The Poor Children in India Have a Friend in Ashish
by Donald E. Wildmon
August 18, 2004
(AgapePress) - We are in New Delhi. Our car pulls up to the intersection. The traffic signal is red. We stop and wait. Suddenly there is a knock on the window. There stands a young Indian woman, her hands outstretched, begging. "She's begging," says one of the American occupants. "Let's help her.""No, don't do that," says a seasoned American traveler. "If we do, our car will be surrounded by beggars." In the front seat, an Indian minister reaches into his back pocket, pulls out his billfold, and gives a bill to the one who wanted to help. She gives it to the beggar.
As soon as she disappears, another beggar is tapping on the window. This one has a baby in her arms. The minister reaches into his billfold again and pulls out another bill. He again gives it to the one who wanted to help who in turn gives it to the beggar. We pull away to continue our journey.
For thousands in India, begging is a way of life.
The Indian minister who gave to the beggars is Ashish Massey. His ministry is to the poor children of India, a country with a population of over one billion people. Of that number, 83 percent are Hindus and about 11 percent Muslim. Only about 2 percent are Christian. But Ashish's ministry is to those he can help, regardless of their religion.
He has accomplished a small miracle in India. He has built an orphanage for children. To see the results of the miracle one need only to look at those who have been fortunate enough to become a part of the family at Faith Community School and Children's Home, the place Ashish lovingly calls simply the Home.
Elishba and Rachael were brought to the Home three years ago by a Christian social worker. They are 10 and 9 years old and both are in the third grade. They have two younger brothers. Their father is an alcoholic, their mother a sick woman who stays home. They came with no future, but because of one man's love of God and God's precious children they now have a future.
Children of the orphanage worshiping and praising the Lord | |
Sabitha is 16 and came to the Home in 1997. She had never attended a school. Now she is in the 10th grade. Her father died under mysterious circumstances and her mother left with another man and abandoned Sabitha. Her grandmother took care of Sabitha and her two sisters and a brother. One day a Christian pastor brought them to Ashish and asked if they could live in the Home. The Home offers Sabitha safety and a future. She wants to be a nurse.Vishal, age 5, is the youngest of three brothers. He has been in the Home for two years. His parents are very poor, his father very sick. The father used to provide for the family from the $1-$1.50 a day he made pulling a rickshaw. An accident in which he fell off a train left him unable to work. One older brother, Aman, is also in the Home. Aman was a laborer in a Hindu temple and was cleaning the property for a Hindu priest before he was brought to the Home.
Ashish's ministry is located in Dehradun, a city about 200 miles north of New Delhi. Currently in the Home are 52 children. He would like to help more children, but there are no funds.
Typical of the challenges he has to constantly face (and the heartaches he must endure) was a recent experience. A "dalit" (low caste) mother of three came from Muzzafarnagar, a little over 100 miles but about a four hour bus ride away, to seek his help. She has three children, and her husband has abandoned her. A sister who had attended one of Ashish's Leadership (Evangelism) Seminars told her about Ashish. The mother had brought her three girls to Ashish. (In India, girls are considered a burden among many Hindus.) She wanted him to take her daughters into his Home and give them the opportunity for a better life. Sadly, on that particular morning, he could offer her only his concern and prayers. There were no funds. She went away, back into a system which believes that low caste people must live their life at the bottom of life's ladder.
Ashish has found God's calling for his life: to help as many of the poor children in India as he can. That is the reason that after he graduated from Oral Roberts University, he lingered in the States for a period, but then went home to India to invest his life there.
In his Home the children are provided nutritious food and can eat three meals a day. Since milk and meat are expensive, the Home gives them meat once or twice a month as funds permit. Their diet consists of rice, wheat bread, vegetables, lentils, beans and the like.
A local hospital offers medical services at a discounted rate. Each child gets a complete medical when they come to the home. The children who come barely have one set of clothes. The Home buys them clothes when they arrive. Sometimes they get a donation from a church or an individual to pay for the clothes.
"We believe education is one of the most important gifts we can give our children," says Ashish. "Many never had an opportunity to attend school before arriving at the Home. Every child is assessed and put in a class that will work with their emotional and intelligence level. Every child is enrolled in school," he says.
Every child is also taught about Jesus and the Christian life. At the home there is morning and evening worship for the children. Since most of the children come from a non-Christian background, they must start from a very simple level.
"We start by teaching them about creation, teaching them Christian songs and stories from the Bible. We also have seminary students who come and volunteer to spend time with the children," Ashish says. "We teach the children about Jesus not only by what we say, but by what we do. We tell them the reason for the Home and why we care for and love them is because Jesus did the same for us. We are demonstrating His love to them.
"We also have prayer time before the meals and encourage the children to pray individually and in groups. We believe the children are fertile soil for the Gospel in India," Ashish says.
The children are assigned chores. The boys take care of the yard, a small garden, cut grass, collect garbage, clean the toilets, and feed the few chickens. They mop the floors and turn off the lights each night at 9:00.
The girls help with kitchen details and cooking, clean the dining area and the dorms. There is a worship service each Sunday and the children remove furniture and clean the room and make it ready for the worship service.
"Every child is taught to work, so we can empower them one day. We want them to be confident. India is a caste/class-based country, and that breeds a lot of negativity and low self-esteem in our people. The caste system means that a son of a sweeper must remain a sweeper, he cannot move up in society. We at the Home believe in changing this by changing lives," Ashish says.
Ashish says the goal of his ministry is to be self-sufficient and not dependent. One of the greatest expenses for the Home is food. Ashish has a dream that one day the Home will be able to buy enough land which they can use as a farm to raise their own food. A 40-acre farm will cost about $80,000, a seemingly impossible goal in a poor country. But Ashish is hoping. "God is good," he says. "God can supply."
Ashish is a willing servant of God, hoping against hope in a land where millions have no hope. The building they are currently using for the Home is not theirs. They are simply being allowed to use it for the time being. Ashish knows that the day will come when they must move. That is why he is in the process of constructing a permanent building for the Home, one from which they will not have to move.
For less than the cost of breakfast at McDonald's three times a week, a child in the Home can be sponsored with basic needs met for an entire month.
A gift of $35 a month will support one child's education, food, clothing and shelter. Currently only 26 of the children are sponsored and only two churches support the Home, one with a gift of $300 per month and the other with a gift of $200. But Ashish remains hopeful and keeps praying.
You, your Sunday School class, or church can help sponsor a child. All gifts are tax-deductible and should be sent to North India Evangelistic Association, P.O. Box 702925, Tulsa, OK 74170. You can make your check to NIEA. You can e-mail Ashish at blessindiaseminar@yahoo.com. Please understand that Ashish doesn't have a fully staffed office that can respond immediately to every email. His emphasis is spent on taking care of the children.
One other thing. Don't ask to sponsor the children of the woman from Muzzafarnagar who brought her three girls to the Home but had to be turned away because of a lack of funds. I've already told Ashish that I want to sponsor those three children.
They will be blessed, I know. But I will be blessed more.
Click here
to read Ashish's story of his calling.Click here
to see pictures of some of the children at the Home
Don Wildmon is founder and chairman of the American Family Association, based in Tupelo, Mississippi.
