India (MNN) — Three and a half
years ago, a Muslim-dominated region of northern India used to have no school,
no clinic, no church within a 50-mile radius, and no Christian witness.
Now Global Action has opened a
Christian school and broken ground on a maternity clinic the poverty-stricken
community. It is also running
microenterprise projects to build the region's economy, and ministering to
orphans.
"Of course, when you do something
like this, the orphans just turn up," ministry founder Lars Dunberg
explained. "We hate institutions; we
will never run an orphanage. But we have
to take care of the orphans; that's a scriptural principle."
The first six family-style homes
for orphans will be ready for their residents in a few weeks.
"We've invited Christian couples
who have no children or just one child, and want to give 10 years to serve the
Lord," Dunberg said. "And suddenly, one
day they have no children, next day they have 7. So we create a family unit of seven children
and two parents. We right now have five
of those units, and we hope to have 14 when we are finished. So we will have a total of about a hundred
orphans we take care of."
Two and a half years ago, one
brother and sister lived in squalor after their father was killed by lightning
and their mother died of disease. Now
their lives have changed completely.
"They had lived on the garbage
dumps and eaten the food after the dogs and the rats," Dunberg remembered. "When they came to us they were the most
friendly creatures I've ever seen, malnutrition, full of life…I talked to the
girl, she is now a little over 12, has become a lady. And she says, ‘This is my home. This is where my mother and father is
now. And most of all I found Jesus
Christ, He has transformed my life.' And
she was just radiating."
This girl is only one example of
the transformation that is happening over and over again in the community. You can be a part of what God is doing by
praying and by supporting one child for $30 a month. You can also register to win a free Touch the
World India Blanket Trip to the area.
"You will actually go into the
slums of Delhi and deliver blankets to people who have nothing," Dunberg said. "You will go into the villages of northern
India and provide, literally, life to some of these people who otherwise may
die in the very, very cold winter. It's
hard for us to realize that it could be subzero temperature and you have
basically nothing on. Kids run around,
basically naked only just small pair of underwear and this blanket comes and
provides the warmth that they need."
