Sanctuary Home For Children

This updated letter was written in October 2006 (last updated January 2008).

Tenali is located in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is a place vastly different from Abilene, Texas, USA. In Tenali, as in many Indian towns and villages, there are orphans and semi-orphans left to fend for themselves. There is no foster care system. Despite laws against such practices, children being sold into bonded labor or prostitution is not uncommon. For Hindus, orphans are simply a fact of life, a low rung on the wheel of reincarnation. If you’re an orphan or a widow, you must have done something in a previous life to deserve such an unhappy existence.

As Christians, we believe that these children are as precious to their heavenly Father as anyone else. Our mission is to rescue as many children as possible, starting with those living on the streets of Tenali. Our contacts in India are the Palaparthi family: Isaac and his wife Mary Margaret, and their three daughters, Ellen, Johny, and Esther. We are partnering with Isaac, a Christian man and our longtime friend, to fulfill his dreams of helping children through opening an orphanage in Tenali.

In the fall of 2005, an unmistakable chain of events was set in motion, and it all started with prayer. Through prayers, opened doors, expert advice, resistance, and finally acceptance of God’s will, Sanctuary Home has become a reality. We opened our doors on June 1, 2006, to fifteen children in Tenali. In four short months, that number grew to forty-two children, and as of January 2008 SH is home to seventy-eight children. Praise God! The Lord has provided a facility to house the children, a warden, a caretaker, two cooks, and a doctor. He provided for our needs when the children had to have school uniforms, bedding and utensils for the home, special medical treatments and surgeries, and when we needed to pay legal bills. He continues to provide what is needed.

The children of Sanctuary Home come from a variety of circumstances. Some lost parents in the tsunami, or from snake bite, heat stroke, cholera, or AIDS. Some have one parent still living who has remarried, and according to custom, the children of the first marriage are no longer welcome in the home. A few of the children have escaped from bonded servitude and torture. All had no hope for any future except on the street before they moved into Sanctuary Home.

In December of 2006, a small team from the Abilene-based organization will travel to India for the first time. We will take Christmas gifts for the children, as well as special greetings from their American sponsors. We plan to spend a lot of time with the children, getting to know them, and making plans for the future of the home. Our big dream is to help Sanctuary Home become self sufficient through cottage industry, thereby freeing all of our sponsors from their financial commitments – enabling them to help us start again and rescue another group of children.

You can read more about our story, our hopes and dreams, and the children at our website, www.sanctuaryhome.org. If you would like to help in any way, including sponsoring a child, please call Amanda at 325-672-9046 or email Amanda@sanctuaryhome.org. Thank you for your prayers.

This letter was written early in 2006 by Amanda.

We (Ray & Amanda) sponsor a child in Ethiopia through Compassion International, and we also receive the Compassion Prayer Partner Newsletter. This is a calendar, and for every day of the month, there is a specific prayer request for one of their sponsored children. Last fall, while praying from this list every day, I (Amanda) felt my heart really breaking for these hurting little ones. I began to pray that the Lord would show me something more I could do. I saw evidence of a hard world filled with needy, hurting children, children with no homes, no parents, no one to feed and clothe them, and worst of all, with no hope. Whenever I hug my own two children, I also think of the innumerable children with no mothers to hug them. This need was on my heart, and I prayed about it, and then filed it away in the back of my mind.

Last December, we received an email from Isaac requesting a financial gift so he could buy much-needed rice, saris, Bibles, etc., for poor preachers and widows in his area. He asked us to forward the email on to our family as well. (We send such a gift every year for Christmas.) Soon, my sister Alison replied, saying that she and her husband had recently been praying for the Lord to show them a need. They wanted to contribute some amount on a monthly basis, but didn’t know exactly what yet. I contacted Isaac about it, thinking he would put them in contact with another native preacher or maybe an Indian widow who was in need. Isaac immediately responded with an excited email about starting a children’s home! His interest in this was not a surprise to us, as he has spoken before about the orphans living on the streets of Tenali, and of his desire to help them. Still, our initial reaction was fear and denial: what a huge undertaking it would be! This was certainly not what we had in mind. We thought there was no way we could make it happen. But the more we thought about it, we realized that even though we alone couldn’t make it happen, God certainly could. And if it was something we could do through our own power, then there was no need for God, and I don’t think He really works that way. He uses people to do His work, small, insignificant people, and it is clear that His power is the driving force. And a little voice kept reminding me that I had prayed for this, for a way to help needy children, and that my sister had prayed for a need to meet as well. We believe in the Lord’s guidance, and we know that He will bring this about if it is His plan. (In fact, I have dragged my feet, and given the Lord every opportunity to close the door on this…but He has cleared a path instead.)

After much prayer, research, and planning, we are moving forward. The building has been rented and is currently being furnished and staffed in preparation for the first children. The children have been selected by Isaac, and each has some association with an area congregation. These kids are all of school age and currently in merciless situations, living homeless and without parents. By moving into Sanctuary Home, their physical needs will be met, they will have the opportunity to attend school, and they will be taught about the love of God. Our intent is to show them mercy.