A LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE
I had been in India for 6 weeks with my teacher in Rishikesh when I started my journey down to Salem to visit my children. The journey down was interesting as I had no idea where I was going, I just left it to the universe to guide me!!! That whole trip I felt almost cushioned by the universe as there were a few hair raising moments where I just had to trust the process..and here I am live and kicking to tell the story!!
Evenutally I arrived at the orphanage at 6am in the morning when Pastor Jay came to meet me. I was made to feel very welcome and was shown to my room to rest. At 0830, two teenagers were outside calling ‘auntie’, ‘auntie’….to all the children there I was auntie!!! They had bought me an abundant breakfast of rice and omlette, I was hungry as I had not really eaten for two days…
First thing there was a wonderful prayer meeting where Pastor Jay held a beautiful service in the christian faith and welcomed me, I felt honoured….and was getting very excited at the thought of meeting my children, I had to wait until the afternoon when Pastor Jay goes to the Promised Land daily to see the children. In the car, Pastor Jay told me his story, I sat there listening with my jaw dropping at what he has achieved given his unfortunate circumstances. When is was a little boy, his whole family died, sisters, brothers and parents. His grandfather took him to the local witch doctor who promptly told him to kill the boy with rat poison as he was cursed…..Pastor Jay ran away and ended up in another place where he was beaten and tied up….but here he is today with a wonderful family of his own and he has rescued thousands of children…
As soon as I got out of the car, hoards of children ran towards me, amongst them were Mongammal and Baby, the first two girls I sponsored were clinging to me as though had not seen each other for years….slowly, I collected up all my five children, Subha, Priya and Abumanthy. During the afternoon, I find myself sponsoring another!!!
Pastor Jay had us sit at the front of the yard, the other thousand or so children sat down in from of us and sang a song….Pastor Jay said ‘Auntie is here from the UK’!!!! There I was in front of all those children being cuddled by my sponsored children, in heaven…I truely understood the true meaning of happiness…Human love and compassion, and the feeling of being totally present. The material stuff of life that we cling to on a daily basis became totally insignificant to me.
Pastor Jay is doing his best to find opportunities for the children, for example the is building a nursing school where paying students will fund some of the others from the orphanage… any help you could offer would be gratefully recieved or if you would like to sponsor a child, follow this link http://www.ahfrancis.com/page.php?xPage=shining_faces_in_india.html.
Love and blessings
Anandi
PS…..I am planning my next visit, the children are in my thoughts daily..
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