Partner Feature
This past August, I had the privilege to partner with People of Grace International (POGI) by bringing a team from Fleetwood International Church (FIC) to visit God’s Dream Home in Shillong, India. God’s Dream Home is an orphanage run by a local pastor and his wife where they care for over 100 children, some of whom were picked up off the street from tent villages. POGI supports these children by funding their education, allowing them to break the poverty cycle they were born into. The team from FIC was able to minister to these children by bringing a summer camp program to the orphanage and sharing the love of Jesus with them.
The recent trip was unique in that most of the team from FIC were returning from a previous trip to God’s Dream Home in 2018. A huge highlight for us was being able to reconnect with children we met 5 years prior and seeing the impact that their education and the community at the orphanage have had on them.
There is one girl named Tutu whom we met in 2018 whose story truly broke our hearts then. She and her brother, Sameer, had been living in a shelter made of plastic tarps and scrounging for food from the garbage before being found by God’s Dream Home. Having never been educated, Tutu’s literacy was limited even though she was already a teenager. She has since grown into a bright young woman, fluent in 3 different languages, leading a ministry in the Hindi-speaking region of her community and helping care for the younger children at the orphanage. Sameer followed in her footsteps and even served as our translator for most of our trip. It was indeed a blessing to witness the fruit that comes from heeding Jesus’s command to “care for the orphan."
While these trips are short, they are significant in that we are able to encourage those who serve in isolated and oppressive areas and equip them with resources they might not have otherwise. Our time there serves simply as a catalyst for the ground team to go even further in their ministry. I am extremely grateful to POGI for giving the team the opportunity to serve in this precious work and I am excited to continue to support them as they change children’s lives, just as they did with Tutu and Sameer.
Thank you for your partnership,
Krystele
Lauren Rarama lives in Surrey, BC with her husband, Ken. Her role as the Missions Coordinator at Fleetwood International Church allows her to partner with various non-profit organizations to mobilize teams from the local church to go and make a global impact, serving where there is a need.
Ways to Give
Online: bit.ly/pogigift
Cheques to ICMS: Please include a "separate" note – For People of Grace International
Call or Email: (604) 240-5096 or peopleofgraceintl@gmail.com
