Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 7:52:46 AM (your time)

I had my last festival with mike parker and the gang last night. it has been amazing working with him as he has some 20 years as a full time evangelist. very gifted man. they fly out tomorrow and i will miss them all much.

please pray that i will be refreshed to do this again. I am very physically and emotionally drained. today i went downtown for a stint. there were little girls begging and one was dressed as a witch doctor with a fake cobra around her neck. i will never get her face out of my mind. she was no older then my emma. i finally had some down time today and tried to get some sleep but it did not happen. i left the hotel by myself (not a bright idea) with a few clif bars to go find little girls to give them to. i got a couple miles before getting scared by a demon possessed guy so i caught a death trap back to my hotel. i cant stop crying for these children.

i promised the pastors i would learn tamil by the time i come back. then maybe i will find a tamil wife and steal some kids over here. sorry mom. i'm not sure how yet but there are hundreds of thousands of people in my "little" city and they are so poor they work 15 hours to make a dollar and go to there tin roof. the popular god for my city is the "black god". hes literally a devil with a pitch fork that they pray to for things. the children are so beautiful and innocent. the only answer is jesus. and the only way to get them to listen is showing them we care. providing education and food, etc. but there are only a handful of pastors for 244 villages surrounding arukapatai bring the population to 3/4 a million. they are trying their hardest to start house churches and orphanages, putting everything they own on the line. and all they ask in return is for us to pray.

they have to turn children away from the orphanages cause they cant afford any more. the police bring them children they find in the trash and jungle and just about anywhere you can imagine. these beautiful beautiful kids. and it only costs 10 US dollars a month per child. but to them that is alot of money. the children are covered in flies with no shoes and no underwear. but the have a roof and food and jesus and school. many have become pastors.

The fields are ripe here. thousands each day are finding christ. but the workers are few, and poor. the pastors want to build churches in villages but cant. they have no money.

thats all i have to say for now. people need the computer. and im tired. i'm gonna figure out what you can do to help and then ill let you know. I suppose the prayer warriors here would say pray for them. thats what they say about everything. the lord will provide.

i have so many stories of people ive met but thats for another time perhaps.

pray pray pray

todd