THE FAITHFULNESS OF THE LORD
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.