At the end of this year 2010, what can be remembered most is the faithfulness of the Almighty. He has taken care and managed the project that otherwise I would have found very difficult to handle. He has always provided, never too late or too early, always just in time. We at Karuna just thank Him for all that He has done for us and for the hearts of people He has softened to help us. He has helped us sustain each and every work started here.

The only project we had to close was the Abundance project.

The greatest satisfaction was to see the children admitted in the Christian schools now speaking english and quite disciplined compared to the others in the leprosy colony. Surely He is going to change this community through the children.

The safe drinking water project got a boost with the Indian Evangelical Team providing each family with a 20 litre can with a tap to store the water.

The health of the children of the colony along with nursing mothers has been near excellent due the nutrition project which gives them the necessary vitamins, iron and calcium.

We were also able to look after a total of 56 patients at the Karuna Hospital this year.

The Lord blessed the skills training project by giving jobs to 3 who completed the computer course while one person actually started his own Cyber café in partnership with another person. We also have received a promise for 2 computers to replace the old P1 computers we have.

Quite few youth got jobs this year. The once beggar colony has now only 30% doing their traditional job i.e begging.

Karuna, a project of compassion, showing the love of Jesus to this rejected community has now completed 6 years in Gulbarga serving the leprosy affected community of the Gandhi Leprosy Colony. As we enter the 7th year just looking around the colony we can see that the Kingdom of God has slowly but surely come to the Gandhi Leprosy Colony . With the Kingdom of God comes  prosperity and that is what is slowly coming to the Gandhi Leprosy Colony.

What are the signs:

• Begging on the decline.
• Most of the youth have taken up jobs even if it is as unskilled labour.
• More importance is now being given to education.
• 75% of the families now have T.V.s
• 30% have air coolers.

• Child marriages are on decline.
• Most of the women now go to the hospital  when pregnant and for the delivery  instead of delivering their babies at home.
• Children are much more healthier and so are the women.
• More youth are learning skills like computer DTP, Tailoring, Welding, Carpentry etc.

We thank God for showing His favour upon us and these people during this past year.

Gifts of Love

The children of Michael and Michelle this Christmas donated a wheelchair, a portable commode and a walker for the Karuna hospital at the Gandhi Leprosy Colony.

A Proud Moment

It was a proud moment for some of the parents of the Gandhi Leprosy colony who attended the Christmas function held in Bangalore where their children are studing.

It was with great joy they watched their children perform in skit after skit and sing and dance in front of quite a large crowd of other parents and guests.

Sharing the love of Jesus this Christmas

This year’s Christmas function was unlike any other  we have conducted in the past. We always had the programme in the Leprosy Colony. This year we hired a hall right in the middle of town and invited the leprosy affected community to join us for the function there. We are thankful to the Bethsheba Church of God and its few members who also joined us and shared their joy of fellowship with the leprosy affected community.

It was also a breakthrough to manage to get the community to attend a function held for them outside the colony. We thank God for this breakthrough and also the administrators of the St.Mary’s auditorium  who were kind to give us permission to allow the leprosy community use of their premises.

Also, a first, was the cultural programme, with mainly children performing. The function was attended by more then 300 odd people (men, women and children).

We started the function with the lighting of a ceremonial lamp to symbolize Jesus as the Light of the world.  After which we had a short time of praise and worship in Kannada followed by  a small Word (sharing the gospel).

To the delight of the parents of the leprosy colony we then had their children(the ones come home for holidays from the Christian schools) singing Joy to the World and Silent Night in english.

The children from Don Bosco and Jesu Home who are  orphans, school dropouts and rescued child labourers also preformed a few songs and dances to entertain the people. The beauty of these  performances were that all the dances were choreographed to

hindi or kannada praise and worship songs.

After the cultural programme  gift hampers containing toiletries, stationary, a couple of small toys besides sweets and cookies  were distributed to 120 children.

The function ended with a love meal of chicken curry, pullao rice and curd salad being served to all.

We thank God for helping us to make this function a success.

We would also like to thank  Turbocam India and Mr. Phillip & family whose  their kind contributions he

lped us in conducting this function.

Prayer Points

1. That The Lord would anoint Michael, Michelle and the team and give them much wisdom to carry on the work in the coming year.

2.  That the children in schools would complete their studies and that some of them grow up to be doctors, engineers and other useful citizens of this country.

3. That the people of this colony would accept  the Lord Jesus and would find Salvation.

4. That the Lord would help us to sustain every work in the coming year.

5. That The Lord would provide for all our needs.

The  aim of the Karuna Charitable Trust  has always been to uplift the people of the leprosy affected community and bring them to the knowledge of Christ.

Knowing that education plays a major role in bringing about change in any community, we started putting a few of the children in good Christian residential schools where the medium of education would be English and would also be imparted with Christian principals.

During the midterm vocations I was surprised to receive  a phone call from Akash, a 10 year old boy whom we had put in school in Goa in the last academic year . He spoke to me in quite good English. When I visited his house at the leprosy colony I felt so good to see the look of pride on the parents face as he conversed with me in English. His mother remarked

“ our son  has changed , he is becoming just like you.”

I praised God, He had helped us to make a dent in the darkness.

Recently I visited the children we had entrusted to a marvelous couple David and Theresa,

who run the  Gateway International Boarding in Bangalore and was mightily blessed.

All  the 11 children came running ,hugging me, wishing  me and talking to me in english , (though some of it was broken english) and were so excited. I was stunned for a moment  and couldn’t believe the big change in the children, some of them had been  here only since June this year. Wow, I said to myself, Praise God, another dent in the darkness.

The icing on the cake was when they  got together  singing and enacting two  gospel songs  for  me in english.

The day is not far when these children  will change the mindset  of  the community, something we have been unsuccessfully been trying for the last seven years.

I praise and thank the Lord Jesus for helping us to make a large dent in the darkness in the Gandhi Leprosy Colony,

A Pillar of the Community

Hanumantha, a dymanic young man is the on of leprosy affected parents. A self educated man , he now tireless works with us to help uplift the community. He is also the recipient of the President’s Gold Medal for the work he has done and is doing among the leprosy community.

In the last couple of years he has managed to give his community a wonderful gift, the title deed papers of the houses they are now staying in. All the 76 families in the Gandhi leprosy colony are now proud owners of their own houses and the 20×20 ft plot on which it stands.  Thanks to this man they now own property. We have also helped residents of other leprosy colonies in Raichur and Bijapur in achieving the same.

Besides this major achievement, he has managed to get pensions for them from the government regularized.

Through contacts he has made in government offices he has also made  for them ration cards, birth certificates and caste certificates etc.

Please pray for this man and his family that God would touch him mightily and use him for His Kingdom.

Uplifting the Community

In the last 3 months we have:

1. Attended to 225 patients  in the daily clinics, dressing their wounds and ulcers.

2. 27 persons were taken to hospital for treatment of various ailments.

3. 7 persons were admitted to hospitals and aid given with medical expenses.

4. 15  youth and women are on the skills training proggramme.

5. Spectacles  and footwear were given to 6 persons.

6. An average of 30 children and 5 nursing mothers were  given nutrition daily.

7.     One person was helped with clutches

We  thank God for  Mallinath (who finished the computer training from our skills training programme)  who set up a cyber cafe in partnership with another boy from the leprosy colony.

Upcoming Christmas programme

Every year in the last week of December we have a programme for the people of the leprosy colony sharing the love of Jesus with them.

This year we are planning to have this programme on the 27th of December.

We will start with a cultural/gospel programme which will be followed by lunch.

After lunch will be fun and games for  150 children of the leprosy affected, rescued bonded labour children and orphans. Each child will also be given a gift hamper which will contain stationary and toiletries besides a small toy.

We welcome any of you to contribute and help us with funds for this cause. Given below is the breakup. Please prayerfully  consider  which part of the programme you would like to help with.

1. Lunch for nearly 400 persons—-Rs.9000. We have already received Rs. 8000/- towards this. Praise God.

2. 150 Gift hampers @ Rs. 100 per child—Rs.15000/- . You can sponsor even a few children.

3. Cultural/ Gospel programme setup cost Rs.7000/-

Contact  Michael for details on 9900993581 or email at

karuna_compassion@yahoo.co.in

karuna123compassion@gmail.com.

Abundance Project (Closed down)

The Abundance Project was conceived with the aim of helping uplift the leprosy affected community in Gulbarga. At that time we felt strongly that this was from the Lord as we had been praying for a long time for something like this. It was a dream come true. We started with the purchase of 10 acres of agricultural land in October 2008, thanks to a donation from Vital Seed International.

Now, nearly 2 years later, things have not gone as expected and I believe we should terminate the project. The reasons for this are as follows:

Poor Water Supply

Before purchasing the land we consulted a geologist who assured us that we could get 2” of water at 3 different spots on the land. But when we drilled, two of the three points were dry. We did not attempt the third point. When we later got some water at these points, it was a miracle. Even though we drilled a third well later with some success, the water was never enough for irrigated farming. We realized belatedly that the land is only good for rain-fed crops.

All through 2009 we tried planting vegetables but none were cost effective. Contrary to what we were told, the jatropha plants also needed water and most could not survive the dry conditions. None came to a place of bearing fruit.

Excessive Rain

Just before the rains in June 2009 we planted a large number of fruit trees and some Jatropha but there was no rain right until 16^th August, when the rains came. They were so heavy that there were floods and the combination of drought and floods cost us dearly as we lost about 80% of the trees and bushes. This did not deter us so we planted 7 acres of Toor Dhal before the rains in June, 2010 with expert advice and in partnership with another local farmer. Once again, excessive rain damaged the crop.

Labour problems

We had always assumed that we would be able to employ leprosy-affected people from the Gandhi Leprosy Colony. We tried many different people but none were committed to work at the Project. Many would not stay there because it was too far away. Others were happy to take a (good) salary but did not expect to do any work to earn it. When we tried getting other workers (not from the leprosy colony) we still found people would work a little and then disappear. This meant that I often ended up spending days and nights alone on the land.

Legal problems

We were initially advised that Karuna Charitable Society is not legally registered to purchase agricultural land and so we entered into an agreement for the purchase. An early indicator of problems was that the mutation of the land, which should have been given immediately after the registration, was delayed by nearly eight months for a technical reason that was no fault of ours. We later realized that we would have to spend almost Rs 2 lakhs for properly re-registering the land in the name of Karuna Charitable Society. The original legal advice we had received was wrong.

Difficulties with Goats

We took advice from a local agricultural officer about the goats required, but they were the wrong breed of goats. So the goat farming really never took off to our expectations, and the mortality rate was also very high.

Diversion of Energy

My vision and mission has always been for the leprosy affected community and I firmly believed that the Abundance Project would help them. However, as soon we started it, my time and attention was taken away from the leprosy colony to the Abundance Project. The work in the colony has continued with Hanumantha and others keeping things going, but I feel that my presence there would have been helpful as that is where the Lord originally called me. Even though the Abundance Project was conceived with aim of helping the Karuna Charitable Trust uplift the leprosy affected community, at the end of the day it was not really helping them but just taking my time.

Hearing the Lord

In September 2010, I was up at the Abundance Project checking the Toor Dhal we had sown. It had been raining heavily for about a week. For the first time since we bought the land, I looked around and felt totally depressed. I had just walked 3 Kms in sloshing mud to reach the project as no vehicles could come through. Grass and weeds had grown knee deep in the unploughed land, but what frustrated me most was that the area where the crop was sown was full of weeds. The crop was coming up but there were so many weeds that I had to look closely to even see the crop. Weeding could not do be done immediately as the ground was too wet. And even if we weeded it, it would cost us so much that there would be no nett returns from the crop. It was a total loss.

As I walked back to the vehicle, I was talking with a friend who had accompanied me. In the course of the conversation it suddenly struck me that my morning’s reading that day was from John 15 which said that you cut away the branch that does not bear fruit. I stopped in my tracks. Is this what the Lord was trying to tell me, that the Abundance Project was a non productive branch that had to be cut away? The more I thought about it the more I felt convinced within me that this is what the Lord wanted me to do, to terminate the project.

I discussed this with my wife, Michelle, who at first did not want to believe that this was what the Lord wanted us to do. As a family we had become very attached to the land and the project. How were we to explain it to the children? How to explain it to the people in the leprosy colony? As we sat down during the next couple of days praying and talking about the situation it became clear to us that we had to let it go. Once we accepted this, we were at peace and we knew it was the right thing. Even the leaders at the leprosy colony were glad in a way saying that now I would have more time for them. Much later when we told the children during their vacations, they calmly accepted it without any questions or sadness.

In conclusion accepting that the Lord knows what is  best we have terminated the project and have put up the land for sale. The money from the sale will be returned to Vital Seed International.

Michael D’Costa

President

Karuna Charitable Trust

Prayer Points

1. That the three teenagers in Hospet undergoing vocational training would complete the training course.

2. That the children in schools would complete their studies and that some of them grow up to be doctors, engineers and other useful citizens of this country.

3. That the people of this colony would accept  the Lord Jesus and would find Salvation.

4. That The Lord would provide for all our needs.

5. The Lord would provide all the necessary resources required for the Christmas programme.

6. The Lord would give Michael, Michelle and the team much wisdom to carry on the work.

We want to thank God for:
1. The jobs got by the 2 boys who finished their computer course.
2. The children who have now settled and doing well in school in Goa. (Photos available in the Photo Section under children’ work)
3. Turbocam India who donated a year’s supply of chlorine tablets for the water filtration plant fitted in the Gandhi Leprosy Colony so that all the residents can now have completely safe water to cook and to drink.
4. The team of doctors who came from Kerala through Campus Crusade and conducted a free Medical camp at the Leprosy colony. (photographs are available in the Photo Section under the Clinic)
5. The successful eye surgeries (cataract) conducted by the St. Luke’s Medical Center on 2 of our leprosy affected patients.
6. The successful appendix operation on another of our patients.
7. The 3 new goat kids and 2 rabbits that were born in the last 2 months.
8. All the fruit trees we were able to plant in the last 2 months. (225 coconut trees, 35 lime trees, 10 fig trees, 10 mango trees, 5 sweet limes trees, 5 chickoo trees, 5 pommergrate trees, 5 guava trees and 5 custard apple trees.) (Photographs are available in the Photo Section under the Abundance project.)
9. The water in the new well that was drilled.
10. His provision & grace upon the Karuna team to do His work here in Gulbarga.

Please pray that:
1. God would continue to bless us with His provision & grace.
2. All the plants we have planted will be fruitful.
3. It would rain. ( we have not had a proper monsoon till now)
4. The colius and chilly plantation to be successful.
5. The animals would be healthy and multiply.
6. The children put in Christian schools by us would learn the right values and that their mind set would change hence bringing about a change in the leprosy colonies.
7. The youth on the skills training programme would continue and finish the course.
8. The general health of the leprosy affected people in the colony would continue to improve.
9. There will be a breakthrough as the monthly prayer meetings continue.
10. God would work a healing miracle in the lives of the widow with HIV and her 3 children(whom we are taking care of at the abundance project), 2 of which are mentally retarded.
11. Give much grace & wisdom to Micheal, Michelle & the Karuna team as they minister and continue to do His will.

Another financial year has ended and we want to thank and praise Almighty God for sustaining the Karuna Charitable Trust and all the work we are doing here in Gulbarga.
 We Also want to thank all of you who are involved with Karuna and are praying for us.
 As you all know The Karuna Charitable Trust now has 2 projects. One is the Karuna(compassion) project in the Gandhi leprosy colony and the other is the  Abundance project(an agricultural project) to help the leprosy affected.

A small update on the Abundance Project.

1. A few trees have been planted along with some seeds for vegetables.
Please pray that this will be fruitful.
2.Please pray for the health of the goats. 4 goats are pregnant.
Please pray that they will grow well and bring us much profits.

3.A cement tank which can hold 2500 litres of water has been erected

and will now make it easy to irrigate the land.
4. The rabbits are doing well.
5. Please pray for the 2 families (Devendrappa & his wife, Pandurang & his wife) working on the land, that the Lord would protect them at all times and bless them.

6. Pray for the Jatropha plantation that the plants will grow well and give us an abundance of seeds. We thank God for the first fruits that have already apeared on a couple of trees.

(Photographs available in Photos section the under the Abundance

Project.)

The work in the Gandhi Leprosy Colony continues by the Grace of God.

1. 65 persons were given dressing for wounds and ulcers in the daily clinic.

2. 53 persons were treated for various ailments by the doctor on his bi-weekly visits.

3. 3 patients admitted in the Karuna Hospital, 2 were discharged after been treated. Please pray for Sathappa who has been admitted with an amputed foot. Also pray for Sathappa as we take him to Jaipur to fit him with a Jaipur foot.

4. On an average 65 children were given nutrition daily.
Pray that God would continue to provide for these children.

5. The groundwork has been done to put at least 15 children in good residential Christian schools. Please pray that God would provide sponsors who would come forward with sponsorship so that more childrencould be put in Christian schools.

6. A monthly meeting has now been started with a group coming to the colony singing Christian bhajans (country songs) and praying.
 Around 35 people from the colony attended this month’s  meeting. Please pray that we will see breakthroughs and many people saved.

7. Please continue to pray for Michael, Michelle and the Karuna team that God would anoint them and give them much wisdom to carry out His purposes for these people and His Kingdom.
Also pray that God would continue to meet all the needs of the project.

The work on the Abundance Project is going on well thanks to your prayers.

1. A few trees have been planted along with some seeds for vegetables. Please pray that this will be fruitful.

2. Please pray that God would work a miracle and provide us with an electricity connection.

3. Please pray for the 2 families working on the land, that the Lord would protect them at all times and blesses them.

4. Please pray for the goats that are about to arrive that they will be healthy and grow well.

5. Pray for the Jatropha plantation that the plants will grow well and give us an abundance of seeds.

(Photographs available in Photos section the under the Abundance Project.)

The work in the Gandhi Leprosy Colony continues by the Grace of God.

1. 72 persons were given dressing for wounds and ulcers in the daily clinic.

2. 68 persons were treated for various ailments by the doctor on his bi-weekly visits.

3. 7 patients admitted in the Karuna Hospital, 6 were discharged after been treated. Please pray for Mallapa who has been admitted for the last 2 months for allergies and ulcers. 

4. 1(one) person was admitted to a local hospital for treatment.

Please continue to pray for Mallamma who is 10 years old and suffering from acute Asthma.

5. On an average 72 children were given nutrition daily. Pray that God would continue to provide for these children.

7. The skills training continues. The youth are happy now that they are earning a little money while learning. We thank God & you for your prayers, the training center have now started stitching material to sell in the market. A total of 3 youth are now going for advanced computer training i.e. D.T.P. programming. 2 youth have finished their training, pray that they would now find jobs.

8. Children are doing better in their studies due to the tuitions that have been started for the children who want help with their school work. Between 10- 15 children take advantage of this facility.

9. The ground has been done to put at least 15 children in good residential Christian schools. Please pray that God would provide sponsors who would come forward with sponsorship so that more children could be put in Christian schools.

10. A monthly meeting has now been started with a group coming to the colony singing Christian bhajans (country songs) and praying. Around 70 people from the colony attended the first meeting on the 9^th of January. Please pray that we will see breakthroughs and many people saved.

11. Please continue to pray for Michael, Michelle and the Karuna team that God would anoint them and give them much wisdom to carry out His purposes for these people and His Kingdom. Also pray that God would continue to meet all the needs of the project.

He found it very difficult to walk. He would support his left leg with his left hand to walk. Because of his hand constantly rubbing his pant near the knee his pants would wear out at that part.

Because of this condition he did not have much confidence in himself and spoke with a stammer. 

Manthesh approached Karuna and asked us if we could help him. After consultation with a doctor we were able to get him an excellent calipher.

This has made a vast difference. He now walks upright though with a pronouned limp. He has more confidence and talks much better.

                             Manthesh’s leg after fitting the Calipher 

Manthesh is now looking for a job having completed a course in computer DTP programming.

He is the eldest of 4 children helping his mother to bring them up after his leprosy affected father expired last year due to throat cancer.

                            Manthesh displaying his new Calipher.

Manthesh is now very excited and thanks God and Karuna for his wonderful Christmas Gift.

( Photographs are available in the photo section under The Abundance Project.)

Once again we want to thank all of you praying for us and ask you to continue to do so.

1. 87 persons were given dressing for wounds and ulcers in the daily clinic.
2. 63 persons were treated for various ailments by the doctor on his bi-weekly visits.
3. 11patients admitted in the Karuna Hospital, 8 were discharged after been treated. One patient Erappa was admitted to a private hospital and was sucessfully operated on his knee which was filled with water and was badly  infected.
4. On an average 85 children were given nutrition daily. Pray that God would continue to provide for these children.
5. The skills training continues. The youth are happy now that they are earning a little money while learning. We thank God & you for your prayers, the training center has now started stitching material to sell in the market. A total of 5 youth are now going for advanced computer training i.e. D.T.P. programming.
6. Children are doing better in their studies due to the tutions that has been started for the children who want help with their school work. Between 10- 15 children take advantage of this facility. (photographs are available in the photo section under children’s work)
7. Please pray for the Abundance project. a)That God would give us favor with our neighbours as we ask them to cooperate with us to built a proper road for access to the land and also permission for electric poles to pass through their land. b)That we would get electricity soon. c)Pray that the surrounding soil would get firm fast so that the 25 ton truck with its rig to bore the well can pass through without getting struck. d) For protection for the workers against all the natural elements as they work on the land. e) For Haju and his wife who will be staying on the land. f) That the lives of many will be touched through this project.
8. Please pray for the fortnightly prayer meetings in the colony, that the power of God would touch these people and that many would be saved.
9. Please continue to pray for Michael, Michelle and the Karuna team that God would aniont them and give them much wisdom to carry out His purposes for these people and His Kingdom. Also pray that God would continue to meet all the needs of the project.