Very Interesting Update from Seventy Jim Noland

Seventy Ananda Rao took Ashley and I to several tribal villages and they are in what we would call in a jungle environment.

I will tell you a lot more later, but on Saturday and Sunday we went to a village by the name of Kudikima. There are about 70 members of the "Restored" Church and about 30 members of the CoC church. There is also a number of Catholics, Baptist, etc. There are about 150 people that live in this village.

The main three churches, Restored, CoC and Catholic have very, very loud speakers out in front of their churches and on top of the roof. This is a very small one road village, about, what we would call, 2 city blocks long. The three of them compete to play the loudest music. It becomes unbearable in the evenings and on Sunday morning.

Sunday morning the Restored church had 13 baptisms in a pond at the upper end of the village, then a confirmation service and then a communion service. I will tell you more about those services at another time.

During the communion service, the police came and notified us that the CoC had filed a complaint that there was a missionary from the US and because they, the CoC cannot get visas for missionaries to come to India that I must be here illegally. The police waited until after our service and then demanded that we follow them to the police station, about forty five minutes away.

We asked the Officer, Mr. Behera to ride in our car giving us a chance to have a very nice discussion with him. We arrived at the station and then things got serious as far as asking for my passport, where I was from, why I was here, etc. Serious but on a friendly level.

The officer then left the room and had a discussion with the local, Restoration pastor. We then were told we would have to wait unto the CoC official arrived. We waited for 2 hours without the CoC official arriving. In the mean time, we had a tour of the Police facilities, talked with the officer, found that he has a brother in South Dakota, etc.

He became more friendly and after awhile got a phone call from the CoC and they told him they were dropping the complaint and should let us go. After some more friendly chit chat, we left on very good terms with the officer, telling him that we would let him know any time we would be back in the area.

All of this caused a 3 hour delay for us getting back to Ananda's home and our driver to be delayed for his next appointment. We heard today that the pastors of several villages where we have church's both of the Restoration and CoC were very upset with these charges being brought against us and that they were going to give the CoC official a stern warning never to do this again.

All in all it was quite an experience and shows how evil the CoC has become in trying to stop us in preserving the church."

OUR PRAYERS ARE BEING HEARD! :-)

Update from Jim Noland in India

Everything is going very well. I am flying to Visakhapatnam at 3 in the morning, our time. I do not know when, where or how I will continue to email for the next few days. We are going into the interior, a jungle area with little or no electricity, etc.
We are supposed to visit 27 small groups of members in the villiges. Should be very interesting.

Prayers appreciated!

Update from Jim Noland in India

Things are going very well here. I have been visiting in the homes of both members and friends every evening. It has been a very busy schedule.

Brother Elder Ashley is married (Rita) and has two sons. One is 6 the other 18 months.

Ashley works in a metal shop that produces trophies and other prize gifts.

Ashley is also helping to support one of his brothers who has a wife and three children.

The brother David and wife Julie and children ages from 11 to 14 are all planning to be baptised next week. They have become very interested in the church and are learning very well. None of them have ever been under water and the baptism seem a little scary to them.

Brother Ashley and I went to the hospital Monday evening to administer to a Catholic friend of his and ended up also administering to a Muslim man and a young Hindu man. This was all done clearly in the name of Jesus Christ to the amazement to the many family members that were in the room. All received a great blessing and all have been released from the hospital.

The Hindu asked for a copy of the prayers that were said. We of course told him that we do not have written prayers and that we pray as led my the spirit of God. He wanted brother Ashley's phone number and said he would be in contact with him.

Brother Ashley lives in a one bedroom flat that is so small that I am staying in a nearby hotel. He used to be in an apartment that was large enough to have church services in but he had lost his job and they had to move into this small flat. He now has a good job and needs to find a large place to rent.

We found him a place, but the problem is that he cannot raise enough funds to pay the first and last months rent and the security deposit. He was going to need about $6000 us dollars, however we found a place this morning that is a beautiful place, two bedroom, full kitchen, bath and plenty of room to hold church and only needs $2000 to move in. We also had to find a place where the landlord would allow church services. Where he is staying now the owner is Hindu and will not allow services.

If we could find him $2000 us dollars, (by this coming Monday) he could move in and have the place for at least a year. He has the funds to cover the rest of the rent and utilities, etc.

I have tried to contact George Gross, Val and others with no response. If you could help me contact these or others and help me raise the fund this would be of a great benefit.

Ashley is not a "rise" christian and he does not know that I am trying to raise thee money. He had just gong out looking to see if he could find a place that he could afford. The place he is in now is just to small. He has been looking for a place for about a year and he has these real estate people calling him every day.

The other good news is that after the baptisms, I have rented a conference room here at the hotel for Sunday, November 6th. We are going to organize the mission into a branch and brother Ashley has agreed with his wife to file their first tithing statements and begin paying the tithes that are due.

I also believe that David Bell and his family are also going to file tithing statements and being paying there tithes. These people are very poor, but they understand that everyone must support the church even if in very small amounts.

Jim Noland Update from India

Things are going very well here. There will be 5 baptisms at the end of the month and we are going to organize a branch.

Tonight we went to a hospital and administered to a Catholic, a Muslim, and a Hindu.

We will go back tomorrow night to see the results.

James Noland Ministering in India

October 10, 2011 Seventy James Noland will leave for India. Please remember him in your prayers. He will be there until the week of Thanksgiving.

Jim Noland Trip to Belle, Missouri

Our summer 2011 trip to Belle, Missouri has been a very exciting and encouraging mission. There is now established a mission of 8 adults and 3 children. 4 are members and 7non-members! We anticipate baptisms from this group and pray for a priesthood call! We labored long and diligently to find the scattered saints in the area and still have hopes that more of our contacts will join this group.

Some members are in other churches including some of the priesthood members. Through administration a dear lady saint is able to walk without her cane and pain in her legs. We are continuing our efforts there and have scheduled other seventy and priesthood to bring ministry. God is moving to find his sheep! Praise to Him for His great plan of salvation and for His Zion.