Just to highlight some of the IRFA projects for your information and for prayer:

Darjeeling Hills Bible School, Mirik - Library/Resource Centre Building Project

Mirik Project nearing completion

The project was extended considerably to include three extra classrooms that utilised land behind an existing building which was used to build the Library/Resource Centre Building Project on top of the existing building. With the help of PresAid that was able to raise half of the cost of this building through the Christmas Appeal across the Presbyterian Church of Australia, the building has now been built and will be ready to be opened on the 23rd March 2013.  There is still a $5000 shortfall in the finishing cost, but everything will be complete by the opening date.

Please continue to pray for this project and for the shortfall in its financial needs.  There still needs to be a third and fourth floor built to provide for student accommodation and a conference centre on top; but we have an excellent start for this project for which we can be thankful to God.

CRA Capital Building Fund

We are setting up for the Covenant Reformed Assemblies (CRA) in Ramachandrapuram, Andhra Pradesh, a Capital Building Fund whereby congregations can borrow at interest-free rates to erect church buildings in these rural districts.

Members of the Ramachandrapuram CRA congregation

The first call upon this fund will be a 'Church Worship Centre and Pastor's Residence' that will be built on the outskirts of Ramachandrapuram and that will consolidate the ministry for this particular congregation.  They will be buying a paddy field upon which they can use one portion for the Building Project and then crop the paddy field with rice that will pay off their loan to the 'CRA Capital Building Fund'.  As the monies are recovered so another church within CRA will be able to draw upon this fund.

IRFA has made application to PresAid here with the Presbyterian Church of Australia that either the Christmas Appeal or Easter Appeal funds could be used to kick-start this CRA Capital Building Fund.  

Please pray that the application will be successful and that we can get started with the CRA Capital Building Fund and the first building project in Ramachandrapuram.

 Nation-2-Nation Programme

This programme is not exclusively an IRFA Project but we have become involved in it because most of the churches that we are involved with have this kind of programme in place giving assistance to the churches.  The Nation-2-Nation Programme is where a church-planting project in India has a sister church relationship with a supporting church from another nation such as the United States, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Singapore or Australia.  The programme is a way developed nations can assist churches on the Indian subcontinent so that they enter into a missionary relationship that is non-exploitative, self-governing, self-directing, and self-supporting as the church matures within the space of ten years.

Pastor Robinson and family

These relationships are already in existence with the Netherlands Reformed Churches, (Liberated Synod) and the Bible Presbyterian Churches in Delhi; Cornerstone United Reformed Church in Grand Rapids and Covenant Reformed Assemblies in Ramachandrapuram; the Bible Presbyterian Churches of Singapore with the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Sri Lanka, and also the Free Church Mission in Vavuniya, Sri Lanka in partnership with the Free Church (continuing) of Scotland.  There is a similar relationship with the Presbyterian Church in America and the Presbyterian Church of South India.

We should like to encourage Australian churches of like mind to participate in this programme.  One church that needs this kind of support is the 'Nepal Campus Church' in the Kathmandu.  If there is a church that wishes to enter into a Nation-2-Nation support programme this church may well be their opportunity.  

Please pray that there will be a suitable partner for the Nepal Campus Church.

There is also a need for Hiralal Solanki to be independently supported in his role as Pastoral Coordinator of the Reformed Bible Presbytery RPCI.  This support would not be at a declining rate but would be a set amount, as he pastorally supervises the churches across the Presbytery.  For Hiralal to pastor the central church in Delhi and fulfil all his presbytery duties is becoming near-on impossible.  We are calling and praying for a church that might adopt Hiralal and his wife Luxmi as their partner missionary.  We need to raise something like AU$6000 per year for his annual support.

Theological Education Scholarship Fund

Wonderfully IRFA has received money for theological education for training pastors that will be specifically for theological students who attend the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Dehra Dun or the Darjeeling Hills Bible School.  We give thanks to God for this support which will make a great difference to the struggling church-planting denominations that we are working with in India.  The key to revival and reformation is surely in the need for God to raise 'labourers for the harvest' in the local situation.

IRFA is making one condition for the use of this fund: and that is, that any applicant must be approved by the denomination's Presbytery and that the candidate is going to become a pastor with that denomination.  We are able to grant two scholarships to individuals who would commence theological training in March 2013.  This commitment will be for the four years of primary theological education.  

Please pray for these two theological students and their families as we go through the selection process.

 Translation and Publication Project of Christianity Explored into Nepali

Nepal Campus Church with Pastor Uma Right

The Hawthorn Presbyterian Church in Melbourne has been able to raise the funds for the translation and publication project of 'Christianity Explored' into Nepali.  The newly formed Nepal Campus Church, under the leadership of Pastor Uma Sharma who only eighteen months ago completed his theological training at the London Theological Seminary, has now established a strong evangelistic preaching ministry in Kathmandu.  Uma was previously a university lecturer in Kathmandu.  He has now gathered a sizeable congregation that is focussing its ministry of the Gospel on the university campus.  Uma personally has completed the translation of the evangelistic material called Christianity Explored and, as I write, we have been able to fund the publication of this material.  Uma intends to train key members of his congregation to use Christianity Explored to reach out into the universities of Nepal.

Please keep this work before 'the throne of grace' in prayer, not only for the publication of this material, but also for the training process of key members of the Nepal Campus Church, and that the Lord may give openings for the Gospel for them.

Delhi Education Centre Ministry

For several years now the Bible Presbyterian Churches in Delhi have been focusing on the need for venues for worship and the opportunity to provide English phonics tutoring in education centres that are a paying enterprise.  A company has been set up called 'Enchiridion Education Services Pvt Ltd' that can directly provide the basis for establishing 'Enchiridion Education Centres' in rented accommodation initially that are financially viable but are focusing on Christian outreach.  These centres would have an employed staff delivering educational services during the week; but on the Lord's Day these facilities could be used for worship services.  Gradually these centres would build up a trust fund that would purchase property that would run these 'Enchiridion Education Centres'. However, the property would be owned by the local congregation or the Bible Presbyterian Churches as a denomination.

The big sticking-point for this project is finding suitable staff and the starting-up costs of such centres.  Although these projects are big ventures and will need careful management, this proposed project is self-supporting and self-propagating toward their future ongoing development.  We can thank God that we have a small foundation fund for this project; but we need someone who can carry this vision through.  

Please pray that God would provide staff for this project.

'Solanki's Vision' for Rural Education and Retirement Village Project

Solanki's home and Village

Hiralal Solanki has a vision to reach his ancestral village area in North India where there are no known Christians.  His vision is to establish a block of land in this area and build initially an Enchiridion Education Centre for adult English education that will pay for the staff with one pastor and his family, one ruling elder and his family and at least one deacon and his family who will also be teachers.  These families will use the facilities for worship on the Lord's Day and Bible studies as the work reaches out to the villages.  This could develop into a regular day-school.

In another section of the property a Retirement Village could be developed for rejected and outcast widows and disconnected old people.  This class of people are almost never provided for in Indian society, and it is one of the greatest social needs of India today.

This is 'Solanki's Vision'.  But it is a big-ticket item and is a major project.  Could I ask you to make this a matter of prayer; and if we are found praying surely our Lord will answer our prayers and this vision of Solanki's may be fulfilled.