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MISSION FOR THE RURAL PEOPLE
(A voluntary and non-profit organization reiterated under the Societies Reiterated Act XXI of 1860 with Reg. No. 15/2002)
missionfaithbank@yahoo.com
Newsletter – June, July and August 2009
Welcome to the latest newsletter from the Mission for the Rural People India!
We have been very busy over the last few months and have much news to share with you. June saw the arrival of some friends from the USA, Brothers PJ Raduta and Dustin Varughese. Over the last few weeks we have had two friends here from the UK. Sister Shona Morrison from Scotland and Brother Andrew Fernandes from London, England.
In addition to teaching and playing with the children Brothers Dustin and PJ also helped with outreach programmes in the local area. Every Sunday they preached the word of God at the Mission church and Brother PJ prayed with many members of the congregation individually. They also spent four days in Pithapuram and preached in affiliated churches there. This helped greatly to spread the word of God throughout our extended community.
During their time here, they also helped to dedicate four bore wells. The installation of these wells was made possible by a kind donation from the Wragge family from England. They had heard about our work from our friends Joyce and Bill Walker and it is wonderful for us to see the word of our Mission spreading further and reaching more people.
Two of the wells were installed in villages less than ten minutes from the orphanage. One of these areas was without a quality source of water for thirty years. Another well is about an hour away from the orphanage, in a fellow pastor’s village. Before this well, nearly five-hundred families in this village had no source of good water, but the well has enabled them to now enjoy quality water. Hopefully in the future, we can install two more bore-wells in that village. The fourth well was installed in the orphanage itself. We now have 80 children and several elderly people in our care and there is a great and increased demand for the clean and safe drinking water that the wells provide. All of the children were celebrating with dancing, singing and cheering when the well was dedicated by Brothers PJ and Dustin.
Furthermore, they also helped provide for new uniforms and notebooks for the children which will be of great use to them throughout the school year. As well as the schoolbags that were received in July and which brother Dustin kindly donated for all of the children.
August has seen more outreach work done in the community, particularly with the medical camps that were sponsored by our friend Andrew Fernandes. He heard about our Mission through our friend Brother Rolo, once again we find this a great encouragement and pray that more of our friends are also spreading the word to others of our work and Mission here in Vellatur.
We held three medical camps, two in nearby villages and a bigger one right here in the orphanage. In total we had over 500 patients and it was wonderful to be able to provide medicines and doctor consultations for so many people who without which would likely go without the treatment they need. In particular we were able to help an older woman who was in danger of becoming seriously ill by immediately providing her with a saline drip on site and the medicine she needed. In the future we pray that we are able to provide for one medical camp every month for those in the area who so desperately need this essential service.
Brother Andrew and Sister Shona have also been teaching the children English and running various fun activities. Despite Brother Andrew’s attempts to teach football games the favourite still remains volleyball! Sister Shona will be working over the coming weeks on the communication needs of the Mission so if any of you have suggestions or thoughts on this you can please pass them onto her at shonahmorrison@hotmail.com.
We are working day by day to help the children and elderly people we have here. The weather at this time of year has meant that the children who usually sleep in the upstairs section of our ‘main house’ have had to move downstairs so that we now have 42 girls sleeping in the space 25 normally take up. Despite a donation from Sister Shona that allowed for the purchase of two more mattresses the situation remains less than ideal. We pray each day that work can be completed on three upstairs rooms so that all the children have somewhere dry and safe to sleep at night, free from the rain and threat of mosquitoes. Hopefully by this time next year our newsletter will include news of all the children sleeping soundly in new rooms upstairs!
The Good Samaritan Orphanage now houses over 80 children many of whom have been abandoned or have lost their parent to the AIDS virus. Our main priority is still to seek sponsors for all of the children and the elderly people here. Currently we have 36 sponsored children out of the 80 we care for. If any of our supporters wish to sponsor a child or who have a friend or family member who may want to do so then please contact Pastor Ratnam at missionfaithbank@yahoo.com. This sponsorship programme is critical to our existence and without this support we would struggle to care and provide for so many children and elderly people who have nowhere else to turn.
We still have not been able to find a source of income to support our new elderly residents and we are aware that our medical bills alone will be significant compared to those for the children. We have an urgent need to resolve this problem and we hope that our supporters will help us bridge the financial gap that we are facing. We desperately need beds and mattresses, blankets, toilets and any medical equipment suitable for the elderly, especially machines to test blood pressure and blood sugar, sets of scales, hot-water bottles and anything else that will assist us in providing a comfortable environment for our new residents.
If you would like to sponsor one of our elderly residents or children, make a one-off donation or can provide any items that you think would be of use to us (mattresses, beds, blankets, building materials, 2nd hand computers etc) then please contact Pastor Ratnam at missionfaithbank@yahoo.com.
We also continue to welcome volunteers from any part of the world to come to our Mission. As always we require teachers of all subjects but especially English, doctors, nurses, dentists, I.T professional, electricians, professionals with knowledge in agriculture, veterinaries (especially bovine specialists) and builders. Even if you are gifted with a special skill or talent like singing, dancing, playing an instrument, painting, etc., we warmly welcome your presence among us. If you would like to volunteer with us, please send us an email to: missionfaithbank@yahoo.com, telling us about your skills or profession and which dates you are available to come. You may also like to contact one of our existing volunteers to hear what a ‘day in the life of a volunteer’ is like. For this you can contact Sister Shona Morrison via our facebook page.
We would also like to include a special prayer request for Brother George Dougherty and Sister Megan who will be married on 14th August. We are all praying and sending our best wishes that you both have a happy day and a wonderful life together.
Finally, our sincere best wishes to all supporters and friends of the Mission for the Rural People – India, who continue to provide the financial support, friendship, prayers and love that allows us to carry on our work in reaching the unreached.
Winning them together,
Pastor P. Ratnam