So what about that last story huu?  Can you believe being committed and loving something so much that you are willing to give your life for it!?!? Man.... 

Well, today was the day I set apart to go to a Compassion Project School.  The leaders of the school came and got me from my hostel and we headed north of Kolkata for 2 hours to a small village.  They had teamed up with a Salvation Army church and had a total of 290 kids that attended daily!  Shortly after we arrived we began to visit some of the children in their homes before school.

In one of the homes I encountered a powerful and unforgettable story, a story that forced me to fight back tears for the 2 hours journey home.  At first they were tears of anger and sadness, but they changed.  They turned into tears of passion as I began to realize that I have the power to do something to fight against injustice in this world.  I also have the power to inspire others to fight along side of me.  Just thinking about the possibilities that my future holds as I pursue a life committed to this, brought tears that were much harder to fight! :]  So my only fear is that I cannot portray the feelings of these moments as accurately as they were felt, but I can only pray that you are also impassioned as well. I hope that this story and other hard things in your life will be fuel that allows you to push on instead of road blocks of bitterness. 

Entering a small 10 x 10 wooden hut, I am met by a short girl about my age of 22. Her name I find out is Chandedash.  Next to her are two young boys, one of them not even a foot shorted than her.  I later come to find out that they are both her children.  She is a maid in two other small huts in the area, cleaning and cooking for them she makes $.80 cents a day for her and her two sons!  I then asked what the husband did.  "I began to go to church where my son is now getting schooling and he didn't like that.  He left and we aren't sure where he is."  They had heard that he has remarried.  Probably just to get another dowry and another young girl to molest :/.  You see, he is around the age of 33 and "their" older son is 10 years old.  That means at the age of 12 this beautiful, innocent girl was forced to have sex with a 23 year old.  Something about that made my stomach turn and that lack of emotion in Chandedash's face didn't ease my bewilderment.

Because someone chose to sponsor this 10 year old he is given an education, food, medical care, emotional support and hears the gospel.  He wants to become a doctor so that he can help those who are suffering in his village.  The mother has now become a Christian and now understands that there are people in this world that actually care about her along with the creator of the universe.  I can't imagine what their life would be like without Compassion.  

Mother Teresa= “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the worst poverty.”

If you would like to radically change the lives of a family like this then sponsor a child through www.Compassion.com.

The 1st picture is me with some of the students and it's kinda dark because the electricity went out as it does periodically.  The 2nd picture is Chandedash and her two sons.  I was only able to smile in this picture because it was before I heard her story...

Matthew 10:34-39= Jesus said "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to turn "a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-laws, a man's enemies will be the members of his own household." Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

In Christ, David