Dear American Cousins,
this is a letter from one of your British cousins presently staying at the mission in Vellatur. We Britons are helping the mission in the same way as you are by sponsoring the children at the orphanage, and by doing so assist in the good work done by the mission. This visit of ours seems like an ideal opportunity to develop a link between ourselves. After all, I feel we are not just cousins but brothers and sisters in our relationship with the mission and the work that it does through its ministry. There are 22 British families sponsoring children and I hear from Ratnam that there are 8 American families doing the same thing. We have seen all of the children over the past few days, yours included, on every occasion in their daily lives and I can assure you I have never seen a happier group of children. (more of them later.) We, (Bill & Joyce Walker from Cumbria England), arrived here a few days ago and we are touring the area with Ratnam opening bore-holes, attending baptism services, distributing food to the poor and generally seeing the work done by the mission. We are travelling in the area seeing how the mission and its Pastors live and work in the conditions over here in India and it is a real life experience. The poverty and deprivation that we see on a daily basis is indescribable, it is biblical in its scale and so hard to comprehend . To us the conditions that the people live in on a daily basis just seem impossible and yet they emerge so grateful for the little that we do, a very humbling experience. The mission itself is a case in point, truly we cannot take it in how Ratnam, Suneetha and their helpers and workers do so much with so little. The building they live in is itself, to put it bluntly a wreck and neither you nor I would live here for longer than a minute. They have one office ,which I am sitting in now, a kitchen, a bedroom come eating room, and a washroom. The water for which we pump out using an old fashioned hand pump situated in the yard. Yep! No running water! We bathe using a bucket of water and a scoop. There is a small room off to one side in which live 12 teen-age girls, this is to give them a degree of privacy!!The electric is powered but that constantly fails so we have a back-up generator. There are none of the facilities that we take for granted in our homes. Nothing.! So if there is anyone out there who thinks that Ratnam & Suneetha are doing well out of this mission let me reassure you, they are not. They put every thing they have into this mission and I am amazed at how they do it on the small funds available to them. Across the track is the mission building where the children live, eat and sleep, it is about the size of an average American or European family bungalow, it leaks when it rains and is not far from being ready to fall-down from lack of repair. Their facilities for ablutions are horrendous yet they are turned out immaculately for school each and every day. Cooking facilities are equally very basic. Forty six children sleep in there on mats on the floor every night! It is also the place where we meet for services and prayers. Apart from our sponsored children (24 British & 8 American) there are also 24 other children being looked after, these being refugees from the Tsunami disaster.
I’m sure you already know most of what I am saying, it’s not news to you otherwise you wouldn’t be supporting this mission in the way that you do. But as I’m here I wanted to make contact with you all and to answer any questions you may want to put to Ratnam and the mission. He feels that to have a native english speaker fielding your queries is too good an opportunity to miss and I agree with him. Joyce and I are moving up country tomorrow, 26th Oct., to visit other Parishes and to visit some of the Tsunami devastated areas, opening new bore-holes and distributing blankets, food etc. We will be away for 5 days, returning to the mission on the night of 30th October. Please reply to Ratnam’s e mail address if you have any questions which you want answered, we will do our best to answer them. I will also update you on the progress and plans for the future for the mission, the problems being faced and how the need for your support is greater than ever.
God Bless,
Bill & Joyce Walker
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