India lives by a caste system. Whatever caste you are born into is most likely where you will stay your entire life. The lowest of which are the untouchables.
Imagine you’re about to be born, not as an untouchable, but to the highest caste of people. You’re meant to live a wealthy life with everything you need. But you’re born different. With a disability, a “defect” of some kind. Now, without warning or understanding, you are considered a curse. No longer your parents’ child, no longer a human being, but a curse. And no one wants to bring a curse into their home.
So instead of growing up with everything you need, with a family to love, you get discarded, thrown away, left. You have become instantly invisible.
This month I’m working with Sarah’s Covenant Homes (http://www.schindia.com/) at a special needs orphanage. There are about 80 kids at this specific home and about 80% of them are immobile. There are Indian women, called Ayahs, who work there full time and are each responsible for 3 children. Our job this month is to go love on the kids and help the Ayahs with anything they need.
Sarah helping the older boys with school
In all honesty, this is the hardest ministry you could give me. Give me a trench to dig, cement to pour, things to teach, messages to preach and I’m there. But special needs kids who are 3+ years old? That is what I call difficult.
Every day brings a new challenge, but each day gets a little easier. The longer we’re there, the more we get to know the kids, which allows us to know their individual abilities, their individual struggles, and what we can do to make each of them smile.
Some of them are just full of smiles and laughter and you can’t but smile when they do.
