'Tis Better to Give...

Across the street from our house is an "MK home", which houses 17 children.

The children who live there are from the Northeastern states of India. In truth, those states should be their own country, but India will not let them go because they want a buffer from Bhutan and China. There are constant wars and battles between the people of these states and India.

The people who live there look more Asian. They look Thai, Mongolian, Chinese. Thus, they are at the bottom of the "food chain" as it were. India does not care for them nor do they provide for them, yet they will not let them go. So, life is hard all the way around.

These Children were growing up in a war torn place. They were unable to go to school and they are very familiar with death and guns. They can tell the difference between guns just by hearing the shot.

Their parents are working with the people in the Northeast to help them find the Truth. So, these Children are sent here to Bangalore to live and go to school. The place they stay is across the street from our house. (what a blessing!)

My sister Ruthie works with a youth group back in America and they had to go a service project- and Ruthie suggested giving these 17 children Christmas presents.

Ruthie brought the money here and we started shopping! There are girls and boys from 5- 15 so it was quite a task. We got each of them a t-shirt, a nice shirt (the little girls got dresses) clipboard, brain teaser book, notebooks with lined paper, coloured pencils, sharpener, erasers, pencils and pens. We packaged them into 3 different parcels. So each child had 3 gifts to open!

We invited them all over and put the gifts under the tree and they all sat around in our living room and folded their hands and swung their feet in total anticipation. Then we started handing out the presents and they were just so excited to see those pencils!!! They don't have money for school supplies. Then they opened their notebooks and shirts and they were all just thrilled to see them! The little girls who go the dresses opened them up and their eyes were as big a apples. They took them out of the package and put them straight on over all their other clothes and everything!

The man who runs this MK home is also from the Northeast and some of these kids are his nieces and nephews. We asked him if the gifts were useful to the kids, because as we shopped we just weren't sure.

He said that the following day was a Christmas party and the little girls had asked for something new to wear and he doesn't have money to get them anything. He doesn't always have money to feed them. So, he said no. But they they came over and they got the dresses from us and THAT is why they were so excited about it! We saw them the next day with their dresses standing so pretty and proud of their new clothes!

He also said that the clipboards were a great idea because just a few weeks ago, they had examinations at their school and they wanted to study. But, they don't have desks and they asked him for clipboards. He didn't have money to give them all clipboards, so he said no. Now, they each have their own clipboards! They were so thankful for all the things they got, even thought we may think of them as just necessities. These Children were thrilled to get the simplest things.

Too often, I am tempted to think "This Christmas isn't nearly as gift-full as others" or to complain, but all I have to do is look across the Street to see how RICH we really are. So, one of the best things we learned this Christmas is that truly, it is better to give than to receive!