Saturday, August 24, 2013

Shoes

Today, we will begin collecting shoes for two groups of kids we will meet in India.  We leave three weeks from today! You can help us by purchasing a pair of children's shoes - we need sandals for girls and sneakers for boys in all children's sizes. We will also be collecting money to purchase additional shoes in India for any kids for whom we didn't bring enough of the right size. At the end of this post is a way to contact us - we are happy to pick up the shoes from you sometime in the next three weeks.

The children at the +ve home in Ongole
The first group lives under the care of the UCLI church and Nathaniel Kodavatikanti in the city of Ongole.  The home for HIV+ was founded recently and currently cares for six children. One of our goals is to raise money to help care for more. There is a large HIV+ population in Ongole, and these orphaned children face extremely dim prospects without intervention.

The other group is in Bangalore, living at the Hanna Krupa Memorial Church under the care of Pastor K. V. Chandra and his wife, Manjula. I have posted information about and pictures of several of these children in previous posts in this space.

We have heavy hearts for the challenges faced by all of these children, but we rejoice that they are in the care of such capable and dedicated people.  They are also treasured by their Creator, and we feel the call from God to raise up support for more of these precious children. We look forward to meeting them face-to-face very soon!

If you are interested in helping us, please consider purchasing shoes or sending money.  You can reach us at our new Madhuri's Mission Facebook page.  You may also comment on this post to respond. Thank you in advance for your help!

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Ready or not!

After more than two years of waiting and wheel-spinning and preparation and prayer, the time has come! Jennifer and I leave on September 14 for an 11-day whirlwind trip to India! As of now, I've scheduled time off from work, amazing grandparents are set to live in our house and handle the kids' schedules, our passports and visas are in hand, and we are booking in-country travel plans.

Many of you have asked if there are ways to help - there are two things that you can do for us.