Participants:
Series Code: JFAN
Program Code: JFAN000021A
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00:21 Hello, and welcome to Jesus for Asia Now.
00:24 I'm Natalie Wood and I have my husband Jon with me today. 00:26 Hi, darling. Hello, love. 00:28 How're you doing? I'm doing great. 00:29 You know, we've got 00:31 a really wonderful project to share today. 00:33 Oh, yeah. This is one of our favorites. 00:35 Yep. 00:36 You know, we talk a lot here at Jesus for Asia 00:38 about what God is doing in Asia and what needs to be done. 00:42 Yeah. 00:43 And this is one of those things 00:44 where God showed us that there was a need. 00:46 Yeah. 00:47 And then He enabled us to be a part of it. 00:49 That's right. 00:50 Part of the solution I should say. 00:51 That's right, when we first started Jesus for Asia, 00:53 we were nothing but Bible workers. 00:54 We did local Bible worker sponsorship. 00:56 That year after we started, Israel, 00:58 our JFA director in India 01:01 had a heart for the children in the villages 01:04 that he was seeing that were of a lot high illiteracy rate, 01:07 high malnourishment rate, and he was like, 01:09 "We got to do something for these kids." 01:10 And I'm like, "No, we can't, we can't diversify, 01:13 we just got to focus." 01:14 And then I went out and prayed 01:16 and the Lord made it very clear through His Holy Spirit, 01:19 warmed my heart 01:20 and then did miracles right after that, 01:23 and we started our first evening school. 01:26 Okay, so we're talking about the evening schools. 01:28 Yeah. 01:29 All right, we've got some statistics about India. 01:31 Yeah, this is a big reason why in statistics, 01:35 in numbers that, you know, 01:37 when you go over there you see it, 01:38 it's not just statistics. 01:40 But this is the big reason 01:41 why we're doing this type of ministry in India. 01:45 Okay, so what is the statistic of malnourished? 01:48 India unfortunately is home to 01:51 almost 200 million undernourished people. 01:54 Okay, so that's not just children. 01:57 That's the whole population. Right. 01:59 That's a lot of people. That's a lot of people. 02:01 That's a huge amount of people. 02:03 200 million, 02:04 that's two-thirds of the United States' population. 02:07 So another statistic is that 02:08 over 7,000 people die every day in India. 02:11 Yeah. 02:12 From malnutrition and starvation. 02:14 That's correct. 02:15 And in all the, the whole world 02:16 one third of the entire world's hungry live in India. 02:20 Wow. 02:21 So India is home to one-third of the world's 02:24 undernourished people. 02:25 Wow. 02:27 That's a lot of people. 02:28 That's a lot of people, that's endemic, it's a... 02:32 Doesn't need to happen. 02:33 It's overwhelming in some, you know, 02:34 just hearing the numbers it's overwhelming. 02:36 Yeah. 02:37 About one person at a time we can make a difference. 02:40 And that's the challenge that we face 02:42 that I faced on a personal level, 02:44 it's like why even begin, why even start. 02:46 There's no way that I as just one person could, 02:50 could change those kind of numbers, 02:52 200 million people, there's no way. 02:54 And so I'm like why even try? 02:56 Why start? 02:59 What kind of impact 03:00 you gonna have on those kind of numbers? 03:02 It's impossible but then the Lord reminded me, 03:05 you know, what about the one. 03:06 Yeah. 03:07 You know, if you change the life of one. 03:10 You know, Christ was willing to come to this earth 03:12 and live 33 years in pain and misery 03:14 and die for one soul, for me. 03:19 Then okay, I can, I can make a difference in one. 03:23 We've got to show some video. 03:24 Okay. 03:25 And I want to start 03:26 because I know we have a lot more to talk about. 03:29 But I want to start sharing this video 03:30 because it's an introduction to these beautiful children 03:34 and I, I would like our viewers to see. 03:36 This is at a couple of different locations, 03:38 just kind of our overview introductory. 03:40 This is an evening school type of video. 04:44 So you can see that there's different locations, 04:46 different styles, some are actually in the town. 04:48 That first one that you saw 04:49 was on the edge of town right on... 04:51 kind in and of the edge of a big open field 04:53 so it's a beautiful location. 04:54 That school was moved there when one of the churches 04:57 where we were having the school, 04:59 the roof got so bad that it was leaking 05:00 and they were afraid it's going to fall in. 05:02 So even the people weren't having church there, 05:04 they would have church in the courtyard, 05:06 and so we instead of just shutting it down, 05:09 we moved it not the people 05:10 because it's like 45 minute drive. 05:13 So we just moved the finances, 05:15 the support to another place, 05:17 another church their in Barathy Nagar. 05:19 But then when we reopened and in the next show 05:21 we'll talk about the reopening of that one, 05:23 reopened the original 05:24 the people up here at Barathy Nagar, 05:26 they're like "Please don't take away our school." 05:28 Yeah. 05:29 So some amazing people came forward 05:32 and with much patience and perseverance 05:34 provided the funds to reopen the second 05:36 and so instead of, instead of shifting it back 05:39 we now have one in each location 05:42 Right, that's really exciting. 05:44 And you know our viewers probably noticed 05:45 that both of those are churches. 05:47 And we do them in churches a lot 05:50 because of the fact that it's an outreach tool 05:53 and it's a blessing to the community around, 05:56 and it causes the church to be a gathering place. 05:59 Right, the church body gets involved with that also... 06:01 Right. 06:02 And so they're providing a service to the community 06:05 and it really takes down some barriers. 06:08 Yeah. 06:09 We've seen that over and over again. 06:10 Yeah. 06:11 The next thing we want to talk about 06:13 is the actual study that goes on 06:14 because these are schools. 06:16 Yes. 06:17 But they're not traditional schools 06:19 where we give out assignments and the teachers do lecturing. 06:23 This is the kind of school 06:24 where they're tutored in the class work 06:26 that they receive at the government school. 06:27 Right. 06:28 This is like extra help, encouragement 06:31 and somebody to go over their homework with them. 06:33 A lot of these kids what we found out, 06:35 there's a lot of these kids even though 06:36 they go to the school 06:38 that the free school that's provided, 06:40 they're not learning. 06:41 Right, and some of that's 06:42 because there's too many kids in the classroom. 06:45 Some of it's because the teachers 06:46 aren't paid enough to care. 06:47 Some of it's because they're outcast children. 06:50 The teachers are of different caste 06:51 and so there with the caste system 06:54 even though it's been outlawed, 06:55 it still affects a lot of things 06:57 that happen in India. 06:58 Right, so these kids get ignored 06:59 and they're not learning. 07:01 Right. 07:02 And so we provide this extra school in the evening 07:04 where they can really learn 07:05 and they can get the individual attention that they need. 07:07 Right. 07:08 You know, 12 out of the 60 kids 07:11 that came to our first evening school 07:13 when we opened it could read and write 12. 07:16 Yeah, that means like almost 50 of them could not read. 07:19 Right. 07:20 And Tamil is not an easy language. 07:23 He got that right, my goodness. 07:24 It's over 288 characters or at least 288 characters, 07:28 we've been told several different numbers 07:30 but that's the smallest one. 07:31 And they're alphabet. 07:32 Providing the studies 07:33 is a very important thing to do. 07:35 Right, and we want to show 07:36 a little video of them studying. 07:38 Yep. Does this one have narration? 07:40 No narration, it's just a collage 07:42 so you can kind of watch and see how they do this. 07:45 Okay, here we go. 08:59 The studies are really important 09:00 because a lot of these kids 09:02 are not able to change what their fate is. 09:05 In other words, what they are destined to do in their lives, 09:09 because of their caste, because of their, 09:12 you know, who they were born to 09:14 and what privileges that affords them. 09:17 The religion and tradition teaches that 09:19 if they're born to a certain type of family 09:22 then they cannot change what they do for a living. 09:25 In other words, their caste is tied to their career. 09:28 If they're born in a certain caste, 09:29 they have caste that sweep the floor. 09:32 They have cast that take out the waste. 09:34 They have different caste doing the different things. 09:35 Some of them catch snakes. You know, that's that caste. 09:39 That's what they do. 09:40 So the three things that they need 09:42 to better their lives. 09:43 Number one is they need nutrition 09:46 so they can survive and grow, and learn and retain. 09:50 Number two is they need training, learning. 09:53 Number three is they need, 09:55 they need delivery from that idea 09:58 of this is all you can be. 10:00 You know, they need, 10:01 they need value added into their lives. 10:03 And so that's what I believe the school does, 10:05 it hits all three of those. 10:07 Right, and which is it makes such a huge difference. 10:11 And we've heard so many stories from the schools 10:13 about kids whose lives, you know, were changed, 10:17 families whose lives were changed 10:19 because of the schools. 10:20 Yeah. 10:21 So next, we get to see 10:23 what happens during the worship time. 10:24 Yeah. 10:25 They have a singing time 10:27 which is when the song that we just heard 10:29 was during the singing time, 10:30 and they learn memory verses from the Bible, 10:32 and they hear stories 10:34 from the Bible character building stories, 10:36 moral stories because there is, 10:40 in the Hindu religion 10:42 the Gods have all sorts of 10:45 interesting character traits 10:46 and they're very selfish many times, 10:48 and so the attributes of the Gods 10:51 that are there in Hinduism are not positive, 10:54 not things we want these children to 10:57 replicate in their lives. 10:58 That's correct. 11:00 So this encourages them to choose a better way. 11:03 Right. 11:04 For instance one story is you've seen the God 11:07 with the elephant head. 11:08 Well, the story there is that 11:10 the wife of the creator God wanted a son 11:14 so she got all the dirt off of her body 11:16 and formed a little statue 11:19 and then out of that statue came her son. 11:23 Well, one day she want to go take a bath 11:26 so she told her son to stay in this one location, 11:28 I'm going to go bathe and nobody should see me. 11:30 So she went and took a bath 11:31 and while she was bathing her husband, 11:34 the creator God came along and the son said, 11:37 "You can't go there." 11:38 He said, "What do you mean I can't go there?" 11:39 "No, she's bathing, you can't go there." 11:41 The father got very angry, 11:43 took out his sword and cut off the son's head. 11:46 So the mother, the wife, 11:47 the mother and wife comes back and says, 11:49 "Oh, you killed my son, make him alive again." 11:52 And so he said, "We'll go into the forest 11:54 and whatever head you find, 11:56 grab that one and bring it back, 11:58 and she went in the forest found an elephant, 12:00 brought the head back 12:02 and that's how we have that son, 12:03 and so you can see 12:04 the father got angry, cut off his head. 12:07 In vengeance... Vengeance. 12:08 Yeah. 12:09 So it's like human traits human 12:10 and you see this in Greek mythology as well. 12:13 Same type of idea 12:15 that the gods have the same kind of tendencies 12:17 and human reactions that we do and so... 12:21 So we want these kids to see a better way. 12:24 Right, and the religion is taught through stories. 12:26 Right. 12:28 And so bringing these stories in, 12:30 they start to see, yeah, 12:31 different ways we don't have to obey our passions 12:34 that there's a better way. 12:35 Correct. 12:36 And the fact that there is a God that is loving, 12:39 that is not vengeful, that is not angry, 12:42 that wants good things, 12:44 and provides good things for his children. 12:46 Right, right. 12:48 And then they learn all of this, 12:51 they hear all of this, and then once a week 12:54 they get to have what we call a talent night. 12:56 Yeah, Friday night instead of doing regular studies 12:59 because it's after sundown, right? 13:00 Right. 13:01 They get up and... 13:03 And they share their memory verses 13:04 and they sing songs. 13:06 And so that's the next video we have. 13:08 Yeah. 13:09 We have a bunch of little clips of the children 13:11 during talent night. 13:12 Yep. Here we go. 14:30 The kids over there like action songs too. 14:32 Yes, just like they do it here. Right. 14:35 And they're so beautiful and it's so neat to see them, 14:37 the little ones and the bigger ones 14:39 as they grow... 14:40 Yeah. Doing, sharing that way. 14:42 And those, those seeds 14:44 that are planted in the scripture, 14:45 you never know when they're going to sprout. 14:48 Right. 14:49 And you know we've been told that 14:51 it makes a big difference to the families 14:53 because the parents are like what? 14:56 My child gets to get up and say something up in front, 15:00 you know, that's unthinkable 15:02 for that lower caste or the outcast, 15:05 and so it's been a blessing to, 15:08 to give them an opportunity to have a part in something. 15:11 Yes, absolutely, I love it. 15:14 I used to have sports cars. 15:15 Now we have evening schools and they're better. 15:18 That's why this is one of our favorite programs 15:20 because of the children, 15:21 they're so beautiful, and they're so energetic. 15:23 You say it about all the programs, honey. 15:25 Every program is your favorite program. 15:27 I know but the kids' smiles and I don't know, 15:31 they're just, it's just so special. 15:32 Yeah. 15:33 And I have to hold back tears 15:36 just seeing their beautiful faces 15:37 and their energy and their joy, 15:40 and when we're there it's just so, so amazing. 15:42 Yeah. 15:44 So someday I hope some of our viewers can go with us. 15:47 Yeah, that will be good. That will be good. 15:49 For our next clip we're going to share 15:51 about the eating part 15:53 that we talked about a little bit, 15:54 the nutrition, 15:55 and nutrition is very important... 15:57 Yeah. 15:58 Because for many of these kids, 15:59 it's their second meal of the day. 16:01 Yeah, and a lot of them 16:02 don't get vegetables with their meal. 16:06 Lot of times it's rice with... 16:08 In fact in the next episode 16:09 we're going to go to one of our children's homes... 16:11 Are you going to... 16:13 Are you going to do a spoiler right now? 16:15 Yeah, I guess I did. 16:18 Okay, go ahead. 16:19 And all she had was rice and onions, little onions. 16:22 And so our evening schools 16:24 we have vegetables 16:25 and different kinds of vegetables, 16:27 and so they get the nutrition 16:28 that they wouldn't normally get. 16:29 More variety. 16:31 Yeah, and you can tell the difference with the kids 16:33 that are able to get this meal and that don't. 16:36 You can see it in their skin and their hair, 16:40 it makes a difference. 16:42 Okay. 19:27 They're so precious. 19:28 Why does it make me so happy to see kids eating? 19:30 Maybe because it makes them smile. 19:32 Yeah. 19:33 It makes them happy, it makes their parents happy. 19:35 Yeah, that's precious. 19:36 And I think it makes God happy too. 19:38 Absolutely. 19:39 That why he's having us do this. 19:40 Yeah, absolutely. 19:41 I just wanted to point out that sometimes we... 19:44 The really poor or elderly ladies are, 19:47 you know, really destitute people 19:48 we allow them to eat there too. 19:50 Yeah. 19:51 So it's not just the kids 19:52 but whoever really, really needs it. 19:54 Right. 19:56 So you noticed they had to wash their hands at the beginning 19:59 and then they eat with their hands... 20:00 Yes. 20:01 Which is normal in all of India. 20:03 And my kids do that too when we go there. 20:05 And we do too. Yeah. 20:06 Admit it, you eat with your hands when you're there. 20:08 Okay, yep. 20:09 And then afterward they have to wash their dish. 20:12 Right. 20:13 And be a part of clean up 20:14 but they're also required to eat their vegetables. 20:17 When they first started 20:18 the kids weren't used to eating vegetables 20:19 and so they would set the vegetables aside 20:21 and try not to eat them, just eat the sauces 20:24 and, and he said no, no you have to eat the vegetables 20:27 because it's part of why we're giving you the food. 20:29 That's right, that's where the nutrition is. 20:31 Right. Okay, so what's our next video? 20:33 Well, this is really cool 20:34 because you know even though we have several schools. 20:37 There's always room for more, 20:38 so what does it look like to open a school. 21:22 Okay, to the glory of God. 21:29 There we go. 21:33 Anna, please come inside. 21:34 Praise the Lord. 21:35 Praise him. 22:54 We are here at Kathe Swami Palayam, 22:56 it's the village in south India and there's a church here 22:59 and we have just opened a church, 23:02 this grand opening tonight, big celebration, 23:04 wonderful presentations and talks. 23:07 We had the president of the North Tamil Conference 23:10 come all the way over here, 23:11 it's about four hour drive to get here 23:13 just for this opening tonight. 23:14 And the kids are eating. 23:15 They're just getting done with eating and cleaning up, 23:18 just wanted to introduce you to the teacher. 23:20 This is Nithi and she is studying. 23:24 B.Ed., Bachelor of Education. 23:26 Bachelor of Education in the local university. 23:28 Yeah, in the local university. Yes. And she is... 23:30 No university. College? 23:33 It's a college. College. 23:34 Okay, and she has been 23:36 a Seventh-day Adventist church member in this church 23:39 since the day she was born 23:41 so great tradition, 23:43 I've seen her working with the kids, 23:44 loves the kids, 23:45 the kids respond to her very orderly, 23:48 and we're really excited about this school 23:50 being in good hands. 23:52 So thank you so much 23:53 for making this school possible, 23:55 there's a lot of widows in this village, 23:57 lot of very needy people. 23:58 There's one lady that 23:59 her husband is completely paralyzed 24:02 and they have two kids 24:03 and she gets like a 1000 rupees a month 24:06 which is like $15 a month to live on 24:09 so some really hurting people here, 24:11 so pray for Kathe Swami Palayam. 24:16 Pray for the church here at Kathe Swami Palayam. 24:19 And thank you for helping teach these kids. 24:23 Thank you, welcome. 24:25 And God bless. 24:26 They've eaten, they've studied, 24:27 they've enjoyed the opening ceremony 24:30 and now they're getting ready to go home, 24:32 they kind of sleepy, 24:33 but they all wanted to say thank you 24:35 to those that make this school possible. 24:37 Thank you. 24:38 Thank you. Thank you. 24:41 So it's such a blessing to have a good teacher 24:44 that's learning education, you know, 24:45 so she wants to be a teacher and she is, 24:48 is actually using her skills already. 24:51 Yeah. And that's such a blessing. 24:52 Yeah, and a little sad note in her life, 24:54 about a year ago her father passed away, 24:57 and so she and her mother are alone in the world, 25:00 and so pray for Nithi and her mother 25:03 that they can get through this 25:05 and even spite of it she's smiling 25:08 and she's encouraging the kids 25:09 and she's, she's serious about her work so... 25:13 That's really, really... 25:14 Really appreciate her. Yeah. 25:16 The next thing we want to talk about is the cost 25:18 of actually opening and running one of these schools. 25:21 So how much does it cost per child 25:24 to go to one of these schools? 25:26 It costs about $7 per child per month, 25:29 anywhere between 7 to 10 25:31 depending on whether we can use a church, 25:33 we have to rent a building, 25:35 and who we rented through and different things like that, 25:37 but 7 to $10 per month, per child 25:40 will provide this opportunity for a child in India. 25:44 Right, so that's about a quarter a day. 25:46 That's a big impact. 25:48 I mean that's a lot of bang for the buck... 25:49 Right. 25:50 To use it. That's true. 25:51 Western colloquialism. 25:55 Yes, and to open the schools. 25:57 How much does it cost to open a new school? 25:59 Generally it costs between 250 and $600 to open the school 26:03 because and a lot of that depends 26:05 on whether we can use a church 26:06 or if we have to rent and how much that rent is. 26:09 A lot of it depends on, you know, 26:11 how many kids are going to come. 26:12 Do they need to buy plates, 26:15 the school that we showed tonight 26:17 that Kathe Swami Palayam, 26:18 we were able to cook the food 26:20 in one of the neighbors' houses, 26:22 one the church member's houses right next door. 26:24 So we didn't have to buy the stove 26:26 and things like that, 26:27 that was already provided so, 26:28 but sometimes we have to buy all that plus... 26:32 Sometimes we have to build a kitchen. 26:34 Right or a toilet facility or something. 26:36 Yeah. 26:37 And so that's why it vary so widely 26:40 because a lot of people would say, 26:42 well that's like $350 difference 26:45 but it's because in some situations 26:47 we have to do extra. 26:49 Yeah, a lot of times that cost even more than that 26:51 building a kitchen and a latrine 26:54 then you're talking probably about a $1000 26:57 for both of those things, 26:58 but these churches just come just a square building. 27:01 You know no fellowship hall, 27:04 no toilet, no classroom, 27:08 you know, Sabbath school classroom, nothing. 27:09 It's just a square building and that's it. 27:12 And so where are they going to cook the food? 27:14 Right. 27:15 So a lot of these places 27:16 we have to add in a kitchen, latrine. 27:19 One of our schools that you saw, 27:21 she was in there, the cook was in there 27:22 praying over the food that's his house... 27:24 That was in the earlier video, yeah. 27:25 That just has a little wall in the back of the church 27:29 where they're supposed to and that's a latrine 27:31 but there is no toilet facilities, 27:33 there is no flushing, it's just the ground there. 27:36 So would love to build something there 27:38 that's a little bit more civilized. 27:40 Hygienic. 27:41 Yeah, exactly. 27:43 Well, I would like to thank our viewers 27:45 for joining us tonight. 27:46 And if you would like to be a part of helping these 27:49 and other beautiful children, 27:51 please send your tax deductible love gift 27:53 to Jesus for Asia, PO Box 1221, 27:57 Collegedale, Tennessee 37315. 28:00 Call us at 423-413-7321 28:04 or check out our website at Jesus4Asia.org. 28:08 May God richly bless you until we see you again 28:12 on Jesus for Asia Now. |
Revised 2017-02-01