Posted: 1/06/06
| Through gifts to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Asian Response, a sewing center opens in the Indian village of Sardu Kadapa, where local teenage girls learn sewing skills that will generate income for themselves and their families. |
CBF continues to help South Asia rebuild
By Carla Wynn
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
SARDU KADAPA, India–Sixty-year-old Ramajayamma believes one person can change a village. For 45 years, she has gone door-to-door sharing Jesus Christ with neighbors in her southern India fishing village. Over the years, her efforts have helped form four churches with more than 1,500 Christians.
But the church buildings–some already weak structures–were damaged in the December 2004 tsunami that killed more than 178,000 people in Southern Asia.
Through the gifts to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's Asian Response, four new churches are being built in this fishing community–the first one dedicated on Christmas, nearly one year after the tsunami, said CBF Global Missions field representative Sam Bandela.
The Fellowship also has bought 200 school uniforms for children in the fishing village of Peddamynavani Lanka. After receiving uniforms and Bibles for each family, the entire village celebrated in an event that included local and state government officials.
“It's hard to get smiles off these boys' and girls' faces. During the celebration, these boys and girls were so happy, encouraged and excited, along with their family members,” Bandela said.
Between the CBF and its partner organization World Vision, more than 1,000 uniforms have been purchased for Indian children in the tsunami's aftermath.
Funds from the CBF tsunami offering also opened a sewing center in the village of Sardu Kadapa, where local teenage girls learned skills that will generate income for themselves and their families.
Because training is done in the girls' village, they still can live with their parents, preventing the safety concerns of having to relocate, Bandela said. Three additional sewing centers have been or will soon be opened in other villages.
Teenage girls who do not finish high school only have potential of earning 25 cents per day doing crochet work. With the new sewing skills they learn in the class, these girls will be able to earn around $2 per day by making dresses, more than an average wage for Indian women, Bandela said.
“We are helping them stand on their own feet with this newly acquired skill,” he said.
These projects are part of a holistic approach to missions, meeting a variety of needs in culturally appropriate ways, Bandela explained. And as a result, Christian workers are seeing a spiritual response.
“Many people are interested to know more about Christian faith. Many closed doors and hearts are being opened,” he said.
Other plans in India include buying pushcarts for up to 1,000 women who sell fish in villages. Currently, the women balance the fish supply on their heads as they travel the community selling fish, and carts will be less of a physical strain, Bandela said.
As many as 200 additional families will receive bicycles, which will enable better transportation for fishermen.
In helping meet physical needs, Bandela said, “we can develop a one-on-one, personal relationship to share the gospel.”
These tsunami-affected villages depend on the fishing industry, and as a Christmas gift, CBF provided 400 families in four villages with new fishing nets, Bandela said. Sanitation systems and water development projects also were scheduled.
For more information on the Fellowship's continued response to the Southeast Asian tsunami, visit www.thefellowship.info/disaster/tsunami.
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