christians rode the train about two hours in order to attend.  Saturday went well, but then that night Paula became very sick with an upset stomach. The seminar went well, and Paula soon recovered with only a few lingering effects by the time we arrived in Kochi, India on Monday.

Kochi
One of our TV speakers, P K Varghese, invited us to attend and speak at this annual 3-day lectureship.  This is a great lectureship with about 250 attending from all over South India.  All attended at their own expense, some traveling a long way.  The complete expense of this lectureship is paid for by the Indian brethren.  I was busy during these three days, with speaking three times to the entire group, and teaching four special classes.  Those days were also notable by the coolness of the weather.  It rained every day, and the temperature was just about perfect.  It was so nice that we were wondering if we were really in India, until we looked around and then it was obvious. 

Kakinada
This was a short weekend visit with the Gootams.  We flew into a nearby town and immediately drove about an hour to a preacher’s lectureship where I spoke to about 100 preachers and families.  The Gootams care for approximately 80 children, and they have a guest room there with the children.  Each morning we awoke early to the sound of the children singing.  On Saturday we drove about two hours from Kakinada to preach in a village church.  The small church building was completely full with mostly women.  After my lesson, the ladies stayed behind for a women’s class taught by Paula.  We also picked up three large boxes of books to carry with us to Orissa, our next stop.

Orissa
On Monday morning we boarded a train and accompanied Philemon from South India to a border town in the state of Orissa.  Philemon is a missionary in his own country, since he cannot speak the language in Orissa.  So he had to have a translator even when he taught.  This is impossible for us in America to fully comprehend.  We had never been there before, and the state of Orissa has been a violent place for Christians in recent years.  Thankfully, such persecution has ceased for the present.  The church is very small and weak in this state, so the Christians need much encouragement.  Philemon has been conducting the JC School of Evangelism there for the last six months, and we went this time to teach.  About 40 students attended the school, and most of them traveled a long distance, some even having to come the day before.  Some were from a very remote mountainous village and had to walk about 45 minutes just to catch a ride.  For the women in this village, this was the first church program outside of their village that they had ever attended.  Even though they had little education they were very interested in all the lessons especially the ones taught by Paula.

The school went very well.  The students were eager to learn and they are practicing what they are learning.  That is, they are teaching others about Christ, and they are reporting success.  Eight souls were baptized into Christ during the school. This town is very close to the ocean so the baptisms took place there. Others have been baptized by the students in earlier school sessions.  Everywhere school sessions are held, churches are strengthened and several baptisms occur.  Even more than that, the minds of individual Christians are changed so that they continue to be fishers of men. 

Personally, this was a tough week for us.  Paula was fine, but I felt bad the entire week.  I came down with a very bad cold on Monday during the train ride and until Thursday I had fever every day, which was controlled to some extent by constantly taking aspirin.  Even though I felt bad, I taught as planned on Tuesday and Wednesday.  However, on Thursday, with continued bouts of fever, it was decided that I needed to go to the doctor.  So with Philemon doing the teaching, we went to the doctor accompanied by the local preacher.  We went to a government hospital.  It was definitely an experience.  It was free health care, and we doubt that you can even come close to imagining the scene.  Nor can we adequately describe it.  It was a madhouse of people, which looked to us total confusion, but the local man skillfully maneuvered us through the maze, and we were able to see the doctor fairly quickly.  He thought it was just an infection and he gave Jerry some medicine, and by the time we boarded the train to leave Orissa, Jerry was feeling better, although still not 100%.  Seldom do we get sick on our trips, but I guess our luck ran out on this one, with both of us getting sick. 

Skinner’s Garden
After riding the train several hours south, we journeyed to Skinner’s Garden.  This is the great work that John Dean and his father, Samuel, have been working on for several years.  Our sponsoring congregation, Strickland, has been supporting this work for many years and they wanted us to go by.  They care for about 80 children and have a Bible school.  It is a beautiful facility, and they also have a small farm where they are able to raise many vegetables, fruits, and rice to help feed the children.  You would have a difficult time imagining the huge pot of rice they cook each meal.  Every day, they cook about 100 lbs of rice.  On Sunday we worshipped with the local congregation in Bikkavolu. We had a good service there, probably over 200 gathering for worship.  The building was completely full and several were outside.  Two people were baptized that morning.  At night I taught a teenage class.  Paula taught a ladies class and at the end of that lesson, two more ladies were baptized for a total of four for the day. 

Visakha Valley Bible School
On Monday morning, John, Samuel, and we traveled to Visak to teach in the Bear Valley School.  This is a good school with excellent teachers and staff.  Fourteen students are currently enrolled.  They all do a good job, and they are all presently working with a congregation. Try to imagine what possible good these students might do for God in their lifetime.  One might be a great evangelist; undoubtedly many will be faithful preachers leading possibly hundreds to Christ.  And it all starts with this little school training a few men to preach the gospel.  We have a hard time imagining a greater work than this.  

Chandigarh
Traveling to Delhi on Saturday, we met Rodney Hilliard, who preaches for the Marlowe congregation west of Corinth, MS.  He has a full-time job besides preaching and he took his two weeks vacation in order to teach in the Bible school at Chandigarh.  That is great dedication.  He had never been to India so we wanted to go with him to make sure he was settled. We were in Chandigarh for 4 days, and it was good that we were not too busy, because Paula became sick with a bad cold, similar to the one I had earlier. 

We did travel about two hours west of Chandigarh on Tuesday afternoon to speak where Noble, one of the teachers at the school lives. He travels every week to teach at the school.  We had a good meeting there with many visitors.  On Wednesday Jerry preached at the regular Wednesday evening Bible study.  Paula also taught some women’s classes.

Arjunan
From Chandigarh, we traveled back to South India.  You might wonder why we went from South India to the north and then back to the south again.  The problem was that we had dates that we could not change.  We needed to go to Delhi to meet Rodney, but the seminar with Arjunan the next week could not be changed.  His wife is a public school teacher, so she can only attend the seminar on her holiday, which was that week.  That is why we had to travel so far. 

We arrived at Arjunan’s house late Friday night and had a seminar at a village about 2 hours away on Saturday.  About 75 people attended and it was a good meeting.  About 10 preachers also attended and we had a special preacher’s discussion period after the seminar concluded.  This was not planned so Jerry had to speak with little preparation time.  In India, one has to be prepared and flexible, because sometimes things can change quickly from what you planned. 

We all traveled to Kumily, a tourist place on the edge of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.  About 100 people attended from all over Tamil Nadu for a three day retreat filled with teaching and fellowship.  Two people were baptized as a result of the seminar, so certainly it was a good three days. 

Chennai
We spent two days with Philemon Raja, who has now begun working with many brethren in that area.  We have traveled through this large city several times, but have never spent any time working there.  One day was spent talking to an audience of mainly preachers.  About half were denominational preachers that were brought by some faithful brethren.  This was an interesting meeting.  I preached on the need for unity and the fact that unity can only be obtained by going back to the Bible for our authority in regards to worship and the church.  Of course, much more study will need to be done, but the local brethren can take care of that. 

The next day found us traveling outside of the city a good distance to a one-day school of evangelism.  This was a rural area and Philemon has been conducting the JC School of Evangelism in this area.  This area has seen much evangelism, especially back in the early days of the church in India.  The brethren are now largely discouraged, and so this school is working to encourage them. Hopefully, this will have the desired effect among the churches in this area. 

Nepal
Our trip ended with us spending about five days in Kathmandu, Nepal.  Bear Valley has a school there and Jerry taught the gospel of John all week.  The school has six students but several others came in for the classes, so sometimes there were close to 20 people attending.  Paula also had a couple of special ladies classes.  A second reason for traveling to Nepal was to check on the status of some printing that was being done in Kathmandu.  One man has been printing the Voice of Truth for us in the Nepali language, but some conflict had developed between his group and the ones we worked with at the school.  Of course, we always want to encourage cooperation between Christians and never foster division.  The situation was not good, so we talked with both parties.  Nothing was really resolved, but the one handling the printing agreed that rather than let the publication cease, which all agreed was urgently needed, he would let the other group do the printing and he would help distribute it.  We were a little surprised that he would readily agree to that but grateful that he would have that desire to see the work go forward.   So our Nepal visit went well, and it looks like the printing will continue.

We arrived back on October 6^th, but time will not allow us to take a short break to relax after our trip.  Since Betty and the Rushmores are both overseas, we are the only ones in the office, so we have many things to do.  The Voice of Truth is ready to be shipped to us.  The printers were just waiting for us to arrive back home.  In addition, Jerry will leave the first of November for Tanzania.  He will spend two weeks teaching in a Bear Valley school in Chimala.  That will be the first time he has traveled to that country, so he is looking forward to it, although he hasn’t been home long.  Paula will stay home and handle the office affairs, as everyone else will continue to be overseas until about Thanksgiving.  Much work to do, but we are glad to be able to do it, and we appreciate your support.

Jerry & Paula Bates

March-April 2012 newsletter

This newsletter was written while traveling on a plane returning from Myanmar, where the temperature was about 104 most days.  Once again it has been a very busy and profitable two months.  It seems as if things just keep getting busier, but maybe it just seems that way.  March was a very busy month.  Jerry had to catch up on some things after being gone to India most of February.  And of course, we had to get ready for our trip to Myanmar in April as well as plan and book tickets for Jerry’s trip to Honduras in May.  All of our lessons have to be prepared in advance, since there is little time and no study materials available overseas.  Many mornings while overseas, we wake up early and do some last minute studying and refreshing of our lessons for that day. 

The Month of March

As we mentioned earlier, many things were going on in March.  We continued our visits to churches as usual.  We had a gospel meeting with the Central Academy church near Batesville, MS about 10 days before we left.  Ed Casteel is now preaching for that good congregation, and we were impressed with their friendliness and dedication.  There were no responses, but a good crowd attended all the meetings, with several visitors from neighboring congregations.  That Sunday was to have been an open weekend in our schedule.  We have very few of those, but while Jerry was in India, Ed e-mailed him about the possibility of preaching in a 4-day meeting in March.  It was good to be able to work that into our schedule, even though it did eliminate any down time.  Batesville is only one hour away from Winona, so we commuted every day.  That way, we were able to get some office work done, which was greatly needed. 

The Voice of Truth arrived from the printer in March, and so we had to ship out many of the boxes to churches and individuals here in the states.  This occurs quarterly, and it seems it always falls just before we leave the country.  In addition, we also had to prepare many boxes for foreign brethren who had requested literature to aid them in their work.  We mail these boxes quarterly, along with the Voice of Truth; nevertheless, we had many requests.  Each box will average about 12 pounds.  Can you imagine the look on the faces of these individuals when they receive this present of books and tracts? 

Jerry also traveled to Denver for a meeting with all the extension staff of Bear Valley schools.  They try to meet together twice a year to discuss various issues or problems with each of the schools.  It is also a good time to be together and have a period of fellowship together.  While he was there he received a call from Russell Bell requesting him to accompany Russell for a ten day teaching trip to Myanmar this September.  You may remember that Jerry and Russell were in Chandigarh, India together in February.  Russell was having some problems finding someone to travel with him to Myanmar this fall, and almost begged Jerry to travel with him.  Unfortunately, we are unable to fill that request.  There are more places to go than there is time to go.  

We also had two groups to come to the office and work in March.  A large group from the Booneville church (about 25 of senior adults) came for one day.  We are glad to have groups come and help, even though they are a lot of work, both in preparation and while they are here.  Much was accomplished though.  They prepared Betty’s newsletters, organized our tracts, packed about 50 boxes for preachers in Guyana, unloaded about 30,000 copies of the Voice of Truth and three other books, and several other things.  They carried back with them nearly 2,000 pounds of books bound for Guyana.  They had a large bus and it was loaded on the way back with the people and all the books as well.  They send containers to Guyana in South America on a regular basis, so it was an excellent time to send some much needed study material to that country. 

The other group was composed of only four women.  These four, Ruth Orr, Jane George, Prissy Sellers and her daughter, Holly, were hard workers, though.  They stayed about three days, and they were still here when we left for Myanmar.  They worked on packing special boxes for Nigeria, Malawi, and Ghana, as well the Philippines.  Ruth travels to all three countries in Africa, so she had many contacts and many requests to fill.  Prissy Sellers travels to the Philippines, and worked as a missionary for 10 years before her husband passed away about 5 years ago.  She continues to work extensively in that country

especially in the area of establishing Bible classes and creating educational materials for churches in the Philippines.  These women did all the packing of the books themselves.  They have all been to Winona many times, so they know where everything is and they make themselves at home.  This was great since we were trying to finalize many things in the office in preparation for our departure.  There are always a number of things that have to be taken care of at the last minute, and this time was no exception.  All these books will be shipped out after we return.   

Myanmar

We always enjoy our time in Myanmar each spring.  Myanmar has been in the news a great deal lately, and when we went we had no idea about the political situation.  We started reading about it in the paper the day we left.  In case you are in the dark politically, let us briefly catch you up.  For especially the last 20 years, Myanmar has been controlled by a very repressive and controlling military government.  The people had few freedoms and little opportunity to voice their opinions.  Most of the people are very poor, with the government taking much of the wealth of the country.  The people’s hero and leader of the opposition party, Aung San Su Kyi, has been under house arrest for 20 years, because she tried to work for the welfare of the common person.  They had an election last year, but it was a rigged election. so the people still had little voice.  That was basically the situation just one year ago.

Things have changed tremendously in just one year.  Whereas, last year there were long lines to buy gasoline, there are no lines now.  The government has released control of the stations to private ownership and so there is now plenty of gas.  It seems that governments everywhere just mess things up.  There was another election while we were there, and this time, it was apparently a free election.  The opposition party won every seat that it was seeking except for one, and it appears they will now have a minority voice in government decisions.  The people were ecstatic over the outcome.  Everyone was openly talking about the election, and nearly every home has a big picture of Aung San Su Kyi hanging on the wall.  As a result of the elections, different governments, especially, Japan, England, and the U. S. are very interested in forging trade and business alliances in this new environment.  Economic sanctions have been relaxed due to the elections, and the British Prime Minister visited Myanmar while we were there.  We think we may have seen his motorcade leaving the airport one afternoon when we were coming back from the school.  I guess that is our claim to fame!  Almost every day, something about Myanmar was in the world news on CNN. 

At no time did we feel any pressure from the government.  We haven’t really felt any in the past, but we knew they were watching us and knowing what was going on.  Things felt much different this time.  Last year special permission had to be obtained from the government to allow us to teach in the school every day, but none was needed this time.  Hopefully, things will continue to improve and religious conditions will be relaxed.  As of now, no TV or radio religious programs, newspaper ads, etc. are allowed.  If things continue, I feel that it will not be long before such things will be allowed.  That should help the church tremendously. 

The school in which we taught in in session for a total of five weeks each spring and fall.  We were there for three weeks this time.  The ages of the students vary tremendously, and each school session is composed of different individuals, due to work or school commitments.  One thing is constant though, the interest of the students.  Most travel several days in order to attend the school and stay the entire five weeks.  Some are as young as 12, but most are in their late teens or 20’s.  We teach about 5 hours each day, but different Burmese preachers also teach in the early mornings and evenings, so the days are really packed for the students.  Several baptisms usually occur during each school, and such was the case this time with six putting on Christ in baptism during this school session. 

We were privileged to have Guy Stanley from Springfield, TN, travel with us this time.  He recently became the Mission Deacon of the Main Street congregation in that city and he is taking his duties very seriously.  This congregation has been supporting World Evangelism for many years, and he wants to see firsthand all the works that they support.  We were fortunate to be first on his list of places to visit.  He also wants to visit India sometime.  We had only met briefly last fall, when we made our first visit to his congregation, eating lunch together at that time.  However, we had a Christian bond together and we soon felt like we had known each other for much longer.  All the Burmese brethren assumed that we had known each other for a long time.  We had an especially close relationship as we all rode in a small taxi with our translator each day for 45 minutes to and from school.

Guy is a seasoned traveler and a retired English teacher.  We decided that he was uniquely qualified to teach some beginning English to the students.  English is a much needed skill for these students, and they were all very eager to sharpen their skills in this area.  He related well to the students, using Bible songs and verses to teach the lessons.  The students greatly appreciated his efforts.  Guy only stayed for two weeks, and so we finished up the school the last week by ourselves.  Paula taught the Birth and Life of Christ to the ladies the entire time.  Jerry taught about the church and worship for the first two weeks, and during the last week, he taught a short course on Church History from the very beginning until modern day. 

Myanmar is a very hot country, especially in April and May, since these months are their summer months.  The monsoon rains begin in June and it cools off some.  Last year was unusually cool, but this year certainly was not.  The temperature was over 100⁰ most days, and the electricity was off some just about every day.  There is no air conditioning at the school or in the car, so it was especially hot when the power was off.  Even though it was hot, the students did not seem to mind as they were eager to learn what we had to teach.  These students are part of the future of the church in Myanmar. 

The older adults are also very committed to the school.  Some Christians from different congregations cook on a rotating basis for each school session and they live at the camp for the five weeks.   Several preachers come with their students and volunteer to teach some additional courses to the students.  We enjoy fellowshipping with many of these experienced preachers.  One highlight of this trip was being able to meet Tin Lin.  We had heard much about him for many years, even before we started going to Myanmar.  He is very busy, and so he had never been to the school when we were there.  Two of his grown sons were there for the entire time, and he came for the last week.  We also received a request from Peter about some printing work.  He translates and prints several books, and he requested some funds to print two more books.  The translating was already done, so they should be printed soon.  We did not know in advance about this, so we were not able to give him as much as he really wanted, but it was close to what he needed.  We always carry some extra cash with us for such things as this or emergencies, and so we gave him all we had left.  We left the country with $15 in cash.  This is another unusual thing about Myanmar.  Guy was shocked to find that you cannot use Travelers Checks or credit cards in Myanmar.  We had warned him about that, but it is hard to fully realize what that means until one experiences it. 

Besides the political aspect, our trip ended with their holiday season called the Water Festival.  This is a national week long holiday ending with the Buddhist New Year.  All government offices and most retail businesses, including restaurants and fresh produce stores, are closed for at least a week.  It is a time of great celebration for these people.  The water festival is as it sounds.  Special stages are sometimes built for the celebration, and people stand on the sides of the street throwing or spraying water on the passersby.  Many ride on the back of open trucks, and the trucks will actually pull up to these groups and let them soak everyone.  This shows that you can have fun without spending a lot of money.  We even got a little wet a few times, because sometimes either we did not notice or we were too slow in closing the car windows.  It was all in good fun though.  We chose to stay in the hotel some nights and all day one Saturday because it was so hectic on the streets. 

Future Plans

We have a Missionary Retreat planned in May with usually about 85 missionaries or people very interested in missions.  World Evangelism sponsors this each year.  It is held at Maywood Christian Camp in Hamilton, AL.  The dates for this year May 10-12.  You do not have to be a missionary to attend, and we hope that some of you will be able to attend this year.  Just let us know and we will send you a schedule and let you know more about it.  Jerry will be going to Honduras for two weeks, leaving May 18th.  Paula thought a little about going, until she realized what else is happening about that time.  Our oldest daughter, Lynette, is expecting her second son May 28^th, and nothing would compel Paula to leave the country at that time.  We are sure you can all relate to that. 

We continue to be grateful that we have the opportunity to be involved in this great work of world evangelism.  Thank you for your support of our work and we are proud to be your co-workers in the kingdom of God.