In March of last year, we bought a building in Darjeeling to renovate into a church space. It took almost six months of jumping through government hoops before renovations could begin, and then we had to hold off because the weather got too cold and rainy. Finally, work began last spring and, with the Lord’s blessing, went along quickly. The project is nearing completion. Unfortunately, we recently got an email from our Bible worker and English school director Pranai who is now overseeing the project.
“Today, I went to the municipality office and met the officer in charge. She asked me many questions about our church building and told me we were renovating the building illegally without municipality permission. I told her our lawyer had said it was okay for us to build, but she said he is a lawyer and not a municipality officer. She told me we have to submit a building plan and said the municipal authorities are going to break down the wall we have built around the property. She also said we have to pay a penalty for renovating illegally, and we have to fix the road we dug up. For the time being, we cannot do any work in the church. I asked her, ‘Now what do we have to do?’ She told me to wait. She will talk with the lawyer and other municipal officers and will let me know. So, now we have to wait and see . . .”
We know Satan wants to discourage the believers in Darjeeling. They are praying, and we invite you to pray along with them that the work on the church will be completed and that the enemies of the church will be won over to Christ. Also, when we relaunch to begin our work among the Thai Buddhists of Southern Thailand, we will be traveling to Darjeeling to visit the believers and encourage them. We invite you to join our support team so we can return quickly.
