Sunday, June 3, 2012

A recent visitor shares her heart

Hello all!

R asked me to write a guest post about the time that I just spent at the orphanage with a team from my church.

Our team went to India to lead a week of VBS for the kids at the orphanage and some of the kids from the neighborhood in the month of May. It was absolutely wonderful! The kids (and team) had a great time and many life-changing decisions were made at the end of the week.

We chose to focus on the fruit of the Spirit for VBS this year. Each day we learned about the different fruit by studying different stories in the Word.

The kids loved getting to act out the stories as they were taught.
 
Each day the kids participated in a lesson and worship time, did a craft, played games, and learned a memory verse. At the end of the week, those who could say all 5 memory verses for the week were given a special prize and rewarded with a surprise trip to the circus!

Some of the girlscontribute to a handprint mural for A’s office.
This was my fourth trip to work with Crosspoint and every year it just gets better! It is extremely exciting to see how God is blessing the ministry and the growth that has happened in the past year:
·         Last year, I was able to participate in the dedication of the new ministry facilities. This year, the building is a fully furnished office space, with cubicles and new computers for all the staff. Before, all the staff was in one room, working on very outdated computers.



·         Construction on the land is continuing. The wall is completed (except in the areas that are still in dispute- please pray that this will be settled and the wall completed as planned). The next step is to begin putting in the sewage system and then construction can begin on the first block of cottages!

·         New children have come to stay at the home in the past year and the current children are continuing to do very well. Many of the children placed first in their class at school this year and all of them did very well on their final exams. One of the oldest girls just passed her 12th standard exams and will soon begin college to study to be a teacher. (As a teacher-to-be myself, I am very excited about this).

This little one quickly stole the hearts of everyone on the team.
·         Finally, construction is beginning on a personal home for the P family. There is still a long way to go and they are still in need for provision to make this possible, but they are trusting that God will provide, as he always does.

Construction on the foundation of their home.
One exciting new activity that the girls on this trip were able to join R on was visiting a few of the Titus Women in their homes. These women are extremely generous and hospitable to welcome us into their homes and share with us about their lives and how being a part of Titus Women has blessed them. We were able to pray over these women’s needs and just share with them the love of their Father. Please pray for these women. Many are sick or have pain in their body (particularly in the heat of the summer) or their husbands are having a hard time providing. Their needs are great, but our God is greater and He can provide for them.


This post is getting very long, so I will wrap it up, but I want to leave you with a few ways that you can consider being involved with the work going on in Central India:


·         First and foremost, pray and then pray some more. Prayer is crucial to any work of God. Pray for the P family, pray for the children, the students, and the Titus women.


·         Give to one of the construction projects or other needs. Below is a post from R with some of their current needs. Consider giving to one of those needs. Consider giving to help the P family build their home.

·         Sponsor a child or a student. About 25 of the kids do not have sponsors, this is ridiculous (my own personal honesty). For $50 a month, you can insure that a child has food, clothes, a safe place to stay, education, and, most importantly, love and Godly instruction. I have been sponsoring a girl for more than 2 years now and it is the most rewarding thing I give my money to. In July, the Training Center will begin and those students will need sponsors as well. Again, it is only $50 a month to get them trained to bring the Good News to the furthest reaches of India.


Thank you for your time and for your interest and involvement with this ministry. They are doing a great work and I cannot wait to see all the ways that God blesses them in the coming year.
~L- (the fearless team leader of our VBS team from NC this year!)