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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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Vol. 40 September 2006 No. 9 |
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WIDOWS AND FATHERLESS
On the evening of August 28, the husband of a sister in Christ at Ve-da-ran-ni-yam, Tamil Nadu, S. India died under mysterious circumstances. Vedaraniyam is one of the towns on Tamil Nadu’s east coast where we aided victims of the Tsunami last year. There were no churches in that town or its surrounding villages when we began that effort in April 2005, but today five churches of Christ are meeting each Lord’s day in the area. Our sister’s name is Mary Kannan. When her husband was found on the morning of August 29 it was thought that he had gotten drunk, fallen and hit his head, but after an examination at the civil hospital the police suspected he had been beaten and hit on the head. They have the names of two suspects, but as the English papers there are fond of saying in such cases, the culprits have absconded.
Mary, who is thirty, was baptized May 5, 2005. She has five children, all under the age of twelve. The two older children are girls, Naga Lakshmi, 11, Koda Lakshmi, 10. The three younger are boys, Raman, 7, Nivas, 5, and Moorty, 3. She and her children attend worship faithfully in the village of Kodiakavu, where they live. Their house has thatched walls and roof and is 8’ X 22’. The floor is earth except for one portion where they were able to buy one bag of cement to plaster an area at one end. There are two rooms with no bath or toilet.
Brother V. Moses, a compassionate brother and gospel preacher, serves in the area along with his son, Robert and another young gospel preacher. All three (at different times) were trained in the school of preaching at Dindigul. When Moses reported Mary’s loss I immediately had him buy her 55 pounds of rice and take Rs 5,000\- to her from the Dindigul school account. Although that is only $111 in US money it is like four months’ wages to their household. Besides this we will buy her ten goats. The decision to buy ten is based on the fact that we buy five goats for a widow who is alone and one extra for each other person in the household. The rationale for buying goats for the widows is due to the fact that we want them to be self supporting instead of depending on hand outs. Even though Mary has no land or pasture of her own she can graze them on the roadside or on stubble where a crop has been harvested. The children can also learn to care for them.
Since cows are sacred to Hindus they will not eat beef, but goat meat as well as mutton, is very much in demand by a minority among Hindu people (most are vegetarians). Thus beef costs 61 cents a pound and goat meat sells for $2.02 per pound. Daily wages for a laborer runs about $1.65 per day. At the time a widowed sister receives goats she is urged to sell only the male kids and to retain the females as brooding stock. The gestation period for a goat is about five months and a doe may bear one, two or even three kids at a time. For the first eighteen months we provide the widowed sisters with monthly support, while they develop their flock. A full grown pregnant doe costs about Rs 1,500\- ($33). A full grown buck can cost Rs 2,000\- ($44), but the brothers who purchase the goats mix and match older and younger (bucks, does and kids) so that we can buy goats for an average of about $30 each, which means that Mary’s goats will cost about $300.
Mary has an eighth grade education and knows how to sew a little. Brother Moses’ wife is teaching her more about sewing. Since there are five in her brood that will mean much stitching, so we will buy her a sewing machine. A treadle type costs Rs 4,200\- ($93). In August we sent from Crossville $3,500 to purchase goats for 22 widows, but we still have three more for whom we must buy goats at $498. Adding that to the funds needed for Mary Kannan and her children ($300 for goats and $93 for the sewing machine) the total comes to $891. To cover that we will send $900 from Crossville by Western Union in care of Peter Wilson. We appreciate the great help we are receiving from those who are helping with this work of obeying James 1:27, and especially from the young people. Please continue to help as we take from other funds to help supplement funds that come in for these poor sisters. If you need a picture of a widow and her goats please let us know. Some have asked, but the logistics of naming goats is difficult.
THE CHURCH AT DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, FLORIDA
The growth of this work of training preachers continues to grow exponentially so that I am hard pressed and continually search for others to help and to relieve us of some of the burden of the schools of preaching. Already through the efforts of Don Iverson five of the schools of preaching in Tamil Nadu are being supported through Banner Elk, NC. The church named above in Florida has decided to take on the new SOP at Dibrugarh in Northeast India. This they are doing by sending $1,060 a month to Crossville to cover the cost of the school with its 15 student preachers. The church at Mt. Leo in McMinnville supports 25 of the ninety-one whom we have enrolled in the state of Kerala.
AN INVITATION
Below are four one-year schools that we would like to invite\encourage others to take on as their own project. They can be funded through the Crossville church, but they would be the special work of your congregation. If anyone can take on one of these four it will still leave us with seven at Crossville with about 435 students in them. I will send you an Indian map showing where the school is located, pictures of the principal and his family and pictures of the students. You can also receive regular reports about the school and its progress to post on your bulletin board for the congregation.
MADURAI SCHOOL OF PREACHING
Tamil Nadu is India’s most southern state with a land area about 1.2 times that of Tennessee. The population is 62,500,000. Madurai is its second largest city and is about the size of Chicago. This one-year school of preaching, which is called the Madurai Bible Institute was begun in 2000. The director of the school is a brother whose name is V. Paneerdass, who is 59 years old and was baptized 39 years ago. His wife’s name is Mary and they have three children: two sons and one daughter. The latter is married and she and her husband have one child, a boy. In the intervening years, 61 brothers have received their Bible certificate from the school. When the school was begun there were five congregations in the area and today, by the grace of God, there are 47. Presently there are eleven enrolled and the total cost per month is $700.00, which includes the rent on the building ($42). It would be a great relief if we had someone who would take on this work or one of the others below.
THE SCHOOL OF PREACHING AT THRICHY
This school of preaching was begun in 2002 and at the time there were four congregations in the area. Today there are 15 churches breaking bread each Lord’s day. Thrichy has a population of about 400,000. The director of the school is a brother named, V. Rajamani. He is married with two children. His wife’s name is Jamila. Twenty-one have completed the one-year program in the last four years. There are at present six enrolled. The cost per month is $450 and this includes brother Rajamani’s wages which are $78 a month.
THE SCHOOL OF PREACHING AT PANDAMANGALAM
This school to train men to preach the gospel was begun in 1996 and in the ten intervening years 114 brothers have gone through the preaching course. About one hundred new congregations have been started since the school opened. Brother S. V. Paulraj is the principal or director of the school. He is married and his wife’s name is Esther Rajetia. They have three daughters, whose ages are 11, 8 and 4. Presently there are 14 enrolled in the school and the cost is $850 per month.
THE SCHOOL OF PREACHING AT ERODE
The principal of this school is S. Jaganathan and his wife’s name is Amala. He is 46 and she is 38. They have three children, two girls and one boy whose ages are 17, 15 and 12. Brother Jaganathan began directing the school in 2001. Since that time 114 brothers have gone through the one-year program and about fifty new congregations have been added in the area. The city of Erode has more than one million. Presently there are 26 brothers enrolled. The cost each month including the rent is $1,550 per month.
With love to all. Pray for us.
Jim E. Waldron |