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"Love begins at home, and it is not
how much we do...but how
much love we put
in that action."
"The ocean is made
of drops"
-Mother Teresa |
"If Christians would really live according
to the teachings of Christ,
as found in the
Bible, all of India would
be Christian today."
-Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948) |
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"..that we are destined for something greater,
that our hope is built on nothing
less than
the transforming power of Jesus
Christ"...Luca
"Religion that God our Father accepts
as pure and faultless is this: to look after
orphans and widows in their distress and
to keep oneself from being polluted by the
world." - James 1:17
We have a beautiful piece of
land, donated
to us to build a widow’s home.
Now we need
to start building. We need foundations,
walls,
doors, and windows, but first
of all bricks.
Are you willing to help us see
this vision
come true?
 
WEBSITE: Widows Home (please click)
TO HELP:
e-mail: lovevnsi@satyam.com
ABOUT the widow’s home:
In 1997 God spoke to us about
the widows
of Varanasi. He told us to build
a home for
them where they can live in dignity
and where
others can come and earn a living
by doing
income generating projects like
sewing, pickle
and jam making.
About Varanasi:
Varanasi is one of India’s most
holy cities.
Thousands of pilgrims come to
this city to
bathe in the river Ganges, to
wash away their
sins. The belief is that if you
die in this
city, you will go straight to
heaven. This
is one of the reasons why so
many widows
are here.
Another reason is that many of
those who
come here on pilgrimage leave
their widows
behind, so that they don’t have
to take care
of them anymore. Because of this
the city
is filled with widows living
on the streets,
having no one to care for them.
There is
an estimated 10,000 of them.
They earn a
living by begging, working as
“maids” or
by prostitution. Some have lost
their sanity
due to the desperate situation
they are in.
Consequently, the city is defiling
itself,
because it is not doing the will
of God.
He wants us to take care of the
widows, so
they can lead peaceful lives.
Our vision is to help these widows. In the
next 10 years we want to employ
1500 widows.
We want to house 50 widows who
are in desperate
circumstances, and provide for
them and their
children often accompany them.
We will equip
them with skills so that they
can earn a
decent income and experience
the hope that
they never had. This will take
time. We need
a lot of staff, finances and
knowledge. To
begin with, we want to run seminars
and Christian
training courses alongside our
regular activities
in the home, until it is ‘full’
of widows
and our vision is completed
In response to God’s call to
care for widows,
(James 1:27, Isaiah 1:17) we
plan to establish
a home for widows with various
ministries
such as children’s ministry,
training and
micro enterprises running along
side to compliment
the work.
* The objective is to see a complete change
in society where widows are respected
and
are considered valuable. In order
for this
to happen there needs to be a
transformation
of the whole “man” - physically,
emotionally,
and spiritually (the full gospel).
We believe
transformation can only come
through a saving
knowledge of Christ.
*
Not only is caring for widows
very much on
God’s heart, but we believe that
caring for
widows is an effective weapon
of spiritual
warfare to break the power of
satan over
Varanasi and this nation where
people have
been oppressed and placed in
bondage. It
specifically comes against the
root spirits
of selfishness and pride that
is so prevalent
in our society.
* This home is to be a place of discipling
and training where different
skills can be
imparted to help people to be
self-employed
and to give them a sense of value.
It is
also to be a place where widows
with physical
or mental needs can reside and
spend their
time in peace and dignity. Biblical
instruction
and counseling will be given
to help people
grow in the knowledge of Christ.
* Many of the widows have small children
accompanying them so we believe
children’s
ministry needs to be an important
part of
this home. Many children are
growing up without
any godly imput. The foundations
for life
are developed in the early years
so we feel
responsible to ensure that children
are given
a chance to develop strong foundations.
* Apart from being a place for widows, it
is also to be a place where various
schools
and seminars will be run for
workers to grow
spiritually and learn skills
needed for their
respective ministries.
*
As widows are very much on God’s
heart, we
are committed to show God’s love
through
the 2 handed gospel - by discipling
them
and in a practical way, by providing
them
with skills that will help them
to fit back
into society. We see the widows
as individuals,
precious in the eyes of God and
desire to
treat them with that same respect,
not as
mere numbers in an institution.
* We plan to have widows living in the home
as well as widows coming in daily
to learn
and earn through various micro
enterprises
i.e. pickle, peanut butter and
jam making,
baking, tailoring, etc. These
articles will
be sold in a shop, which will
be located
on the same property and in other
venues.
* As well as being a place to cater for the
needs of widows it will also
be used to run
various training schools and
seminars i.e.
DTS, SOFM, IPHC and others.
* Children’s ministry will be a part of this
home especially as some widows
will come
with small children.
* It is to be a place where staff can live
comfortably with the students
and widows
to enable them to minister more
effectively.
* There will also be apartments where our
staff can come and stay for a
short time
to get refreshed.
Initially we will build only
the first floor
as time and finance permit. We
are planning
for a 3-4 story building. In
the beginning
the upper floors will be used
for other training
programs, but the first priority
will be
for the widows. When the widows
require the
entire building, we will move
the training
programs to another building.
We have been able to buy a piece of land
of approx. 5500 square feet.
Our most pressing
need at this time is finance
to begin laying
the foundations for home. We
are planning
to proceed with this in October
at the end
of the monsoon, finances permitting.
Presently we have about US$ 8,700.
-.
We are planning to start with
three floors,
as this will accommodate this
project for
3 to 4 years. Then in the fourth
year we
can build another floor, depending
on the
need and financial situation.
The price for
the footings, foundations and
rebuilding
of the boundary wall will be
approx. US$
16,000. -. The price for each
floor will
be approx. US$ 42,000. -. This
includes plumbing,
electricity connections, lights,
fans, waterproofing,
painting etc.
Besides the building, we need
support for
widows who will be living in
the house as
residents and for staff. Monthly
need for
a widow is approximately US$
25.- and for
a staff US$ 50.-
We are anxious to see this proceed,
because
with each delay more and more
widows are
dying unnecessarily on the streets
of our
city. In addition to that, at
present we
have a professional contractor
from the States
here in Varanasi to help us see
this vision
materialize. This is an incredible
blessing,
and we would not want to see
it pass us by.
He has spent the last few months
researching
the different materials and methods
available
in India and feels confident
that we can
do a high quality job.
After the completion of the widow’s
home
our objectives are as follows:
* In the first year, we will target a maximum
of 10 widows.
* The second year we want to accept up to
30 widows.
* The fifth year, we want to target 500 widows.
* The tenth year, we want to expand to 1,550
widows.
(For both employment and residence.)
The initial widows will play
a key role in
the foundation of the home. These
women will
be capable, older widows (preferably
believers)
who we can train as staff. Because
of their
age and own experiences they
will have better
insight into the women’s needs
and be able
to act as role models. At present
we have
some widows we are in contact
with, that
we are hoping can be trained
up, into a leadership
role.
In the early stages we will employ professionals
to be involved with our income
generation
program, to ensure that the products
are
of good quality. They will equip
the widows
with skills in tailoring, the
making of preserves,
peanut butter etc. We will then
provide employment
for the women in these areas.
They will be
employed as full time workers,
and paid a
respectable income. This gives
them dignity
and self - respect.
As the number of widow’s involved
increases,
so will our employment opportunities.
At
present, we have staff in training
to become
more specialised in our target
employment
areas. We are also in the process
of establishing
connections with shops throughout
the city,
where we hope to market our products,
as
well as in our own shop on the
widows’ home
property. We feel this will give
us a greater
coverage and therefore better
sales. This
is a non-profit organisation.
All profit
made from the sales will be reinvested
into
the work, primarily to pay the
widow’s expenses.
TO HELP:
e-mail: lovevnsi@satyam.com
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