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Sirkali and Southern India
Our work in India was prompted by the effects of the Tsunami in December 2004. A partnership was established with a local mission, Share in Asia, and two gifted children’s homes (also known to you as orphanages, one for boys and one for girls) were opened near Sirkali, in the area most affected. Many of these children lost both parents in the disaster and have no one to care for them. Their stories are horrifying and their fight for survival is to be commended. For weeks they searched for their loved ones and there was no one to feed them or look after them. When our team arrived there were hundreds of such children in most villages on the coast. We stopped in Sirkali where we began this ministry, a place where these beautiful children are fed, cared for and educated. In each gifted children’s home there is a Christian family that cares for the 20 children. They live as an extended family and care for the children, and education is also provided within the centre. The children are encouraged to learn well and we aim to provide higher education for them or trade qualification.   
Coimbatore
In the area of Coimbatore our work extends in several areas. First, we provide a feeding program for one of the largest and poorest schools of the untouchables. Over 700 children attend this public school where they receive a large portion of a meal every day. For most, this is the only meal they have. We also employ four teachers that provide Christian education to the children and in 2008 we built a large assembly building area for the school to be used as a versatile room (eating, assembly, games, plays, etc.). Secondly, we are in the process of building a clinic for those mothers that normally would abort their children or kill them at birth. This clinic centre comprises a house for gifted children (orphanage) and a church. Most Indians prefer sons, who are typically regarded as breadwinners, while girls are seen as a burden because of the matrimonial dowry demanded by a groom's family and the fact that their earnings go to their husband's family. Many mothers when they give birth and find that the baby is a girl, they opt to have her killed as the cultural tradition imposes great burdens for marrying a girl. Normally the parents must pay for her to get married and this money generally goes to the father of the groom. If a family has three or four boys, they can almost live for full retirement on the money they receive when the boys get married. This clinic gives the mothers the opportunity to deliver their babies in a caring Christian environment. They are supported in loving the children and caring for them. An option to raise the children in our gifted children’s home is given to those mothers that do not want to take their newborn girls home. Thirdly, we provide a feeding program for a leper colony of over 80 families on the outskirts of Coimbatore. These marginalized people are not allowed to travel outside their community and because they are untouchable they cannot find work nor are they served anything in the markets. As such they rely only on the crops they can plant within their isolated compound and on the food they receive from the outside (our ministry). Most of the people in this community have become Christian believers and a local church has been established and built within their compound. Children born out of leper affected parents do not carry the disease as modern medicine has been able to stop its contagious ability. Our caring ministry provides hope for these children and a brighter future is on the horizon.
  
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