Emails to Home:
From Steve and Melissa Hopkins
in India July 06
 July
11, 2006
After a little
work, we finally arrived in India! Our flight from Nanning was
delayed 6 hours, which meant that we missed our flight to Dehli
and so on. We ended up catching another flight to Dehli 24 hours
later , so we spent one night and day in Hong, Kong. Turned out
to be a fun little diversion, but the trip was long. All said
and done, it was over 50 hours between Nanning and Salem for us.
Oh well! We are here and that is all that matters.
The culture and surroundings here are very different, of course,
but we have adjusted quickly. I was glad we went to China first
because the way of living there was able to prepare me for what
I see here in India. The cities are very crowded, however, they
are not filled with high rise buildings. Most buildings do not
exceed six stories. The roads are dusty and filled with street
vendors and nearly all buildings are cement with open windows
covered by bars. The weather is hot, but not unbearable. Both of
us think that the weather was warmer and more humid in China, so
we are used to it by now.
We have been here for two full days now and we enjoy all the
people we meet and work with. We have also met most of the
orphans. I have to say that meeting the orphans was an
incredibly overwhelming experience, especially at the Promised
Land. We turned the corner and there was a field filled with
about 1500 orphans. The sheer sight of it was very moving. They
were all in orderly rows and respectful, yet it was hard for
them to contain their enthusiasm when the saw us. Suddenly 1500
children were waving at us and vying for our attention. We met
each of them one by one, Melissa met the girls and Steve met the
boys.
The kids all call us auntie and uncle and about 300 of them live
near where
we are staying, so we are constantly hearing, "Hello Auntie!
Hello Uncle!"
Very cute.
We found out today that we will be teaching in both of the
English medium
schools. The one near where we are staying and the one at the
Promised Land. St. Basil's is near us and is a mix of orphans
and local children. St.
Neva's is an hour away and has all orphans. We will most likely
stay at that campus all of next week and teach English.
There is a strange and different kind of beauty here, that is
mostly
expressed when you see the joy on the kids faces. I am not
normally
accustomed to seeing it in America, so it took me awhile to see
it here. But now I revel is how beautiful much of this country
is. Just different. We have a great view from the roof of our
building that we enjoy throughout the day too.
God Bless!
Steve and Melissa
July 13, 2006
Hello again!
This is Steve typing this time.. We are continuing to have an
amazing
experience here in India. Over the past two days we have had the
opportunity to teach some classes and make another visit to the
Promise Land Orphanage.
It is an unbelievable experience having 1,000 orphans sitting on
a field in
front of you. This time Melissa taught them a few simple songs
(Jesus Loves Me and This Little Light of Mine) and I told them a
story based on a Max Lucado book. THere was no power so we had
to shout as loud as possible to be heard... we basically stood
right in the middle to the crowd.
The teaching experience yesterday was quite uniqe. All of the
rooms are open air, so it's quite loud and you have to talk very
loudly to be heard. The classroom management style is very loose
here, as students and teachers seem to walk about freely as
class is in session. Over the course of a period, we will see
many kids just walk out to go to the bathroom or do something
else.
And there is lots of chatter going on throughout the whole
period... quite
different from what we are used to seeing.
Yesterday morning two of the staff girls took us to a clothing
store and
Melissa bought 5 Indian choudedars. They are basically 3
pieces... a baggy
pair of pants (I tell her it's Hammer time!), a long tunic, and
a scarf. She
looks really good in them, and everyone is complimenting how
nice she looks.
That's about all for now... We hope all of you are doing well!
With love,
Steve and Melissa
July 18, 2006
Hello again!
Well, things continue to amaze us around here. Just when we
thought there was some routine, we discovered that anything can
happen at anytime. This is of course teaching us to be very
flexible, but the things that are happening are very encouraging
and uplifting.
On Friday we weren't really sure what we would be doing. Well,
we ended up going out to a remote village where a church has
been started. We had the chance to help clear a one-acre plot of
land and new construction on the church building is about to
begin. A Hindu woman has continued to put up Hindu shrines on a
tree in the corner of the property, even though the tree is
clearly on the church's land. It is quite complicated to just
remove the shrine. the Hindus will make a lot of trouble for the
church. So Pastor Jay handled the matter very appropriately. He
bought a bunch of food for her and her children and we prayed
for her.
Later that afternoon we went back to the Promise Land and handed
out
biscuits to the 1000 children. We also had a chance to get a
full tour of
this amazing place. Pastor Jay is currently having a dam built
on the
hillside to provide water for the orphanage. A new boys dorm is
under
construction, and there is a farm for growing rice and corn.
There is also a
poultry farm.
As we have gone around to all these different places, we have
been catching the vision for this multi-faceted ministry. It's
quite amazing to see what has become of a small orphanage of 12
children started in 1988! There are plans to start a college as
well.
Yesterday, we had the chance to go to "Eden Garden" which is a
smaller
orphanage that ICMC runs. It's about an hour and a half out of
town and
houses 100 boys and some widowed mothers. We had an amazing time
there as well. Melissa was a big hit as she taught them a bunch
of fun songs and games. While she was doing this, I had the
chance to go with Pastor Jay's son and speak at a "Youth
Meeting" for about 30 teenagers.
We are continuing to have a wonderful time here. Still the most
touching
times are when we visit the children. They are so loving and
anxious to hear anything we have to share. They desire a lot of
affection, and we have found that smiling at them and holding
their hand goes so far.
We hope all is well with you.
Love,
The Hopkins
July 23, 2006
Hello From India,
Melissa and I just returned to the city of Salem after spending
4 days at
the Promise Land. This is ICMC's big orphanage of about 1000
kids. It was so nice to spend time there after visiting there
four or five times. We had a great time! We spent time in the
English and Tamil schools, at the pastor
training facility, and spent a lot of time playing with the
children. We had
opportunities to participate in youth meetings and a Sunday
service. Our
food came from the land. They grow their own rice there, and the
chicken
came from the poultry farm.
It is a beautiful place. there are coconut trees everywhere and
it is right
at the base of the mountains. Dr. Jay is currently building a
dam up the
hill from the dorm buildings. We had nice accommodations
(running water and a western toilet) and enjoyed the slightly
cooler weather there.
We were able to give the kids much needed attention, but there
is still a
HUGE need for sponsors for the kiddos. A lot of them have
nothing beyond the shirts on their backs. They are starving for
affection and we often found ourselves surrounded by 20-25 kids
just hoping to receive some attention.
On Friday, all the kids' measurements were taken and we are
going to another city tomorrow to buy clothes at a wholesale
price. The facility just had two doctors come and look at the
kids. One of the doctors agreed to come every day and the other
one will come twice a week. These doctors are very
service-minded! They told me that 95% of the kids have some sort
of skin infection and the large majority of them are vitamin A
deficient. They are going to work on getting tablets for the
kids for the deficiency. As for the skin infections, it's going
to be a long road to solve this problem as there are up to 20
kids in one room.
The new manager of the facility is an amazing man. He was career
military,
and recently decided that he should come work at the Promise
Land. He as
endless energy and enthusiasm for running such a big operation!
Speaking of endless energy and enthusiasm, we have been
absolutely amazed by Dr. Jay. He has so many things going on,
yet he handles everything with an amazing amount of grace. We
were fortunate to be by his side for most of four days before
going to the Promise Land. During that time, we did a wide
variety of things from working in his office to going out to a
village to check on how a new church is coming along. We also
went around and checked on other building projects he has going
on. He is truly an amazing man, who has overcome (and continues
to face) unbelievable challenges and hardships.
That's about all for now. we hope all is well with you!
Love,
Steve and Melissa
To VIEW
their photos with captions at Sony Album, click on
Hopkins Album
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