Faith to Move Mountains

I am so sorry it’s been so long since we’ve been able to update you on all that has been happening here in Bangalore. Internet has been scarce, and when we have had it, it’s been short-lived. That being said, I wanted to fill you in a little more on the people we’re working with here.

Helping Hands India was started in 2001 by Pastor George Fernandes and his wife, Jyothi. The organization itself does everything from seminary school to widow and old age care to medical camps to orphan care to church planting, but the main focus is the children’s homes, known as New Hope Children’s Homes. In the beginning, they began taking children into their own 1-bedroom home, and since then George and Jyothi have sacrificed everything and done whatever necessary to keep the children’s home going. Their family (they have three children of their own) has moved several times, giving up their own home to make more space for more children. They sold their car several months back to pay for school tuition, and George sacrifices a lot of time with his own children to take care of all the paperwork and office details.

This is George, Jyothi, and their three kids, Sunny, Joshua, and Lenty. We took this picture on a weekend trip to the jungle

George has a pretty incredible story himself. He grew up in the slums and came to know God when he was a teenager, but during his late teens he turned away from Him and lost hope in life. At one point, at his very lowest, he decided to end it all by laying on a train track. The train had not come by the time it was supposed to arrive, and George felt the Lord speak to him, telling him he was meant for more than this, that He had a purpose for his life. So George got up and walked away from his suicide attempt, and the train came by less than five minutes later. When George’s father died, George was offered his government position, and George also gave that up to follow God’s call for his life to continue taking in children.

In the short time that we’ve been here, he’s told us countless other stories of struggle and despair, unbelievable faith, and God’s love and provision. They are funded entirely on support, which means there are times when they have to rely entirely on the Lord to prompt someone to give enough to get them through the month. One month they were exceptionally low on funds, and George told us that he had 20 rupees in his pocket (that’s less than 50 cents) with a week left in the month before they would receive support again. God led a couple from South Africa to their doorstep; they had a flight leaving the next morning, and they had wanted to visit one children’s home while they were in India. After trying to contact 10 other children’s homes and being told they were closed to visitors, they called George pretty late in the evening. Without thinking, George told them to come on over. After they had visited for a while and George mentioned their predicament, they wrote him a check for 14,000 rupees and left.

The amount of stories like this that we’ve heard has kind of blown my mind. George and Jyothi have a faith stronger than any I’ve ever seen; they are consumed with serving the Lord, and they trust whole-heartedly that He will provide for their needs. The thing is, anyone can say they have faith. But to be tested over and over again like George has, to go through struggle after struggle and be faced with losing everything he’s worked for time and again, and still hold onto God’s promises and believe in His never-ending grace and love, is beyond inspiring. They are truly servants to Christ, striving daily to die to self and give all they have so that others might know His name. It’s beautiful, it’s humbling, and it’s incredibly convicting. You see, we don’t “need” faith like that in America. We are able to rely on our jobs, the comfort of our own homes, our bank accounts, etc. The American way of life is to be independent and provide for ourselves, but that is the exact opposite of what Jesus teaches. But it’s not just the poverty, the lack of ability to provide for themselves that instills such tremendous faith in these people. George could have had a decent job and been able to make enough to provide a nice home, food, clothes, education, and comfort for his family. Instead, he chose to live like Christ calls us to live, to give everything to those who have nothing, and lean on God for the rest. He chose to need the Lord every day. We know we’re supposed to need the Lord, and, as sinners, we recognize that all of us need His grace and mercy. But do our actions show that all we need is Him? Do we trust that He will provide our next meal or the shelter over our heads? Does Jesus not say that we are precious to the Father and that He will meet our every need? Why don’t we live like we believe Him?

I have felt called more than ever to live a simpler life, but not because the children and people around me have so much less than I do. It’s because a simpler life leaves less room for distractions and self-provision, and more room for trusting the Lord to fill our needs. Tyler and I are feeling the Spirit move us to make Helping Hands India a permanent part of our lives, and that is both extremely exciting and equally scary. Exciting because it’s the first thing that we’ve felt a passion about enough to want to dedicate our lives to it, and scary because it’s a huge step in the direction that our lives will go and a pretty big leap of faith. Please be praying for us as we continue to sort out God’s call for our lives with Helping Hands India, and continue to pray for the people here as they lay themselves down daily to serve the Lord.