My first of 32 missions fields traveled to. BETHEL GIRLS TOWN, COCHIN, INDIA In the beginning, God had a plan for India. So much of a plan that He devoted 1/12 of His original human resources, the disciples, to that land. Thomas is claimed to have ministered in India until his death. He can be credited with being the only disciple who has an existing church in 1983 as a direct descendant of his ministry. But India is a land of mystery, a land of wealth for a few, with great temples, beautiful mansions and palaces; a land of religion, but mostly a land of hunger. Being 1900 miles from North to South, 1700 miles East to West, it is situated near the Equator 10,000 miles from the United States with a tropical climate, and rain only 3 months a year with little or no moisture the other nine months. Temperatures reach up to 130 degrees and the humidity is dreadful. The land is a barren land, basically of dry red clay or sand. Although they are able to export rice, farming is extremely difficult because of the dryness and lack of technology. There are 720 million people in India, most of whom live in small villages. Most of the people live in 700,000 villages far from the modern world and the electronic church. Over 70% of the villagers are illiterate and are unreachable unless someone goes to them directly. Indias people are divided by 40 major languages and 1600 dialects and by 3,000 castes, tribes and subgroups with different religions, foods, life-styles and family patterns. They worship more than 300 million gods and goddesses. More than 300 million in India alone have never heard the name of Jesus Christ. Every 24 hours 35,000 of them die and go into eternity without Christ. Perhaps they waited for someone to come and tell them that there was hope; that there was a man called Jesus Christ, but no one ever came. After 200 years of missionary work the Indian church is very small. One of the reasons is that out of the 85,000 missionaries worldwide, only approximately 1,600 work among the 720 million, called hidden people, in India. Half of the worlds population lives completely closed or securely restricted to North American or European missionaries. Children, theyre all the same over the world! But 12 million born each year in India will never hear about Jesus Christ unless someone goes to them where they are. Poverty is written on many thousands of faces, the pain filled faces of millions, their starved spiritual and physical conditions is the direct result of Hinduism and its cultural restrictions. Bethel Girls Town is located in Cochin, about 170 miles up the western coast of India. Cochin is a town of about 500,000, one of the more delightful areas of India. Bethel was the vision of Edith Greet. Thirty-six years ago she went into India for the International Pentecostal Assemblies. Starting with a handful of dollars, the work has blossomed into a massive program, serving the needs of 2000 children in several different programs. Traveling down a street or road in India is enough to make the strongest man cry when he views the little children without anything in their bellies and sometimes even without a place to stay. It reminds you of one of whom it is said did not even have a place to lay His head. And you wonder, does He cry when He views His children? Having known very little about the work of Edith Greet, I was met with the size of the operation and the scope of the work and was left amazed. It is difficult to think in the terms of simply orphanage for the work is much more than that. Bethel Girls Town is an orphanage of 170 children left orphans, abandoned, or simply brought by their parents out of desperation or concern for their welfare. As opposed to sleeping on the floor in the villages, each child sleeps in a bunk made on the grounds in the welding shop that trains young men for jobs. In contrast to one or two meals a day on the economy, the child at Bethel receives 3 hot meals a day. A home-like atmosphere is provided with normal care, a recreation and schooling in the public school since they speak the local language, Malayalam. Music lessons are provided as well as skill training. There is a playground and friendships are abundant. In two weeks stay and a lot of close contact with the children, no interpersonal conflicts were seen among a hundred and seventy children. The main structure of the orphanage is a four story building built by another charitable organization. This building houses the dispensary, the kitchen, dining room, on the ground floor. The second floor includes the administrative offices, the nursery, a part of Greets apartment. The top two floors house the girls, older girls in rooms of ten and younger girls in dorms of 50. There is a separate building formerly used for sewing, but now used for the school. The Pastor Strommes Ministries of Norway is in the process of constructing a huge four story dorm, nursery, and kitchen for the price of $300,000; but recently sent word to stop at the second floor due to funding problems. The cost to complete the top two floors will be $98,000. Administrationally speaking, Bethel is managed by a board of directors. The members of the board are all Christians, except for one; all belong to Pentecostal churches in Kerala State. The board includes several prominent business people in the area. Edith is an Ordained Missionary for the International Pentecostal Church of Christ and the founder of Bethel Girls Town. She went to India in 1947 and started the orphanage with eight children. She quickly acquired the services of Annamma Thomas and Kunjamma Itoop, two very dedicated and spiritual invaluable ladies of unsurpassed loyalty to the organization. Edith is a highly respected person of great warmth and compassion for children, humorous and possesses exceptional administrative skills. Her ability in administrative relations cannot be surpassed perhaps by any lady weve ever met. Although Cochin is a city of a half million, she has an open door with officers even up through the mayor, who has visited the orphanage and remarked that he had never dreamed such a place existed in Cochin. The funding for Bethel Girls Town come from many sources, but only 16% comes from the United States, a result of necessity rather than design. Bethel must receive funds from many sources. Present need of Bethel Girls Town include a commercial washing machine since the girls must beat the clothes on rocks to wash them, making for a lot of labor and wear on the clothes. They need four water coolers for the new building at $500 each. A stone mixer to grind rice into flour would cost $400. A generator to provide electricity since the electricity goes off several times every day. The most important thing perhaps, is the dream of a future boys orphanage in Cochin. Greets Academy, another branch of Bethel Girls Town, is an English school which has 340 children enrolled, providing a boost for area education. It is self-supporting and is considered one of the best private schools in the area. Shanta, as you know, is the principal of the school and has extraordinary credentials in the form of a Masters Degree of Education with honors from Georgia State University. The academy is housed in four separate buildings. One of the highlights of Bethel Girls Town is the ministries it operates. David Thomas is the pastor of the orphanage church and Sunday School with 175 in attendance. He shares and basically oversees the activities of 2 other churches in Edappally and Thanmanam with attendances of 70 and 40 respectively. George, who works in the Christian Childrens Fund program is the resident pastor of Kakkanad. George is a very dynamic pastor and dedicated evangelist there. Approximate attendance for all four churches is 370 persons. The 3 outstations each own their own building and are typically a very clean white stucco with blue trim and concrete floors, mats, and fans. I spoke with George, the pastor of Kakkanad and I asked him to give a brief summary of the work in India and this is what he said: Praise the Lord! I am happy today to explain a little bit about Bethel Girls Town and its activities. Let me quote one verse from the Bible, taken from Philippians 1:3, 4,1 thank my God for you every time I think of you. And every time I pray for you all, I pray with the joy because of the way you have helped me in the Gospel from the very first day until now. I thank God for sending Miss Greet to India. Here she is doing a very wonderful ministry, by the help of the Almighty. Under her leadership so many activities are going on. First, Gospel work. Here we have 3 outstation works. We conduct Sunday School, Sunday Services, and Prayer Meetings. About 400 children are studying Bible from these Sunday Schools. We also conduct Sunday School anniversaries every year distributing prizes. So many people attend the Prayer Meetings. We also conduct street meetings. Orphanage: In the orphanage we have 150 children. This year we take 50 children more who are suffering a lot. For them a new four story building construction is going on. Third, Greets Academy. We have also a kindergarten, nursery school and a primary school in English. The name of the school is Greets Academy. Christian Childrens Fund: 404 children are getting aid from C.C.F., Headquarters in Richmond USA, and offices in Bangalore, South India. The project is called Bethel Family Helper Project. We give financial aid to the children for their studies, otherwise so many leave the school. We give aid for house construction, for buying milk and cows, for sewing machines, for building other houses, for buying clothes and medical equipment for those who are needy. Food Supplement: through this program, about 400 children are getting nutrition every month. In short, by the help of God, this institution is a help to the poor people of India especially in Kerala. I remember and pray for those good people who are praying, helping and working for the smooth running of this institution here and abroad. May God strengthen them to do almighty things for God. I am very thankful for Mr. Hughes for his kind visit and wonderful messages. You all please pray for Miss Greet to fulfill our Lords ministry according to His will and wishes again. Shes suffering a lot for the poor in India. Let me conclude with a verse taken from Matthew 25:40: The king will reply, I tell you whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me. Thanking you. Yours in His Ministry, Georgia, Bethel Girls Town, Kaloor 17, Cochin, S. India. George is one of the most dedicated persons Ive ever met. One of the most zealous and dynamic preachers Ive ever heard, giving of his life too for the cause of these children, but as I have traveled across the United States, and have worked in factories, gone to schools, and talked with many people, the common consensus is, Well, what can I do to solve the problems of the world? Sure, theres 25 or 35,000 people dying every day of starvation. Sure, theres thousands of people going to hell without the message of Jesus Christ. But its hopeless, theres nothing we can do! I was approached one time with the statement, You cant try to do everything yourself, you cant win the world. But the thought came and inwardly I said, But if I dont do it, who will? As I looked and walked into the yard and home of nine little children, crying because of sickness and of hunger and viewing and meeting the parents who are both mentally retarded, the question of mine asked, Where does the American doctrine of prosperity come into play here? Theres no hope for them to drive a Cadillac! But isnt it my responsibility to put food in their mouth? As I traveled through these villages I knew ahead of time that my visit would not be worth anything to me if I could not project my family into these situations. So during the two weeks I asked myself, What if this were Crystal, Dustin, Wesley, or Penny? And it broke my heart every time I did that. But to me that was the truthfullness of the situation, that it very well could have been one of my children, but for the grace of God. We live in a land of prosperity not because we deserve it, but perhaps because we could not tolerate and exist in a climate such as what I saw in India. And perhaps God sees that were not strong enough to withstand the temptations of hunger and pain and seeing your babies die of hunger. But after my visit, I believe the Lord spoke to me and said, The question is not, What if these were your children. The point is, these are your children and what are you going to do about it? A picture that entered my mind constantly is the picture we see of Jesus with little children, girls and boys sitting on His lap, and sitting around His feet, and the love that He had for children. And also, the future that these children might hold in their hands. As is the contrast between the child in the villages and the child in the orphanage. The child in the village basically gets no chance of finding Jesus Christ. But as I sat through and preached in the services of Bethel Girls Town and the three other churches, my heart just blended in with the praises they offered to their Lord. I could not help but wonder how much Jesus loved these little children who love Him so much and I wondered how much they know that Jesus loved them. But their praises answered me that and the activities through the day and to hear them sing such songs as Im So Glad I Belong To Jesus. Jesus said, Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. True love exhibits itself in works. Can we say that we love these children like this song says, Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, They are precious in His sight... The Bridegrooms Messenger, 1983-1984, Winter - CMH This trip was paid for by Facebook friend Joe Wooten
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 13:20:42 +0000
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