Nandi never knew his real parents,
and the people who adopted him treated him as their personal slave. They beat him whenever he failed to live up to their expectations...and if Nandi happened to call them "mother and father" they got real mad.
"You're not our child."
Were the words they'd fire at him.
(How awful! That must've been pretty painful.)
Manjulika also faced hardship. One morning she woke up to discover that her mother had died.
Manjulika and her sisters soon found out that their mother had died while at a hospital.
From then on out,
Manjulika found herself playing a motherly role for her younger sisters.
Sadly enough,
when their father would return after a long day of working as a rickshaw driver
he'd often come home drunk and beat his daughters.
Eventually,
her father who, ~quote~
"had no love to give his children,
let the government take them to a Gospel
for Asia home for at-risk girls."
Meanwhile back in Nandi's world,
the boy decided to run away from his
broken and abusive home
by boarding a train
to a bigger, and hopefully better,
city.
However,
in a matter of mere months...he ended up
in "forced begging."
(have you ever watched the movie "Slumdog Millionaire"? Might be worth giving
a watch if you haven't.)
Nandi would beg along the roadside all day long,
and in the evening a man (probably the slavedriver/his boss you could say)
took all that Nandi had earned and "gave him a little food."
Almost a generous thing to do.
Nandi came to a point
where he was simply DONE
with this infuriating
and straight up degrading
routine that he told the man
he
would
not
beg
anymore.
Enraged,
the man gave Nandi a beating.
The next morning,
Nandi (bravely) refused
once more to beg,
and the man beat another boy in front of Nandi
to intimidate him.
Filled with fear,
his stubborn willed
determination petered
out
and
Nandi
obeyed
the man.
A few months later,
an accident actually led to Nandi's sweet release.
As Nandi was crossing the street one night,
a car RAN OVER HIS FOOT.
(Owch!Brutal hey?!)
Fortunately,
a police officer rushed to Nandi's rescue
and had him taken to a hospital.
Nandi stayed in that hospital for 6 whole
months as he recovered.
A lady visited him during his stay,
and asked Nandi if he'd like to go
to a "children's home."
Yet in response,
Nandi told the lady...
"No, I don't want to go anywhere."
He was terrified of meeting new people
in new (potentially dangerous) places.
He'd already been through a lot.
How much more could he take?
However,
after observing the nice ladies
friendly, and kind nature...
he thought the offer over.
He soon accepted,
and was brought to a
"Gospel for Asia's home
for abandoned and runaway boys."
~
And meanwhile
Manjulika
was introduced to
"Gospel for Asia's home for abandoned girls".
There she received great love
and care.
She was enrolled in a solid
school,
and they even threw Manjulika her very
own birthday party...which was the first she'd ever had.
~
Yet for Nandi,
entering a new place
was more challenging.
He felt overwhelmed
by the many new faces
and the structured routine.
Yet the staff members comforted
him and said,
"Don't worry, because we are here like your mother and father",
they told him.
Upon his arrival,
Nandi was still having difficulty moving
due to his recent injury...so in order to accommodate & care for him,
the women working there brought him both food and medicine.
In Nandi's words in regards to their excellent service,
This touched Nandi's heart in a great way.
Today,
(August 28th/2015)
the lives of both Nandi and Manjulika look wildly different than they once did.
Previously,
Nandi had been captive to an abusive home
and then hostage to a savage slavedriver.
Manjulika had been left motherless
with her sisters to be cared for,
and a drunken father to beware.
Now Nandi is receiving a good education
at a local school,
where they learn of and experience
the love of Jesus through the staff members
that work there.
In the future,
Nandi is interested in serving Jesus through his singing.
He says that he
"can see a light in the days to come."
Manjulika also has a dream.
She longs to teach children the things
that she had learned. Yet Manjulika
knows that the most important thing she
can teach them,
does
not
come
from
a
schoolbook/textbook/whatever you want to call it.
Manjulika says that,
"The thing that makes me happy the most is that I know Jesus loves us.
I want people to know Jesus loves each one of them, no matter who they are
or what background they are from."
Thanks to the outpouring of love from Gospel for Asia
homes for children,
kids such as Nandi and Manjulika
are coming to know just how deeply
they're loved,
and it's changing lives!
Awesome right?
(you can read the GFA article here
or click on the second link...or maybe both...
to learn about GFA's ministry for Street Children.)
http://www.gfa.org/gfa-world/2015/more-than-a-mothers-love/
http://www.gfa.org/ministries/abandoned-children/
Adios Amigos! You're loved deeply by Jesus! (Please don't ever forget that.)
-Jenna-out
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