“Religion that God the Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” 
                                                    James 1:27

In many respects, Christmas at Betikara was the same as usual. There was a lot of laughter and fun, especially when all of the gifts were distributed to the children. The children received so many gifts of different kinds that there was no place left to put them except on their heads!

Then, in some respects, Christmas this year at Betikara was different. This past year, as many of you already know, we have started to be successful in reaching out to some of the street children. Some of those children have already been enrolled in school, and are starting to get an education for the first time in their lives. Through touched hearts around the world we have not only been able to provide school, but also food from time to time, and this year for the first time, the street children that are enrolled in school through Betikara received some Christmas gifts.

We thank you for caring and making it possible for these children to be included in a small way in the Betikara program. Lord willing, we pray that eventually some of the street children will be able to be enrolled in Betikara as full time Lambs, and not need to sleep on the streets of Antananarivo. Please pray with us, that their lives and the lives of their extended families may be touched by the love of the Saviour, and brought to a better understanding for their need for Christ in their daily lives.

The Christmas season this year was also different for another reason. Betikara has been blessed with the responsibility of the oversight of five new full time Lambs. We will be telling you more about them in the coming months. Please pray for their health and spiritual growth as they adjust to Betikara.

With the addition of five more Lambs, that brings our number up to nineteen. We have felt compelled to add two more workers to increase health care, educational development and most of all spiritual training. If you remember, we stated that we had room for sixteen Lambs at the most in the Ankadivato center. So, needless to say, with nineteen full time Lambs and four workers we are beyond the point of being crowded and are looking forward to the completion of the new Betikara home, so that the Lambs can each have a bed of their own and lots of fresh air and room to romp around and play.

Another marking period has finished for the Lambs of Betikara. We have noticed a couple of pleasant surprises. First, at the beginning of the school year the teachers were complaining that Fetra was becoming a problem in several ways. He was not paying attention, distracting the other children and always disrupting the class. However, upon receiving the marks for the children, we find that Fetra not only straightened out and buckled down to studying, but he came in first in his class! Please rejoice with us in Fetra’s success.

Second, at the beginning of the school year, Toky was placed back in the nursery level of the private school that he is enrolled in near Ankadivato. This was done because if you look back you will see that he placed last in his nursery class last year. Were we ever surprised to see Toky’s progress. First, Toky was not in the nursery class as we had expected. Rather, he had been moved up two levels (to second grade) in school. Second, he was able to place sixth out of fourteen students. Sixth out of fourteen may not look to good at first glance, but Toky was facing some stiff competition. His grade point average was 9.2 out of 10 (or 92%), which in this country is not bad at all for starting out in nursery class at the beginning of the school year.

  Indiana Church of Christ 
  225 East Pike Rd. 
  Indiana, PA  15701 

“He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.” 
                           Proverbs 19:17