Saturday, May 19, 2007

Pipe Dreams

Yesterday, I visited Pipe Village. Pipe Village? What is that? Well as the rural villages don't provide enough work during certain parts of the year, many of the people have come into the city to work at this Cement Pipe factory. Because they have a home in the village, but they have to live near the factory, they have decided to take up residence next to the factory in the old discarded cement pipes. Their homes have become pipes with add-ons. The abject poverty and low wages just doesn't allow them the ability to have normal living conditions.
When I arrived I saw row upon row of new pipes within the factory walls. Then as we neared the village, the scenery looked almost exactly the same, save the brick walls that had been constructed to close off the end of these pipes. There was a row of smaller pipes all lying down parallel to each other with another parallel row opposite them. In the middle was a path from which you could reach the front of each pipe home. It looked just like a suburb street in Chicago - with similar style houses all lining the street and garage doors that matched each other. In this situation though - the people simply lived in pipes.
Some of the children attend our Dalit Education Centers and are being educated in English while learning Math, Science, Socials, etc... One of them will be attending our youth event. She actually was my translator as I taught the children two of my favorite songs, "Making Melody" and "The Ducks go by..." After the songs, I told them the story of David and Goliath and how God could use even the smallest among them to do great things for Him if they trusted in the fact that God was capable to do it through them. I then handed out chocolates to each of them and took some pictures of which they were very eager to see the results. Before the children's program though I had the opportunity to meet with a 23 year old diabetic man who lives with his mother while she works in the factory. He became depressed because of his inability to have energy to work and the prospects of a bleak and maybe short future. He decided to burn himself to death because of this hopelessness but luckily, someone helped to dowse the flames and he was saved. I asked him about what gives him hope now. He told me that it was the fact that he had some land and planned on cultivating it back in his village, as well as the opportunity he had to get married once he was better. "Will he get better?" I thought, when all they can afford is rice for their food with some spices on the side. Rice is the cause of many cases of diabetes here, but I've learned that it is so difficult for the people to afford something more nutritious among other reasons for eating too much rice. Mainly people are just hungry and need to eat, so it is difficult to give them a vision of what it means to eat healthy. I've encountered this in all my travels throughout India. Diabetes is a huge issue here it seems, because of the continuous diet of rice, as it is the most affordable.

I told him that I hate hopelessness and love hope and asked if I could pray for him. "What to do?" as many Indians say. So, I prayed for him and asked God for healing, for marriage, that he would be able to cultivate his land in the village and that he would be able to look to God for all of these things. He's come to believe in Christ, but continues being discipled as he still holds to some Hindu gods, as is normal in this polytheistic culture of many gods. Jesus just becomes an addition.
As I was leaving the village, this healthy and beautiful child was waiting playing outside the home and was very enthusiastic about my camera. Hygiene is poor as many of the children were coughing from the cement dust and particles, as well as just poor sewage and many of the other problems that are associated with slum dwellings.
The OMers working in this village have some projects they are working on. Thus far they have started a school in the village where not only the children are coming, but also their mothers. The teacher is receiving $100 a month to teach them throughout the week as well as running a Bible club. They want to enlarge the space for their school as well as start a candle-making business. There is no electricity so the children don't have a lot of daylight to do their homework when they get home from school during the winter and the candles would be very helpful for the entire community. They could earn an income as well as have a source of light in the evenings. I was really blessed to hang out with the people for an afternoon and to see the faces of the children. People are people no matter where you go in the world - they need food, shelter, water, security and love. These ones were no different.

As a result of this work, many have come to Jesus and are giving themselves to understanding Scripture and becoming literate so that they can read the Bible and other books. A few Churches have started there as the teacher's husband who started this work 10 years ago, pastors in the different homes and locations. They receive regular prayer and Bible teaching.

If you would like to stand alongside these workers in Pipe Village to invest in a transformational effort that is building the kingdom in pipes, please visit this website, https://usa.om.org/GiveOnline/ and select this option, "Give to support OM's ministry through a particular country/field" and then choose India as the country and write in the comments section that the gift is designated for the "Pipe Village project in Hyderabad" (this link is only for the US so if you are from another country, please visit, www.om.org and look for your country profile and through that you can give to the OM office there with the same designation type). If you would like to designate your gift even more precisely, ie. for the teacher's salary, for hygeine, for school supplies, for the Candle making project, for the Church ministry, etc... please also fill that in. Any gift amount is needed and appreciated.
Please pray for the man that burned himself - that he would continue to have hope in the midst of some obvious despair and that God would heal him of diabetes so that He can recognize God as the only one worth worshipping. Pray as well with me for the education, health and transformation of these families and that they would take the Gospel back to their village, over 80 kms away. Also pray for my translator and her family that they wouldn't try to marry her off too soon and would allow her to pursue her dreams. Pray also for a deep and spiritual impact on her heart as she attends this life changing youth event, something she's never seen before. Pray that she would wholeheartedly commit her life to Jesus and allow Him to meet her needs and lead her on under His gentle hand.

As you pray for her, know that a difference is being made all within one generation. My translator was only 13 or 14 and she knows Telegu but her mother tongue is actually another tribal language. She also speaks English and is learning Hindi at school. She's at the top of her class and we're excited that she will be joining us for our Teen Street event this week (www.teenstreet.om.org). Her dream is to be a doctor. Some would see her predicament and say, "that's only a pipe dream". I guess they would be right if we could only look through natural eyes. Her family is illiterate, uneducated, extremely poor, from a village and a low caste and they need the dowry that she could secure for them if she was married young. It is a "pipe dream", a dream birthed from a new hope and a from a heart that is beginning to really know who the God of Scripture truly is and what He's capable of. The work that God is doing through this transformational ministry in her village and through our school is changing her home and her life. It's giving her hope and dreams. The entire trajectory of a simple village girl's life will be able to transform her family, her future and allow her to participate in building the Kingdom of Heaven on earth - A hope, a Kingdom and a dream given to her as she grew up on the inside of a pipe.

2 comments:

  1. Dear Nate-

    Loved the post bro, I was waiting for you to bust out with 'living the pipe dream'....the temptation's too hard to resist.

    Hey, big news....I'm on to skype!
    Now tell me what to do and i'll give you a call. Or you can call me, at danandcatrina.
    We'll be here online in the mornings typically...

    I love you brother, much to catch up on....Dan

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  2. nate-
    i found your blog online after searching for 'pipe village' and 'mushahar.' ...i was in pipe village just about 56 hours ago and was very, very surprised to find photos and information about it!
    just curious, but how are you affiliated with om?
    looking forward to hearing from you!
    kandyce kingsley
    kkingsley@dalitnetwork.org

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