Post-India Letter

I know many of you were supporting me prayerfully (thank you!!!!!!) or are just interested in how the trip went or what's happening in my future. This is my post-India thank you to supporters for those of you who fall into these categories (or anyone else- no category necessary- that wants to read this for any reason). 

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you SO much for helping to make my trip to India possible. It was an amazing and very educational experience. It was not at all what I expected of course (what trip ever is?), but I’m very grateful for that now. As most of you know I was expecting to go to multiple children’s homes and learn how they’re run for different children in different areas. Our itinerary ended up changing because the Christians in the area of India we were supposed to go to were experiencing pretty bad persecution. We would have had to be very secretive about working with them and could not have done much. We probably would have put them in danger. So our trip changed and instead we went to one home in a village outside of Calcutta for most of our time. We visited another home briefly, but this is the one that grabbed my heart.

Joseph and Deborah have a home there where they are raising 167 children. I wrote about the history and more details of the home a couple posts earlier. A short summary is that Joseph’s dad started taking in kids in 1990 and it’s multiplied since then. They have very minimal support (one church in the States is connected with them and supports them a little bit, but not much) and it’s not an organization, it’s just a home with a mom and dad struggling to provide for their children and leaning fully on God. I wrote about what God taught me more in depth in a previous post. I also wrote about some ways people back home can support Deborah and Joseph.

I am going to be working on raising money for them here. I am also happy to talk to anyone who is interested about going back to India with me. I would like to pull together a team to go back and encourage my friends and help them start the project of building a school. Currently the children wake up, clean up their rooms, eat breakfast, and then return to their rooms for school. It would be nice for their rooms to be their rooms and for them not to have to roll up their mats and empty the rooms every morning. They also are eventually hoping to buy the land right next to theirs so they can have more space to be able to take in more kids. So I will be trying to raise money for both of these projects, as well as finding supporters for the children. If you are interested, I would love to match you up with a child. The older ones would love pen pals, and I’m sure some of the younger ones would enjoy letters too, but it’s not necessary. Also, I will be collecting clothes- dresses for girls ages 4-18 and sweatshirts and shoes for boys and girls of those ages. I hope to send several packages throughout the next few years so that their clothes are not falling apart as they were when I saw them recently. There are so many ways you can help Joseph and Deborah. If you are interested in helping in any of the ways I’ve listed, or any other way you think you can, please let me know! I’d love to make it happen!

I know this is supposed to just be a thank you for supporting me note, but it turned into more support requests for my friends! Sorry about that! I really am grateful for your support! But also this trip reminded me why I’m in school. It reminded me of the children around the world who have no families, no food, no roof over their heads, and no hope for the future. These are the lives I want to be a part of. These are the ones I want to fight for and hope for. And I’ve found some children that need to be fought for and supported. I believe these children can have hope for the future. Which is why I’m studying counseling. Specifically, it is why I am focusing on career development and trauma counseling. The career development factor is so that I can go into children’s homes and help children name and understand their giftings, skills, and passions, and then train for a future that they can be excited about. It is to break the pattern of children who turn 18, leave the home, and end up back on the streets, back in the cycle. I believe that that doesn’t have to happen and I believe that it can be changed by giving these kids hope and by encouraging their passions and giftings. The trauma part is because almost 100% of the children in these homes have rough pasts and some sort of trauma and I want to be prepared to walk through some of that with them. All this to say, there is a reason I went on this trip and the many before it and a reason I’m in seminary studying counseling. I have been reminded of what’s ahead in my life and I wanted to remind you all. You have been faithful and encouraging supporters in my life and I hope you will continue to join with me as I continue the journey. I still have at least another four semesters including this one, but I know that once that is over, I will be going to hard places and being blessed to be part of the lives of kids who need love and affirmation. Please pray with me as I try to discover how exactly this will play out and where God would have me go next. I know it will not necessarily be safe or ordinary places. So please pray that I grow in boldness and courage and faith, and that my mindset grow to be more heavenly and kingdom focused. And thank you so very much for being on this journey with me. I’m sure you’ll be hearing from me soon enough. J 

Love,

Coray