You can download the full Freest newsletter at http://freesetglobal.com/news/13/66/January-2010-Newsletter.html.  We were able to send the Freeset team $14,000 last year to assist in this mission of freeing these women from exploitation and finding the freedom they can only know as followers of Jesus.

Everybody tells me I’m hard to buy presents for. I guess it’s hard to get excited about stuff, especially when most of us have too much already. I have to say though, if a present can be likened to being able to see freedom at work in the lives of women, there is no Christmas present quite like it. A couple of weeks ago one woman gave me the best Christmas present ever. Let me explain.

While Gina was trapped in prostitution she had no room to call her own. She used to stay under another woman’s bed in a brothel. I guess there were times when she had to wait while her friend finished with a customer before she could emerge from underneath the bed. I presume when she had her own customers she was permitted to use the bed for a fee.

Fortunately, not long after joining Freeset, she was able to move into a new room with her six year old son, a place they could call their own. Well, you could call it a room but it’s more like a closet, a room created from the empty space underneath a skinny staircase. The highest point is four feet and the lowest – well – you get the picture. Still, Gina has been able to leave the sex trade and that’s worth celebrating.

There are times though when Gina, at her new job at Freeset, falls off asleep. You see, being H.I.V. positive means she is not always feeling Hi Everyone, on “top of the world.” Thankfully, the antiretroviral medication helps bring some stability to her health.

Good rooms are hard to come by in our community so I’m always on the lookout on behalf of Gina and other women. I mean, wouldn’t it be great for Gina to have a better room. Just two weeks ago Gina heard about a room coming available in the very building she was living in. With a little bit of help with the deposit she would have a much better living space for both her and her son. I could see just how much she wanted that room.

When the landlady approached me to see if Freeset wanted to take on that room I was faced with a huge dilemma. Gina wasn’t the only one in need. Women trapped in the sex trade often have lots of, what I call, parasites feeding off them – people who sit on their backsides doing nothing but using the women as a source of income. Their aim is keep them in the trade and live off them as long as they can. Of course these women can never be free until the parasites are dealt with.

Sadly, even though Putul has been at Freeset for a while, she is yet to be free from prostitution. Although this is hard to understand, her parasites are her mother and brother who pressurize her to stay in the trade.

Talking things through with Putul, we both agreed the best way forward was to find a new room away from her family parasites. Now you can see the dilemma. Who gets the room? Gina or Putul? And who gets to decide?

Knowing that Gina had her mind set on that room I decided to talk with her first. ‘Gina, I know you’d love to move to the bigger room and it would be great for you and your son. The difficulty is that Putul is still selling her body and desperately…” Before I could finish my carefully crafted sentence of explanation Gina interrupted with the biggest of smiles. “Give her the room. I have freedom now. I’m free and she’s not – please give the room. I’d love for her to have the room.”

My Christmas present: To be further down the track in understanding what real freedom is. I guess sometimes we think freedom is the absence of conflict and pain and the ability to have total control over our lives. Gina has neither and yet can stand before God and others and say I’m free. Of course, it helps me understand a little more about this baby born in a stable who didn’t have a room either.

Kerry

The latest news from Delhi Bible Institute

One Day Bible Camps

255 children attended the camps organized by Bible Ashram, Lucknow in four districts of Uttar Pradesh.  The gospel was shared with these children and the day included lessons, activities and games.

Social and Relief Initiatives
A stitching centre was launched in Bible Ashram, Lucknow and one in Shikarganj district of Uttar Pradesh.  These centres were started in order to help build bridges for the gospel among the poor.  Women in these places are being empowered with the teaching of a trade.

Buffaloes were purchased and given to four of our Church Associates to help them become self-supportive. 

Regional Bible Training
79 men and women were trained in the districts of Varanasi and Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh in the month of July.
 
Leadership Seminar
A two day seminar was held in Bible Ashram, Dehradun for the local leaders.  22 leaders trained.

Lucknow Strategic Church Resource Centre
After attaining a Ph.D I went around to find solutions to liberate myself and my people from social discrimination.  Even at the University level I had to face many challenges because of my low caste. I met Ramraj David, the Regional Director of the Bible Ashram, Lucknow, who himself was from a low caste.  With my growing acquaintance with the Church I realized that it is Christ alone who can liberate us.  To know more about the Lord I have joined the Christian Foundations Course in the Ashram.  I decided to obey the Lord in water baptism.      …..Dr. R A Gautam

For several years we worshipped idols in our home.  One day I heard that my son became a Christian and thus he was forced to leave home.  I was very sad.  However, after several years, my son returned and shared about the Lord Jesus Christ.  I did not trust Jesus because of the fear of society.  I continued worshipping the idols for thirteen years when I fell sick.  I was brought to the Bible Ashram in Lucknow for my diagnosis.  My son once again shared the gospel with me and I decided that I too would follow Jesus and be where my son would be when he dies.  I have peace and I want to obey the command of Jesus to get baptized.  ….Ram Kali, mother of Ramraj David, Regional Director, Bible Ashram Lucknow

Four people obeyed the Lord in water baptism on 22 July.   We trust the Lord for finances to build the centre in Lucknow.

Educational & Vocational Resource Centre, Chandauli 

The roof of the Centre has been laid.  The flooring and fixtures are yet to be done.  This building will enable the children to have uninterrupted classes as rain and sunshine usually affect the work.  It will also facilitate the development of vocational training in wood work, stitching, farming methods etc. and will be used as a place of worship every Sunday.

Freeset – A new building across the street (a Kolkata street) with opportunities to bring freedom to more women.

Rahab – Hello Geoff, Raymond and Terry and friends at The Anchor Church, it was nice to see us up on your website -thank you.

I thought I’d tell you the latest happenings and tempt you to come back next year! While the swine flu thing is on, we are not going into the Patpong Soi 1 bars, but to Soi 2 where there are open air bars and so less risk to everyone’s health. God is good as we are meeting new women, who we would not have been otherwise and just this week, the two Thai women on our outreach team were able to lead two women to God. One is a Mama-san so with God’s hand on her she could well have a great influence on others. We pray He reveals more of himself to her each day. 8th July was Rahab’s 20th birthday we celebrated with lots of food, fun and sharing of Rahab’s story – a wonderful day.

Bless you all for your ongoing support and encouragement to us – you are part of our team! Sarah and the Rahab family

Delhi Bible Institute – they have just run their summer Bible camps and had 795 kids as past of it, trained 137 people in the regional training programme in June, and 21 people were baptised

The highlights of the camps were:

• One on one sharing of the gospel with all children with 195 children committed their lives to the Lord Jesus
• 25 bus routes to bring children in Delhi and Dehradun
• 184 volunteers join hands to work in the three camps
• The wordless book, a simple tool to explain the gospel, consisting of six colours was used in every class.  Gold represents heaven, Black is our sin which disqualifies us from entering sin, Red is the blood of Christ which takes away our sin, White is our new heart cleansed by the blood of Jesus and Green represents spiritual growth as we read the Bible, pray and stay connected to a local church.  Each student was given a wordless book so that they could share the gospel with their families and friends
• The gospel shared with parents on the closing days of the camps

Praise God for the hundreds of children who were reached through the efforts in Lucknow, Punjab, Delhi and Dehradun.  Children in all the camps came from both high strata of society and the slums. 

This week, we profile Freeset one of the projects Geoff, Raymond and Terry visited while they were in Asia. As a church, we have several links to Freeset. Kerry and Annie Hilton from New Zealand established Freeset eight years ago. Kerry is Raymond’s cousin’s wife’s cousin. Rachel Ballentyne’s friend and her husband co-ordinated marketing for Freeset for several years and Sue Stewart sells Freeset bags.

Ten years ago, Kerry and Annie moved to Kolkata  to live and work among the poor. They arrived, agreed to rent a flat in the day time, and then found out they had chosen to live in the middle of the red light district of Kolkata. So they decided they were called to work amongst prostitutes. Two years later they set up a business, making jute bags, with 20 prostitutes who they had befriended and wanted to be free. The business is crucial as the women need alternative income to be free to leave the trade. Over the last eight years, 150 women have been made free, word has spread and 50 more women want to join if the business can grow to support them. However, the business has been impacted by the recession and is not in a position to support new workers at the moment. The business is just expanding into t-shirts. 

Geoff, Raymond and Terry were all very moved by our visit. We heard Kerry and Annie’s story, saw the women laughing at their sewing machines as Kerry showed us around and teased them as their ‘big brother’, and listened to one woman share her story with us.

We can help Freeset by

- praying

- thinking of people we know in business who might be interested in purchasing jute bags or t-shirts

- support the Freeset trust which helps the women by funding

          - training in life skills

          - the nursery

          - financial services, such as, budgeting and repayments

          - a proposed health clinic and school for the community.

For more information you can visit http://www.freesetglobal.com/