{ DAY 421 }

I’m so excited to have one of my amazing team members, Amber, guest blog today.  I have to admit I’m a bit jealous of this sweet lady! She’s gotten to hold hands, play with, and love on the darling orphans in India.  While I’ve never even been to India Amber has been a few times!  I hope you enjoy this and are as encouraged and inspired as I am.  Thank you Amber for sharing your heart with us.  Also please note that CCH is the on the ground organization that Warm Blankets partners with to help these kiddos.  100% of all funds you give through this site go directly to these sweet children!

I never wanted to go to India.

I like to say that India picked me. And I’m so glad it did.

A crazy series of events led me to spend three weeks in India the summer of 2011. I enjoyed my time there, but I left with no intentions of ever returning. It was great, I loved the kids I met, but I just didn’t feel a real connection.

As time went on however, India picked me again. I couldn’t get the faces and stories of the sweet children I had met out of my mind. Doors opened, and I found myself headed back to India for a month in 2012 and I knew that India would forever be on my heart.

It’d be hard to find a more challenging, yet rewarding, experience in my life than spending a month living in “rural” India working with Covenant Children’s Homes, the on the ground ministry that Elaini’s fundraising directly supports! I got to help run the first year of summer camp and spend time in several CCH church homes, loving on children and sharing the love of Jesus with them!

In the book “Hope Lives: A Journey of Restoration” by Amber Van Schooneveld, Dr. Wess Stafford (president of Compassion International) made a statement that summarizes a real problem in fundraising for ministries around the world. He said, “If you don’t know the poor, it’s hard to serve them.”

We all have needs directly in front of us. Children to feed, school bills to pay, cars that break down, medical emergencies…the list goes on. And if there aren’t immediate needs, we are taught to save as much as we can for when these unexpected needs flare up. So why on earth would we want to take money away from that to give to children in India of all places? Children who are nothing more than pictures and words on a screen to most of you. Children who you’ll probably never meet. Children who “someone else” can take care of.  If you don’t KNOW these children, it’s hard to really care about them. It’s hard to want to give money to take care of them. It’s hard to serve them.

So, my goal today is to introduce you to the kids of CCH in India in hopes that maybe it will be easier for you to care about them! I wish I could pack you all up and take you to India to meet each one of them personally, but that is just not very practical unfortunately. But I can do my best to introduce them to you through my experience!

Each CCH child I met exhibited hope in the purest, most innocent form. Children who have virtually nothing, who have been orphaned or abandoned, children who have fought for their lives with smiles on their faces, talking about their dreams and goals to be doctors, teachers, and pastors. Children who have a reason to look forward to waking up the next morning. Children who KNOW and LOVE Jesus Christ. In a culture full of darkness and evil, these children worship the living God and find hope in Him and what He has done for them!

These precious kids are full of joy. The laughing, giggling, tickling each other, playing, running after one another, excitedly talking to one another and any visitor who will give them attention type of joy. The contagious type. Spending time around these kids, you wouldn’t know the terrible lives they have had to get through to get to the point they are at now. You can’t help but join in with the giggling and tickling as your heart fills with joy to the point where it could burst.

I could go on and on, but I’ll leave it with this. These orphans in India are simply kids. They have been stripped of their childhoods in many cases, but they are being given the chance to regain pieces of it now through CCH. Think about your own kids or kids in your life. You would do anything to put a smile on their face and make them feel loved. These kids in India are JUST the same. They have the same wishes and desires as your six year old niece or ten year old son. The difference is, they don’t have someone to meet their needs and put smiles on their faces. Thankfully, CCH can do that, but not without your help. YOU can be that person for a sweet child in India. The one who makes them feel loved. Who meets their needs. Who opens up their wallet just a bit to make a world of difference for a child who otherwise may never know the feeling of what it is to be loved.

It’s my hope that you feel like you know these kids a bit better and that you maybe feel led to be that person who will take it upon themself to make a difference for these sweet children. I can promise you that the blessings and rewards will be eternal – for you and the children! May you choose to care about children in India who can do nothing in return for you. May you choose to be part of something bigger than yourself and just see what it does for you in your heart!

Thanks for helping me love these kids!