Women’s Ministry
Women’s Ministry assistance is a small, but vital part of Children of the Hills (CoH), serving the 184 tribal churches. We seek to build up the churches through salary support for the women’s ministry leaders and through life-impacting micro-loans for the ladies. We commend young and energetic Simoti Tripura, the first Tripura Women’s Ministry Leader, whom we have supported for the past two years. Simoti teaches, organizes, and encourages the women in this tribe’s churches. She has a demanding job, often gone from home, traveling the rough roads, and hiking the muddy trails connecting the 105 Tripura congregations.
Now, I’m excited to report that the Mro tribal ministry leaders have selected a young lady, Sary Mro, to serve their own tribal women. Having finished high school, a significant achievement, she has also completed the Mro primer classes so she can read in her native language. Sary has already started traveling between the 44 Mro churches and we’ve equipped her with rubber boots, a rain jacket, an umbrella, and a backpack.
Now, it’s time to cover her with prayer. Please pray for Sary as she travels between the Mro churches, organizing the women’s ministries.
Primer Class Update
We started primer classes in 9 Mro villages last year, teaching the folks to read in their mother tongue. This year, we’ve expanded those classes to six more Mro villages and we’ve started teaching the Marma language primer in three Marma villages.
I’m excited to report that two of the Mro villages have now completed all their primer lessons and by September, they will begin to read the Mro Old Testament. A demonstration of their reading ability was recently given at a Mro Bible seminar, where some of these students stood up and read sections of Psalms 23 and 24.
That had never been done before and folks were excited. God’s Word is alive!
God Blessing the Khumi Guardians
Parents of 38 Khumi hostel students grew concerned about their children when they learned that they were sleeping packed, like sardines, on a cramped hostel floor.
Within just weeks of their request for additional space, a Christian man approached me at our church and said he felt led to offer finances for construction help!
The Khumi hostel now boasts an absolutely beautiful second floor, accommodating 52 children.
God is making a way for Khumi children to hear the Gospel and to come to Him!
Expanding the Trees-for-Education Harvest
In 2019, CoH started planting Acacia Mangium trees in the Hill Tracts, one of the few crops which thrive in the degraded hillside soil. We now have approximately 90,000 trees scattered over 96 acres of land.
The trees we’ve been planting will be harvested on a 7-year cycle, with the profits from the timber sales designated to support the tribal education program and to enable self-sufficiency among the tribes.
Each year, we keep planting new trees, weeding around the old ones, and acquiring more land as funds become available.
My original goal was to have about 280,000 trees, which would allow us to harvest 40,000 trees per year, if we operate on the 7-year cycle.
I’m not sure if we’ll achieve this goal, as funds for this effort are very limited, but God has been blessing our trees with sufficient rain, and they keep rapidly growing.
Honoring the 10th Grade Graduates
Not many tribal children from the churches make it through 10th grade (the end of high school), as most families can’t afford the cost of schooling.
2024 was a banner year for 10th-grade graduates, with 72 children from within the tribal association of Baptist churches (including 62 hostel children) completing their 10th-grade studies.
To put this achievement in perspective, this accounts for just 3% of the tribal education program’s 2,283 children. Only a few children get this far.
A special program was recently arranged to coach these hard-working graduates on how to succeed in college (11th & 12th grade), how to maintain their walk with the Lord, and how to make new friends.
Please pray for these students as they are now entering a world where God is not honored and the temptations are many.
Breaking New Ground
CoH is currently experiencing about $1,000/month in deficit. We are a volunteer-led ministry, and we pass on about 95% of all revenue received to support our work, so it’s difficult to be more efficient.
Part of our shortfall is due to a devastating 9% inflation rate in Bangladesh; part is due to our expansion of the schools and hostels; and part is due to a loss of our regular donors.
We know that this is God’s work and He will provide according to His perfect plan. We also know that God works through His children, so I thought it good to pass on to you the current state of our finances.
Please pray for this work and pass on the information to others who might be interested in supporting this crucial ministry.