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| With the Kids at Good Shepherd Home |
Today we gathered at the Good Shepherd Homes and met the most incredible kids and staff. The Good Shepherd Homes (GSH) rescue children from the streets of Mumbai and Pune, India, and transform their lives. Our first stop was the Transition Home. The children here are the small ones who had been living on the streets. Some of them were orphaned when both parents died. Some were abandoned and left to care for themselves as 6 or 7 year-olds. All of them are the most precious kids you will ever meet, and all of them stole our hearts.
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| Wick reads to the kids |
As soon as we walked in the door of the Transition Home, the children swarmed us in a big ‘group hug’. I love it!! The Children call me ‘Wick, Uncle’, or Wick ‘Grandfather’. I am happy with both names, and reveled in the love that they lavished on us. The children had a precious worship time, and we were blessed to participate in this time with them. Then, they stood and recited many passages of scripture. We later learned that the children spend significant time doing their scripture memory verses. They now know 70 passages of scripture.
It was so wonderful to be able to read Bible stories to the Transition Homes kids. Kelly, a dear friend in Texas, had sent a Bible Story book for the children. The children gathered and were totally engaged as we read them the story of baby Moses and Pharoah’s daughter.
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| Sunali |
Sunali and her sister were left as orphans when their mother died. They lived in the slum in a tiny 6′ X 6′ Hut. Now that they were alone, they had no money, and no way to care for themselves. They went around the slum to try to earn a living by cleaning, scrubbing floors, doing laundry and literally becoming work slaves to others living in the slum. When a couple learned of their plight, they contacted the Good Shepherd Homes staff and though her sister did not want to come into the home, Sunali did. She is one of the most sweet children you will ever meet.
From the Transition Homes, we traveled about an hour and a half to the city of Talegaon to visit the Cluster homes. These are homes house 12 children per home with house parents who care for the children as their own. These are the homes with teens and children who will leave the homes as adults in the next few years. Good Shepherd carefully helps the children transition into adulthood.
