The Hams

We are delighted that you've stopped by. The purpose of this website is to provide a forum for us to stay connected to our friends and family while providing general information and updates about our ministry work. Please feel free to interact with us via or e-mail.

Baby #3 Update (20 July 2009)
Dana has entered her 30th week of pregnancy. She and the baby are doing well (according to my 'perceptive' observation). She will be going for an ultra-sound and the usual blood tests this week. However, the doctor will not be allowed to reveal the baby's gender. We are hoping to find someone who will make an exception, but it's highly unlikely. If nothing else, the ultrasound and tests will provide us with more evidence to prove the child's birth in India when we go for the passport and exit visa.

Upcoming U.S. Visit
After our baby's arrival, we will need to leave India by January and acquire a proper Indian visa in the U.S. We hope to come in December and anxiously look forward to seeing many of you for the first time in two years.

Family Camping
We have recently started taking regular family camping trips in the mountains near our home. It gives the boys good exposure to the outdoors, which they love. It also enables us to visit the villages, meet new people and share our faith as a family. Hopefully, time will reveal this to be a fruitful venture.

New Church Family
We've recently started fellowshipping with a local church in our city. I have begun teaching foundational classes and am also involved in the worship and house fellowships. Dana mingles with a few of the young single ladies when she is able. We spend a lot of time with the pastors, Amrit and Soni, encouraging one another. They have three young boys with whom Joel and Jonah have become good friends.

A Week in Nepal
Recently, I traveled with Amrit and another friend to Amrit's home village in Nepal. After a train delay filled day halfway across the sweltering north Indian plains, we crossed the border after midnight, but not before having to awaken the immigration officers who were resting on their makeshift desks under draped mosquito nets. By candlelight we received a stamp in our passports with blank spaces for the departure and entry dates to be handwritten and validated by the personal signature of the officer wearing a pair of shorts and a 'wife-beater' tank top. A few hours later, we finally caught a bus and reached the village at dawn. (It should be noted that that nothing in the aforementioned description of the journey, as such, is unusual.

We were warmly received by Amrit's large family. Most of them are rather poor and seemed quite alienated from the local church body. We spent the week visiting each home where we had times of worship, fellowship, encouragement, exhortation, prayer and nice Nepali food. We also met with one local youth group.

I was reminded of my Bible school days, when Bro. Bill Behrman would talk about his Nepal adventures, planting some of the first seeds for missions in my heart. We left with a burden for the forgotten people of this nation with an uncertain future. The recently appointed prime minister had stepped down the same week we were visiting amidst a great deal of turmoil, coupled with sporadic demonstrations that disrupt daily life. We counted ourselves fortunate to be able to travel without any incident. We also look forward to doing some work in Nepal, if the Lord allows.

Duel with the Dalai Lama Motorcade
I have one story that is so funny and ironic that I can't resist sharing it even though it is absolutely insignificant. In April 2009, we were driving down to Agra with our visiting Louisiana friends to see the Taj Mahal. As we were approaching Haridwar, one of the most famous Hindu pilgrimages—a favorite site for dipping in the famous Ganges river, we came up behind a long line of vehicles loaded with Tibetan monks. They were waving out of their windows, trying to discourage anyone from passing. I quickly grew impatient by the audacity of these slow-moving, waving monks trying to usurp authority over the highway. As I was overtaking about ten of these vehicles, I sarcastically quipped, "It must be the Dalai Lama and his chumps ahead."

As we drew closer to the front of the pack, we came upon the first police escort—full of waving police officers. I had no intention of challenging legitimate authority, but the momentum we had accumulated thrust us past them before I could back off. This prompted them to angrily whizz up beside us and strike my door with a baton, as if to dare me to try it again. We thereafter crept humbly along the side of the road as the, now vindicated, waving Tibetan monks regained their position in front of us.

When we reached Haridwar, we saw a large gathering and a temporary structure built across the highway with a banner that read, "HARIDWAR WELCOMES HIS HOLINESS, THE DALAI LAMA. CELEBRATING 50 YEARS IN INDIA." So, as fate would have it, it really was the Dalai Lama motorcade. And not only did we manage to harass him, but we did it on the very day of his 50th anniversary in exile in India.

I have to admit, I feel a little proud to be the only Texan who can make such a boast, considering other great Texans whose company I have now joined—Lyndon B. Johnson (Vietnam), George W. Bush (Iraq) and Lance Armstrong (the French). Of course, the media will never report our story, lest they unveil the violent means employed by "his holiness" to suppress zealous American tourists. Oh, the hypocrisy!

Note: While the facts of this story are true, the ridiculous conclusions, particularly the last paragraph, were satirically written for the reader's amusement.