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This little girl was sitting by the side of the road alone. We gave the little girl some crackers to eat, but we couldn't find out where her parents were.

Another god of the Hindus outside a temple.

Cows are sacred in India. They are allowed to roam freely. The Hindu religion teaches that if you have lived many good lives, the ultimate form you can be reincarnated into is a cow.

Fishermen at the sea. It reminded us of the way the disciples might have fished on the Sea of Galilee.

Fishermen drying their catch on the sand, just as the disciples may have done so many years ago.

Women working in a garden.

This young lady is collecting water to drink from a tiny pipe in a ditch on the side of the road. Clean water is hard to find in India.

Fishermen mending nets on the beach.

Little child playing with empty boxes on the beach. Notice the garbage around her.

People in India.

A big load for a small tractor!

Boys at the beach.

Traffic.

The school (on the left) on the grounds of the Healing Balm of Gilead Refuge Home was just recently completed. It has room for 200 children and serves children from the orphanage and from the community.

Close-up of the school and its classrooms.

The orphanage and school share an entrance.

The Healing Balm of Gilead Refuge Home, for orphans and semi-orphans.

The back of the school.

The street on which the orphanage and school are located. This is the view from the school.

The man on the right is the principal of the school. He is a very caring man that takes good care of the children. His son is on the left.

Victor cutting the ribbon at the dedication of the school.

The boy in the middle and his sister on the right are twins that came to live at the orphanage. They have no parents.

The boy in the whote shirt is named Amos. Amos’ father died around the time Amos was born, leaving him and his older brother alone with their mother. His mother chose a Biblical name for him even though she wasn’t a Christian. She heard that the name was Biblical, and decided her boy would be taught about Christianity. His older brother had not been given a Christian name, and had been educated in a government school. She decided to send Amos to the Balm of Gilead school at the orphanage to get a proper education. Shortly after Amos enrolled in the school, his mother was hit by a car and killed, leaving Amos an orphan. Ironically, he was already in the orphanage, and getting a Christian education just as his mother had wished. Amos still grieves for his mother, and is coming to terms with his loss. What a miracle that this mother’s foresight placed this young boy in the right place at the right time.

Some of the girls in the orphanage having a "birthday party" for their new beanie babies.

This little boy kept running away from the orphanage. Every time he did, the principal and teachers went in search of him, found him, and brought him back. Each time they told him that God loves him and that they loved him, and that he doesn’t need to run away. After several times, he finally decided he liked it at the orphanage, and that the people cared for him, and has decided to stay.

The little boy that always ran away, and me (Nettie).

Children from the school singing at the meetings we held for the community.

Boys and girls at the school in uniform.

The little boys at the school. A delegation of boys came to me (Nettie) at night crying that I was leaving. Their little hearts are hungry for love and attention.

Children eating at the orphanage. The orphanage is still needing furniture such as tables. Poor people eat on the floor in India.

Girls from the orphanage happy with their beanie babies.

One of the bedrooms where the children sleep. There are no beds yet for the children.

This is the kitchen of the orphanage.

One of the Adventist teachers at the orphanage school.

A classroom in the new school.

Children trying out the new furniture in the classroom.

Touring the classrooms.

A dedication prayer in one of the classrooms of the school.

Pastor Daniel standing by one of the blackboards of the school.

I'm imagining the children at the school learning and improving their future. I'm wishing I was younger and could be more help.

Sabbath morning service at the school.

Playing games and singing with the kids in the courtyard one evening.

Meetings at the orphanage for the community.

Some of the women who came to the meetings at the orphanage.

Pastor Daniel with one of our first converts at the meetings held at the orphanage. Pastor Daniel pastors several churches the Rajahmundry Conference, and also manages the orphanage.

Victor dedicating a church in the Rajahmundry Conference.

Elder Paaka with his wife.

Pastor Daniel baptizing a convert in the Rajahmundry Conference.

A deserted rundown church in the Rajahmundry Conference.

Victor preaching with Pastor Daniel as translator at the Rajahmundry workers' meeting.

Nettie speaking to 300 pastors in the Rajahmundry Conference.

Workers' meeting at the Rajahmundry Conference.

In this Adventist church, some of the people bring their tithes and offerings in the form of fruit because that is all they have.

Offerings in the form of food brought to the Adventist Church in Rajahmundry.

Elder Paaka, second from left, heads the Rajahmundry Conference.

Victor preaching with translator at the first 25-village evangelistic series held in the Ongole Conference.

This little 3-year-old girl's mother is just 19, and already has another baby. Girls in India are married off as young as 13 and many of them don't survive the first childbirth.

An Adventist church in the Ongole Conference padlocked shut because there are no leaders and the church members have fallen away.

Cooking for the workers at the workers' meeting in the Ongole Conference.

The Untouchables are the lowest caste in the social caste system of India. Their only job is to sift through garbage and find things that can be recycled for money, such as plastic, pop cans and paper.

A home of a family of "Untouchables" in the Ongole Conference. Their homes are made of plastic tarps, garbage bags and sticks. They do not know how to read or write, and their children have no future other than to sift through garbage as their parents do. They do not know about Jesus and His love for even the poorest and most destitute. They do not have the life-giving ennobling gospel that teaches that there is neither "Jew nor Greek" and that God is not a respecter of persons.

A church service in the Ongole Conference. Notice the men and women sit on opposite sides of the church.

Reuben Lorenson taking a woman's blood pressure.

Reuben Lorenson, a retired missionary, accompanied the Gills to give health talks during the first series.

Reuben Lorenson and Nettie listening to people's concerns in the Ongole Conference.

The Church in the Ongole Conference honored us with leis. Conference President Pastor John Victor is on the right.

Conference President Pastor John Victor translating for Victor at the 1st 25-village evangelistic series in the Ongole Conference

A one-day church in the Ongole Conference. Notice the damage to the door. Many of the churches that were built by various teams that came to India to evangelize are now closed. We encouraged the Conference to work longer with the people as we recognized that many had been prematurely baptized without proper discipleship and that is why they are leaving the churches or lowering the standards of the faith to suit their needs.

This one-day church is quite run-down.

The Conference President, John Victor, presides over the Ongole Conference. He had a burden for training the pastors properly in our message and had even arranged for his pastors to come to a seminar where they were to be trained in our core message. They are building a training center on the grounds of the Conference Office and are planning to give the pastors proper training. Victor’s training session lasted four days and again he preached to them between 6-8 hours a day.

The tents where the pastors' meeting was held in the Ongole Conference.

Pastors at the Workers' meeting in the Ongole Conference

More pastors at the Workers' meeting in the Ongole Conference.

The public attending the 1st 25-village evangelistic series in Pallamalia in the Ongole region.

The tent just before the meetings at the 1st evangelistic series of meetings in Pallamalia.

Trucks bringing people to the 1st evangelistic series in Ongole. Most people don't have transportation, and to ensure people arrived on time, trucks were rented to provide transportation.

Victor visited one of our abandoned Adventist churches while in the Ongole Conference. These people posed outside with him after they came to see what was going on.

This Adventist church is not used currently because the people have wavered in their faith and leadership is lacking.

People who came to see what we were doing at the abandoned Church. Pastor Gill encouraged them to return to the truth and not to give up.

During New Years we had a break, and amongst other things, we organized an event to donate saris to widow women in the area.

Widow women of the Guntur area.

Pastors training in the Guntur Conference - here feeding the pastors who came to the sessions. Sessions lasted 6-8 hours a day, with a few non-SDA pastors attending as well.

Pastors and wives at the Pastors' training lining up at lunch.

Pastors eating at lunch during the 6-8 hour long training sessions.

Pastors at the pastors' training session posing for a picture.

A special wives meeting for wives of pastors at the Pastors' Training Sessions in the Guntur Conference.

This is a beautiful school built by Maranatha in the Guntur Conference. The challenge with the Maranatha ministry, however, is that while Maranatha builds great facilities for churches and schools, it is up to the locals to fill these schools with teachers and the churches with pastors, and there is often a major shortage. In the schools, we do not have enough SDA teachers and, as a result, many of the children are being taught by Hindu teachers. These Hindu teachers bring with them their own philosophies, giving the children mixed messages. As I mentioned earlier, we had a Hindu teacher working at the orphanage school with us.

Maranatha school in the Guntur Conference. How I wished that I was 10 or 20 years younger! I would love to be part of the school’s development. I thought of the young people in our schools in North America and could envision them working as student missionaries in these villages and schools. What a wonderful work they would be able to do here! How they could cause the work in India to grow and flourish!

Victor & Nettie Gill cutting the ribbon at a dedication of a church in Garnepudi in the Guntur Conference.

Victor & Nettie handing out saris to widow women in the Guntur Conference area.

The man on the left is a chief of a local village near Garnepudi in the Guntur Conference. His wife and well-educated daughter are both Adventists. They became Adventists several years back, as did others in the chief's village. But while the others allowed their faith to dwindle and many returned to their old ways, the chief's wife and daughter remained strong, and kept the faith alive, always praying for their husband to also find the truth. We had the great joy of seeing him accept the truth while we were in India. He now is a Seventh-day Adventist and the entire family can be a light to the other villagers.

This man with the lei in center of picture pastors a church in Garnepudi in the Guntur Conference.

Victor preaching in the second 25-village evangelistic series in the Guntur Conference.

People getting off the trucks arriving at the second evangelistic series in Guntur.

Women and children at the second evangelistic series in Guntur.

Children wearing paper crowns made during the children's program in the second evangelistic series in Guntur.

Victor preaching in the second evangelistic series with translator.

Nettie with President John Victor's wife

Vic's translator who preaches on TV station. This man told a story about a husband and wife who owned a TV channel with Christian content. SDAs and other Christian denominations had purchased time on the channel, but the other denominations complained about the SDAs and wanted them to withdraw their programs. The owner asked both groups to present reasons why they either keep Saturday or Sunday Sabbath. Only the SDAs could provide Biblical answers for their beliefs, so the owner rewarded them with a 50% discount on their programming.

Conference office in Guntur Conference with Conference President Veera

An abandoned SDA church.

This abandoned SDA church has broken windows and damaged doors, a sad reminder that there's more to a church than a building. More well-trained pastors and workers as well as thorough Bible study for members are needed to keep the church alive and functioning in this land of multiple gods.

The abandoned church with broken windows.

View of inside the abandoned church.

Another example of an abandoned SDA church that has fallen into dis-use.

Yet another abandoned church. It is so sad to see so many churches that have been built with so much dedication and sacrifice fallen into disrepair and not being used.