Today, someone asked in a small group at church, "Where have you experienced abundance?" As I wrote my response in my journal, tears streamed down my face as I reflected on the trip to India. There was such an abundance of grace that we experienced there.
Marcia (my dear friend with whom I had the amazing opportunity to go to India) wrote this summary below about our trip to India. I am so thankful for the chance we had to go together and for her words below:
"I've just clicked through hundreds of photos from the time I spent in India with my beloved friend and role model Emily Huff, who founded and manages Share International's Children of the Kingdom program, which is fairly large and long-established in Kenya and has only recently started working in India. Together with Share board member Amy Bernard, we covered a lot of ground, visiting the program beneficiaries and the servants of Christ that minister to them full-time. This was the first time any of us had visited India.
Share's work with the Dalit people of Rajahmundry (located on the east coast of Andhra Pradesh) includes three primary ministries:
1) Sewing Program: 20 women enrolled each year. A full year of 4-days-per-week instruction in sewing and embroidery. Upon graduation, each woman receives a sewing machine with which to start her own home business. Prospective students are nominated by area Christian pastors and special priority is given to widows, single mothers and wives of pastors (who are severely persecuted in this region.) The program is 6 (?) years old and while we were there they hosted a first-ever gathering of all the program graduates. The women gathered for a praise service and a few shared POWERFUL testimonials about how the program had impacted them practically (women now earning $4 - $10 per day. One who had just finished making 2,000 school uniforms!) and spiritually. The gathering ended with a wonderful banquet for the women. W-O-W!
2) Child Sponsorship Program: There are 21 children sponsored through Children of the Kingdom India, and we visited many of them at their homes and at their schools. (Emily was preparing reports for each child's sponsor.) Included were Kathi Sheily and Kathi Mahima, who have always been special to our family but who now hold a much dearer place in my heart. They attend a Christian school run by a Dalit woman for Dalit children, and though it will appear rough through these photos, the atmosphere felt very warm. We arrived in time to see the school assembly (and be assured...the photos I took of the children's shoes/feet during that assembly were shot from my hip. Don't think I was there in front snapping away!)
There was an evening of crafts and a banquet for the sponsor children. And later in the week, we attended a more impromptu gathering of an outreach to HIV-positive children, which is not officially part of Share's ministry but is provided through the love and generosity of the same people that run Share's "official" programs.
3) Pastor Support: Share provides monthly support to three (or was it four?) pastors in outlying areas and we visited their churches. (Well, I didn't get to visit them all--Emily and Amy visited a few before I arrived.) Emily had brought dress-up crowns with her and had a wonderful "you are a child of the true King" message for the children at each church and gathering. These pastors were recipients of the 50 (!) Telugu language Bibles that my Bible study sisters helped to purchase here in Dubai. (My luggage was SO heavy but I felt so privileged to be lugging it!)
All of this is administrated by the Thota family: father Joseph, mother Sampathi, son Ratnakar (Share's "official" employee) and daughters Saroja, Hephzibah and Mrdula, together with two uncles, an aunt and grandmother. Mrdula has Downs Syndrome, and the fact that she lives with her family and holds a place of value among them is very counter-cultural and just one of many examples of how this family embraces the plans and the people that God puts before them. They are a family UNITED in ministry. They work together to serve their people in Christ, be it Saroja researching embroidery designs to show the sewing program women, Hephzibah preparing Bible lessons for children, Ratnakar visiting school after school and village after village (some of which are accessed by foot only), Joseph supporting pastors and preaching all over, and Sampathi feeding pretty much anyone whose lives they touch. Joseph, Ratnakar and Saroja translated for us at every visit, which must have been so exhausting!, and they all worked together to make us feel not only comfortable, but like queens, when we had sought to be the ones honoring them.
This was my first visit to India and my only impression of India now comes through the lens of seeing not just extreme poverty of resources and opportunity, but of also seeing the beauty of this family's service. When one thinks about the magnitude of poverty and need across India and the world, the impact that Share/the Thota family is making would hardly register. But when I think about the 120+ women and families impacted by the sewing program...when I think about father Joseph sitting with pastors who face beatings, burned churches and extreme personal poverty...when I think about the people in wall-less huts that can't help but hear the singing coming from their neighborhood churches...when I think about the Children of the Kingdom kids...I just have to say that the impact being made in those few lives is HUGE! Shouldn't it be that we all view ourselves as soldiers making a huge difference in our respective small spheres? What a wonderful inspiration for a stay-at-home mom who stands to view her own sphere of influence with new eyes!
Why did I go? Well, I went to make a personal connection with young Sheily and Mahima, who until now have been a photo on the fridge and annual report. But I now appreciate that we were there to bolster the Thota family, these servants of Christ who are on the ground ministering to their people day in and day out but rarely, if ever, receive external affirmation and/or feel linked to the family of God beyond their world of open sewage and open prejudice. When I returned home I found a message in my inbox from Ratnakar written to Emily, Amy and me and that closed with the following: "While we were sharing with you about our family persecution - you had tears...we never seen people having tears for us, thanks a lot for your love, kindness and understanding."
I thank Emily for allowing me to join her for this trip. I thank Stuart for agreeing to it and for managing our own "children of the King" while I was away. And I thank God for so much that I have not yet been able to process, let alone articulate. I hope you will be touched by these photos. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcMmrZk4ZMWLMHg Love, Marcia"
Below is an email from Sammy (the director of Share International, Inc in a response to a message/post that I sent him from India:
Wow! What a testimony of God's goodness and faithfulness through His faithful and obedient servants. Just to imagine that God put three ladies - one from Seattle, another from small Ruston, and another from the Dubai metropolis - together in a city far from home is absolutely amazing. And what an amazing representative of Christ in a very dark place the precious Thota family is! May we remain faithful in our prayers for them.
Thanks to each one of you for your ministry among the Dalits. The Lord is at work among the trodden (the lowest of the Indian caste system) of the society through those that will obey His calling to follow in His footsteps. That's exactly what you, Amy, and Marcia did. May the Lord bless you beyond measure.
Ahsante. (How do you say that in Telugu? "Dhanyawaadaalu"?)
Sammy
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