"Dear Eric & Hannah,
Greetings in the name of our God.
I am Pastor S.C., Pastor of Association of revival Tabernacle Church (ART Church) associated with ART child development program, where you sponsored child Arun attends.
I express our gratitude for your kind support for your child in Harsh Vihar, Delhi. I am really grateful and thankful to our dear God for people like you, who are willing to serve and sponsor Arun. We sincerely thank you for your sponsorship for him.
ART started in the year 1999 with a vision of reaching the unreached. At present more than 2,500 members are attending our church regularly in different Fellowships. Ministry among children is one of the major focus of our organization. We are running various programs like providing care to children, child development centers and Sunday schools at various locations.
I would like to brief you about the area where the project is Located. Harsh Vihar is situated at the border of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. This community consists of migrants from various states of North India, who migrated here in search of better livelihood opportunities in the capital city of New Delhi.
The locality has approximately 60,000 households with a population of 300,000; among the population about 20% are children in the age group of 3-9.
Majority of the people here are migrants, stay in a single room house without basic facilities such as toilets, drinking water and drainage system. Sanitation facilities are completely neglected in this area.
Due to more migrants from different places, the inhabitants, including the native villagers, developed a mixed culture. They all belong to different castes and religion. Gujjars (Sun-worshippers), Dalits (the lowest of the castes) are the main ethnic groups (sub-caste) within the community. 85% are Hindus and remaining are from Muslim and Sikh religion. The average family size of this community is 5, and 80% of the people do not have a regular employment and income.
They depend on employment such as working in nearby factories in Delhi, construction labor, street hawkers, rickshaw pulling etc. The average family income is R.S.3000/- (US$ 67) per month. As the family size is more and the income is less, parents are unable to provide for the nutritional and health needs of children.
Many of the children are not attending school because they need to support their parents in augmenting family income. Thus the Church had started this project to address all these problems. The church identified 202 children from this community. Within a short span of time the project was able to impact the lives of these children, their siblings and parents.
We want to bring changes in every aspect of their life over a period of 3 to 5 years through the project. Our prayerful strategy to achieve this target is very simple, we make sure that the children and their parents will experience the practical love of God through the Child development program; in return they will become living witnesses among their own relatives.
The sponsor visits have brought a lot of positive impact on the lives of everyone because visits have created in them a sense of dignity and they are grateful to be a part of the bigger family of God. We received about 200 letters from the sponsors during last year.
I personally feel that, letters, small or long, between the children and the sponsor will improve the relationship and strengthen the confidence of the Children and parents because they will help them overcome their fears and enable them to experience the Love of God, and encourage them to come closer to Him.
We sincerely request you to pray for ART Church, that God will continue to bless the church and enable it to further reach out to the unreached.
We express our sincere gratitude for your prayers, sacrificial giving and loving support for Arun. May the hand of God's Blessings be with you forever and may you be a blessing to others.
Yours Sincerely,
Pastor S.C. (President)
Association of Revival Tabernacle (ART Church)"
I really enjoyed how Arun's pastor detailed the living situations for members of this community. I also think it's so neat what this church is doing to reach its community!
