India Update: Children selected and construction underway
Update from Joe in India
To say that our GO India team is doing well would be a gross understatement.
Children’s home 1, near the Sarampet farm, is under construction and will be done with kids moving in May to June. I met the first 4 children, (pictured here) whose care couldn’t wait and are living at the farm. I also met the first man who’ll move into the elder care home (pictured in the photo below). He is destitute, and is grateful to live in an animal stable at the farm. This sweet old man will soon have a proper life. The management committee at the church is very strong, and very detailed, especially on child selection. Bottom line: holy.
Home 2 will be at Pastor Sudhakar’s mother church in a Hyderabad slum. This will be a big project. The church hosts a monthly clinic for children infected with HIV/AIDS. 160 children in the program are getting ARVs and medical care. Dr. Sujai, one of our board members and one of India’s foremost experts on infected children and treating leprosy, oversees the clinic. Through this work, the church has a heart for these kids, and has grown weary of sending some of the children who are very sick and have no parental care away after the clinic. Their health falls apart in between clinics, because ongoing love, nutrition, and care is vital for them to fight for their lives. This site will mean tearing down the old decrepid church, rebuilding and going vertical 3 stories. (The church is in densely populated slum, and land is way too expensive to spread out.) Level 1 will be church. Level 2 will be 4 family homes for 32 of these children + mommas. Level 3 will be a school and clinic. The school will focus on these children plus other children from the slum. The church elders committed to raising 50k from their membership (more than 1000 members, but very poor), and have collected nearly 40k already. This will be awesome. Per Dr. Sujai: “We have found through this clinic that when the people in the slums see that we open our doors to children with AIDS, then they know it’s open to them, too.”
Our GO India management team are heavyweights for the Lord in India. Pastor Sudhakar carries great respect and is a humble, hard working, get your hands dirty, train and trust leaders kind of guy. Vivian runs the Christian Broadcasting Network in Hyderabad, and has been serving with Pastor Sudhakar for 28 years. And maybe the brightest star of the whole bunch is Mary, our Field Director (pictured above with the first 4 children). She is brilliant, a CPA, and a passionate leader for children and the church. She’s living her dream in this work.
Lots of horsepower in India. And a radical commitment.
Salomi (pictured here) and 3 boys will be the first children to move into The Father’s House in India.
Construction underway on children’s homes in Sarampet.
