Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people. (Philemon 1,7)

Dear mission friends!

After traveling through India, from 13 Sept – 23 Oct, Renuka and I came back safe and satisfied. How good it is to see family and friends again, to eat and laugh together. It was as if everything there was awakening again. Instead of autumn it felt like a spring experience. Although the rain season was over, rain accompanied us wherever we went. A sign of how friendships have been renewed and ministry revitalized.

New decisions

How should things go on with Sharonsthan in Agra, with Shalom Niketan in Jagdalpur, places where children of the children’s homes enjoyed love and care? The Board of the ROJ Charity finally decided to have our staff duplicate the experience of the day-care centre that has been running in Delhi for several years with now 40 children. There, it’s not only the slum children who experience significant social change – in behaviour, learning, hygiene and much more – but also the families and the neighbourhood experience peace and life quality.

Day-care centre – the new project

Since all equipment is available – such as rooms, furniture, play facilities, learning material, as well experienced staff – only children from the surrounding area had to be found, to benefit from the new project in our facilities.

As a result, there are over 30 new children come to Sharonsthan, and 25 new children come to the site in Jagdalpur every day after school. They enjoy a rich meal, receive tuition and some creative time. Of course, there is no shortage of songs and stories, but precaution needs to be exercised when it comes to proclaiming our faith. Daily wisdom is needed in the increasingly anti-Christian environment.

Training for the service – new start

One last change for the expected start after the lockdown - the School of Service would start with a 6-month Bible school course, “Internship” should then be offered in their local communities.

We were able to promote it personally among the leaders in each of the four regions. On 15 November, 11 students from different ROJ communities arrived and are now occupying their rooms. The tables are again filled with Bibles, notebooks and study materials. The director, Dominic R. and team will be grateful for donations and they ask for strong prayer support.

Conference in stages

Every ROJ worker dreams of the annual conference in Agra with everyone from the Rays of Joy family. This time, however, it was different! We drove over 3000km to each of the centres of the 4 regions of our sphere to meet with the leaders and their partners for 2 days for a “regional conference”. The topic - “Firmly Connected” (see Eph 2:20-22). With the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, Ralph was able to deepen how a solid network must be established at all levels of community and family life. "This is the only way we can go through crises and persecution victoriously", emphasized Ralph. Renuka's prophetic ministry was a special blessing to each and every co-worker.

Help in time of need

Often there were deeply moving stories of suffering, death and requests for help by the brothers and sisters, when they reported on the consequences of the fatal "2nd wave" in spring, which had not stopped at any front door. Therefore, the gratitude for the relief aid from Germany was very great, to the glory of God. Here's a story for you - Sakshi is a girl from our CSS project (made possible by a scholarship). She developed boils all over her body and was in terrible pain and appearance. Because of the pandemic, her father had lost his job and had no reserves to pay for the slightest treatment. When she was on the verge of desperation, relief aid came. Now Sakshi was able to get the best treatment from the doctor and made total recovery. They are so infinitely grateful to you.

Actively participate & pray

Please take a look at our website and use the options on there. We love it when you can share it with your friends and invite them to become part of the mission family.

Thank you for taking the time to pray for blessings, preservation, growth and finances. We felt it first-hand again how the whole work and mission are held together through prayer.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a blessed start into the New Year.

Yours Ralph and Renuka Gloeckner

You can hear us on the YouTube channel: Missionswerk Strahlen der Freude (Renuka: English - with German translation) Rays of Joy Ministries (Ralph: English - with Hindi translation)