India: Day Two

Shopping Trip

Earlier Jay wrote about our shopping trip so I will spare you the details of it with the exception of telling about a couple of the young kids we saw working atthe fabric store. I noticed one of the kids was standing very close to me for a long time but when he saw me look at him he ran away. Pastor Samuel said the likely he had never been close to a foreigner before. Several very young boys were working in the store, each between 9-12 years old. Not only do the work at the store, twelve hours a day. It is in many ways their home. For the work they do they get two meals a day and a few dollars a month and a place to sleep, usually the storage room or the roof top.

Orphanage

This morning we had a planning meeting to find out more about the orphanages. There are two orphanages that we work with, one of which we had the opportunity to visit tonight. This particular orphanage has 19 orphans and 3 adult care takers all of whom use about 1,000 sq. feet of space. I know that for those of us from the West that many people living in such a small place seems to extreme, but it is so much better than what these kids would grow up in if it weren’t for the orphanage. The oldest child is 16 years old. She was the first girl taken into the orphanage. She is a true orphan in that she has no living family members. She came from a village outside of the city. She has a beautiful smile and a very gracious presence about her. I could tell that she is like a mother to some of the younger kids in the orphanage.

Two of the children have been placed in the orphanage by their parents because they cannot afford to keep them at home. Their father is a pastor and he does not earn enough money to support the entire family. The mother of two other children was at the orphanage when we arrived. She is a very precious lady, but cannot afford to raise her children on her own. She had just received a new Bible given to her by Pastor Samuel and I wish you could have seen her smile as she held it. Pastor Samuel shared with me that they had purchased a sewing machine for her and that she was now working as a seamstress to earn a living to support herself.

Some of the kids are in the orphanage because their parents have aids and cannot take care of them anymore. Aids is a growing epidemic in India and as Western Culture encroaches in on Asia it will likely continue to grow both because of the pervasive sexuality that Western Culture promotes and because of the poor health conditions of the poorest of the poor.

Pastor Samuel hopes to build a second level onto the orphanage. I had thought that the desire was to bring all the kids from the other orphanage to one location but his prayer is to add space so more kids can be cared for, which he says is the most important thing. After seeing the orphanage I couldn’t agree more. These children, though they live in a tiny amount of space, are well cared for. They have a clean home, food, clothing, school supplies and an education provided for them. And they daily get to experience the love of Jesus under the care of a pastor and house parents who point their little hearts to Jesus!

Here are some photos:

Roof Top View from Orphanage House                                                   Kids Singing Praise Songs

Orphanage Girls                                                                                   Road Just Outside the Orphanage

 Please feel free to leave comments below and ask questions!