Our Karuna Kids

Due to some shifting around of some of our staff, I have picked up some new responsibilities.

One of the areas that I am now overseeing is our Children’s Home. There are 24 children that we care for and educate in our school for 11 months out of the year. Mostly these are children of village pastors and there is not an educational future for the children if they stay in the villages with their parents. This puts a heavy level of stress on the moms and dads who desire to follow God’s call to penetrate the unreached areas with the Gospel, yet they see their children suffering.

After a few years of children coming to us and then more children and then more children, God opened our eyes to see what He desired and Karuna Children’s Home was opened. On just a side note, most (if not all) of our leadership team, including my husband, were raised in Christian Children’s Homes/Orphanages. That might put it into perspective for you.

I am now overseeing the financial management of the home in addition to my other duties. The home runs on a shoestring, to say the least, and God provides all that is needed (like food and electricity) but there are many other items that are required and there never seems to be the funds left over at the end of the month to get them.

The needs list was presented to me again yesterday (it’s been floating around since some time last year). I decided I am going to add it after this post with the required items listed. If you want to help out in any way, contact me. My email will be on the Profile page for the next week or so, or leave a comment.

What The Kids Need

Here is the needs list for our Children's Home. If you want to help out in any area, email me and I'll let you know what to do. Thanks.

In no particular order:

• 2 big cabinets to keep clothing
• 1 wash basin
• bedsheets (about 20)
• pillows (15)
• pillowcases (15)
• tube lights (2)
• alarm clocks (2)
• plastic chairs (6)
• buckets (5)
• jugs for bathrooms (5)
• trashcans (2)
• Dust pan (1)
• welcome/bathroom mat for wiping feet (5)
• large mat for sitting on the floor
• Bin for keeping flour
• Large vessel for cooking
• steel glasses for drinking water (6)
• Steel plates (6)
• food processor
• bookshelves (2)
• plastic netting for windows to keep out mosquitoes

Presently, there are 30 people sharing 1 bathroom in this house. The other one is under construction. There is a great need for construction and repair work to be done on the house. I'll add pictures later today.

You Were Always On My Mind

Still are.

I do think about posting. I wish I were posting. I just haven't been here. I mean, I've been around, but not around in the sense that I can sit and post.

Even now I just had to jump up to check on my fried okra* that we're having with dinner. It's just non-stop around here nowadays.

Not to mention that when I do have the time to post is when my electricity is out or my Internet is down due to the rain. sigh.

We're good to go now. O. left late last night for a Management Seminar put on by the Christian Institute of Management. It's being held from the 11th to the 13th. I plan to get loads done while he's gone. It always slows way down when O.'s not here.

But the seminar looks cool. According to the website promoting it they'll be discussing:

Biblical Leadership
Finance Management
Income Tax Act as applicable to Churches, Missions & NGOs
Laws relating to Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA)
FCRA Bill 2006 detailed discussion
Project Management & Proposal Writing

I'm sure he's gonna have a blast, this is so up his alley. However, I better get all my posting in before the 14th because he's surely going to lay the workload on thick when he gets back.

*I just ate fried okra for the first time last month and I 'm hooked.

Happy 4th Of July

For Some Reason We Always Act Surprised

At the stroke o' midnight on July 1st (well, maybe not the stroke) it started to rain.

Rain.

I'm talking about Rain.

It finally stopped around Monday afternoon but has returned again today.

Houses are in and under under water. No electricity, no water, roads under water and blocked off. People rushing around trying to get vegetables and rations.

And we always act surprised. Each and Every year. It's Monsoon season, this is what it does - Rains.

Ranthambhore, Rajasthan, India

There is a tiger sanctuary in Rajasthan that we went to with Dad and Em while they were here. I just loved it. The following 6 posts are my pictures of that trip.

G. was so cute, somebody gave her this T Shirt for free.

Tigers!

Here comes the 1st tiger we saw. She was trying to make her way to the watering hole.
Whoa! She was coming right towards us!


Can you find all three tigers in this picture? (Mom and cubs)

How The Safari Works

The picture was taken while sitting in our open safari jeep. If you look at the left side of the picture (between Em's right ear and the metal rim of the back of the jeep) you can see the tiger lounging there.
Beautiful, see how close the people in the other jeep were!
Finally drinking water.
Mother and her 2 cubs.
We were in a jeep like the ones in this picture.

It was HOT in June when we went but it was the VERY end of the safari season til October because they close for the rainy season. (July to Sept) We were there at low season (thankfully) but because we were at the very end of the dry season the watering holes in the park had shrunk down to only 3 small ones. Hence, finding even 1 of the 36 tigers in a 500 acre sanctuary became oh, so much easier.

We saw 4 our first morning - Up Close! There was only one long distance sighting in the evening.

Ranthambhore Scenery

The following pictures are of some of the scenery of Ranthambhore's Sanctuary. It was a wonderful place to visit since I got to see much of how India must have been once, long before the 1 Billion population and the advancement of cities and plastics and metals (aka Garbage). Even the villages in India often seem barren to me because most of the trees, etc. have been cut down and taken to use as fuel for the cooking fires.

I got a little chill of excitement every time we drove into the sanctuary. It was spectacularly beautiful - and we were even there at the driest barrenest time!


Fort, from below.

Various Non-Tiger Animals

We saw plenty of other animals than tigers too.

Weird horse/deer type animal.
Deer.
Peacock.
Human Child.
Monkey.