www.onlybelieveministries.org Summer/Fall 2013
A New Name for Jahnavi’s Heart Orphanage
During this July visit, we were thrilled to see how much our children have grown and how well they are doing. We had time to chat with some of the older children that have been here since we first built the Orphanage and to hear how their lives have been changed because of our program. Likewise, we spent time with some of the widows of Grandma’s House and heard the thankfulness and love in their hearts because of all that God has done for them through these programs.
As we talked with the children we realized that although they have no biological family to care for them, they do not see themselves as orphans. They have a wonderful Heavenly Father who loves them very much. They also have Pastor Joseph and Sony as mommy and daddy. They have American mommies and daddies who love them and care for them and provide for them. They are surrounded by Grandma’s who love them and care for them. They are blessed and they realize just how blessed they are. While talking to one of the older kids, we asked him what he would say to his sponsors. He said, “I would tell them that I pray for them every single day. I pray that God will bless them greatly and I want to thank them for choosing me.” Babee is this child’s name. He has grown into a wonderful young man who is now attending college. He has a future and a hope which is what God has planned for all of the children. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
Because of this, we feel that God is calling us to change the name of Jahnavi’s Heart Orphanage. These children are no longer orphans, they are children who have been rescued from a life that most of us could never imagine. We have prayed and consulted with Sony and Pastor Joseph and they are in complete agreement and very excited about it! The new name will be . . . THE ARK RESCUE CENTER (ARC)!The ark was a place of provision, a place of protection, a place of hope and the promise of a future. That is what this program has been and will continue to be for these children. They were rescued from the streets of villages in India where many of them were wandering without family, food, clothing, or hope. Most of them would have been taken and sold as house slaves or sex slaves. Others would have died of starvation, snake bites or disease, but now they are thriving. We want to thank all of you who partner with us for making everything we have been able to do in India possible!Come And Go With Us!
Only Believe Ministries had the pleasure of taking several new people with us to India in July. Our team consisted of Cindy Blackburn, Terry Kielhorn, Angie Hoffman, Gayla Titsworth, Blake and Promise Bradley, Kody Sutton, and Peggy Sisco. This was the first trip to India for Blake, Promise, Kody, and Gayla. They were amazing and God used them greatly to touch the lives and hearts of the people from the fishing villages along the Bay of Bengal. They were able to minister at a children’s conference, visit the night school, be a part of a village gospel rally, minister at an open air meeting, pray for the sick, play with the children from The Ark Rescue Center (ARC), love on and pray for the widows of Grandma’s House, serve food to village children and much, much more. It was a great trip. The desire of Only Believe Ministries has always been to be able to take people who have never been on the foreign mission field and train them with hands on ministry. We were able to see this part of our vision birthed on this trip! Contact us if you would like to travel to India with us on an up and coming trip. We are planning our next trip to be in March of 2014. The cost of the trip is $4500.00 and this will include your ticket, all of your hotel stay, all of your food (except for the food you eat in airports). Contact us through our web site at www.onlybelieveministries.org, or call us at 618-383-2910 and we will send you a mission trip application form to fill out. Don’t hesitate for very long because we have to order tickets the end of January and our space is limited. If you can’t make our next trip, be assured that more trips will be available so you may go ahead and contact us for an application if you think this may be something you are being called to do! We hope to hear from you soon.
Adventures in the new van
Everywhere we went this July in India, we were blessed to be able to travel in the new van purchased for the Ark Rescue Center through the donations of our partners. Traveling through the streets of India is always an exciting adventure. The sights and sounds of rural India are about as far away from rural American as you can get. We share the roads with lots of people walking, cows, goat herds, ox carts pulled by water buffalo or bulls, auto rickshaws, cars and trucks all traveling any direction they choose. And something exciting and unusual always happens.As we were traveling from one place to another Pastor Joseph received a phone call and soon after that our van pulls to the side of the road and a family comes on board. These people were Hindu extremists who were having some problems and they wanted prayer. Isn’t that awesome, that we were able to share the love of Jesus with them and pray for them?On another journey, down another street Pastor Joseph makes a phone call and soon our van once again pulls to the side of the road. A lady climbs on board and Pastor Joseph explains that she is a seamstress and he has hired her to make new sarees for all of us ladies. So we are standing one at a time, in the back of the van, having our measurements taken. Only in India! What fun!
Building The ARC – Our Vision
Habakkuk 2:2 “And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.”
God has given Only Believe Ministries big vision and we would like to share it with you.
The building we first built to house the children of THE ARK RESCUE CENTER (ARC), (formerly Jahnavi’s Heart Orphanage) is falling apart. It is way too small and tiles were blown off the roof last year during the cyclone causing it to leak. We built the building in 2007 to house around 24 children. Within a few months the number of children grew to around 42 and we now care for around 95 rescued children.
God blessed us by providing us with partners which enabled us to build another building. This was two story building. The bottom floor is called Grandma’s House and is the home to several elderly widows who had been abandoned and were scared and alone with no one to care for them. The second story of the building provided us with a little more space to house some of the children. While this has been sufficient, we have not been completely happy with the housing arrangements for the children. We do not have rooms for beds, so all of the children sleep on rolled out mats on concrete floors. We have the boys and girls separated, but they are crowded with little to no privacy. We need more room.
Currently the children live in close quarters with a caretaker and Joseph and Sony and their family overseeing all of the children. The children are happy and healthy but we want even better for them. We need to build, build, build. The problem is that we are out of room to build. We have used every bit of property available to us and need to purchase some more land.
There are four acres of land adjacent to the property we have right now. We would like to purchase this land and then build five homes. Each home would be called an Ark and would house 25 children plus house parents. There would be living quarters in the home for the house parents and a dorm area that would be big enough for bunk beds. This would give each child their own bed and their own personal space. Storage closets would be built on each end of the bed giving each child a place to store their things. (Right now the children store their belongings in small metal boxes.)
Approximately 15 minutes from our facilities is a village filled with people who are labeled “Untouchables”. The government came into the village and told them they were going to relocate them so that the land could be used for the oil industry. The government promised them new homes, and jobs. They did not follow through with their promises and now this entire village is starving with no form of employment. The government began building them concrete structures that were approximately 12’ X 12’ boxes to use as shelter. This small structure was to be home for an entire family. The concrete they used was inadequate and the small homes are already starting to crumble. Many families of this village are Christian while the rest of the village is Hindu. Behind this village are six beautiful acres of land. This land is also available for purchase. We would like to purchase this property. Joseph has shared with us his vision to build a public Christian School that our own children from the ARC could attend along with the children from the Untouchable Village. He would also like to build a village church, a small medical clinic, and a Christian Community Center. An entire village of around 2,000 people would be impacted by the love of God if we can purchase this land.
It is very important that we have land to build a school upon. Currently our children from The Ark Rescue Center (ARC), have to go into town to the only public school available to them which is a Hindu School. Our children are bullied, made fun of and get no protection from the teachers. In fact, the teachers have now turned against us and have started calling the village chiefs of the villages that some of our kids came from. By law, the children are still property of those villages and the village chiefs can decide the fate of the children if they choose too. Once the children come to stay at our facility, the chiefs usually just forget they even exist and we have no problem. However, the school teachers are now calling the chiefs and trying to talk them into coming and taking our children from the center. The teachers are telling them that our children are being raised Christian and they need to come and take them from us to prevent that. Some of the chiefs are corrupt and see dollar signs. They did not want the children when they were small children because they were of no worth to them. Now the children are old enough to work and can be sold. We have had some chiefs come with villagers and take seven of our children from our facility. There is nothing we can do when this happens except pray for their protection. This has happened a few times in the past and we usually never hear from the child again. We have been told that the children are probably sold. The police refuse to help which is why this is an urgent situation. The children need to be in a Christian School with Christian teachers who will not try to get villagers to rise up and take the children.
Please pray with us. Before we can do anything, we need this land. We need the four acres behind the property we have now to build new homes for the children and we need the six acres behind the village to build the school, clinic, church, and Christian community center. This will help an entire village. The problem we face is the price of land in India. It is very expensive. The four acres behind our facility is $40,000 an acre for a total of $160,000. The price of the six acres is $34,000 an acre for a total of $204,000. The grand total for all 10 acres is $364,000. I know this sounds very high, but this is truly the going price for land in India. There is so little land available that the prices just continue to go up. Land is very expensive in India, but we have to have it. Thankfully all money belongs to God and we ask you to stand in agreement that He will get the funds to us quickly. We do not have enough funds to purchase the four acres together. And the land owner will not split up the land and let us buy one acre at a time. The same goes for the six acres, as well. At this point we have $24,000 to go toward the land. The funds are trickling in, but we need a tidal wave so that we can purchase the land before someone else snatches it up, out from under us.
There is an election that just happened and they have voted to divide the state of Andre Pradesh into two states. This is going to drive the price of the land up even more. The land in the area that we are in is very fertile. People from North India are coming and purchasing large parcels of land hoping to make money once the state has split. We need to purchase quickly before prices go up. If you would like to help us purchase this land, please visit our website at www.onlybelieveministries.org and click the donate button. Please write “Land” in the place provided at check out. No amount is too small and it can add up so quickly. Thank you for standing with us on this urgent need! God Bless you!
New Cots and Walkers for Our Grandmas
The widows living in Grandma’s house are all elderly ladies and several of them were needing walkers instead of using canes to help them get around. This year Only Believe Ministries purchased walkers for their use. Also some of them were needing new sleeping cots so these were also purchased for them. Every year we notice that the grandmas look so much better than they did when they first arrived at Grandma’s House. They no longer look starved or afraid. This year we received more hugging, talking and laughing time with the grandmas. A big thank you to everyone that supports a grandma. We still have several of them who need sponsors. You can sponsor a grandma by going to our website www.onlybelieveministries.org and click on “sponsor a widow.” You will be changing a life.
The Generator
During our trip to India this year, we go to see AND hear the new generator that we were able to purchase because of our generous partners. This generator was for our children in the Ark Rescue Center (ARC). Record heat and power outages that lasted for days on end made life miserable and dangerous for the children. The generator that we had purchased for them years ago had finally broken down and could no longer be repaired. Temperatures soared over 120 degrees reaching 130 at times causing the death of 300 people in surrounding villages in one day. The children were having to sleep out on the porch which was unsafe and uncomfortable. They desperately needed fans to make the hot days and nights bearable. The generator provided just that and will insure the children will have electricity each day when the power goes out, sometimes lasting for hours or even days. Thank you to YOU, our partners who helped to purchase this generator!
Christmas in India
It may be September but it’s not too early to start thinking about Christmas in India. Because of the high cost of shipping Only Believe Ministries once again will wire funds to Joseph and Sony for them to purchase gifts for the children and grandmas at the ARC. This is a much safer way. If you would like to bless the children and grandmas please mail your check and mark “Christmas” in the memo or you can give online at www.onlybelieveministries.org. Merry Christmas!
Click on all images to enlarge
