The Chicks!

Our time in Dharmapuri is coming to an end - we leave for Bangalore tomorrow morning at 4 am. These past few days have flown by and we were able to accomplish so much! The chicks for the chicken farm finally came today and the lady who runs the farm was thrilled. We've run the numbers over and over and it seems as if this is an amazing opportunity for the leper colony to make a substantial amount of money. This isn't just a one-time, "quick fix" - the farm will continue to make money long after we are gone and this was made possible by all the people who supported us financially - thank you. This morning we were able to deliver over 300 bags of rice and new sandals to widows in the area. There is also a team from Spain that set up a medical center for the widows.

This has been an incredible experience - we were able to see many villages in Tamil Nadu and experience all the great things about this culture. Most importantly, we were able to begin a relationship with the community that will last much longer than our few weeks here. Thank you all for your e-mails, comments, and continuous support - we couldn't have done it without you.

Progress

One busy day down and three to go. Today was very exciting for us. We provided bicycles for two pastors, bought three scales for beggars, bought medicine for various lepers and beggars, and bought a sewing machine for the orphanage. Perhaps most exciting for us is the chicken farm at the leper colony. We were able to buy 2700 chics for the farm along with essential medicines and food to ensure healthy adult chickens. After three months the chickens will be full grown and can be sold for a good price at the market enabling them to turn around and buy a new batch of chickens as well as have extra left over to go into the leper community. We will also be able to provide 5 Kilograms of rice for almost 300 widows which will last each of them for 15 days. Tomorrow we are waking up very early to go to a pastor's house so we can help fix the roof and make the home livable again. In the pictures you can see the bicycles, the sewing machine, and the woman and her family who are in charge of the chicken farm at the leper colony. Also included is a photo of one of the orphan girls standing in one of two rooms in which all 40 girls sleep. Next to it is a picture of their new sleeping quarters which we have been able to help set up. They will hopefully be able to move in to the new building in a month or so. Thanks so much for your generous response. The money has stretched a long way and has had a huge impact in many lives.

Good News

Thank you all so much for responding to our last post. Support has been overwhelming and now we have a few very busy days ahead of us getting everything in order. So far we have been able to buy two bikes for pastors, a new roof for a pastor's house (which we will spend Wednesday building) and a great deal of medication for some of the beggars. We are working on starting up the dwindling chicken farm at the leper colony. Once running the farm will provide much needed income for the colony eliminating the need for begging. We met a single mother of two at the beggar feeding this week. She is trained to repair gas pumps but only lacks the tools so we will be able to provide those for her making her self-sufficient. I realize this is short but we wanted to fill you in quickly on what is in the works. Once we have more down time after these upcoming busy days we will be able to give full accounts of the work done complete with pictures. Thanks again for all your help and enthusiasm!

We Need Your Help

We have encountered so many real needs in our time here that we can't possibly meet them all financially. Just getting to India took a majority of the funds we had and now that we are here we are struck by how far a dollar will go to change someone's life. We understand that there will always be great need in India as well as around the world, but we feel that this is a rare opportunity to directly meet immediate needs. Here are a list of needs that we have personally encountered that, as much as we would like to, we have been unable to pay for.

• Two goats for the leper colony shown in this post - ($150)
• Chicken food for the farm at the other leper colony. This is how the colony remains self sufficient without begging. Their supply is dwindling and they can't afford the upkeep for the chicken farm.- ($15 a bag)
  
• Crutches for the woman mentioned in the last post. We were unable to buy them at that time because of other needs that arose. - ($8)
• New thatch roof for a local pastor's home which is currently uninhabitable due to heavy rainfall. We will be doing the labor we just need to pay for supplies. - ($150)
• One nutritious meal for a whole leper colony. - ($100-$120)
• Scales to help beggars become self-sufficient. People pay to weigh themselves (it's strangely popular) -($30)
• Twenty five blankets for the homeless - ($55)
  
• Tarps for the homeless - ($12)
• Chairs for the leper colony - ($3 each)
• Bicycles for pastors with 3 hour plus commutes - ($70)
• One woman runs the orphanage of 40 children without any salary other than room and board. We'd like to bless her if we can.

Please contact Ben at " bcarson@spu.edu " if you would like to help us meet these needs. Many of you have already blessed us with so much support and we are incredibly grateful. Thank you.

More Pictures

Last night we visited a different leper colony from the one we attended the funeral at. This colony was government run and was very different from the other camp. The housing consisted of four long dormitory-style buildings all in a row with wide avenues between them. People were cooking and cleaning and sitting around in these spaces between the buildings. They all knew Pastor Daniel and greeted him warmly. Pastor Dan remembered them by name and joked and laughed with them. At some houses he would have us stop and pray for people who asked for it. One woman was pregnant but had lost the baby only a week before. Another woman lifted up her skirt to show us her left leg which was covered in a network of black, venomous looking veins which traced down her shin to a tangle of dirty gauze in place of a foot. She explained that she was hoping for crutches but couldn't afford them as they cost 300 rupees (About 8 U.S. Dollars). We told Daniel we would definitely be willing to buy these for her before our next visit. One man
we met was bed ridden. His wife showed us with gnarled, fingerless hands that all they had to eat was plain white rice. Daniel explained to us that the man would die unless he was able to start a diet with more nutrients. We learned that while the government provided housing and some food they didn't pay for any of the medical needs of the lepers which are needless to say numerous.

Tonight we are going back to the same leper colony to put on a large meal for the people there. Daniel told us that he likes to do this as often as he has enough money but his resources are spread thin as this is one of three leper colonies in addition to all the other ministries he is involved with. Nevertheless Daniel is very confident that all his and these people's needs will be met. We have been very struck by the joy we have seen in everyone from the beggars at the street dinner to the lepers to the orphans. This says a lot to us about the nature of joy and where true joy resides.

Leper Colony and Street Dinner

We have had a busy weekend. We made our first visit to one of three leper colonies in the area and performed a short service for the man who passed away. It was an intense experience to be sure but the family was extremely grateful that we came and subsidized the cost of the burial. We were able to see all of the amazing things that Daniel's ministry has provided for these people such as chicken farms and real house structures rather than thatched roof shanties.
Today we went downtown and provided a hot meal and blankets for some of the beggars in the area. Some showed us their diagnosis from doctors of HIV and heart conditions trying to get money for medications. Many were severely handicapped including one man who was hunched over and forced to walk on all fours, wearing sandals on his hands.
We encountered a really neat success story. In India, when their husbands die, widows are left with three options. They can either throw themselves on the burning body of their husband, marry their husband's younger brother if he has one, or lead a life of destitution and self denial. Daniel helped finance a small business for one of these women. She buys recycled plastic bags and sews them into tarps which are widely used as shelter from the elements. We purchased a couple of these tarps to give to the beggars. They came in handy right away as we experienced our first Indian downpour today.
We had a chance to talk to pastor Daniel about his finances today and we found out that he and those who work in his ministry earn 5oo rupees a month which comes out to about $17 U.S. We were astounded because of how freely he gives to all he meets even though he makes so little money for himself. They work around the clock seven days a week and yet work with an incredible energy that we haven't often encountered.
Our health has been incredible and we're a little unnerved by it. We eat more food than we do at home and keep insisting that they feed us less. We have been able to give away our leftovers to neighbors and people in the streets who accept it graciously.

Pictures!

Sorry it took so long but here they are, the first batch of India pictures. It's hard to pick just a few out of hundreds but these ones made the cut. This weekend will be exciting for us as we will finally get to spend some substantial time with the orphans. They have been kept busy in school all week so we haven't been able to see much of them. We are also going to visit a widow's home this weekend and today we will be attending the funeral of a leper who died last night. Thanks to your generous giving we will be able to help the family of the leper pay for burial expenses. We will also be buying blankets and food for beggars and widows, as helping with microfinance opportunities which will enable beggars to become self sufficient. Instead of continually giving out handouts, Daniel is interested in helping people get back on their feet. This is a huge passion of ours as well. Thanks for your prayers and thoughts and here are the pictures!

Safe in Dharamapuri

Hi everyone! We are safe in Dharamapuri at last and have been working with Pastor Daniel for a couple of days now. We had many adventures getting here but apart from a little panic at the Dharamapuri train station, travel has gone remarkably well.
India is beautiful, chaotic, and vivid all at once. We have had many chances to see the area surrounding Dharamapuri on our visits to various villages and houses with Pastor Dan and after just two days have seen the amazing things his work has accomplished here. We have had some truly unique experiences ranging from hanging out of a train watching the countryside fly by, to eating a home-grown, home made meal off of a banana leaf plate on a dirt floor with a Hindu family we had just prayed with.
We have spent these few days getting used to the culture (Especially the driving) and looking at the various facets of Pastor Daniel's ministry. So far we have spent a great deal of time traveling to remote houses and villages where people who have not had the chance to hear anything other than Hindu spiritualism live. This has been a challenging experience for the four of us given the world view we come from but we have been blessed to see Daniel's message received enthusiastically.
We were "fortunate" enough to arrive in Dharamapuri in the middle of a Hindu festival celebrating the healing of a pregnant woman with chicken pox. This is celebrated primarily by blasting Hindu music through recycled megaphones placed strategically around the city at all hours of the day and night. Our house apparently sits at an intersection of the loudest megaphones in the entire village ensuring that we are perpetually immersed in Indian Culture.
Most of all we have been struck by the global nature of God's work; that it is not exclusive to any region and is not restricted to any one form. We are trying to approach each new experience we encounter as learners knowing that while we believe as Pastor Daniel does, we are in a very different setting and that the expression of that belief will differ accordingly.
Thank you all for your encouragement and prayers. It is very clear from our smooth travels that God's hand has been in this the entire time. We will be updating here as frequently as possible but it is a bit of a drive into town to get to the internet cafe so our posts may be sporadic.
We hope you all are well and we can't wait to share all of our adventures with you.

Singapore

Well,
Our time in Singapore has been amazing, but we are on our way to Chennai! We've included some pictures from our time here. I hope you enjoy!

JAPAN - suckahz

We're in Tokyo right now. Some guy gave us 100 yen to use the internet so we could check all the great comments you left us! We've been up for a solid 22 hours but we're going strong. We only have one more 6-hour flight left.

We = going to our gate. Send us love

We want to hear from you...

We're now hours away from leaving and my mom has called twice tonight begging me to reconsider. There are a few things I wanted to update you on:
The Bombings: Many of you have heard about the recent bombings in India. There were some that went off in Bangalore about 50 miles away. We're planning on avoiding busy markets and big tourist traps.
Write to us: We're going to miss all of you back home. Please respond to our posts and keep us updated! It's always good to hear from home - and it's good to know people read this thing.

We're heading to Singapore....
Ben

On the horizon....

9 days....
16 hours...
15 minutes...

It's safe to say that all of us have a mixture of nerves/excitement as our departure approaches. I wanted to make this first post to say THANK YOU to all of those who have supported us with finances as well as those who are sending us their thoughts/prayers; we're all in this together (forgive the High School Musical reference).

I found out today that our showers are "bucket showers" - I'm really excited for that! We'll also be doing some coffee-can laundry. We're about a 20 minute walk from the nearest town where we can connect to the internet and keep you updated often.

Thanks again for everything,
Ben