Katie and Taku are newly appointed American Baptist missionaries serving in North East India. Katie will provide worship and counseling training to churches and share her skills in missionary training. Taku will work with the mission secretaries of the Council of Baptist Churches in North East India to provide the pre-field and in-service training to the missionaries; to equip churches to better support their missionaries; and to visit and provide pastoral care to the missionaries on the field.

They write: Thank you for your prayers folks!  God is so very gracious and faithful!  After many long years we are so blessed to be back in North East India! Our travels back to India went smoothly … We were able to spend a day in Delhi, which we spent trying to adapt to the day/night time reversal.  (I guess that means we napped!)  That was really needed, as our pre-departure schedule was pretty intense with travel and ministry up to the week before.  That final week we moved from the parsonage where the First Baptist Church in Farmington had so graciously permitted us to stay to Katie’s parents in Springfield, and then returned to Peoria to spend the weekend with our three adult children.  That final night in the US our kids all came down to Katie’s parents to bid us farewell the next morning….only some of them didn’t arrive until 2:00 AM…. So since we were up all night prior to departure the day of rest in Delhi was especially appreciated!

 There were two surprises encountered upon arrival in Guwahati!  The first was the heat!!  Of course        we’ve lived here before and have experienced the sauna-like conditions of the tropics, but we believed we were arriving during the ‘cool season’. 

Our next surprise was more pleasant, as it warmed our hearts.     Unbeknownst to us the CBCNEI officers and staff had gathered for a welcome luncheon at the campus guesthouse canteen.   With joy we reconnected with the personnel and caught up on family news.  And then we collapsed again – gratefully in Debbie Mulneix’s residence on the CBCNEI campus – to prepare for the adventure of exploring the city of Guwahati in search of our home for the upcoming years.

We know God has a place prepared for us for His purposes and that in His time we will be there!

·        Thanks for keeping us in prayer as we forge ahead anticipating more of God's grace and surprises!