Jan’s Home: A Safe Environment for Bangalore’s Street Boys
In Bangalore, India, a group of wide-eyed, barefoot boys, dressed in grubby, tattered clothes smiles brightly as a photo is taken outside their home. Their smiles and playfulness make it hard to believe that for these boys, home is the city’s train station.
Mission to the World (MTW) is working to change that. And kids across the PCA will join the effort as they learn, through the 2009 Children’s Mission Project, about efforts to help the lost boys of the Bangalore station. Funds from the project will be used to help build a permanent home for street boys, to be named in honor of Jan Kooistra (wife of MTW coordinator Dr. Paul Kooistra), who passed away in 2008 after a lengthy battle with cancer.
“Jan was always touched by the children whose lives were being changed through MTW’s StreetChild ministry,” said Tom Stewart, director of MTW StreetChild. “So it is fitting that StreetChild in southern India would choose to name this home after her.”
The idea for Jan’s Home grew out of a church in Bangalore whose pastor has worked closely with MTW. He felt the church needed an avenue for mercy ministry and turned to StreetChild for help. A drop-in center for these boys has already been established, and a home will be an extension of that ministry.
“Jan’s Home will make all the difference in the world to these boys once it is built,” Tom said. “They will go from not having a family to living in a home.”
The goals of Jan’s Home will be to provide a clean, safe environment, regular meals, the opportunity to go to school, loving physical and emotional care given by live-in house parents, and a chance to be involved in the local church.
“The boys living in the home will not only hear about Christ’s love for them, they’ll experience it day in and day out,” said Stewart. “This would literally give them a hope and a future.”
Educating Kids
MTW’s annual Children’s Mission Project is an opportunity for children to learn about missions and the compassion of Christ. They also learn to pray and give money to help children, like them, but who live in vastly different circumstances.
Many children get their first taste of missions by watching the Children’s Mission Project video. The five-part DVD, entitled There’s No Place Like Home, can be shown in sections or as a whole at vacation Bible school, in church services and programs, in small groups, or individually.
To request a copy of the 2009 Children’s Mission Project DVD, There’s No Place Like Home, contact info@mtw.org.
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