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.)

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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!