"Closed door - God opens in a miraculous way!!!
Dear Friends,
The heart beat of Hindustan Bible Institute is to "reach the unreached for Christ"! Our long time desire was to get into the northern part of Gujarat which is completely unreached. When you travel in North Gujarat --Village after village you will see no church, no pastor and no Christian. This part of Gujarat is mainly dominated by anti-Christian groups and Hindu militant groups who are constantly involved in persecuting the missionaries who working in Gujarat and burning of many churches. It looked seemingly impossible for the door to open for us to enter. The earthquake that shook the entire nation brought an opening for us to enter the western part of Gujarat. Our heart cry and tears did not go waste. "He gathers every tear drop and makes all things possible in His time" Praise the Lord!
God not only opened the closed door of the north Gujarat but He helped us to connect with village heads, demonstrate the love of Christ and build relationship with the people in the villages of Kadhir island. We have chosen Kadhir as our ministry project to work among 13 villages and ultimately disciple the people for Christ. KNEES NEEDED! till we see the people of Gujarat discipled for Christ!
I trust you will remember that our first relief team that went to these villages had a great impact in the lives of the people. The team came back
rejoicing for the great opportunity to serve the people in Gujarat. When they came back we had a debriefing and follow up meeting with the team. It was suggested that we would concentrate on a few development projects such as
- Prayer and church mobilization - mobilize as many churches to get involved - there are 1046 villages affected by the earth quake
- Research and information survey - gather information on how best we could serve the people of Gujarat
- Emotional development - Listen to the affected people, counsel them and help them realize that Jesus Christ is their answer.
- Child development - serving the children and help them continue their studies
- Community development - serving the whole community and bring life in the community
- Economic development - introduce innovative methods to work and earn their living, start life all over again.
- Resource Development - provide seed money to start small businesses and meet their basic felt needs.
- Task force development - work among the people and to live with them.
It was also suggested that we would select two to three villages initially to do rehabilitation.
Follow up to that, we sent our survey team to gather information on 13 villages of Kadhir to find the possibility of doing rehabilitation. The Research team of 4 members left Chennai on 11th March and returned on 18th March.
When our survey team visited Ganeshpar village in Kadhir Island, they found out that the people whom we served last time, have been helped again. We praise God that the people received a few more assistance such as Semi Permanent Tents (which will last for 2 years), water pots and syntex tanks to store water. We are thankful that the Lord opened ways for others to do relief in these villages. The team met with the village surpanch (leader) and talked about rehabilitation. Praise God the door is open for us to send two cross cultural missionaries who will stay in Ganespar and concentrate around three villages. When our team asked whether we can send our people to serve them, immediately the village surpanch showed them two tents and said our people can live in these tents. As we have received green signal from the village surpanch, the survey team made the following recommendations;
a) Short term visit : To send another short - team in April
The survey team found out that there was no cleaning and clearing of debris between their first visit with the relief team and their recent visit. The debris is a constant reminder to the village people of the disaster and people are still under fear. They do not want to move on and start life again and all have come to a standstill. When the team talked to the village heads of three villages, they all told them, "we are not beggars, we want to work and earn our food. Please give us work. No one has done anything to give us work"
The team recommended that a team from Chennai can go and work with the people of these three villages to clear debris and clean the site, make approach roads and help deepen the wells. We will give work to the village men and women and pay them for their work. This could be done in 5 days and they would get some seed money to start their life again but at the same time the debris will be cleared so the village can start a new life.
The short term team will leave on 2nd April and will work in these four villages and will return on 12th April. We have a total of 14 persons signed up to go to these villages.
Our methodology will be to start the work from 6.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. While both our team and the village people work, they interact with each other and our team will be counseling them too. After 11.00 a.m. we are planning to have medical clinics and have our team members to pray with the village people individually or as families. In the evening again from 5.00 p.m. till 8.00 p.m. cleaning and clearing debris work will start. At the end of the day we will pay each person who worked with us from the morning till evening a day's remuneration.
The second suggestion was to do relief work in a village called "Lodrani" near Kadhir island. We understood that no relief work has been done in this village. It has about 450 families - about 2500 people. It has a mixed community of Muslims, a people group called Rabars (shepherds) and a few schedule caste (untouchables) people. The village leader told our team, "we have no food, no clothes, no work and no grass for cattle. Once we had enough and were not wanting anything, after the earth quake we lost all our properties and have nothing to eat also" The village has 450 families, about 2500 people. We would like to give each family 10 Kg rice, 3 Kg Dhal and 2 Kg oil.
b) Long term plan : Live among the people
We have two cross cultural missionaries and their families who are committed to go and live among these people. We will place them in one of the receptive villages called "Ganeshpar". Both the families will leave Madras around the 15th of April.
Our immediate goal is to start a Child development center. These families will take care of 45 children and teach them. The schools have been closed till the 12th of June so the children have lost all their desire to study and go to school. The school building is completely destroyed and the villagers do not know when the Government will re-build it again.
The second goal for the missionaries is to help the village people to procure grass from the Government or private farms. They normally do not leave the village and it was transported to the villages. After the earthquake no transportation is available to bring them grass to feed their cattle. We will hire tractors and bring a few loads every week to the village people and help them feed their cattle. While doing this, we will also teach the village people how to contact the Government or Private farms to get the grass.
The other recommendations made by the survey team are;
a) "Tent making ministry" to get involved with people from July onwards;
Provide a tractor and accessories to the missionaries so the villagers can hire the tractor for ploughing. The missionary himself will drive the tractor and interact not only with the land owners but also the agricultural laborers thereby he can build relationship with the people in the villages. This will give the missionary access to enter their homes, gain their confidence, gather them for prayer and also share the good news with them.
b) Embroidery and handicrafts - to be restarted by missionaries wives to help the women in the villages. At present the center which provides raw material has stopped selling the raw material due to the damage to the building.
c) Community development projects:
- The villagers are using goat/sheep wool to make ropes etc. These woolen strings may be made in a more efficient way and utilized better by proper technology to make carpets.
- Mushroom culture can be introduced. The villagers are all vegetarians and mushrooms would be a good protein supplement to their diet.
- Tailoring - A small project with 4 sewing machines in Ganeshpar village can be started by our cross cultural missionaries wives and train women in that village.
- Cheese making : This is a possibility since most of them have cattle.
- Gobargas units can be introduced. In every village there are many cows. For cooking they are using firewood from the bushes. Gobar gas for cooking would be economic.
- Windmills are possible alternate source of power for lighting, heating and irrigation.
- There is a need for a vocational training institute. At present there is no facilities for such a training in this island. Carpentry, masonry,
electrical etc. can be taught in the vocational training institute. The villagers expressed that their children could not proceed further after 7th grade because there is no school facility. They wanted their children to learn a trade because the children are not interested in agriculture.
d) Health development:
A mobile team of medical workers can render good health care services to the villages. A Government hospital is available 80Kms from the Island.
On their way back, the survey team visited Gandhi Dham, Bachau, Bhuj and Anjar areas where most of the death took place. Still buildings have not been cleared, people are with blank faces, for them life has no meaning. There are still tremors and the people do not want to go back to their homes. Most of them are angry with the Government because whatever has been promised to them through media, nothing has been carried out even after two month's time.
Most of them ask a question, "is there any hope at all?" They have no answer. A 51 year old man who was standing in front of a collapsed apartment expressed, "how can I start my life all over again and why should I live? I wish I died with my family" This man's entire family was buried under the debris in the earthquake when he was out of town.
There is a lot of opportunities for us to get involved in the lives of these people. We can bring in smile to the faces of these sad people and give them hope in Jesus Christ. We want to see Christ's presence in their hearts, homes and villages. We can light the flame of Gospel in these dark villages.
KNEES NEEDED!
- Can you pray for the second team that leaves on 2nd April?
- Can you pray for the cross cultural families that would be leaving on 15th April?
- Can you pray that God will give us the wisdom to do the right rehabilitation so that the people will start their normal life again?
- Can you pray that God will help us to care for the people, share the love of Christ and ultimately bring them to Christ?
- Can you pray for the entire state of Gujarat? People of Gujarat need the Lord.
We want to thank you for your fervent and sincere prayers. Thank you so very much for investing in a worthy cause of demonstrating the love of Christ and sharing in the need. Your investment will result in a better future for the people of Gujarat. We truly appreciate your willingness to stand with us and be your representatives to share the love of Christ to the people of Gujarat.
"He gathers every tear drop and makes all things possible in His time"
Praying for you and may the Lord bless you.
Yours in Christ till all have
Heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
DR. PAUL R. GUPTA
PRESIDENT & DIRECTOR
HBI GLOBAL PARTNERS
P.O. Box 245
Union Mills, NC 28167
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