Where am I going? What am I doing?.......

On January 28th I fly to Mumbai India where I will be living for the next four months. I have had a desire to go to India since I was about ten years old. This might have been the result of seeing Bollywood films, but of course there is no way I am admitting to that! : )

I decided to complete an accelerated highschool education in hopes of spending my last semester overseas. Sure enough, here I am, red-eye ticket in hand and feeling nauseous from malaria meds. A dream come true.

Truthfully it really is though. I got the privilege once of watching an IJM montage of photos and video clips to the Sara Groves song "Add to the Beauty". It was the first time I had a focused look into what I wanted to be apart of in India. My heart goes out to the girls who are victims of abuse and neglect. The ministry I will be working with was started in 1998 and was the vision of Lagoinha Baptist Church in Brazil. The church saw a need for Christians working amongst the vulnerable youth in India and they decided to fill that need. Their work has grown so that they now have four homes with a total of about forty girls in their care. Having been established for over ten years now, they have reached the point where they are raising up staff members from within the homes. One girl I will be working alongside is eighteen years old and first came to the home when she was eight.

While I am there I will be tutoring the girls in English. About half of them speak English and the other half are starting to learn. I am also interested in starting some sort of arts curriculum with them, offering opportunities for them to explore areas of art, music, and dance. I will know more about my day-to-day responsibilities when I settle in, but to begin with they just want me interacting with the girls and getting to know them all. They have expressed a huge need for more people to be there to love and encourage these girls and assure them that they are known by name and cared for.

If you want to know more about Ashasthan please visit their website; 

http://ashasthan.org/Aboutus.htm 

Parts of it are outdated but it is a great way to get a picture of their work and vision.