Dear Devotees,

Thanks to all of your donations and fundraising efforts, voluntary work and commitment that made our temple a great place to achieve peace and happiness for all.

Our acharyas have performed several major poojas so far this year such as the New Year, Maha Sivarathri, Ugadhi, Ramanavami, Tamil New Year, etc. Several devotees have attended these pujas.

13th Anniversary Celebrations

We will be celebrating our 13th anniversary celebrations from May 10 to May 13. Please see the details of various events here. A special music concert is planned for Saturday May 12. We request all of you to attend all ceremonies with your family and friends.

2006 Revenues and Loan Status

Please see the financial statement and the donor list. The loan amount at the end of 2006 was $425,000 and the interest amount paid in 2006 on this loan was about $33,392. In order to reduce the interest payments, ICF Board of Directors unanimously passed a motion to use all the excess revenues collected in 2006 and also the funds set aside as rainy day fund (for emergencies) to pay off the principle on the loan. We are very happy to report that the loan amount is now reduced to $75,000. The generous contributions of our members made it possible to reduce the temple debt so quickly. We would like to bring to the attention of the members that there are no dollars left in the rainy funds as we have used $50,000 in 2005 and the remaining $50,000 now to pay off the loan.

Shilpies (Indian Artisans) U.S.Visa Status

We need to bring the shilpies from India in order to finish the artwork on Rajagopuram (dome at the main entrance), Vimana Gopuram (dome above the temple of Lord Balaji) and temples for Sri Mahalakshmi, Sri Hanumanji & for Navagraha and other miscellaneous items.

India Cultural Foundation / Hindu Temple of Oklahoma (ICF / HTO) have entered into a contract with Silpakala Nilayam, based in Chennai, India, in January 2005 to develop designs and also send shilpies to the artwork on gopurams and construct the temples.

Shilpies have always been coming to U.S. on R-1 visa and we have followed the same procedure and applied R-1 visa for them. Their visas were rejected three times between the periods June 2005 and April 2006. The consular officer while denying the visa for the third time has indicated that we have to go through H2B visa process.

We have approached immigration lawyer in November 2006 and they have started the H2B process which is a lengthy process. Our request for a temporary labor certification in order to file H2-B petition for the shilpies has reached Federal Labor Department in Chicago after approval by the Oklahoma Labor Department. It is already more than two months since the Chicago labor department has received our request and it seems they have lot of backlog and they are clearing them on first come first serve basis. As soon as we get approval from Chicago labor department, we will then apply H2B petition for the shilpies. We are praying God to help us bring the shilpies by the summer of this year.

May the blessings of Lord Ganesha, Lord Shiva, Lord Venkateswara, Lord Ram Parivar and Lord Radha Krishna be with you and your family.

Amulya Reddy