Another VoyagerTM Deployed! Dream location!!

Report Submitted by: Joe Hurston - Mumbai, India - August 27, 2005 1:16am (India time)

This time the Air Mobile Team headed north in the mini-mini van skillfully driven by Willy our "God sent Driver". The trip was long and hot with numerous delays, badly damaged roads and bridges and a flat tire.

Finally we arrived at the Anugrah Children's Home about 3 hours north of Mumbai. We were greeted in the rain by Hiram Christian and Dr. Ila Paul. Within minutes Cindy and Dr. Paul were going over the medical situation in the area caused by the great flood of July 26th. As they discussed the various post flood water-borne diseases, Hiram and I went over the all too familiar "disaster after the disaster" story. The flood destroyed homes, leaving many homeless. It also damaged the factories leaving many unemployed. The roads are a mess, bridges washed out or severely damaged, crops destroyed, etc. etc.. The disaster just keeps on going and going and going. What are we to do? Well, we do what we can, in our case one drop at time. That's why the Lord lead us to this incredible location.

It is truly difficult to describe the atmosphere of the Childrens Home. The children, 34 girls under Dr. Paul's loving care surrounded us with love and sweetness. Now, I don't want to sound boastful, but this is definitely not the Air Mobile Teams "first rodeo". Between Barbara, Cindy and me, we've seen hundreds, maybe thousands of orphanages. We've seen the good, the bad and the ugly. This home is THE REAL THING! The young ladies and staff just swept us off our feet. We knew within minutes that we were just where our Lord wanted us on this day, in this place with these precious children of God. Dr. Paul is doing a great job raising these girls (she began the home in 1996).

Dr. Paul is a third generation Doctor. Her skill, knowledge and compassion is the perfect combination for a Vortex VoyagerTM recipient. In addition to Dr. Paul, we met her staff. One of the teachers in the school is a bacterialogist. As we went over the training on the use of the Vortex Voyager TM, we were so blessed by the apparent understanding and appreciation of the gift we were presenting. Wow, what a deal for us. But the story just gets better.

Hiram and Dr. Paul urged us to visit several communities in the area that were equally devastated as their immediate area. They wanted us to consider donating other units. Just this very act of unselfishness encouraged us. Soon, we were winding down mud/rock slide paths to a small community just minutes away from the home, but now nearly an hour away due to a washed out bridge. This community was made up of "Gypsies" that had put down roots. That's right, this nomad tribe had settled in this area 13 years ago and have been educating their children. Soon we were meeting Ramesh Ingle, the "Chief" of the community.

When I asked Ramesh how he felt the program had been going, he warmly shared how the very first children were now graduating. The program and the "Gypsies" were here to stay. I was touched by the love that Dr. Paul and Hiram had shown to bring us here to share clean water with these 300 school children.
After investigating the water situation, we found that their water source was very contaminated and needed to be boiled 3 times a day. Also, having Hiram and Dr. Paul to support this community with medical and technical support made it an excellent choice. Now we left the community without a final decision.

Well, on the way home this evening, the Air Mobile team decided to place the Vortex Voyager TM in the Gypsy Community. We'll likely return with the unit next Wednesday. I know they're going to be blessed and very surprised that we came back so soon.

There is more to this whole story, but it's well after midnight and I'm just beat. Will continue the report tomorrow. Also, Cindy and Barb are both sleeping and haven't had a chance to edit it yet. So, what you read now will likely be changed a bit over the next 8 hours. You're getting a sneak preview of the final report, but I thought it would be good to share something with you.

Until later morning (it's 1:15am India time), an exhausted Joe signing off.

It's 9:57am - we've all had a reasonably good nights sleep. Life is good for us India. I'm amazed that that were no significant edits at the top. Cindy has her daily Bible fix, checks the e-mails from our kids and now we can begin the day. It's great to leave out a little later today, as our schedule permitted some "down" time. Cindy also wanted you to know that we're making lots of good friends here in India and we're pretty sure we'll be back.

Barbara looks forwarding to returning to the "Gypsy Village" and seeing the Gypsy's in their cultural attire. We'll be sure to snap a few shots for you.

This afternoon we're heading back to the LOK hospital with Dr. Stephen, who, by the way directed us to Hiram, Dr. Paul and the Children's Home. Dr. Stephen has asked us to share tonight in home Church meeting.


One other thing, I'll be putting in some cool shots of the various means of transportation here in India. Moving 1+ billion people around is quite a challenge. I've been absolutely captivated by a little vehicle called an "Auto-Rick Shaw".


These little 3 wheel "people/cargo movers" are just amazing. Many have a 1 cylinder engine (2 cycle & 4 cycle), must get a "gazillion" miles to the gallon and can carry a load up to 70 KPH (kilomters or about 40mph). They're very cheap and very cute! Each blog, I'll drop a shot or two of different configurations. Hope you enjoy them as much as me.


Until next time:

Joe, Cindy and Barbara


PS - PS - We're praying for Florida as Katrina plans round 2!

Joe