Peace Gospel Blog

We take you to South Asia and back in 4 minutes!

Through the Peace Gospel Alternative Gift Catalog, we're offering an alternative to the usual commercially-driven gift giving custom. Why deal with the guesswork of what to give? Give the gift of life and hope offered in the name of Jesus, on behalf of your friend or loved one. Gifts include water buffalo sponsorships, widow's seamstress business sponsorships, the sponsorship of an orphan's first year expenses at their new orphanage, wheelchairs for the disabled, piglets at our Myanmar pig farm, or child immunization gift packages. You can also choose between "full shares" of these sponsorships, or a portion thereof. After choosing a gift, you proceed to a simple checkout page. After checkout you are taken to an online certificate which you can print and send to a friend, or save and send as an email attachment. The certificate includes a photo and brief description of the impact the gift has made on behalf of your friend or loved one. It's as easy as that — gift shopping done, while making a 100% charitable impact! [take me there]

In Myanmar, our native team continues to work in response to one of the most devastating storms in recorded history, Cyclone Nargis which devastated the area in May of this year. It is estimated that over 130,000 people lost their lives as a result of the storm. The military dictatorship in Myanmar was deeply criticized by the international community for its delays in accepting foreign aid. Thousands of orphans have shown up on the city streets of Yangon. Our native team maintains an orphanage there and has taken in more children. However they must move slowly due to the military regime's frowning upon anything appearing to be well-organized outside of their control, not to mention financial considerations in meeting the needs of these children.

In a recent eNews edition we gave a detailed report on our Widow's Seamstress Business Initiative, now in its 4th year of operation. The popularity of the program is growing as a result of the success of our widows' businesses. Word of mouth is spreading the good news of the business model's overwhelming success, and thus more and more widows are showing up asking to be enrolled in the program. We hate turning them away, so we often allow them to observe the classes and jump in on machines when they are not being used, to get a feel for the work. However we're not able to sponsor all of them as there are simply not enough funds for this. (In this photo one of our students is holding up her workbook; they work out the basics in miniature before moving to the machines). If you are interested in sponsoring a widow's seamstress business, you can do so from our donate page.

We've started working with an organization called Free Wheelchair Mission to distribute wheelchairs to disabled in India free of charge. This is making a huge impact in areas where wheelchairs were before only an elusive luxury. People previously confined to literally crawling along on the ground are gaining mobility for the first time in their lives. According to a recent census report taken in India, 70 million Indians are classified as disabled which is about 6% of the population. Of these, only 2% are educated and 1% employed. It is our hope that by giving the disabled the gift of mobility, the statistics will not be so horribly stacked against them.

It's been a very busy summer for Peace Gospel. With our new school opening at the Hadassah Orphanage in South India, we've finally been able to fill the open capacity to bring in several more orphans. We're now up to 66 children enrolled in the orphanage. This has led to many more financial needs but the Lord has been good to us to provide as our needs arise. This fall we will begin some new projects to complete an expansion on the second level of the orphanage facility along with a new set of bathrooms and bathing rooms, among other improvements to the grounds. We're also looking to raise funds for new clothes, bedding, and schoolroom furniture to better accommodate the larger number of children.

We wanted to post some updated photos from our orphanage and Bible College facility in South India. The construction on the security wall has faced some setbacks due to property line disputes with neighbors. However this has been resolved and the work now continues. You can see a portion of the wall in the photo at right.











We decided it would be best to place the new school construction on the ground level, so the pillars on top of the existing facility will be used for future expansion. You can see the unfurnished construction of the school building in the second photo. We will soon complete the partition work to create five classroom spaces. The school is being constructed in the traditional Indian style.









In the third photo you can see the 40+ students who are registered for the new school year in our dedication ceremony. We expect 20 to 30 more students to register in the weeks ahead. Local government officials and several pastors were present at the dedication ceremony. We are very excited about this expansion of our main South India facility. Please pray for this ongoing work!