After a whole month of teaching in India we arrived last week in Perth, a city on the west coast of Australia.
We have had a tremendously good time in India. We worked intensively with the students for this month, taught them every day, had our meals together, and every week we had two afternoons of practical applications, where we went together to visit the street kids down town Mumbai, or where we went together to the red light district.
Wow, that was pretty heavy stuff! To get to the center of the city of Mumbai we had to take the train, which by itself is already a great adventure. I've never seen such crowded trains! One day there wasn`t even enough space on the floor to put both my feet down, so there I was, hanging from one of the dozens of handles, attached to the ceiling of the compartment, caught between hundreds of fellow passengers! It was very funny! The street children live in the center of the city, close to the famous Victoria Station. It was nice to see how good friendships already were built up between the long term staff and the children, and of course we had to play a game of cricket!
The red light district is one large slum where 15,000 girls and women are forced to work as prostitutes. They built large lines of small rooms without windows and with a curtain in the doorway. The alleys between these rooms were usually no more than three feet wide, with a deep groove of one feet for the open sewer in the middle. At the beginning of the alleys were dozens of girls waiting for their customers, heavily made up with pink, red or purple lipstick, and wearing the most colorful saris and salwaars. It should actually be a very happy view, all those colors, but I tried to get a glimpse of their faces and their eyes and saw fear, depression and apathy. These girls share a small single room with 6 or 7, divided by curtains into small little places. There they each receive eight to twenty clients per night for 50 rupees at a time, a little more than a dollar…
We went with a local staff member of YWAM walking through the slum, offering to pray for the girls. This gave us the whole afternoon open doors everywhere, or better, open curtains. We prayed for a 16 year old girl with her three months old baby who was dying of AIDS, and with a 38 years old woman, who looked much older, who suffered from rheumatic pains. Then we were invited by a group of older women and young girls from Nepal. The older women had been trafficked into the red light district a long time ago, when they were young girls,( there's just so much human trafficking from Nepalese girls!), and now, to survive as older women, they set up their own business out of a group of younger girls. One of the girls said she worked there for nine years and would like to leave, but where to? Another young woman said she had quarreled with her husband, and as revenge he had sold her to a pimp for 70,000 rupees. She would only be released if she had earned this debt back. But she was also caring for her two children, who were playing in the streets, so the chance that she will ever save enough to free herself is minimal.
YWAM rented a room in the middle of the slum and uses it for church planting. Many wonderful things happen, and God's love shines there in a very special and practical way. Will you pray for them? Especially for their safety.
The last morning in the Children at Risk School it was touching to hear all the students one by one thanking us. Sathyia, a young man, who for the last four years had lead the ministry among street children in Mumbai, told us that he had learned more in this one month of teaching, than in the entire four years of working with the boys on the streets. Sonya, who took the school together with her husband, thanked us crying. Sonya grew up in a leper colony because her father had leprosy and this was the first time they met foreigners. She was surprised that we ate the same food as the students, while taking time for them to listen to their stories and to pray for them... And so I could say something about each of our students, but in short: it was a great group of wonderful students and we have enjoyed thoroughly to teach them and to help them a little further on their way in their work with children in need.
It was physically hard for us especially in the last week, when we had diarrhea that only stopped when we got medicated by a doctor in Australia. Anyway, everything is back under control now!
Here in Australia we again have a great group of students in yet another “Children at Risk School” who hope to work with children at risk in various countries in Asia.
Will you pray for these students, for those in India and those here in Australia, that they may understand and obey God's plan for their lives and many children at risk will be reached with God’s love?
And thank God with us for our health and for all the wonderful opportunities to help the students to get started in their visions and work among the children. Street children, girls in red light districts, kids in prisons, slums ... That the work of God's love in these children may be multiplied!
Lots of love and God bless,
Johan and Jeannette
Teaching in the "Katapult", a training course in Holland for workers with children at risk.
Hannah waters the one flower in our garden.
"Opa, (grandpa) I get so tired from biking..."
The Children at Risk School in India
Teaching and eating, sitting on the floor.
Little street boy.
With the students going by train to Mumbai central.
Street boys like Armani shirts too!
The all love to get their picture taken.
After the cricket game with the street kids, we had some time to sing, the students did some funny sketches and the good news was explained. Afterwards we had a nice meal with them.
