Madhava Rao
Madhava, our contact, has incredible vision. He reminds me of a Jerry Falwell. We were welcomed by probably the biggest celebration the WR has ever seen. Madhava and his wife and son are extremely humble people. They refuse to let us pay for food and lodging. Meaning we can apply all of our funds to our work in villages and provide for the children.
John and I sat down with Madhava and his son today for about an hour and got to listen to how this whole thing started. Madhava worked in a bank for 27 years, making loans to the poor. He himself comes from a low caste. With his job, he would travel to the villages to make evaluations and receive payments. God broke his heart for the children living in extreme poverty. So they started Mercy and Grace with four children living out of their apartment. He quit his bank job and used his salary and savings to build this beautiful building. Those funds have run out, needs serious support and funding. The entire orphanage is ran by the three and a few teachers. This is their life. I’m so excited for the opportunity to do life with someone who really has thrown everything away the world tells us to cling to.
The Kids
Mercy and Grace Orphanage has around 160 children currently residing here. There are another 1400 children on the waiting list. The children range from age 5 to 16. They’re placed in grades 1-10. The young children are taught here at the orphanage by two graduates, the high school students walk to the closest school. Most kids have been pulled from the villages by Madhava.
What we’re up to:
India seems to have a similar time philosophy as Africa. They view time much differently then we Americans do. Time is held very loosely, as are plans. I guess if I was in charge of 200 children, I would hold time loosely as well. It’s actually quite refreshing.
Our days start around 7:30-8 am, awoken to the sound of the rooster, dog, or voices of the children. After a cool bucket shower and devotions, I head downstairs and serve breakfast for the kids. We then eat separately with Madhava and Rajeesh, his son. Every meal contains rice. Almost every meal includes curry. We’ve actually eaten REALLY well. I think I ate more curry in the first day we were here then in the previous 22 years of my life. I’ve come to enjoy it. After breakfast, we begin teaching. We teach from around 9 to around noon. We break the kids up into five different classes each teaching a different subject. Surprise, surprise, I’m teaching math. So far I’ve taught addition, multiplication, numbers, and fractions to different age groups. Math can be extremely difficult to teach with a language barrier. So we generally end up playing games.
Things we’re teaching:
-Exercise
-Math
-Bible
-Music
-Crafts
-Drawing
-English
After the teaching is done, we’ll play a game such as cricket or kubady. Then we eat lunch and have some down time while the kids are go back into classes. I usually use this time to journal, read or nap. We’ve also used this time to run errands.
As evening approaches, we’ll eat dinner and spend about an hour teaching as a group or break into smaller groups. We sing songs in both Telugu (local language) and English, dance, and pray. The young ones go to bed around 8:30, the older students around 10:00.
Yesterday, John Hearn (leader of Team Fujee, the team we’re partnering with this month) and I went back to the city of Vijaywada to purchase sports equipment for the children. They currently play badminton with chalkboards and we’re excited for the opportunity to bless them with a physical outlet for all of their energy.
Four of the oldest boys came with us. They’ve become the leaders of the children and lead by example. John and I were able to buy them their first pairs of shoes. They’re 15 and 16 years old, and they’ve never owned a pair of shoes. The reality of this hasn’t hit me yet. More on this topic shortly.
In the next few days we’ll be taking all of the kids to the beach. Most have never seen the ocean or really traveled beyond the orphanage. We’ll also be starting village outreach on Sunday. As a team we’re REALLY excited about starting this ministry. Pray for boldness and clarity.
Sorry this was such a long post, I hope to update more in the future 😀
