The Girls' New Home

For those of you who haven’t heard, we have moved the girls to their new home! After the surprise inspection, things were kind of crazy here. We had to bring the living relatives of those kids from out of state to Bangalore (a 5-day journey one way), we had to take care of a lot of paperwork, and the big project that we needed accomplish was to find a new home for the girls. The girls have never had beds, and the house that they were in was way too small for that many kids. The problem with this task was that no one seemed to want to give their house to rent once they found out it was for a children’s home. George looked for about a week at countless buildings and houses, but nothing seemed to work out. He finally asked his own landlord if they could take the girls there as a backup plan in case they couldn’t find a place, and it was a miracle that he said yes. The time came where we couldn’t look any longer and had to get them moved, as a follow-up surprise inspection could happen at any time. So we packed them up and moved them to George’s house, about two miles away from the boys’ home. Here are some pictures of the move, their new home, and the new beds they got a few days later:

The Bible college students helping set up the girls' new beds

They've never had beds before, so they were super excited. Some were even putting them to use right away!

What about George and his family? They moved in with Tyler and I in the apartment we’ve been staying in. The crazy thing is, it used to be their home until about a month before we got here. George felt the Lord prompting him to find another place to live but to keep their old apartment for guests to stay in (which was us), so he followed His lead. If he had not done so, we would still be looking for a place for the girls to go, leaving the children’s home vulnerable for another inspection—and if another inspection were to happen, they would have every right to close the girls’ home and take them away. It is an incredible blessing to see God’s hand in everything here, and George and his staff pursuing His will with all their hearts.

Thanks for all your prayers and support! Please continue praying for the team here as we adjust to the girls being far away; many of the children are siblings, and they’ve never been apart before. We will continue to look for a facility big enough to house all of the children, so be praying for that as well.

Little is Much

The third day we were in India was a Saturday, and Saturdays are a big deal around here. The children still go to school, but it’s only for a half day. Every day of the week they have study time from when they get home from school until evening devotions, but not on Saturdays. Once they get back from school on Saturday, after lunch, they have from about 3 until 7:30 or 8 in the evening to play to their hearts’ content. Looking back even now, having been here for a little over two weeks, it is such a sweet memory. We were just getting acquainted with the kids, and remembering how bashful and timid they were on that Saturday is precious when I am with them today and laughing at all the different goofy personalities and individual quirks—and trust me, they’re not shy anymore. Here are a few pictures of play days with them since:

Tyler playing basketball with some of the boys

A little bit of teamwork to set up goals for a soccer game

Strikin' a pose

This was a pretty intense football game

With 50 kids, it’s hard to divide your time evenly, but we did our best. No sooner had we turned the corner towards the children’s home did they come running towards us to ask us to play with them. I started out playing with the girls, and I think the younger boys got ahold of Tyler. Such simple pleasures! Being fought over by different groups of kids, all with the biggest smiles on their faces, brought me such joy. Like I mentioned in an earlier blog, I taught them Duck, Duck, Goose, and they were content to play for half an hour. You just don’t see that kind of enjoyment out of life in kids in America. Instead, you see kids with TV, movies, video games, and PSPs, plus all the regular childhood games, getting bored with all of those options within an hour. There’s a feeling of restlessness that comes from being given everything; it’s like we know, subconsciously, no matter our religion, that there’s more to life than material things, but we choose to ignore it. The children here have that concept down. Some would say it’s because they’ve never had everything, but even if that’s true, they’re doing something right.

Case in point: we were playing a game called Lock and Key (kind of like freeze tag except you can freeze yourself to be safe from the “it”), and I was it (for the 63^rd time). I was chasing a girl named Revathi around, and out of the corner of my eye I saw something fall to the ground. I glanced around and realized one of Revathi’s earrings was missing. I yelled for everyone to stop and began looking, and after about literally 10 seconds of looking for it, Revathi simply said, “Leave it. Come on, leave it.” I was shocked by this proclamation and was determined to find it. When I finally did, I saw that it had somehow been broken. When I showed it to her and told her how sorry I was, she said, “It really is no matter. Come Aunty, let’s play!”

This rocked me back on my heels. I don’t wear much jewelry, but I do love earrings and have a pretty impressive collection. Even with my many pairs, I would still be sad if one were lost and would at least try to find it; if one were broken I would definitely be sad and want to try and fix it. Yet here I am in India with 50 children, anywhere from 4 to 18 years old, each whose meager worldly possessions amount to three or four outfits, a backpack and their school books, a comb, a toothbrush, and a random toy or two (and for the girls maybe one pair of earrings), who are not corrupted by the false belief that we must surround ourselves with things to be happy. I know many Christians even who mean well but still try to hold tightly to whatever we own in this world; heck, I’m guilty of it. It is so easy to be enamored with the things of this world: cars, homes, jobs, toys, favorite shirts, movie collections, jewelry, even things like household appliances (have you ever met a woman who doesn’t cherish her KitchenAid?). But in the eyes of the Lord, little is much. The less we have, the less distracted we can be by our possessions. The more focused we are on what’s important, the more we are able to further the kingdom of God.

Being an American with an abundance of possessions doesn’t make you a sinner. Our culture simply has more than the cultures of lesser developed nations. But I would challenge you to think about everything you own. Is there a possession that would become a tragedy if it were lost, stolen, or broken? You see, I think Revathi understands something better than many successful Americans. Although she may not have this particular perspective because of her belief in the Lord, she still knows that wealth is not in our possessions. This little girl owns less than 20 items, and when one was destroyed, there was not even a hint of sadness in her face or voice as she told us to continue playing. Do we even realize how many hundreds (maybe even thousands) of things we own? Like, every piece of furniture, every item of clothing, every notebook, every photograph, every hygiene product?

I’m not trying to guilt-trip you about how you have so much more than orphaned or abandoned children in other parts of the world (although I do think there is something to be said for aiming to live a simpler life). But I do want you to think about the weight you put in your possessions. Wouldn’t the world still go on if your favorite shirt was ripped? How about if your laptop crashed to the ground and was broken beyond repair? Would not God still be on His throne if your iPod was stolen? What if your car was totaled? Aren’t people and relationships more important than possessions? Isn’t the Lord bigger and more valuable than anything of this world?

I say little is much. Few possessions equates to greater reliance on the Lord, bigger opportunities to serve Him, better perspective on life, and more freedom to enjoy the simpler things. Little is much when we have eternity in mind. This world has nothing for us; why then do we hold so tightly to the things we own? Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” So where is your treasure? If you say it is in Christ, do you live like it?

Big Girl Shoes

I  am not very good at discipline, especially when it comes to my spiritual life. My whole life (spiritually speaking) has been a roller coaster of ups and downs, spiritual highs and lows, days of faithful scripture-reading and prayer followed by weeks of spiritual blandness, etc. Now, I know that everyone experiences times of plenty and times of drought. But I get particularly discouraged by the seemingly endless cycle of, “Wow, God is so good, I want to read my Bible all day long…(a few days later)…I don’t have time for a quiet time…(a few days later)…I’d rather watch a movie than read my Bible…(a few weeks later)…*vowing to do better a better job at putting the Lord first*…Wow, God is so good…etc.” Have any of you ever experienced this cycle?

Something kind of crucial that I left out of that cycle happens during what I will call the “conviction phase.” Before the cycle starts again, I realize what I’ve done and come to a place somewhere between guilt, despair, and shame. I find myself wallowing in a false sense of self-pity: self-pity because I feel like I have a long ways to go to get back in “good favor” with God, and false because that’s not even remotely true. It isn’t, is it? If it was, Christianity would be built on works, not on grace and faith—there’s no such thing as “earning” God’s favor by doing all the right things. And yet this cycle continues to happen to a nauseating degree. I wage a silent and destructive war within myself, going back and forth between times of conflict and times of peace, fighting over priorities and trying to believe what I know to be true about grace, all the while simply stepping aside and letting Satan feed me lies and send me into despair. And I’m sick of this!

A little while back, when we were still in Bulgaria, I was having one of my self-pity moments. Although Tyler and I had been trying to hold each other accountable to reading scripture and praying regularly, there was something about my heart that didn’t feel in the right place. I was nervous about India, and I wanted to fill my free time with mind-numbing things like movies and fiction books, so whenever I did open my Bible, it was simply for the sake of doing it. But instead of spending more time in prayer and worship with the Lord to ask him to rectify my heart, I felt sorry for myself for not doing a better job and chose to blubber and cry about how horrible I was, how disappointed God must be with me, how I’ll never be as good of a Christian as some other people. And you know what Tyler did? Instead of comforting me and letting me cry it out, he stepped up and led me like I needed to be led. He refused to let me wallow in self-pity and allow sin to keep me in the pit. Yes, I got a heavy dose of “tough love” from the husband that day. He basically told me to put on my big girl shoes and do something about this stupid cycle—I’m doing nothing for myself or for Christ when I stay in the ring with Satan (and just to clarify, he went about this in a comforting and loving way…God just gave him the wisdom to see beyond my emotions and give the constructive criticism I needed to hear. What a leader!).

Let me throw a little bit of scripture at you: 2 Corinthians 7:9-11 says, “Yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance…Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorry has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.” So what is this “godly sorrow” Paul speaks of? When people think of something that is “worldly,” they think of lust, corruption, greed, etc. But I think it’s important to note that anything that does not further the kingdom of God is worldly.  The Lord wants us to feel conviction; it’s one of the reasons why He gave us the Holy Spirit. If we never felt conviction, how would Jesus shape us to be more like Him? But here is where many people (including myself) mess up: we feel conviction for something we already knew we were doing wrong (be it a secret sin or simply having priorities backwards), and then we feel horrible about it and let guilt and self-pity take over to spiral down into a place where there is no progress. This is worldly sorrow. What God intended for us to do with conviction was feel the Holy Spirit’s prompting, repent, and do something to correct it. There is no room for the stagnancy that comes about from simply feeling guilty about “failing” God. We must take action! Nothing will ever change if we go round after round with worldly sorrow in a dangerous cycle that, as Paul says, leads to death. But godly sorrow leads to salvation! Salvation from death itself, salvation from a particular sin, from self-pity, from selfishness, from all things that bring pain. And it leaves no regret. Doesn’t that sound worth trying?

God At Work

A few days ago, George’s family took us to visit a jungle in a national park over the weekend. Although it was a treat for us and they wanted to show us another side of India, it was as much a treat for them because George has not been able to take a weekend off like this since January for fear of something going wrong (they have recently become a government-certified children’s home). While we were away, people from the government came by for a surprise inspection of the children’s home. Several issues arose, and most of it wasn’t actually anything wrong, just nit-picky things to attack this particular children’s home because they are Christian. Be that as it may, these people still had the power to close down the children’s home for whatever reason they chose. They were threatening to take 6 of the kids away because they're not from this state and the living parents or guardians are too far away to get here. There was a very real possibility they would remove them from George's care within 48 hours. For some reason the inspector was also demanding that Helping Hands produce fresh signatures and letters from parents (although George already has that from when they were admitted to the children's home).

Another issue was the girls' room. George has known for some time that they really need more space (although they make do and get by), and it's been his ideal dream/goal to buy a plot of land and build a building big enough for everyone so they don't have to worry about space, sufficient area for play, or nasty landlords and grumpy neighbors (they are the probable reason for this surprise visit). In fact, George had a plot of land which he was planning on building on when they had raised enough money, but had to sell it a few months back to keep the children’s home running. Now, with a fundraising goal of over $200,000 since they have to buy a new plot of land, it seems it may be further than a few months away (a side note: if you feel led to contribute financially to this goal in any way, please contact me asap!).

All day Sunday we worked and prayed, trying to get files in order and do as much as we could before George’s council meeting on Monday. All we were asking was for 10 days to get any necessary paperwork and make any changes needed to the children’s home itself. But there was a very real possibility that he would return from the hearing without those 6 kids and a mandate to vacate the girls from the home. George actually heard from someone that the woman who had come to inspect them told another children’s home that New Hope was already closed. Staff fasted, prayed, and wept, and we were all so afraid of what might happen. Even the children fasted and prayed and went to school crying on Monday morning for fear of 6 of their brothers not being there when they returned. It was such a stressful time for all of us, but even in this time of darkness and fear, George still remained confident that God’s will would be done, that there was power in our prayers to make the devil flee, and that whatever happened, God would still be on His throne and taking care of them.

Tyler and I finally got a phone call around 3 in the afternoon on Monday. All George said was, “We won the game. We’re coming home.” We all gathered in the office to hear what had happened, and everyone wept tears of joy when George said that the woman who had been there on Saturday, making nasty accusations and aggressively questioning the staff, said very few words, and when she did speak, she was very polite. We praised the Lord when he told us that the man who was overseeing the hearing took one look at the children he had with him and the files he’d brought with him and said, “I don’t need to see anymore. These children are obviously cared for, and you may have your 10 days to get everything in order.” It was such a time of joy, but all the attention and praise was immediately pointed away from George and towards the Lord. He made it clear that it was only because of God's power, love, and grace that the inspectors had mercy and allowed for time to correct the things that needed attention. That evening we had a celebration to thank God and rejoice for His answer to prayer: we prayed, we sang, we laughed, and we all had dinner together. Here are some pictures from that celebration.

 

Everyone was so happy that we spent some time just hanging out and dancing.

More dancing

Crazy kids. They were just happy God answered prayers!

Love these girls. Also overjoyed with the work God did!

The group at the celebration

A presentation of a "congratulations" bouquet to George for his work and for God working through him

Presenting a card to Appa and Amma (George and Jyothi) that the kids had made

Celebration dinner!

Thanks for all your prayers on this issue, and please continue praying for these people. We still have a lot of work to do before the follow-up inspection. George and Jyothi are doing so much for the children here, and the Lord clearly has a purpose for what they are doing. We are feeling God leading us to be with these people more and more and fill whatever needs they have for us. Their suffering has turned into our suffering as we have grown to know and love these children in such a short amount of time.

We love you all! Thanks again for following, and for all your prayers and support.