Hai! (as my translator always types in her emails)
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| This Baby was all smiles when we left the Hospital. |
It has been a crazy ride with the new job that I have been given. It was hard to get it off its feet at first. I have never done anything with web design so that was a struggle to overcome, and then my translator quit and that was a set back, but now I have an AMAZING translator,
Sandhya Rani, who is such a big help and I have a web designer who, coincidentally, is also a Christian and is so excited about our program, which is more than I could ever ask for!
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| Komalajoy |
ICM focuses a lot of their programs on child rescue. One example of this is the CCDC program that reaches kids in their own villages, providing them with after school help and dinner every night. This protects them from being sold by their families into labor or into human trafficking. Programs such as these are made possible with the help of American sponsors that donate monthly to these after school programs and ALSO by the local missionaries and their families who dedicate their entire lives to serving Christ with in the villages. These missionaries are the ones who run the CCDC's and make sure that they are happening every night. Many of these missionaries have children themselves and they have sacrificed everything to answer a call from God, even their children's education, medical care, and even nutritional values. They have faith that God will continuously provide for them!
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| Komalajoy and her dad |
ICM and I wanted to figure out a way to give back to these missionaries. Show them how thankful we all are for the selfless work they do. The work they do is hard. They live within some of the most dirtiest, most remote places in India. They often don't have clean water or any access to health care. It's heart breaking to see how some of these people live. So we came up with a program that we are calling Inheritance. This program searches for sponsors and advocates that will raise awareness for the missionaries' children. So many programs focus on orphans and the children of widows, but we forget that these children also need our love and attention. They are at risk for malnutrition, sickness, and poor education just as much as any other child living in these conditions. We want to lift this burden off these missionaries shoulders and help them provide for their families!
Since this program is new it does not have a website yet, nor does it have anything about the families that need our help. My job is to create the website and also get profiles together for future sponsors. I do this by meeting these families out in the villages and interviewing them! I want sponsors to know everything about the children they are sponsoring, the good and the bad!
Yesterday I was able to visit a family in the village of Tekkallapadu (try saying that 5 times fast). This family broke my heart and made me realize how necessary this program really is.
This local misisonary's name is G. Williams. He has been been married to his wife since 2005 and they have three children: two girls, Komalajoy (6) and Sara Angel (3), and a baby boy who is seven months old. The interview started out much like any other. I have grown somewhat used to the rough living conditions that many of these families endure, but this village was particularly rural and dirty. We pulled up to a small building which was obviously the church and a crowd of people were waiting outside. I met the children and the missionary pastor and began my interview. Very early on in the interview I learned that his family did not have a home. They used to live in a concrete hut (which is better than a thatch roofed hut) but their landlord kicked them out. His reasoning was so that he could let a higher caste family live there, but another reason could be because Williams was a Christian (in my opinion they're equally as bad). They have been living in the church and sleeping on the church floor. The church is not meant for people to live in and as the nights are getting cooler it is getting drafty. This has caused his baby to be sick with pneumonia. Now he is currently in the hospital indefinitely.
Today I was able to meet this baby. When I came in it was obvious that he did not feel well. He was coughing and there was no sign of sweet, rosy, baby cheeks. My heart broke for this family who were desperate for their son to get better but didn't know how they were going to pay their medical bills. They told me that doctor's fee each day was 200 rupees ($4) and that the hospital room was 450 rupees (about $8). In addition there are the costs for medicines and IV fluids and any other procedures. In all it is about $15 a day. That is NOTHING to us, and yet here is a family who can not afford any of it. Here is a man who has a degree and is perfectly qualified to work a higher paying job and who left a higher paying job and a nice house to serve God in the villages and help God's people. He sacrificed these things because he knew that God was calling him there. And yet here is his son, in the hospital, with a potentially fatal sickness. Despite all of this, I did not see a man whose faith was wavering, I did not see a man who was angry with God, or a man who was bitter. I saw a man who kept telling me that God would provide, that God never fails, and that all we could do was pray. Pray for the baby's health and pray that things would work out financially.
So that's what we did, we prayed. Never have I ever experienced anything like it. We couldn't understand a word the other was saying and yet we were connected and united through prayer for this sweet baby. Even cooler, God heard our prayers and could understand both of us. When I left the hospital an hour later I saw a smiling baby who had color in his cheeks and I knew that I had just witnessed the power of prayer like I had never before.
After we left the translator told me how happy and grateful the family was that I had came and prayed for their baby and I was completely blown away. I was so honored to be able to pray with this man and his wife for their baby, and to witness their display of complete faithfulness. I have given God six months of discomfort and they have give Him their entire lives. To be humbled in this way was overwhelming and heartbreaking. Here are such faithful and amazing people they deserved to be thanked!
It's families like this that deserve our help and our time. We can help them and we can do it at next to nothing. Its only $30 a month to help a family like this provide their children with basic medical care, three meals a day, and to cover tuition costs so that their children can attend good schools. That's less then many of us spend on a tanning membership or a haircut. That's 120 Roo Cup refills, and less than some of us would spend on a nice dress. That is less than 3 trips to the movies, and less than any of us EVER spend at Target (you know its true). Thirty dollars is nothing!
This is not a guilt trip. I am the first to admit that I don't value what I have enough. I will also be the first to admit that I too spend too much on material things and have no problem throwing $30 down the drain (at Target- what is it with that place??). I do, however, see my attitude towards money changing as I meet these families and see first hand their needs and struggles and how something as small as $30 could help them!
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| Komalajoy and Sara Angel |
I am not asking you for money. I am asking you to consider where your money is going. I am asking you to "check yourself" and see if among the fast food, new clothes, gasoline, college costs, and guilty pleasures there is a part of your wealth that is changing someone's life. Though it might not feel like it, your $30 can do that! Haha cue the Sarah McLachlan right? I think its so hard for us to comprehend how only thirty dollars can make any difference because of how easy it is to spend that much on nothing in America. But I can only assure you that here it makes a world of a difference.
Be a life changer!!!!! :)
G
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| Sweet baby |
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| Inside of the church |
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| The crowd that waved goodbye! |
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| Outside of the church |
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| Pictures of the hospital room |
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| This is where the family is staying for now |
This local misisonary's name is G. Williams. He has been been married to his wife since 2005 and they have three children: two girls, Komalajoy (6) and Sara Angel (3), and a baby boy who is seven months old. The interview started out much like any other. I have grown somewhat used to the rough living conditions that many of these families endure, but this village was particularly rural and dirty. We pulled up to a small building which was obviously the church and a crowd of people were waiting outside. I met the children and the missionary pastor and began my interview. Very early on in the interview I learned that his family did not have a home. They used to live in a concrete hut (which is better than a thatch roofed hut) but their landlord kicked them out. His reasoning was so that he could let a higher caste family live there, but another reason could be because Williams was a Christian (in my opinion they're equally as bad). They have been living in the church and sleeping on the church floor. The church is not meant for people to live in and as the nights are getting cooler it is getting drafty. This has caused his baby to be sick with pneumonia. Now he is currently in the hospital indefinitely. 
Today I was able to meet this baby. When I came in it was obvious that he did not feel well. He was coughing and there was no sign of sweet, rosy, baby cheeks. My heart broke for this family who were desperate for their son to get better but didn't know how they were going to pay their medical bills. They told me that doctor's fee each day was 200 rupees ($4) and that the hospital room was 450 rupees (about $8). In addition there are the costs for medicines and IV fluids and any other procedures. In all it is about $15 a day. That is NOTHING to us, and yet here is a family who can not afford any of it. Here is a man who has a degree and is perfectly qualified to work a higher paying job and who left a higher paying job and a nice house to serve God in the villages and help God's people. He sacrificed these things because he knew that God was calling him there. And yet here is his son, in the hospital, with a potentially fatal sickness. Despite all of this, I did not see a man whose faith was wavering, I did not see a man who was angry with God, or a man who was bitter. I saw a man who kept telling me that God would provide, that God never fails, and that all we could do was pray. Pray for the baby's health and pray that things would work out financially. 
So that's what we did, we prayed. Never have I ever experienced anything like it. We couldn't understand a word the other was saying and yet we were connected and united through prayer for this sweet baby. Even cooler, God heard our prayers and could understand both of us. When I left the hospital an hour later I saw a smiling baby who had color in his cheeks and I knew that I had just witnessed the power of prayer like I had never before. 
It's families like this that deserve our help and our time. We can help them and we can do it at next to nothing. Its only $30 a month to help a family like this provide their children with basic medical care, three meals a day, and to cover tuition costs so that their children can attend good schools. That's less then many of us spend on a tanning membership or a haircut. That's 120 Roo Cup refills, and less than some of us would spend on a nice dress. That is less than 3 trips to the movies, and less than any of us EVER spend at Target (you know its true). Thirty dollars is nothing! 
This is not a guilt trip. I am the first to admit that I don't value what I have enough. I will also be the first to admit that I too spend too much on material things and have no problem throwing $30 down the drain (at Target- what is it with that place??). I do, however, see my attitude towards money changing as I meet these families and see first hand their needs and struggles and how something as small as $30 could help them!
What a wonderful, powerful message from India. Sweet family! It is convicting - I am thankful to be able to hear what the Lord is doing in India. God is blessing his Indian children. I love to hear the stories of such faith and obedience. It is humbling and makes me want to be more like them, like Him. Thank - you!
ReplyDeleteGraaaaace! I love this post. I love this program & how you get to be a part of creating it. I love that you get to visit beautiful people in villages and experience the power of the Holy Spirit together. I love you. Thank you for writing, thank you for reminding us to check ourselves
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