Looking Up

On Sunday I talked to Joseph, as I usually do, and he told me some inconvenient news. When he was last involved in the childcare system in Kerala, opening a home was easy peasy. You informed the local police department, gave them your information and when you had your own land you could apply for government funding, that was basically it. Well things have changed. Let me back up. Saturday night Joseph met with a man who runs an orphanage near his hometown. The man was anything but encouraging. He talked about new licensing and inspection procedures for childcare centers in Kerala (which can take over 4 months to pass), persecution by the local people and government for being a Christian facility, and the difficulties of taking care of children. Needless to say we were very discouraged to hear this. Now knowing that we must get a license to begin our work, Joseph planned a meeting with a government official in the district we will be living in. The meeting was Wednesday and we were all praying hard about it. God heard our prayers! I talked to Joseph on Wednesday evening to find out how the meeting went and he had only good things to say. The government official told Joseph that we would have no problems getting started in June as planned, that what we plan to do is going to benefit the community and he would do anything he could to help us. He also said that the area we will be living in has a large Christian population, so we shouldn’t have many problems with discrimination. We are already aware that taking care of children isn’t easy, but with God’s help we will do the best we can.

Thankfully things are still looking up!

Joseph and Riny also found 4 more kids for Jubilee. All he had time to tell me was that they are 2 boys and 2 girls from tribal areas. I will talk with him again this Sunday and he will give me more details about each child.

I look forward to sharing more about our kids with you soon!