Quilts That Warm the Heart

We were blessed to have Uma Shankar from Orphan Outreach visit us last month. He’s always a hit with our girls! This time he brought blankets for each of them--all lovingly made by Joyce Baarspul and the women she ministers to.

It is a beautiful story.

Joyce was born in Denmark with Spinabifida more than 60 years ago and came to the U.S. soon after. Today, she is almost completely wheelchair-bound, but amazingly, she still finds ways to reach out. Joyce teaches quilting to immigrant Korean women. While they work, she teaches them English and ministers to their hearts. She also instructs elderly women at a local assisted living center who have few to no visitors or no outside contact. These two groups (and Joyce herself) made the quilts for our girls.

These quilts are testimony to God's grace and Joyce's beautiful heart. She ministers to women in need--and together, they make quilts that warm orphaned children on the other side of the world. It warms our hearts as well.

Reasons to be Thankful

As many of you know, Beth underwent two surgeries to remove a tumor in her chest. She is well on the road to recovery but still needs prayers that the tumor does not recur.

We have been able to make small improvements to the present home to make it more comfortable for the girls by adding:

• new furniture (Attar & Parmila Singh)
• a television & dvd player (Lali and Jada)
• refrigerators (Karen and Graham)
• water purifier, new electrical wiring, new flooring, repairing leaks, fresh coat of paint (Vicki Mullins and her team)
• a new sand box (Cathy and Stephanie)
• play equipment etc.

We also now have a new van for the use of the girls' home and a new jeep for the ministry. No more untimely trips to the mechanic!

We are so very grateful to all of you for continually thinking of ways to make life easier for us and our girls!

A Permanent Home for Our Girls

Dave Williams came out for a visit in November and we had a fruitful time praying together and discussing the future direction of the ministry. We want you to join us in prayer as we work towards buying a piece of property in the name of Redeeming India in the outskirts of town to provide a permanent home for the girls and to centralize the ministry encompassing a school that will serve the girls and the local community, a Bible training and vocational center (which is in the plains at the moment) and a retreat center for God’s ministers everywhere who need a place to rest.

This project will initially cost us a quarter of a million dollars. Please pray that God will provide for these needs in His time.

Building up the Church in India

We are amazed at all God has done this year to strengthen the church through Redeeming India! Thank you for being a part of this valuable ministry!

Our First Graduates: Our first batch of students graduated from our church planter’s training center in May. They are now in their respective fields and working under the supervision of East West Ministries.

Discipling Leaders: We have partnered with Dynamic Churches International in training local church leaders and their members through their discipleship course. The training has proven to be very effective with new believers.

Encouraging Local Pastors: Local pastors meet regularly once a month to undergo training, exchange ideas, exhort one another and share resources. They also get a yummy lunch!

Loving Women and Children

We want to take a moment and share some of the ways Redeeming India has been able to reach out to women and children over the last number of months. Thank you for the valuable part you play in enriching the lives of women and children in India! None of this would be possible without your love, prayers and support!

• Camp Fun: We conducted children’s camp in various places this year including Palapatti, Batalagundu, Madurai and Periyakulam where children heard of God’s love and participated in story telling, arts and crafts, dramas, puppet shows and games.
  
  
• Learning to Care for Kids: We have been able to provide ongoing training to childcare personnel from our home and interested parties on how to meet basic needs and encourage physical, mental and emotional development of a child from 0-4 yrs.
  
  
• Aid for AIDS : We support 6 patients and their families through Daniel Foundation by providing part of their monthly provision. We also work with them to spread awareness in the local villages.
  
  
• Reaching Out with English: We partnered with Daniel Foundation to provide a one month spoken English course during the summer break. We had people ranging from age 5-50 attending!
  
  
• Healing Bodies: Our staff underwent training along with several other local village health officials on emergency medical care to women and children in areas that lack hospitals or doctors.

Celebrate with us!

Mr. Richard Chamberlain, a missionary with Master Builders has asked for Soso's hand in marriage and she has accepted! Richard has been in Kodai for 7 years now and has 2 wonderful children, Hannah (19) and Aaron (17). They are planning a late December wedding in Siliguri (where Soso's parents live) and a reception mid-January for all their friends in Kodai.

Food!

We now have a new cook ~ below is a photo of Lakshmi

Also, please remember the girls in your prayers: monsoon rains bring sickness and all the girls now have a bad cough and fever. The house mothers: Eunice, Tharmi, Timna and Jayanthi along with my assistant, Lucky and the cook (Lakshmi) are working round the clock caring for them. Pray these ladies have strength, good health and patience.

Sand-box!

Mid-September, the girls got a sand-box! They are delighted of course…here are some different angles for your viewing pleasure...while Jada and I were there, we picked up some shovels, rakes and pails with sand-box friendly toys!

lali

You may have seen my name on the BLOG...I started contributing to the BLOG updates in April. I am so excited to report that I finally met SoSo, her children, the workers and all 18 little blessings last month...my adopted mom (Jada) joined me on the trip! Here are a few photos!

Sonia playing with some of the dolls we took

Sophia and I
Sorting through ALL the items...SO glad we took blankets for the girls - it was VERY cold! Jada, my aunt, grandmother, cousin, brother's girlfriend, prayer group etc contributed in making a fleece blanket for each girl (1 for each of Soso's children too)...
Jada and Karissa...having fun playing at Karen's house!

Soso and her children!

Priscilla

Please pray for Priscilla and her family. She’s my friend/sister-in-Christ, live-in nanny, house-help and so much more. Over the last year, her father endured a long period of illness and then passed away in July. please cover her with your prayers. Without Priscilla, I would not be able to leave home to continue my work. She is as precious to me as all the children. Below, both Priscilla and David are baby-sitting!

Karen's place!

Beth is doing well after her second surgery. There have been no signs of the growth recurring in her body. She is as active as the rest of her group (Praise God!).

The rest of our girls are all doing well. Our older girls continue to visit Karen and her kids every Wednesday where they have the time of their lives (eating snacks, playing games and coloring together)!

Early Child Development Training

On Saturday, August 23^rd, we held our first training session on Early Child Development at Ashraya. Shirley Billage (a church member) trained our housemothers (and other interested parties) on the basic needs of children and how to meet them effectively.

We will host additional sessions as it is crucial that we not only meet the physical, but mental, emotional, social and spiritual needs of our children as well. I want our children to have a strong Biblically-based identity and be completely whole.

I just had to share the beautiful view we had ...

Charlynn Now in the Arms of Jesus

Baby Charlynn is with Jesus now and in no more pain. She died on June 10th after a brief but exhausting struggle with illness. We are grieved by her passing but know that she is happier with the Lord. Eunice, her housemother, gave her the best care and loving attention possible while she was with us. Please pray for Eunice, as well as the rest of the Ashraya family as we grieve Charlynn's passing.

Civil unrest in West Bengal

Soso is visiting her family and mentioned this prayer concern.
She was stopped on the highway and an angry mob of people threatened to harm them.
By God's grace, they were able to get away.

The Nepalese are asking for a separate "Gorkhaland" from the government and this is causing a riot here in several parts of West Bengal. The advocates of "Gorkhaland" have warned people of an indefinite blockade from 15th of June and asked us to stock up on at least 2 months worth of food. This is going to cause havoc to our vacation and travel schedules. Please pray that it will all work out fine.

baby Charlynn

Our most recently rescued baby…little Charlynn has not been doing well (for a photo, see April 7th blog note) ...the doctors in Kodai were unable to help so we took her to Madurai...
She had low blood sugar levels, fever, oral thrush, bacterial infection of staphylococci...just generally in very bad condition. Lucky, Eunice and Sudan took care of her round the clock. Please pray for her and these caregivers. Charlynn has been in the hospital for 8 days now. The doctors say she must have been premature because her reflexes are underdeveloped and her weight is just 1.3 kilos/2.8 pounds. Please pray for her continued healing. The doctors say she should be coming home Sunday.

Prayer Alert!

Beth (see previous BLOG note dated April 21st) had to be taken back to the hospital because her chest showed some signs of swelling. The doctor's removed more fluid and are doing a biopsy test on the lump removed from her chest to see if it is cancer (we're told that we should have the results in 2 weeks or so).

We hope to take Vicki and Nancy to the doctor sometime this month...we're short on staff and someone has to be with Beth at the hospital now, so please keep these matters in prayer.

Solomon Daniel Family

Solomon Daniel is a snake wrangler who (in the past) appeared on many televised nature programs. His father was a pastor while he and his brothers ran a nature tour and trek organization. This helped to prepare him for RI's Xtreme Missions co-ordinator position! Solomon has been an evangelist with RI since 2006.

He volunteers as a snake wrangler (capturing unwelcome guests that creep into the village homes - photo of a "home" below). He also supervises a night school for 35 children (a mixed group of those who must work in the fields all day and those who aren't properly taught in local schools). The school only has 2 teachers (teachers are poorly paid, thus many students are not well taught, especially in the villages). Solomon pastors a church, has been a part of planting 2 other churches in the villages (see pictures below) and also assists these churches in supporting orphans by providing school supplies and sports equipment for the youth.

He currently resides in Masanagudi (a small town in the state of Karnataka; where Bangalore is the capital) with his wife Vidhya, their two children Jennifer Angel, who is currently 6 and Jeruson John (3 yrs) and NO snakes!

Solomon & family....

Workshop!

Lucky and Mrs.Grace Evangelin (the wife of one of our staff members -Muturaja) attended a 3 day workshop for village level health workers where they learned everything from post maternity care to what to do in case the baby isn't breathing! This was definitely an eye opener about the different situations poeple face in the villages and alternative medical care that can be given during emergencies in the absence of doctors/hospitals. Lucky has been sharing her knowledge with the house mothers up here and Grace is doing the same down in the plains. Thank you Shirley, Lora and Christian Life Center for initiating this!

Workshop attendees

Grace receiving her certificate
Lucky receiving her certificate

Please Pray!

Beth underwent surgery on Saturday the April 12th to remove the lump on her chest. Thankfully, the procedure was successful and she should be able to return home soon. Also, Vicki and Nancy need to see cardiac and orthopedic surgeons respectively. Soso will be taking them to Madurai along with Lucky for her apendicitis. Thank you for your prayers!

Beth and baby bear!
Soso's "right hand girl" ~ Lucky

THANK YOU!

A team of five women from Dallas visited the orphanage during the latter part of March. Below are some photos to show you just a glimpse of the love they brought…

they planted two tiers of the garden with fruits and vegetables…

painted and decorated the walls...one with crosses and the names/birthdays of each girl...

one with stenciled stars...

one with hearts and a "Jesus Loves Me" banner...

another with the girls' handprints...

they also sewed blankets, sheets and aprons...

These "fabulous five" were here for just three days putting FUN into functional...thank you for all the ways you blessed us with your visit...

19th!

baby Charlynn

We are delighted to report that our 19th baby is here! God brought this precious little one to us on Sunday, April 6th.

We have named her Charlynn...after one of the "fabulous five" who visited in March (read more about the "fabulous five" above!)

Upgrades to the Home

Our current home now accommodates 18 girls and 4 housemothers. Not to mention 4 dogs-Fluffy, Corgi, Jackie & Tiger! Then we have our chickens...We desperately need more space if we are to take in more babies since this would mean more housemothers also. We have drawn up plans to convert the attic into two rooms by raising the walls. We also want to lay new floors since the present one has gaps between the boards. Outside, the children would enjoy a couple of swings and a slide or merry-go-round. But safety is a concern and we want to raise the parapet walls a couple of feet higher. All this construction will cost us INR 40, 000. Let us know if you can help. Love Soso