I teamed up with a couple of lovely guys from the USA – Salt Lake City who had been sent out by their church to investigate how they could be involved in mission.
We were invited on a trip to the local slums of Hyderabad. OM has a big ministry of education and planting schools in the Dalit community. The Dalits are basically at the bottom of the stack in the Hindu caste system. Believed to be created from no part of the god they are untouchables. The belief in reincarnation holds them in a lifelong bondage to accepting their state.
We went to 4 different communities- one was in a 50,000 population slum by the airport. The life is hard for the people but we attended the school that has taken root. The Dalit leaders have asked the church to educate their children and so free them from bondage. The school was just amazing – a beacon of hope in what might be considered a hopeless sea of despair. The children are taught in English – the essential difference to State Education which effectively will change their lives forever. Frankly, they were the cutest kids you can imagine, dressed in uniform and sitting with books and slates they stood and saluted and greeted us. You know I sort of worried about intruding but the reality is they love for us to come and be interested. That way they aren’t forgotten or the refuse of humanity. What restricts the work? – funding each child needs to be funded for some £50 per year.
Then we went on to the pipe village. (Yes really and literally) A community who work as bonded slaves to the local drainage pipe manufacturer. A leader assembles the families and they enter a bonded work contract where he brings them for, 3 years, to live beside the factory. They literally live in the broken and useless mains drainage pipes! Check out the photos. All the people are known to the pastor who takes eggs for the children, fixes them with medical care and leads worship and a service every week.
Its amazing how quickly you acclimatise and slum 3,4 and 5 become a blurring repetition of the marginalised and downtrodden. Yet it was thrilling to see that God’s getting in there with the business of building his church.
Tonight I start the trek home – can’t wait to see the family. This trip has been a privilege.
1 comment:
Once or twice a week there is a report on 'The times of India' website about dalits being victims of violance. The stories sometimes are... sickening... I hope education and good knowledge of English will help their kids escape from the kind of life their fathers and grandfathers had...
Very interesting to see a post like this.
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