Travel to India to see family due to long absence from India

Jyothi was born in the beautiful country of India where she was raised in a humble home. Her father George Masa was an evangelist pastor and was instrumental in planting several churches in villages near them. He passed away just under a week after we (Mark and Jyothi) were married. Her three brothers have carried on the mission and are pastoring churches that their father started.

Mark was raised in rural Kansas where he was brought up in an SDA Christian home. He has two brothers and two sisters. He went to India in 2003 where he met Jyothi. We (Mark and Jyothi) were married in India shortly thereafter.

After we were married, it took a process to get a visa for Jyothi to come to the USA. In the mean time our firstborn child was born there in India. It was good to have the opportunity to be with Jyothi’s family for the first three years of our married life because we developed a relationship with each other as well as with Jyothi’s family. However once we came to the USA, we have not had the chance to go back to India and see Jyothi’s family.

It has now been about eighteen years since we left India. We had hoped that we could go back long ago however we have been prevented from doing this primarily by finances. In the mean time Jyothi’s mother is not doing as well in her health as she should and that is in some part depression from not seeing her daughter for so long.

Now finally it looks like we will actually have the opportunity to go to India this summer! We have been doing what we can to raise the finances to spend two months in India this summer, and it looks like it is actually feasible. Bit by bit we have been working out the details and saving and raising funds. This may be the only opportunity we have for all five of us (including our three children) to go together. This is important especially for the sakes of our children who need to see their Indian roots on their mother’s side of the family, and for whom it will be a valuable educational experience.

At this point we have a good portion of the funds needed for this trip however we are still about $8,000 short of our goal. Here is where you can help. Whatever contribution you would like to help with will be used for this trip to India and to be a blessing to the people there. Thank you in advance for your contribution, we are all grateful.

God Bless

Mark and Jyothi Jensen and family