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Waldron Mission Fund |
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Under the oversight of the elders of the Crossville church of Christ, PO Box 211, Crossville, TN 38557 |
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NEWSLETTER
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MAN’S OPPRESSER The brother to my right in the picture is Tamil Vanam. He is a man whom Satan has sorely oppressed (cf., Luke 13:15-16) in his 31 years of life. He is 5’1” tall and weighs forty kilograms (88 pounds). Presently he is a student in our school for the blind in the town, called Pudukkotai, about 75 miles from Dindigul. Besides the support we provide for him as a student, he works part time weaving plastic stripes for the seats and backs of office chairs; when he can get the work.
His wife, Amirtam, is virtually blind herself. They have two children, a girl eight and a boy six. And, as if, he/we needed any other proof of oppression brought by Satan in this sin cursed world, his little daughter has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. |
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For this cause he came to Dindigul on the 12th of December to see me with a request for Rs 3,500\- ($76) to pay for an MRI, which the doctor had advised for the child. I might mention that R 3,500\- is a very good monthly wage for most wage earners in India. I gave him the money and other help. MORE ON BLINDNESS NEW DELHI: Google/India/blindness, The Times of India, “India is now home to the world's largest number of blind people. Of the 37 million people across the globe who are blind, over 15 million are in India. What's worse, 75% of these are cases of avoidable blindness, thanks to the country's acute shortage of optometrists and donated eyes for the treatment of corneal blindness. While India needs 40,000 optometrists, it has only 8,000.”
“According to Ajeet Bhardwaj, outgoing president of the Asia Pacific Optometrists Organizations, India has 153 million people in the country who require reading glasses but do not have access to them” which is due to extreme poverty. WORKING WITH THE BLIND Since 1993 we have had a Bible School and Home for the blind where those who are so afflicted may study the word of God and learn to teach the same to others. Later we opened up the same facility to the deaf. At the present time 32 blind and 34 deaf are enrolled. They remain with the school for four years in order to train them well and to help them learn a trade to support themselves. In the 16 years that the school has been in existence 67 blind have graduated. Many having completed the school course have become active in local congregations although some have gone to other places. One good thing the government does is provide them a small concrete block house, but it comes with no electricity and no fixtures. So when the brothers and sisters are allotted such a house they ask us to supply the funds for wiring it and the money to pay the connection fee.
As noted the blind are poor in the extreme; but are able to get by through weaving the plastic for chairs, selling pens, candies, soap, their own home made disinfectants, etc. We supply a small amount of capital at the time of their graduation. Yet, from time to time they still need a boost to meet their general needs, so annually at the beginning of the year we provide a gift for all of the blind in the four area congregations. This year we have supplied such gifts for 155 blind and their dependents at the rate of Rs 1,000\- ($21.74) each., which comes to Rs 155,000\- ($3,369.70). For one of those four congregations, which is made up of about 85% blind we are trying to raise $1,900 to complete a small building for them. OPERATION COMPASSION Although we have been supplying help for indigent widowed sisters in India for about twenty years the increase in the number of conversions and congregations in recent years has brought a surge in the number of those who need our assistance; it is extremely difficult for an American to realize their poverty. However, we continue to require, except in extreme cases, that a widow who is baptized wait from 18 to 24 months
The brothers, Peter Wilson and Murgesan, who buy and deliver the goats and cows must travel all over the state. To do this they take the small diesel truck that we bought in 2005; the year following the Tsunami. The cost for diesel, lodging, food, etc., for them came to $521.57. Thus the initial outlay for the primary cost to help these 55 sisters and their 50 children was $12,995.61.
The Indian government provides a widow a pension of $4 a month; after she receives goats (or a cow) from us we provide her another $10.87 a month, plus $2.17 for each child until she can develop her flock. This support, which is sent to the ladies monthly by money order from Dindigul continues for 18 to 24 months, is extremely crucial. Although small it amounts to as much or more than she can earn working in the field when she can get such. If the sister receives a cow our help lasts for three to six months. This shorter time for assistance for those who receive cows is due to the fact that the sister can quickly begin to sell milk.
On average there were 56 widows who received this assistance at an average cost of $757 per month or a total of $9,855 for the year. Thus the total amount spent on widows in 2009 was ($12,996 plus $9,855) $22,851. There was a total of $28,855.61 raised to provide help for the widows and their children. This means we have $6,004.61 with which to help widows in the New Year. OPERATION COMPASSION 2010 The name of the sister above is Raja-Mal, she has no children, her husband died of AIDS and left her with HIV. The thatched hut behind her is not a house for her goats, but is her home. The building in the picture is a community hall. .
“Operation Compassion” has proved itself to be a wonderful blessing due to the fact that 171 churches and individuals across America got involved. Obviously a blessing to those who received the goats or cows, but an even greater blessing for those who gave; especially the young people for they will remember it always and hopefully be more involved in building up the kingdom of our God all their lives.
While I was in India I reviewed about 102 new applications from widows asking for help. This I did with the assistance of the two Tamil gospel preachers who make the purchases of goats and cows, Peter and Murgesan. From those we selected 84 that are truly needy; among these widowed sisters there are 77 fatherless children (James 1:27).
Their cumulative needs are 339 goats ($13,560), 16 cows ($6,240) plus requests for other kinds of help, like electrical connection, small capital to sell vegetables and medical needs. Due to inflation and the greater demand for goat meat (Hindus don’t eat cows) the price of a goat has gone up to $40 a head. Cows are running $390 each. I hope that you will want to get your young people involved. At your request Laura will send all a copy of our new widows’ poster for the classroom; please let us know. If you get your class involved let the young people present their gift to the church for the members to see what the youth are doing, and Christ will be glorified in the church (Eph. 3:21). Some will remember the young widow Sapna in Shillong and her five children. There are two other needy families in the same area, one a young widow with four children. The other family of six lost both parents in 2009. We are providing 50 kg (110 lbs) of rice each month and other needed items as they are helped to help themselves. Thanks to those who gave for this need. |
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before she receives help. Our first reason for this is that we do not want them to be baptized for the sake of material things (loaves and fishes, John 6:26). Another reason is that the government has a law, and rightly so, against people being enticed to change their religion.
The effort we have dubbed “Operation Compassion” was started one year ago and during 2009 forty-five widows received goats at a cost of $9,300.00, seven received cows ($2,673.91), and three chose to operate small (petty) shops ($500.13). |
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TRAINING PREACHERS With your loving support we are trying to help the deaf, the blind, widows and fatherless children. But as I have written in time past our number one work is obeying 2 Timothy 2:2; “train faithful men to teach others.” As the year closed we had 303 brothers training to preach in four states in India; please keep this work in your hearts and prayers. Our Indian brother planted churches in many places in 2009. I will report on that in February. THE BANGALORE DEBATE The debate is on two DVDs. It is on the question of church support of homes for orphans and congregational co-operation in evangelism. You may order from:
Know Your Bible, 1824 Roane State Highway, Box 171, Harriman, TN 37748.
Please send $2.50 to cover the cost of the two DVDs, the package and postage.
With love for all and prayers that each of you will be blessed greatly with joy and gladness in Christ Jesus in 2010.
Jim E. Waldron |