Sam Thomas presses the battle for orphans

Hopegivers orphan care carries on in faith

Hopegivers International is sporting a new website, fronted by recent coverage of Dr. Sam Thomas, and his return to India. Dr. Sam was recently reunited with his wife Shelley, and their boys, after being separated from them for 14 months. His time with them was brief… and he returned to India, to carry on for the orphans there.

It all sounds so easy, so clinical, but the reality is truly life-threatening. Sam is risking his health, his freedom and his life for these orphans. He’s already been persecuted terribly and imprisoned, facing threats spoken and physical. Like Nehemiah, Sam has many high profile enemies who seek his life. And yet, also like Nehemiah, the cause is worth the risk.

He’s offering himself to stand in the gap for the orphans, to take a lead for the work there. As the article states,

There have been many setbacks and obstacles for the ministry on the India side over the last year. And as much as he suffered through the persecution, his real heartbreak was for the hundreds of children who were forced back to the streets when the orphanage licenses were revoked last March. Since then, it's been an uphill battle all the way, trying to get them reinstated so the kids can come back. Any day now Sam is hoping to hear the news that the orphaned and abandoned kids – his kids – can come back home.

In Sam’s words, “I breathe, sleep, dream, and talk about my goal and deepest desire – one million orphaned and abandoned children raised up for God.”

That is a passion worth giving one’s life for! Read the whole article here.

Sam’s departure words from Atlanta airport are reminiscent of the Apostle Paul, as he stood at safe harbor and said, “I must go to Rome for the sake of the gospel, whether I am free or bound!” Essentially, Sam looked at the reality on the ground in India, and said, ‘I am willing to be free or bound for the sake of saving orphans.”

He entrusted his wife and boys to the God who does all things well, and then flew to India – facing threats, persecution, intimidation, legal manipulation, and spiritual warfare… all for the sake of the call. He doesn't know for sure if he will see them again, but he is driven to the calling of saving lives: a million orphans in his vision.

God bless you, Sam Thomas! You are in our prayers…

For those of you who want to be a part, offer your prayers today, and consider visiting the new Hopegivers site and making a donation for orphans and leaders.

It will be a small part, a cog in the wheel of integral orphan care and deep sacrifice!

God bless you too, for your care!

Selah.

The plight of India’s children

Two recent reports have come out of India related to children’s issues and intervention: one report deals with the ongoing problem of Indian girls, and the other report details widespread lack of nourishment among Indian children. These reports give a bit more context to the resistance that caregivers face in providing care to these at risk children. The same cultural dynamics that place Indian children at risk also resist the care options for these children, especially girls…

A cry of girls at risk

The first article is somewhat hopeful, as India's central government tacitly acknowledges a deep problem. It plans a serious of “cradle orphanages,” where unwanted baby girls can be raised – hoping to stem the tide of widespread female feticide. Research shows that more than 10 million Indian girls have been killed in the last two decades, via abortion and infanticide.

Renuka Chowdhury, the minister of state for women and child development, has taken this issue to heart. She notes that female feticide is producing an alarming imbalance between males and females, and hopes to offer a solution. Thankfully, Renuka is outspoken on this issue, and we can only pray for others to follow her lead.

The last line in the Detroit News article states the underlying issue: destruction of girls “stems from the low value attached to females in Indian society.”

It is a deadly serious issue. India’s Hindu culture struggles with the results of its own prejudice, and now faces a painful truth: Any society that devalues its girls devalues itself.

A story of malnourished children

A second article details figures from India's National Family Health Survey, showing that nearly half of India’s children are malnourished. This puts India, now the most populous country, ‘in the same league as some of the world’s poorest countries.’

India has made dramatic strides on the world stage, enjoying a technological and economic boom – and yet these economic gains are not being matched by ‘equal improvements in the health of its more than one billion people.’

This is staggering to think about, really – that a country with more than one billion people exists with half of its children malnourished. The numbers are numbing.

Werner Schultink of UNICEF concludes that India should be worried: “It’s going to be difficult for India if it wants to use its human resources to develop the nation but does not make [human] improvements.”

A chance to make a difference

Behind both of these reports lurks an underlying societal brokenness – the war on India’s children, its girls and outcastes, is a war that starts in the mind and works its way into the streets – a terrible reality.

It’s interesting that the people invested in assisting orphans and unwanted Indian children are often the same people rejected by traditional Hindu power brokers. In light of India's great orphan need, consider how Hopegivers orphanages have been treated this last year! Consider how Sam Thomas and other caregivers have been attacked, their lives threatened and ruined for trying to help the same children that others do not want! The children unfed, unclothed and outcaste, the girls devalued and thrown away… these poor girls are offered care, and yet those who give them care are viciously attacked by entrenched Hindutva leaders!

Herein is the crux of the problem. I pray that Renuka Chowdhury and the other appointed ministers of India will not overlook systemic issues, and not overlook the amazing resources already in place for helping these girls. Already there are orphanages in place, places of education and care, staffed with loving, sacrificial people… if only these orphanages could be protected from the onslaughts of entrenched traditional militants!

Here also is a path for us to help. We can do something, by supporting Hopegivers orphanages – places of light and hope for India’s children…

The sacrifices of Dr. Sam and M.A. Thomas, and the intrepid caregivers of Emmanuel Hope Home, and others in India, are not in vain.

And our gifts are not in vain, providing moments of light and salvation! Please give something today, if you can... God bless your heart and actions!

Selah.

India’s endangered species: girls

Indian female feticide: 10 million killed in 2 decades

According to a UNICEF report released this month, 7,000 fewer girls are born in India every day than the global average would suggest. This is attributed to both abortion after ultrasound tests and also the killing of newborns.

Renuka Chowdhury, Minister for Women and Child Development, says that in India, 10 million girls have been killed by their parents in the past 20 years, either before they were born or immediately after. She aptly calls it a “national crisis.”

"Today, we have the odd distinction of having lost 10 million girl children in the past 20 years," Chowdhury told a seminar in Delhi University.

"Who has killed these girl children? Their own parents."

In traditional Hindu practice, girls are often viewed as liabilities: they are tools in trade, property to be bartered – not only in the lingering practice of dowry, where the bride’s parents pay for the groom to marry her, but also in the continuation of a kind of emotional suttee, where the wives only have rights as their men choose to give them.

Scratch the surface of Indian society, and you’ll find powerful social prejudice, to the point of female devaluation. And now, that devaluation is seen in the destruction of unborn and newly born girls: as technology increases, so does selective killing… inordinately biased against girls.

"Even today when you go to a temple, you are blessed with 'May you have many sons.'"

Female feticide worst in places of militant Hinduism

Perhaps not surprisingly, the incidence of female feticide rises in the places where traditional Hinduism is practiced militantly. For instance, in the western desert state of Rajasthan, where militant Hinduism controls much of the political and police infrastructure, newborn girls are often killed by pouring sand or tobacco juice into their nostrils.

"The minute the child is born and she opens her mouth to cry, they put sand into her mouth and her nostrils so she chokes and dies…

"They bury infants into pots alive and bury the pots. They put tobacco into her mouth. They hang them upside down like a bunch of flowers to dry…

"We have more passion for tigers of this country. We have people fighting for stray dogs on the road. But you have a whole society that ruthlessly hunts down girl children."

Is it any surprise that this state of Rajasthan is also the place where orphan caregivers have been terrorized and tortured, this last year? Some people are very invested in making sure that young girls don’t get a chance, that outcast children remain outcast – locked into their sordid place.

Female feticide not a matter of education, but ideology

Also, interestingly, in India, the incidence of female feticide also rises in relation to education and social class. Chowdhury says that the practice of killing baby girls is ‘more prevalent among the educated, including in upmarket districts of New Delhi, making it more challenging for the government.’

"How do we tell educated people that you must not do it? And these are people who would visit all the female deities and pray for strength but don't hesitate to kill a girl child…”

One can sense the frustration in her voice: the very ones who supposedly wouldn’t do such a thing – educated classes – are the ones who practice it most. Underlying her words is the rampant drumbeat of a lingering caste system, and all its ideological devastations.

In other words, the India that Amy Carmichael discovered, where young Indian girls are most at risk, where beautiful girls are devalued and sold before the altar of Shiva, that India still makes itself known – to the tune of 10 million dead girls in 20 years, and countless other millions broken into little inner pieces, trapped in physical and spiritual slavery.

And, when caregivers offer integral intervention to these outcast girls, they soon find that they only risk their own lives and reputations: in many places, it isn’t safe to rescue girls from social destruction. Just ask Sam Thomas and the Hopegivers caregivers, who’ve been persecuted, imprisoned and terrorized this last year, in Rajasthan!

The place to counter female feticide…

The place to counter this female feticide is in the heart – to change the heart, to offer a new vision to the mind. In practical terms, this means supporting those who are making a difference – those who actually rescue these girls and tell them that their life has infinite meaning!

In other words, there is an inward and outward demand that this feticide places upon us: it begins in our hearts, we who say we care, and then flows to the point places of need. It begins as we look in the mirror and say, “Who, me?” and then answer by saying, “Yes, I too bear the blame.” And then, giving and living to make a difference: give to people like Hopegivers, who exist to meet this need, among others. And, then live like we really care about feticide: it’s pure spiritual foolishness to act as if we are against female feticide in India, and then voting to support abortion here in the USA. It’s like the lady who said she supported missions in Africa but wouldn’t let a black man pray in her church – the same human idolatry underlies both feticide and abortion…

Look in the eyes of these girls, and ask if they deserve a chance at equal life. Ask if they are worth the world – and consider how many lights like theirs have been darkened!



And as you ponder this, consider a gift to Hopegivers, this Christmas! As one said long ago, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it!”

In your gift, in your life, in truth, the light goes on, still!

Merry Christmas as you make a difference this year, here!

Selah.

A gift of hope

A gift of hope begins with you! Your prayers, your thoughts, your gifts make a difference.

Click on the picture and follow the links -- here is a chance for everyone to support, each of us doing what we can, at our own level.

See the fragile hope in the eyes of these girls, and don't let that hope die!

Be a hopegiver today!

Dr. Sam Thomas: A man of courage and steel

Hebrews 11:35-40 Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated — the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

A life of light and glory

How would you feel if separated from your wife or husband for 11 months? And, what if you could end this separation by selling out just a bit of your calling? Would you remain at your post, true to your high calling in Christ…? Or would you sprinkle just a small sacrifice on the Emperor’s altar? Just a tiny pinch of incense – it’s nothing really! – and you are free to go! Free to travel anywhere you please, free to take your ease, like the rest of the world...

This is no theoretical question. It is the stuff of real life.

Dr. Sam Thomas has paid this kind of price this year, forced into false imprisonment and lonely separation from his wife and children. His “great crime” is the loving care of outcast orphans in Rajasthan, India. There, militant Hindu authorities have made Sam’s life a living hell this year, trying to force him into death or quitting, casting the rescued orphans to the wind…

And, his wife Shelley has lived this torture with him, separated by thousands of miles, continuing the ministry and raising their children, in faith, alone…

And people don’t understand why he stays, why he toughs it out, giving his life for the care of Indian orphans. Even “good Christians” fault him for staying…

I thought of Sam as I watched part of a series called “Walk as Jesus Walked.” In one scene, modern Christians traveled into caves where Christians once lived. They went deeper and deeper into the earth until they were twenty stories underground. 20 stories! And there, deep in the earth, they entered a little chapel, a chapel with a cross carved into its entrance…a cross etched deep by thousands upon thousands of Christians across the years, persecuted believers who felt the cross on the wall as they entered to pray and sit in darkness…twenty stories underground, without light, without hope of day, without the safety of home or comfortable toiletries…in darkness, praying to the Light of life.

For what?

For nothing other than the call of Christ.

All they would have to do to be free is just walk back up, up the twenty stories, out into the light and air, walk over to an altar, and toss a pinch of incense on the small flame, confessing Caesar as lord. And that’s it! Now you are free to live in comfort, free to travel, free to go as you please – all this for just a small, very small, sell out…over in a moment! And oh! how much better you feel!

But they stayed there, deep in caves in the earth, in prisons, wrapped in chains, lives counted as naught for the sake of the call…willingly suffering so that we might inherit the richness of faith, vital life, passed down in blood, for sake of truth.

...of whom the world was not worthy.

Sam Thomas stands in that line. His life is on the line, right now, for the sake of the call. Sam is one of the thousands of Christians being persecuted as we speak, for the sake of faith.

And he could escape it all for just a small, very small, sell out! over in a moment’s time…

But he stays!

I think of Sam, and I think of the others, both now and then, who give their all for faith…and then I think of what modern Christians have made faith into…and my head bows low.

I think of what we call Christian success – gleaming megacenters filled with Christianized self-help messages, endless streams of self-actualization offers… I think of how we have defined the will of God – as something easy, as something that must accord with social expectation, as something that gives instant returns…as something all about “open doors” and “good choices” made in line with others who buy the same line….

I think of this cultural Christianity in light of Christ's higher call, and I can only bow my head, and confess my lack. I pray with Isaiah, “Lord, I am a man of unclean lips and I live among people of unclean lips. Please help me!”

Christians have faulted Sam Thomas for staying, as if he is missing the will of God because of the discomfort, because of the separation from family. One Hindu police officer asked Sam, “Why do you want to continue in this work? Why not go and live a comfortable life in USA? Why not sell all the property?” And to this Sam could only reply, “Because of all that God has done for me, I must serve Him more!” For Sam, it is about the call – the utter reality of seeing Christ’s intent face to face, and living in that light.

Every life that Sam touches, every orphan he saves, is an infinite blessing. Every day that Sam’s wife Shelley quietly prays, raising her children in hope, is a day of unending light. For these the world was made, these who live the Image of God, the intent of Creator in creation!

And we, we who live in comfort, can we do any less than support this call, with our all?

So then, let us live our own high calling – giving up the necessary cultural falsehoods, so that we can answer in light to the God of Light: Yes, I lived that intent for which I was made, my Lord and God!

Thank you, Sam and Shelley, for showing us, in current terms, what it means to live the call.

May we follow this light, in sacrifice, to our destiny!

Selah.

Note: Please consider a gift today for Hopegivers orphanage. And with your gift, please consider a five-minute prayer! Many thanks, this day...

India's lost girls

India's endangered species: baby girls

The brides never had a chance to be born

In Punjab, special prayers of thanks greet the birth of a boy… Girls are born into silence.

"People say, you have two girl children, you have done some sins in your past life…" Surinder Saini.

Recent research into India’s abortion by sex selection estimates that India has experienced a net loss of 10 million baby girls over the last two decades. This is stunning. Certain groups dispute the figure. But what is not disputable is the unusual gender balance in India. Estimated research is disputable, but empirical numbers are not.

Demographic studies across India show that, on average, there are around 900 girls for every 1,000 boys. In some provinces this figure dips below 800 for the girls, and sinking. Multiply this figure times the national number and the result is staggering.

Female devaluation not devastates girls, it hurts an entire society.

Jill McGivering aptly notes:

All those years of prejudice against girls are finally coming back to haunt this society.

There is such an acute gender imbalance here that it is causing real social problems. Young men are coming of marriageable age, only to discover there is no one left for them to marry.

The young girls who would have been their brides never had the chance to be born…

In Haryana, a quarter of the female population has simply disappeared.

Inquiry into Rajasthan female feticides

Police in the Indian state of Rajasthan have launched an investigation into 21 doctors who are alleged to have been involved in aborting female fetuses. But those persons truly invested in saving female lives say that this “police investigation” is just a smokescreen to cover up the real problem. They have no faith in the police or state politic on this issue, instead pleading for the Central Bureau of Investigation to take up the cause.

"The police case is just an eye wash to delay the investigation. We don't have faith in the state agency. We want the CBI to investigate the scandal," Kavita Srivastva of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) said.

According to the last census, Rajasthan has 922 females per 1,000 males. However, some districts have an even more dismal sex ratio.

Gory tale of Punjab's lost girls

In Punjab, the government is investigating the “possible involvement” of state officials in setting up illegal clinics and ultrasound centers dedicated to female feticide.

Last week, a surprise raid by police and health officials unearthed a 30-foot well located behind a private clinic, which contained the remains of female fetuses.

The discovery provoked the ‘largest ever campaign against female feticide’ across the state's 23 districts; yet Virender Singh Mohi, the official who led the raid against the hospital, has received several phone calls with death threats – threatening to kill him if he continues the raids on private hospitals. In response, Mr. Mohi notes the obvious:

"There are very strong and influential vested interests in keeping this illegal practice going...”

Darshan Kumar Singla, a local journalist in Patran, says that although everyone is aware that female feticide is illegal, most people do not think anything about aborting a female child and trying again for a boy.

"Female feticide is rampant in all the small towns here. Most nursing homes do such work at night and everybody – the police, the health authorities and the civil administration – knows this is happening.

He says that people are sitting up and taking notice only because the fetuses in the well became too public to ignore, that the problem is so widespread and ingrained that laws cannot stop the practice – it only creates a booming black market.

The implication is that only a change in heart, a change in culture, will end the destruction. The system of dowry – and attendant ingrained devaluation of girls – feeds into deep greed in the parents’ hearts. It is common practice for parents to abort girls and try again for boys – even among those who otherwise might be against the practice of female feticide [in theory].

Pritam Singh, the owner of Sahib Hospital who is under arrest, says, "The only thing that could really end this problem is a firm end to the system of dowry.”

Praying for a cultural change of heart

But, of course, ending dowry would mean a change in the hearts and minds of traditional Indian people. The India that Amy Carmichael found a few decades ago, where girls were devalued and fed into the crucible of ritual Hindu temple prostitution, lurks just beneath the surface of this debate.

When someone tries to make a difference, s/he is threatened with loss of life or vocation. Just ask Sam Thomas and the Hopegivers orphanage in Rajasthan, where they’ve faced an incessant tide of threats, beatings, persecution, imprisonment, and illegal law manipulation in their effort to reach outcast girls and boys. Just ask the girl orphans of Emmanuel Hope Home who’ve faced attempted rape by Hindu authorities in Kota, Rajasthan.

The issue is serious and heartbreaking, and goes to the soul of Indian culture as surely as the practice of American abortion goes to the soul of our culture: the place where truth is exchanged for lies and innocents pay the price on the altar of human greed.

And here is where a devastating Indian practice reaches across the oceans and continents, and runs down the line of good and evil that pierces our own hearts.

We cannot truly stand for innocent Indian girls without also standing against something in our own cultural soul…

Selah.

Congressional signers of the Akin-Wicker letter re: orphanage

U.S. Congress contacts Indian Prime Minister
The letter specifically mentions Hopegivers orphanage, and asks that Prime Minister Singh take a personal interest in the ongoing persecution of Christians and minorities in India.

Below are the members of U.S. Congress who signed on to the Akin-Wicker letter to Indian Prime Minister Singh, requesting that he take action to halt the religious persection taking place now in India. The letter specifically requests that the Hopegivers orphanage in Kota be protected [Emmanual Hope Home (EMI)] and that its leaders be released from prison.

The letter is listed in full, here. To which these intrepid members signed:

Page one of signatures:

Page two of signatures:


These signatories are worthy of our gratitude. If your congressperson is listed here, please consider sending a note of thanks.

Kota: A place for prayer and action

Religious persecution is on the rise in India,
directly affecting thousands of orphans
and their key caregivers.
It's a time for us to help them as we can.

A time for prayer and action

In answer to many prayers and letters, members of the U.S. Congress will be sending a letter to Indian Prime Minister Singh. This is a great gesture and something that we help with – please take five minutes and call or email your congresspersons and encourage them to sign onto this letter. God bless you for your thoughts!

Copy of the note from International Christian Concern:

Help stop religious persecution in India! Contact your Member of Congress and ask him/her to sign onto the Akin-Wicker letter to the Indian Prime Minister. Reps. Todd Akin (R-MO) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) will be sending a letter to PM Singh of India asking him to intervene on behalf of Hopegivers International and other religious groups in India currently being persecuted by Hindu extremists. Call or email your Member of Congress today and urge them to sign onto the Akin-Wicker letter. Call your Representative or Senator at 202-224-3121 (Capitol switchboard) or find their email address at www.house.gov or www.senate.gov.

The deadline for your Senators and Representatives to sign onto this important letter is Wednesday, March 29th, so please call or email today!

Below is a copy of the letter:

Dear Prime Minister Singh,

As evidenced by the recent visit of President Bush, India is an important friend and ally of the United States. India is a strong voice for democracy and stability in South Asia and has been a staunch ally in the War on Terror. Our countries’ economic, political, security and social ties are strong, and we look forward to continuing to fortify this relationship.

It is as friends that we write today to voice our concern about the recent increase in religious violence in parts of your country. As you know, the freedom to believe and practice a religion of one’s own choosing is vital to maintaining a strong democratic nation. The persecution of religious groups, no matter how large or small, is a step backwards for any country, especially growing democracies like India. In recognition of this, India ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1979, which states in Article 18, “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.”

We believe that India’s leaders value religious freedom, but we are concerned about the recent spike in violence against religious minorities in parts of your nation. The ongoing attacks on both Christians and Muslims are disturbing, and we urge you to take strong actions to protect all your citizens from religious violence. We also are concerned about the movement to adopt “anti-conversion” laws in various Indian states. While individuals should be protected from coerced conversion, citizens must be free to choose and change their beliefs as they see fit. Anti-conversion laws, like the one recently introduced into the Rajasthan Assembly, are alarming, because of the seeming encouragement they provide to groups promoting violence against minority religious groups, and are a clear contradiction to the values reflected in the ICCPR. We urge you to take a stand against these harmful laws.

We have enclosed for your review several examples of recent acts of religious violence in India that have come to our attention. We find one specific situation to be particularly dire and troublesome. The recent attacks in Rajasthan on Emmanuel Missions International, known in the United States as Hopegivers International, are of deep concern to many in our country. This Christian organization, which runs a number of orphanages and schools, has suffered numerous attacks and now its 2,600-child orphanage in Kota is under a virtual siege. Two administrative staff have been under arrest for three weeks without charges, and the leaders of Emmanuel are in hiding as a bounty has been publicly placed on their lives. Emmanuel’s bank accounts have been frozen, and a school and church were burned down in Jaipur as the local police watched. We have grave concerns about the ability and desire of the local authorities to protect these children and the staff of Emmanuel. Therefore, we respectfully request that your government take immediate action to quell the violence and religious discrimination in Rajasthan. The situation in Kota, Rajasthan, is of special interest to many Members of the U.S. Congress and our constituents, and we look forward to learning of your actions on behalf of the persecuted Christians of Emmanuel Missions International.

Thank you for your continued friendship with the United States. We truly appreciate your leadership and the strong, reliable ally America has in your country, and we urge you to continue to protect the foundations of religious freedom vital for the growth of democracy.

Sincerely,

REP TODD AKIN
REP ROGER F WICKER

It is a good letter – one that good-hearted people everywhere can support. Let’s do our part, ok?

God bless,

Loy