Sam Thomas presses the battle for orphans

Hopegivers orphan care carries on in faith

Hopegivers International is sporting a new website, fronted by recent coverage of Dr. Sam Thomas, and his return to India. Dr. Sam was recently reunited with his wife Shelley, and their boys, after being separated from them for 14 months. His time with them was brief… and he returned to India, to carry on for the orphans there.

It all sounds so easy, so clinical, but the reality is truly life-threatening. Sam is risking his health, his freedom and his life for these orphans. He’s already been persecuted terribly and imprisoned, facing threats spoken and physical. Like Nehemiah, Sam has many high profile enemies who seek his life. And yet, also like Nehemiah, the cause is worth the risk.

He’s offering himself to stand in the gap for the orphans, to take a lead for the work there. As the article states,

There have been many setbacks and obstacles for the ministry on the India side over the last year. And as much as he suffered through the persecution, his real heartbreak was for the hundreds of children who were forced back to the streets when the orphanage licenses were revoked last March. Since then, it's been an uphill battle all the way, trying to get them reinstated so the kids can come back. Any day now Sam is hoping to hear the news that the orphaned and abandoned kids – his kids – can come back home.

In Sam’s words, “I breathe, sleep, dream, and talk about my goal and deepest desire – one million orphaned and abandoned children raised up for God.”

That is a passion worth giving one’s life for! Read the whole article here.

Sam’s departure words from Atlanta airport are reminiscent of the Apostle Paul, as he stood at safe harbor and said, “I must go to Rome for the sake of the gospel, whether I am free or bound!” Essentially, Sam looked at the reality on the ground in India, and said, ‘I am willing to be free or bound for the sake of saving orphans.”

He entrusted his wife and boys to the God who does all things well, and then flew to India – facing threats, persecution, intimidation, legal manipulation, and spiritual warfare… all for the sake of the call. He doesn't know for sure if he will see them again, but he is driven to the calling of saving lives: a million orphans in his vision.

God bless you, Sam Thomas! You are in our prayers…

For those of you who want to be a part, offer your prayers today, and consider visiting the new Hopegivers site and making a donation for orphans and leaders.

It will be a small part, a cog in the wheel of integral orphan care and deep sacrifice!

God bless you too, for your care!

Selah.

The plight of India’s children

Two recent reports have come out of India related to children’s issues and intervention: one report deals with the ongoing problem of Indian girls, and the other report details widespread lack of nourishment among Indian children. These reports give a bit more context to the resistance that caregivers face in providing care to these at risk children. The same cultural dynamics that place Indian children at risk also resist the care options for these children, especially girls…

A cry of girls at risk

The first article is somewhat hopeful, as India's central government tacitly acknowledges a deep problem. It plans a serious of “cradle orphanages,” where unwanted baby girls can be raised – hoping to stem the tide of widespread female feticide. Research shows that more than 10 million Indian girls have been killed in the last two decades, via abortion and infanticide.

Renuka Chowdhury, the minister of state for women and child development, has taken this issue to heart. She notes that female feticide is producing an alarming imbalance between males and females, and hopes to offer a solution. Thankfully, Renuka is outspoken on this issue, and we can only pray for others to follow her lead.

The last line in the Detroit News article states the underlying issue: destruction of girls “stems from the low value attached to females in Indian society.”

It is a deadly serious issue. India’s Hindu culture struggles with the results of its own prejudice, and now faces a painful truth: Any society that devalues its girls devalues itself.

A story of malnourished children

A second article details figures from India's National Family Health Survey, showing that nearly half of India’s children are malnourished. This puts India, now the most populous country, ‘in the same league as some of the world’s poorest countries.’

India has made dramatic strides on the world stage, enjoying a technological and economic boom – and yet these economic gains are not being matched by ‘equal improvements in the health of its more than one billion people.’

This is staggering to think about, really – that a country with more than one billion people exists with half of its children malnourished. The numbers are numbing.

Werner Schultink of UNICEF concludes that India should be worried: “It’s going to be difficult for India if it wants to use its human resources to develop the nation but does not make [human] improvements.”

A chance to make a difference

Behind both of these reports lurks an underlying societal brokenness – the war on India’s children, its girls and outcastes, is a war that starts in the mind and works its way into the streets – a terrible reality.

It’s interesting that the people invested in assisting orphans and unwanted Indian children are often the same people rejected by traditional Hindu power brokers. In light of India's great orphan need, consider how Hopegivers orphanages have been treated this last year! Consider how Sam Thomas and other caregivers have been attacked, their lives threatened and ruined for trying to help the same children that others do not want! The children unfed, unclothed and outcaste, the girls devalued and thrown away… these poor girls are offered care, and yet those who give them care are viciously attacked by entrenched Hindutva leaders!

Herein is the crux of the problem. I pray that Renuka Chowdhury and the other appointed ministers of India will not overlook systemic issues, and not overlook the amazing resources already in place for helping these girls. Already there are orphanages in place, places of education and care, staffed with loving, sacrificial people… if only these orphanages could be protected from the onslaughts of entrenched traditional militants!

Here also is a path for us to help. We can do something, by supporting Hopegivers orphanages – places of light and hope for India’s children…

The sacrifices of Dr. Sam and M.A. Thomas, and the intrepid caregivers of Emmanuel Hope Home, and others in India, are not in vain.

And our gifts are not in vain, providing moments of light and salvation! Please give something today, if you can... God bless your heart and actions!

Selah.

Dr. Sam Thomas: A man of courage and steel

Hebrews 11:35-40 Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated — the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

A life of light and glory

How would you feel if separated from your wife or husband for 11 months? And, what if you could end this separation by selling out just a bit of your calling? Would you remain at your post, true to your high calling in Christ…? Or would you sprinkle just a small sacrifice on the Emperor’s altar? Just a tiny pinch of incense – it’s nothing really! – and you are free to go! Free to travel anywhere you please, free to take your ease, like the rest of the world...

This is no theoretical question. It is the stuff of real life.

Dr. Sam Thomas has paid this kind of price this year, forced into false imprisonment and lonely separation from his wife and children. His “great crime” is the loving care of outcast orphans in Rajasthan, India. There, militant Hindu authorities have made Sam’s life a living hell this year, trying to force him into death or quitting, casting the rescued orphans to the wind…

And, his wife Shelley has lived this torture with him, separated by thousands of miles, continuing the ministry and raising their children, in faith, alone…

And people don’t understand why he stays, why he toughs it out, giving his life for the care of Indian orphans. Even “good Christians” fault him for staying…

I thought of Sam as I watched part of a series called “Walk as Jesus Walked.” In one scene, modern Christians traveled into caves where Christians once lived. They went deeper and deeper into the earth until they were twenty stories underground. 20 stories! And there, deep in the earth, they entered a little chapel, a chapel with a cross carved into its entrance…a cross etched deep by thousands upon thousands of Christians across the years, persecuted believers who felt the cross on the wall as they entered to pray and sit in darkness…twenty stories underground, without light, without hope of day, without the safety of home or comfortable toiletries…in darkness, praying to the Light of life.

For what?

For nothing other than the call of Christ.

All they would have to do to be free is just walk back up, up the twenty stories, out into the light and air, walk over to an altar, and toss a pinch of incense on the small flame, confessing Caesar as lord. And that’s it! Now you are free to live in comfort, free to travel, free to go as you please – all this for just a small, very small, sell out…over in a moment! And oh! how much better you feel!

But they stayed there, deep in caves in the earth, in prisons, wrapped in chains, lives counted as naught for the sake of the call…willingly suffering so that we might inherit the richness of faith, vital life, passed down in blood, for sake of truth.

...of whom the world was not worthy.

Sam Thomas stands in that line. His life is on the line, right now, for the sake of the call. Sam is one of the thousands of Christians being persecuted as we speak, for the sake of faith.

And he could escape it all for just a small, very small, sell out! over in a moment’s time…

But he stays!

I think of Sam, and I think of the others, both now and then, who give their all for faith…and then I think of what modern Christians have made faith into…and my head bows low.

I think of what we call Christian success – gleaming megacenters filled with Christianized self-help messages, endless streams of self-actualization offers… I think of how we have defined the will of God – as something easy, as something that must accord with social expectation, as something that gives instant returns…as something all about “open doors” and “good choices” made in line with others who buy the same line….

I think of this cultural Christianity in light of Christ's higher call, and I can only bow my head, and confess my lack. I pray with Isaiah, “Lord, I am a man of unclean lips and I live among people of unclean lips. Please help me!”

Christians have faulted Sam Thomas for staying, as if he is missing the will of God because of the discomfort, because of the separation from family. One Hindu police officer asked Sam, “Why do you want to continue in this work? Why not go and live a comfortable life in USA? Why not sell all the property?” And to this Sam could only reply, “Because of all that God has done for me, I must serve Him more!” For Sam, it is about the call – the utter reality of seeing Christ’s intent face to face, and living in that light.

Every life that Sam touches, every orphan he saves, is an infinite blessing. Every day that Sam’s wife Shelley quietly prays, raising her children in hope, is a day of unending light. For these the world was made, these who live the Image of God, the intent of Creator in creation!

And we, we who live in comfort, can we do any less than support this call, with our all?

So then, let us live our own high calling – giving up the necessary cultural falsehoods, so that we can answer in light to the God of Light: Yes, I lived that intent for which I was made, my Lord and God!

Thank you, Sam and Shelley, for showing us, in current terms, what it means to live the call.

May we follow this light, in sacrifice, to our destiny!

Selah.

Note: Please consider a gift today for Hopegivers orphanage. And with your gift, please consider a five-minute prayer! Many thanks, this day...