Little Artists

Every time I see a letter from one of the sponsor kids (either in my mail or in a picture another sponsors sends me-- excited at receiving their mail), I get to see the beautiful artistry that the children express. Every single letter I have seen has a drawing on it. On the back side, in the corner, wherever they can squeeze it in. My last letter from my sponsor child, he drew me a computer and labeled all the parts! My daughter's sponsor child always draws the most amazing flowers. Another child sent his sponsor a letter complete with a drawing of Ghandi!

When we visited the school last February, that is something we noticed straight away. These children love to draw. Every time we walked into a classroom, they children would bust out their notebooks and start showing us all their creations. "look here, mam!" "mam! please enjoy!" They were proud of their art. And the well should be. Culturally, the arts and visual artistry is something every person seems to appreciate. Man, woman, child... none are afraid to put pen to paper and create something. And its always beautiful.

This is a page from one of our sponsor children's school notebook.
He drew some ladies at the spice market and a woman cooking by the fire. He was so proud!

Yum-Yum Indian Food

This week's Austin Chronicle (print edition) is all about the explosion of Indian Cuisine options all around Austin. I realize not all our sponsors are Austin-ites, but about 90% of you are. The article mentions this is a national trend, not just an Austin thing. Indian restaurants are booming all over.

I issue you a challenge! In the next 2 weeks, I want you to go eat at an Indian restaurant near you!

Try out the yummy dishes that are familiar comfort food to our little bitties over in India. Then next time you write your sponsor child a letter, you can tell him all about it! They will feel so special that you went to eat Indian food because you were thinking about THEM!

In case you are a bit weary of ethnic foods (let's face it, one of the stereotypes about Indian food is that it leads you straight to the toilet-- but that's not true!!), I want to give you a breakdown of some safe & tasty options. Here is the link to a "dictionary of Indian Cuisine words", but here's a recommendation of good dishes we've tried:

• Chicken Tikka Masala (chicken in a tomato-y sauce) 
• Lamb Biryani (lamb over spiced rice)
• Channa Masala (chickpeas in a sauce)
• Saag Aloo (spinach and potatoes)
• Dhingri Mattar Paneer (mushrooms, peas and cheese)
• Vegetable Samosas (fried triangles stuffed with potatoes and peas)

If you are more adventurous, just ask the server what they would eat!

Trip in the Works

Dr Emad Yassa, visiting with some children from our sponsor class on a trip in February. He was asking them what they wanted to be when they grow up, and they were eagerly replying with ambitious plans. 

We have begun the process of planning our next sponsor trip to India and wanted to give you guys a heads up so that as the fall progresses, you can be actively saving money if you think you may want to join us. It is not a requirement of sponsorship... just a perk for those who want to see it firsthand.

We are looking at dates in the first half of February 2013. The trip will last 10 days (including travel). We will be spending time at the Good Samaritan School, in the slums visiting the kids & their families, and we'll throw in a general site seeing day to the Taj Mahal. Our team will be a maximum of 15 travelers.

Here is a breakdown of the ESTIMATED COSTS so you can begin setting aside funds (these costs are out of pocket for the traveler):

• $900-1000 
• on the ground costs (This includes lodging, food, and transportation.)
• $100
• Indian Visa application ($73) and service fee ($15-30)
• $1400-2200
• airfare (It varies widely each time we purchase tickets and I can't figure out the trend. A good example is our team trip from last Feb cost $1400/ticket from Austin, but our team trip this coming Nov cost $2200/ticket from Austin. So I'd recommend preparing for the worst and pocketing the change if it is cheaper)
• $100-500
• vaccines (There are no REQUIRED vaccines to enter the country, however there are several that are strongly recommended, like Typhoid, Hep A/B, Malaria. You can decide what you'd like to get, and the costs will vary depending on where you go-- travel clinic, primary care physician, etc. Hep A/B is a set of 3 rounds of shots having to be spaced out, so if you think you want to go, I'd entertain starting your vaccine schedule in Oct.)

I'll be sending out more info to sponsors once the dates are set... but wanted you to being praying now, asking God if its your time to go.

Tom Davis in Austin

Tonight at 7pm at Westlake Hills Presbyterian... join THE UNLIKELY SONS & DAUGHTERS in welcoming Tom Davis to our town. He's coming to share about India... trafficking, poverty, and HOPE. Andy & the band are leading worship. Tom is sharing about his experiences in the global fight for justice. 

Through this event, we hope to raise awareness, participate in a concert of prayer for the children who are often victims, and recruit more advocates to care for the children at the slum schools in India. Bring a friend.

We have 30 children from our group of 4th graders that need sponsors. Join me in praying that tonight EVERY CHILD finds a sponsor!

SEPT 5th-- Teachers Day in India

Yesterday was TEACHER'S DAY in India. And so we'd like to encourage all of you to take a moment to pray for the teachers at the Good Samaritan School.

Here is the list of ideas of things to pray for teachers that we used for our July Prayer Night:

·      Pray for the protection of the staff as they commute to and from work. Some live in the communities, but many commute up to 2 hours every day in India’s traffic to get to work.

·      Pray for the families of the staff members, as they work long hours away from home and their loved ones.

·      Pray for the staff to be encouraged in their work. Help them to remember daily why they do what they do. Ask God to allow them to see some fruit of the fruit of their impact in the children’s lives.

·      Pray for the teachers to have passion for their jobs and the children. Pray they draw their inspiration from God, and they He endures them as they work.

·      Pray for the teachers to be patient with the children.

Two wonderful teachers from the Madanpur Khadar school.

·      Pray for the staff to be an encouragement to each other and find comfort in the community they share with one another. Pray for unity among the staff.

·      Pray for Dr. Ananthi Jebasingh, the founder and director of the school. Pray for her endurance in the ministry. Pray for her compassion and vision to be contagious to other leaders in the school. 

3 Sponsors Traveled to India in July

Three Unlikely Sponsors -- Preston & Skipper McWithey and Jorge Cordova -- had the exciting privilege to travel to India in July and MEET their sponsor kids! Preston & Skipper led a team from their church (in hopes of mobilizing more sponsors from their home church).

Never having been to India before, these three were deeply transformed by the experience. Witnessing all the challenges that daily life in India present were hard to digest. And yet one thing that stuck out to them was how completely joyful the students were at the Good Samaritan School!

Preston, Skipper, and Jorge were able to meet not only their sponsor children-- Asad & Subhodeep, but also their families during an afternoon visit to the slum area. They were invited into the homes of their sponsor kids and now understand more deeply what life is like for them.

Preston & Skipper at the home of their sponsor child, Asad (center, front).

One fun thing they did on the trip was to plan a carnival day at the school over the weekend. They brought water balloons for a fun activity which were a HUGE HIT (literally). The kids had never seen water balloons before and had a blast learning to have FUN.

They ended their trip update to friends & family by saying this: "We are committed to this school and area and plan to continue to partner with them for years to come!" I know this feeling well... to hear about something, and even to connect with something (like through writing letters), it becomes even more real when you have first-hand sights, sounds, smells, and stories to go with it. Stay tuned for news of our next Sponsor Trip!

There's always room for FUN on a sponsor trip... Preston & Skipper visiting the Taj Majal.

A Night of Prayer

On July 24th, we set aside the evening to pray for the kids. For those of you who came, we believe it was an impactful night of solitary, guided prayer. And for those who prayed at home, I heard from you too that it was a treasured time of intercession.

Here at the house, we set up 6 different prayer stations:

1. Setting Yourself Right With God (with a communion station)
2. Prayer For The Students
3. Prayer For The Staff
4. Prayer For The School
5. Prayer For The Slums
6. Prayer For India

This was the "Pray for the Students" station. In addition to praying for your individual sponsor child, we laid out the profiles of all children that we still need to find sponsors for. All 30 of them! And we asked participants to pray that God would bring sponsors for all 30 kids.

Each participant worked their way from station to station at their own pace. And were able to record Scriptures God inspired them to pray on a Scripture "wall" at each stop.

I hope we do this again in the future. In the mean time, email me if you want a copy of download the notes we used to make our prayer stations. You can use them as a tool whenever you choose to pray.

July Sponsor Reminder Letter

Hey Sponsors!

Here we are, on the 6^th of the month and its time for me to knock on your door for a friendly reminder to write to your sponsor child. Click here to take 5 minutes and fill your little kiddo in on what summer is like in the States. Tell them what you have been up to for fun. And if you’ve been reading in your Bible… tell them what you’ve been reading.

One thing that has come to our hearts this past month is the desire to have a night dedicated to PRAYER for the children at the Good Samaritan School. So, we’ve decided to organize an evening of prayer on Tuesday July 24^th. If you live in the Austin area, you are invited to come over at 7:30pm (until whenever you are done) and pray with us as one big sponsor group. We hope to make different stations and arrange our house in a sort of prayer walk. As you move from station to station, we will provide prompts for different topics of prayer. Everything from the kids & their education, the kids & their families, the school staff, the issues of India, and more.

If you are not in Austin, we will be preparing a little prayer guide that I can send out so you can join us.

Whether you are here in person on the 24^th praying or whether you are sitting at home on your couch, we ask you to set aside the evening of July 24^th so that we will act as one big concert of intercessors to the Lord. From wherever we are… for the children. So, mark your calendar now and let’s get our prayer on! If you plan to attend the night of prayer AT our house in Austin… please let me know if we can expect you in person.

On a separate note... we have 3 sponsors traveling to India July 21-29 to visit their kiddos. Please pray for their trip. I know from first hand experience that these visits are so impactful... for the kids AND the sponsors. We hope you consider joining us on a team in 2013!

Together for the kids,

Anna Melvin

for the Unlikely Sons & Daughters

First Generation Learners

As I mentioned in last month’s email, our kids have now advanced to 4^th grade. We want to invite all our sponsors to pray for their child's encouragement and perseverance in their school work, pray they would study hard, respect their teachers, and be motivated to learn.

When we were in India in February, one of the things we learned about most of these children is that they’re “first generation learners”. When we asked if most of the children’s parents were literate, the staff explained that usually, no, the parents are not literate. But beyond just that, many of the parents have never attended school a day in their lives. Many of our children’s parents do not value getting an education at all (much less a quality education). It would benefit them more in the short term if their children would simply work and contribute to the family’s income & needs. It is difficult for them to see beyond today, to have a vision for how their child getting an education will ultimately lead to a better job & more pay-- and an ability to help the family even more. So going to school is not necessarily a high value to many of them. 

Because of this reality, for your sponsor children to have an adult like YOU positively impacting their life for education… encouraging them to stick with it, to study hard, to learn all they can… this is a unique gift. You have a voice of influence. Use it when you write to your child.

These are mothers of our students who came to an event we invited them to at the school.
Many of these women have never attended school. 

Recommended Reading: "Behind the Beautiful Forevers"

Katie Patel, one of our sponsors, recently read Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo and recommended it to me. I've started it and think it is really pertinent to the work we are all partnered in. I asked her to write a review for our blog so that we could encourage all our sponsors to read it.

If you want to know  what daily life might be like for your sponsored child, I highly suggest reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo.  The book's subtitle is “Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity” and that is exactly what you experience when reading this narrative nonfiction. The author spent three years  observing, and interacting with the residents in the Annawadi settlement near the Mumbai airport, getting to know several residents and their stories.

As you read, you are immersed in the daily life of specific Annawadians, while also getting a bigger picture of what life in general looks like for those of lower caste/economic status in India.  You will meet Abdul, who makes a living collecting and reselling garbage; Asha, who aspires to be the political liason between the Annawadians and the big-city politicians; Manju, who will become the slum's first female college graduate; Karam, a Muslim who has plans to purchase his own land and leave the slum.

The book is a great read in general, in terms of getting you close to the characters, and interested in how their stories end. More than that, however, is the way the author shows you what daily life in the slum is like, without making judgements or being condescending toward India and its culture. She paints the picture, and lets the reader make their own judgements as to what, exactly can or should be done to alleviate the poverty and the inequality that the slums reflect.

After reading this book, I felt like I was given a snapshot of what life is probably like for my sponsored  little boy- Akash; the problems he faces day to day, what he might dream of, what his family dynamic might be like. If you are interested in India, and also if you are a child sponsor there, I highly suggest you read this book!

VBS for the kids

Just got word that the school just finished up a two-week break (I guess its like a spring break for them in India?)... and during that break, the local believers put on a week-long VBS for the area children at the school. How awesome is that? Join us in praying that whatever seeds were planting in the children's minds & hearts will continue to grow. And let's thank God together for the tireless work of the staff in India. Even when given a break from their daily work, they still served the Lord by loving on the children from the area slums.

PS-- Wish I had a fun picture from the VBS to share. But because I don't, I'll just post a fun picture from our Feb trip : )

This is Master Halder... He is a student who doesn't have a sponsor yet. Here he's learning to make tissue paper flowers to help him remember God loves him more than the lilies of the field. If you know someone who would like to sponsor Master, please send me their info! 

Video Testimony: Importance of Sponsorship

I saw this video from Children's HopeChest about "The Importance of Sponsorship: Meet Yana" and it made me hopeful that one day, we will be able to look back at our sponsor children's stories like this.


Yana was 8 years old when she met her sponsors for the first time. That is the same age as of a lot of the Unlikely Sons & Daughters' sponsor children.

I look forward to walking with these kids through their schooling, adolescence, and young adulthood. What precious stories WILL come from our children & their connections to YOU!?

25 New Child Profiles

Last week in the mail, I received 25 new child profiles!!!

When our sponsor team was in India in February, we met "our" 3rd grade class from Madanpur Khadar. We decided to pull each kid out one at a time to take a picture for you guys... and in the process we kept taking pictures of kids I previously didn't have record of. CHC set out to investigate if these kids didn't need sponsors or already had sponsors from someone else. And when the answers came back and we discovered they were available, of course the band said "We'll take em!"

These kids are so adorable! They've got great names like Tapas, Master (pictured here), and even Ravi Shankar. There are 8 girls in the new group. Most of the kids live with 4-8 children in the home!

So, now we set out with the goal to raise up 25 new sponsors for these kids. In addition, we still have 8 children from our Jasola 3rd graders that need sponsors (these are the additional kids we got profiles for the week before our February Trip).

DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE in your circle of friends WHO MIGHT WANT TO SPONSOR A CHILD? We would love to have them join our group of sponsors. You can send them a link to our "Who Are We?" tab on this blog and if they are interested in sponsoring, here's the link that shares "How Do I Sponsor?"

My personal goal is to find sponsors for all 33 children by JULY 4th... Independence Day... a reminder to me that an education for these kids equals hope that they might one day live in freedom from the poverty of their childhood! Will you help us meet that goal?

4 Favorite Things From Stu's Letter

Stu Smith, the guitar player in the band sent me this pic of his first letter from his sponsor kiddo... Here are my 4 favorite things about this precious letter:

1. He underlined "My favorite game is CRICKET." I was tickled by this. Obviously very important to him. : ) Him and about every other boy in India!
2. Love the fact that God put Stu and Ankit together... they both play guitar. That is awesome matching, Jesus.
3. "I am going to church - my school." One of the amazing things about the ministry of this school, is that a small church has sprouted up in the community and they meet each Sunday in the 5th grade classroom at the school. The school is a light in the community, to the kids, and even reaches beyond them to their families. When we were in India this past February, we noticed that a Hindu mother of a Hindu student came to church the Sunday after we visited her in her home. She even sang some of the worship songs. It was beautiful to know that the school staff and church members would continue reaching out to this woman!
4. "In English medium." This is adorable. I am assuming he is giving himself a score on his English skills... but keep trying little buddy!! You're doing great!

"We got our first letter!"

(guest post by Unlikely sponsors Preston & Skipper McWithey)

"My husband and I were so excited when we saw a letter from HopeChest last week that appeared to be a letter from our sponsored kiddo!  We opened it up to find a hand written (in English and in cursive!) letter from our 3rd grader, Asad. There was no translation as he wrote every word!  He told us about his family and their names (7 total) and talked about what he liked to eat and drink.  He wrote that his school garden is beautiful!  The second line in his letter stated that he wanted to meet us which affirms our decision even more to go to the Good Samaritan School this summer!  We are so excited to meet Asad and his family and to actually build a relationship with him during the next 10 years of his life while he is in school.  It is so awesome to partner with Unlikely Sons and Daughters to do this together!"


Skipper & Preston are leading a team of potential new sponsors on a trip to India this summer. They are hopeful to spread the word to their friends & church partners in hopes of rewriting even more children's story from poverty to hope. 


Have you gotten a letter from your sponsor child yet? How excited were you when you opened the mail? Did your relationship and investment become more real? Please feel free to share your stories in the comments or email me for more... 

August India Trip... Anyone?

Children's HopeChest is sending a "vision team" to visit the Good Samaritan School in India August 18-26, 2012. A Vision Trip is designed for pastors of churches and leaders of potential sponsoring communities. On a Vision Trip, participants visit mostly unsponsored locations for the purpose of evaluating how your church or community can become a HopeChest sponsoring community. 


Although our Unlikely group of sponsors has started the long term investment of connecting with students at the Good Samaritan School, they still have hundreds (literally) of kids that need sponsors, so they are looking for more partnerships with groups like ours too! 

Do you know someone in a leadership role that you'd like to encourage to go to India in August? This could be a pastor, yes... but also think WELL BEYOND pastor... a blogger you follow, a missional community leader, a boss at work... If you can think of someone of influence in your life, why not reach out and just invite them to go to India in August! You might plant the seed of a whole new community of believers, who-- like us-- take on a class of students to help them rewrite their story of poverty! 


"Andy Melvin and the Unlikely Sons" is just 4 boys in a band. They went to India on a vision trip with CHC and were impacted for life. And through that one vision trip, they've helped connect over 60 students in India with sponsors--- WITH YOU--- who are all just people that the band guys knew from a dozen different connections. Who do YOU know? Who would you tell? Who would you encourage to join the fight against poverty in these precious children's lives?


Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/redletters/2012/04/how-far-would-you-go-to-teach-a-child.html#ixzz1t12NTAJ3

April's Letter Writing Reminder

Happy Easter to our India Sponsors!

Over the last few days, I was honestly stressing out a bit that I hadn’t sent out our monthly India sponsor reminders. But this morning, I recognized God’s perfect timing even in something small like this email. Today, Christians remember Jesus’ victory over sin & death so that we might have eternal access to God.

This Easter is very different from what we, as a band family, are used to. We are in a season between “church homes,” plus one of our very own had a baby 3 days ago, so we are all laying low today. But for years, we’ve spent Easter in big church buildings with hundreds or thousands of people. Today, our celebration is stripped down to just us. And Jesus. The absence of the “extra stuff” is not necessarily the “better way” to celebrate, but the stillness I experienced this morning as I worshipped God in my Bible & prayer time allowed me to hear a very simple and quiet reminder…

“I died so that YOU may have life… and I died so that little ROSHAN and SUMIT and ANSHU could have life too.”

A powerful, quiet nudge from God that this endeavor we have all partnered together for—the care of India’s poorest children—is something He also died for. Christ died so that we can have life. And He died so that we can SHARE that life with others who need it. We are His light in this dark world. And because He loves the least of these, He calls us to too. We are blessed to be a blessing (Genesis 12:3).

I want to encourage you all to spend some time this Easter afternoon and stop to WRITE your child a letter. Share with him or her what we celebrate today. Tell them something you learned (or remembered anew) about your God today. And then PRAY for your child with fervor that they too would come to experience the LIFE that comes through Christ’s DEATH. Be the light to your children today. Share with them the love that Christ has for them. The same love that He has for you.

Together with you,

Anna Melvin

(for the Unlikely Sons & Daughters)

the picture above is our little Sumit.

Kidnappings in Madanpur Khadar

Our friends that work for the Good Samaritan School emailed to share some discouraging news from the community. Here is their email to us:

"Thought I should let you guys know so that you can share with the (sponsor) team to pray. For a long time Madanpur Khadar (the main slum that we have been serving for 20+ years) has been a fairly safe community. Recently there have been so many kidnappings and there is a lot of talk that this slum is becoming dangerous for children. As you know, more than half of all of our children live here. We have already had one of our own abducted, a little boy. As for what happens to them, we aren't very sure. Girls are usually sold into prostitution, boys are made to beg. Please pray for our children and that they are protected."

The problem has become bad enough to even gain interest of the local news media and the"Times of India" ran an article on the issue which you can READ HERE.

Sponsors... PLEASE PRAY for our kids to be safe. And pray for all the children of the slum community to be protected from those who wish to do them evil.

(These are some unattended children we saw while walking through the Madanpur Khadar community. This was very common.)

Win a FREE TRIP to India

Buy one of these new "Man Up" or "Simply Love" T-shirts from Children's HopeChest and you could win a FREE TRIP to India!

Your t-shirt purchase helps orphans in Haiti, supports sex trafficking survivors in Moldova, and enters you to win a free mission trip with HopeChest! Which you could use to join us on our next sponsor trip to the Good Samaritan School in India!

Our next sponsor trip will (likely) be in early 2013. Just think, you could already have raised ALL your funds to GO WITH US TO INDIA!

Click here to buy a T-shirt and get your name thrown into the pot for the mission trip giveaway! The winner will be announced on the Children's HopeChest Facebook page on APRIL 2, so hurry up and get your shirt today.

Meeting Nikil

This is Nikil. His sponsor, Terra, traveled with our team in February. Here is a link to a blog post she wrote about what it was like for her to meet her sponsor child Nikil. Meeting Nikil was a joy. And to watch Terra interact with him was priceless.

Here's a pic of Nikil from my camera phone. I'm pretty sure that he could NOT wear his knit hat any further down on his face each day... it was like a trademark. But it made his chilled-out-smile all the more noticeable and lovable.

Say Hi To Our 3rd Grade Kids (a video)

Just a Few 3rd Grade Kids in Photos

Just thought yall'd enjoy a string of photos of our sponsored kids... Such life & personality shining through!

Festival Day at Madanpur Khadar

At the end of our week serving in the classroom, we asked about offering a "play day" of sorts with the kids... especially looking for some more free time to spend with our sponsor class. We put together a sort of festival of games and activities and invited the 3rd-5th grade kids from Jasola, Dakshinpuri, a third feeder school (that I never got the name of), and the Madanpur Khadar kids. My overall summary: IT WAS TOO SHORT! We had just a few hours and wished we could have played all day. We did face painting, had potato sack races & 3-legged races, jump rope, sidewalk chalk, and bracelets to make. Below are some pictures from our time on Saturday.

(ABOVE) Some of the 5th grade girls who were pretty attached to our group.
(ABOVE) 3rd graders from our sponsor group. They are cousins and were inseparable all day (super cute).
(ABOVE) The kids wanted to do our drama of Jesus calming the storm again on festival day. They had memorized the whole thing in Hindi. Their parents were there for lunch so they wanted to teach them the story. Precious!

(ABOVE) Face painting fun.
(ABOVE) Potato Sack Races... this was a new game and got lots of laughs!
(ABOVE) Showing off their new bracelets. Marsha Smith (one of our sponsors) sent bracelets with us for the children to make that taught them about Jesus!
(ABOVE) The kids who traveled all the way from Dakshinpuri brought picnic lunches.
(ABOVE) One of our teammates, Emad, trying his hand at face painting for the first time. He was really good at Spider Man!
(ABOVE) This was the only area where there was continuous concrete to use the sidewalk chalk on... but they managed to have fun!

A Day at Dakshinpuri (a GSS feeder school)

Our group visited another one of the feeder schools that are a part of the Good Samaritan School. This was in the slum area called Dakshinpuri. We arrived to a song & dance welcome from the children and this precious sign (BELOW): "Dear beloved unlikely sons & daughters..." It was a heart-melter for sure!

This school crammed 6 classes into such a tiny space and when we arrived, the kids were all inside learning in the dark because of an electrical black out. But they were still eagerly listening to their teachers. This is one classroom (BELOW) literally occupies the space at the front door... just an entry way.
(BELOW) Here is the welcome song & dance number. The kids sure were animated. And the songs were very catchy (getting stuck in our heads for the rest of the trip).
(BELOW) This picture tries to capture the Kindergarten classroom. It was literally like a greenhouse hallway that ran along the outside length of the school. It was just wide enough to fit one desk and a narrow aisle for the teacher. The kids sat 3-4 at a desk. Here we had just finished teaching them to make crowns to remind them that they are children of the King of kings!
After spending the morning at this school, we went to visit some of the children's families in their nearby homes. We met and prayed for a lot of sick family members. It was definitely an emotionally challenging afternoon.

Crafts & Dramas, at Madanpur Khadar (a GSS feeder school)

The majority of the children in our sponsor group attend one of the feeder schools in a slum community called Madanpur Khadar. Our travel team spent most of our days working at this particular facility. The administration asked our group to prepare fun crafts, songs, dramas, and Bible lessons for the students.

We taught our Bible lessons from 2 primary texts (Matthew 6:25-34 and Luke 8:22-25) and used those stories as a springboard for our crafts and dramas.

(ABOVE) Here is our group assisting in the kids' reenactment of our drama from Luke 8 (Jesus Calms the Storm). Our team "performed" the drama first for each class, then invited students to volunteer to act it out after us. The kids were timid at first, but by the 3rd round of volunteers they were all beside themselves with laughter and smiles! It was worth the exhaustion (our team did the drama 34 times in 4 hours-- WHEW!)
(ABOVE) These 3rd grade boys show off the flowers we taught them to make using tissue paper and pipe cleaners. It was to remind the children that God cares for them even more than the lilies of the field (from Matthew 6).
(ABOVE) These 1st grade boys help each other make bird masks from paper plates & feathers. This craft was to remind them that God cares for their needs more than the birds of the sky (from Matthew 6).

We enjoyed serving the children in these creative ways, but also REALLY loved all our free time with the kids. Just loving on them in the hallways, on the playground, or by the drinking fountains. To see the children in the flesh after just knowing about them in our minds and on paper for so long was a gift. You can watch their little personalities come alive in their facial expressions, their voices, their mannerisms... how tall they are, where their desk is in class, who their best friend is, etc.

Sponsor Team Travels to New Delhi (FEB '12)

Here is our travel team from Feb 2012. Our group represented 7 different churches, 2 states, 3 languages, and were the most beautiful display of Christ working together for the His name's sake! This is our team on the roof of the Good Samaritan School in Jasola neighborhood. It was our first day in India and we were wrapping up a tour of the main facility. (sorry for our funny faces, it was bright out there!)

Todd & Patsy White

Our first set of sponsors who were able to travel to India were Todd & Patsy White. Back in November, the two of them flew to New Delhi to work with the Good Samaritan School and investigate if there could be a deeper partnership between the GSS and their home church where Todd serves in the missions department.

Todd has a photography business and took some amazing photos while there. Here is a link to the blog he posted on the day he & Patsy met CHANDAN & SUSHMITA, their sponsor children.

We are so grateful to have sponsors like Todd & Patsy who not only "support" financially, but who truly give encouragement, love, and time to the children they commit to. We are glad they are a part of the Unlikely Sons & Daughters!

The Backstory

Hi friends!
To kick off this blog, I thought I'd try and recap the backstory behind this little venture of our group's sponsoring kids in India.

• FEB 2011: Andy Melvin & The Unlikely Sons join Children's HopeChest on a vision trip to India, working with the Good Samaritan School.
• MAY 2011: Andy Melvin & The Unlikely Sons follow up with Children's HopeChest to see what kind of follow through action steps they can take to partner with the Good Samaritan School. The decision is made to "take on" the 3rd grade class at GSS and work to find each child a sponsor.
• JUNE 2011: The Unlikely Sons & Daughters group is officially formed as an umbrella group for future sponsors.
• OCT 2011: The Unlikely Sons & Daughters hosts "HELLO INDIA" event in Austin, Tx where we introduce our friends to Dr. Ananthi Jebasingh (founder of GSS) and Tom Davis (CEO of Children's HopeChest). These two leaders cast the vision for the need in India and the next steps we can take to help the GSS. Our sponsorship push officially kicks off this night.
• NOV 2011: Our first 2 Unlikely Sons & Daughters sponsors travel to India to meet their children and check out the GSS in hopes of developing a partnership for their home church!
• JAN 2012: We meet our goal of finding sponsors for all 57 3rd grade children at the GSS that were assigned to The Unlikely Sons & Daughters group. And we ask if there are more kids we can add to our group.
• FEB 2012: Our first full team of sponsors travels to India to serve at the GSS for a week and spend time with our group of sponsor children.
• MAR 2012: We launch our Unlikely Sons & Daughters blog to keep all our sponsors informed with stories and updates.