Tanguturu.
I mean come on, even the name sounds fun. And I can happily report that it was.
This month we have been working with ICM, an organization which has an incredible vision for India, and especially Andhra Pradesh. One of these many visions is their Covenant Children’s Homes (CCH) program. UNICEF has estimated that India has over twenty-five and a half MILLION orphans under the age of seventeen. That’s more people than live in the state of Texas, just to put things in perspective for you. And many of these children do not go to school and are left to fend for themselves once they’ve reached the age of ten. The goal of CCH is unique, because it seeks to provide not just physical needs for orphans, like food, water, and shelter, but it seeks to meet spiritual and emotional needs for these children as well. Each home is led by a pastor and his family. They are the caretakers of no more than ten orphans from their village. That way, the kids are growing up in a “small” family atmosphere, where they are known by name and by all the little things that make them who they are, and are daily being poured into. These kids are given backpacks, uniforms, and sent to school, with promises of continued education and dreams of becoming doctors and policemen and pastors themselves. They are raised in the church, which happens to be the second floor of their home, and learn about God and His love for them. Without CCH, most of these children would be working in the fields or married away, but because of CCH they have been given a new hope, a new vision for their life, and a new reason to rejoice!
So for our three short weeks of ministry, ICM decided that all the CCH’s needed a new coat of paint to spruce them up before Christmas. I’m not sure how they thought we’d get through them all, but I can tell you that by day one it was already a clearly laughable goal. Top ten reasons this just wasn’t going to happen?
- We had to sand the walls. Inside and outside. By hand. With little pieces of sandpaper. The entire house. Even under the stairs. I. Love. Sanding.
- After sanding, the entire house was covered in “paint dust,” which we then tried to clean off the floors with buckets of water and rags. This really just turned it to paste.
- We started with two paint brushes between the seven of us.
- Even once we got more paint brushes, we would quickly run out of paint. When we ran out of paint, we would have to wait until the next day to get more.
- At times, we were painting on bamboo ladders tied together with rope, balancing on ledges, and even having to monkey swing over to hard to reach “caves” on the second floor.
- Anytime we went on the roof, we would get dive-bombed by crows. Now probably my least favorite animal.
- The paint colors changed on us multiple times, and by the time we were finished I’m not sure everything actually matched.
- Once finished with the walls, we were asked to paint all the shutters and doors with acrylic paint. Quite the sticky and tricky job.
- We are so NOT professional painters.
- The Tanguturu boys.
Let me expound upon that last one, because they’re my reason for writing this blog! It was just so hard to paint with thirteen little Indian boys running around all the time. And though I learned many a lesson on patience and humility and having a servant’s heart during my time sanding and painting here in India, I just can’t pass up a chance to show off my boys.
A handful of the Tanguturu boys – they're hard to catch all at once!
The Tanguturu boys stole my heart day one, when I was upstairs having some alone worship time, and just at the first couple strums of the guitar, all these sweet boys showed up in front of me (I had yet to meet them at this point). I sang for them, and then they sang some songs for me. They even pulled out some drums and played for me.
Calyan on the drums
Each day I found more things to love about them. Yes, they were sometimes wild and crazy, but they found so much joy in being able to help us. One night we were sanding late and they all came in, grabbed some sandpaper, and went at it. You could tell how cool they thought it was that they were helping us.
All chalky after a hard days work of sanding!
They would often quiz us on their names in those first couple of days, and by the time we left they had nicknames for all of us (I was “Jillsoapa,” which had its own song and dance, too – I can’t tell you why). One afternoon when we were out of paint, we decided to play cricket with them. After two hours of game, my team had won but I still didn’t really understand the rules. Regardless, the boys had a blast.
Quite the intense group of cricket players
Probably the most special moment for me, though, was when they performed a dance for us. One of the boys had choreographed a dance to a Telegu worship song and taught it to the rest of the boys, so that as a home, they danced in praise to God. To see those boys fall to their knees in worship was just powerful.
These are boys that are surrounded by a culture that tells them to bow down to false gods, and yet they stand strong and bold for the one true King. They are boys that, because of ICM and their CCH, are going to get an education and become influential people in their village and community and state, and will take the gospel and hope to others. And God has blessed these boys with so much joy and so much talent. They all sing and dance and quite a few are talented at drums or art. They are very intelligent and speak great English. They’re just so very very special. And I am so thankful that through ICM and the wonderful pastor and his wife, they have someone to remind them of that and encourage them daily in life.
I know it is strange, but these boys now feel like my children. We got to see them again the day we left Ongole because they had come to ICM, and my heart just jumped out of my chest for them upon first sight. It is crazy how quickly God can place love inside of you for others if you are open to it. I know that I will never forget those boys.
Due to lack of supplies, funding, and time, our mission to paint all the CCH homes fell flat after Tanguturu. But God works in good ways, because instead we ended up traveling to a new CCH each day and doing a vacation bible school program for the kids at each home (and often random village kids that wandered their way in). We told them the story of Shadraq, Meshaw, and Abendigo (Daniel 3), a beautiful story of what it means to refuse to bow down to idols, no matter what the cost, and instead remain faithful to God. It’s an incredibly relevant story for these kids being in India, but to save blog space, I encourage you to read it yourself. We played games with them, taught them songs like “This Little Light of Mine” and “Jesus Loves Me,” had craft time which consisted of making bracelets, bookmarks, and paper hearts to remind them to be on fire for Jesus, and talked to them about letting their light shine before others. The highlight was watching Frank lead them in an imagination game where they went on an adventure – the kids loved it! Basically, I fell for each group of kids every day. I wish all of you could have been there with me, but just trust me when I say there was a whooooole lot of laughter, smiles, joy, excitement, and at times, just plain craziness.
Despite all the things mentioned in my last blog, rest assured that when you look into the eyes of these children, you know just how beautiful India truly is. I am so thankful for the blessing of this month, and being able to share love with these kids. Please go and check out the CCH blog here to learn more about the children and how you can continue to make a difference in their lives. They’ve got so much potential, and just need others to continue to pour into them and provide for their dreams.
