Most of the kids examinations are over now and we were all able to go to Church this morning in the midst of one of those heavy monsoon downpours! Mercifully the roads still hadn't flooded during our drive to St. Paul's and back and the vicinity of the Hope Home is strangely refusing to get flooded! We were recollecting the days when we had to move out the girls from the two rooms -  in the middle of the night- they shared before we built the new facilities! And the hours we spent to remove the flooded waters from the rooms, taking turns to empty the buckets in the field across our rooms! All that is now 'history'...we are so thankful to so many of you who gave sacrificially to make the new facilities a reality! How blessed we are!

The other news concerns the Gupta Brothers - Rohit (Noah) and Ranjit (Jonah). Their mother has been called in by the social welfare people on Wednesday, July 25 with the promise of having the boys released and handed over to her custody. Please pray that there would be no glitches in this process and that the boys would finally be set 'free' after more  than 4 months of captive confinement at the government sponsored welfare home.

We would keep you posted regarding the development/progress of the two boys.

Thank you all for all your encouragement and support, prayers and well-wishes for the Hope Home Calcutta and more importantly the boys and girls who make up our Hope Home family. Be blessed.

Dev

This is truly unbelievable. In the name of social welfare and child welfare, the Child Welfare Committee in Calcutta has still not released Ranjit and Rohit from one of their sponsored 'homes' and although some big talks and tall promises made by them, they have not been enrolled in any school (both should have been in Grade 5), neither are they permitted to attend their violin and guitar classes. Their mother, who made contact with us after 6 years was here in Calcutta, but due to a technical hitch was not allowed to take custody of her own children...and then to have a dear friend of ours comment that the government is just doing their duty !! We are now planning to take this to the human rights commission in India and the world too must know what is happening to our two boys...

                                                          Rohit (Noah) and Ranjit (Jonah)

                                                              ...with Amit on Saturday

                                                      ...with Supriyo, our Administrator
Mercifully, we are able to visit them and carry food, snacks, clothes etc and also spend quality time with the two brothers. The challenge is compounded because the mother does not live in Calcutta and cannot come over whenever necessary without any escort. Please keep praying.

Samuel and Sanjaya were able to join us at St. Paul's Cathedral Worship Service last Sunday for the first time. They are so excited to be back in Calcutta and are back in school. The monsoons have arrived and it rains some in Calcutta - not that the humidity and sultry weather makes it any better...but at least all of us are able to get wet in the rains!

One major development is that we were able to file online our application for recognition of our School with the government authorities and submit hard copies of all the mandatory documents. The inspection is schedule within 60 days. We are getting our fire extinguishers installed in our premises anyday this week! Once we receive this recognition, we would officially be permitted to manage our School project from Nursery to Grade 8! Please keep praying!!

Supriyo and Amit at work making coops for the 20 odd hens we are planning to raise from next week!

Sanjaya and Samuel at the Hope Home office last Sunday

We thank God for the Hope Home Calcutta van - it's put to good use especially on Sundays to take most of us to the St. Paul's Cathedral for the morning services!

Presenting the Hope Home Calcutta full-time 24x7 caregivers who keep our operations ticking around the clock and take care of every need - both operational and contingencies! What a blessing to have a team like this!

Most of the boys and girls are having their Unit Tests for Semester 1. Kezia, Martha and Guria enjoy their travel to school everyday and are a great support to each other...

I would be speaking at a Seminar organized at the DON BOSCO SCHOOL, KOLKATA on Friday on FEMALE INFANTICIDE IN INDIA (the other panelists being a doctor and a nun from Missionaries of Charity). Feel a great deal of nervousness...but passionate about the event regarding an issue close to my heart

Sumila and Grace had a tremendous time (although challenging, very challenging travel-wise) visiting the children in Nagaland and Assam. Heavy rains, mountainous terrain (cannot be called a proper road), a single battery-lit bulb birthday party for Lydia, visit to the present school where Lydia and Mary are studying, a night's stay at the Principal's home (without WATER in the rest-room), and then onto Assam to visit Junmomi and Anjali...we have tons of photographs on the computer and I'm posting just a few of them...thanks for praying and Joel - thanks for making this visit possible !!

It's been a gruelling past three weeks and we are sustaining on gallons of cold water and ice-cream! Mangoes are also being sold cheap this year because of heat and we are having a feast every other day!

The week long summer camp for children was a blessing to all the boys and girls. A few of our guys have now been given additional responsibilities on Sundays at the St. Paul's Cathedral morning services - handing out welcome packets to first-time visitors to the Church! Many are keen to see Ruth being part of the music program of the Church in due time.

Ruth meanwhile has assumed responsibilities of trainee-teacher at the Kolkata Music Academy of Abraham Mazumder since the first week of June! Her empowerment is near-complete and now it's her turn to equip others!

Anupam (Amos) seems to have grown up quite a bit during the two months he was at the government sponsored welfare home! He is happy, truly happy to be able to daily meet up with his brothers and sisters.

The heat has also the government to issue a circular to all concerned to reopen schools only after June 17th (after summer vacations). We get to enjoy the heat a few more days before classes start!

One of the greatest surprises we had was that we were able to meet up with the mother of Ranjit and Rohit (Jonah and Noah) along with their sister. Amazingly she just walked into our office last week. We were able to arrange for them to meet up with the boys at the social welfare home last Saturday. In all probability, the two of them would be handed over to the mother soon after we are able to provide documentation for them (they had no documents when we took them in). Pray for wisdom as we relocate them and help them to pursue their music training and education.

Sumila and Grace are schedule to return back to Calcutta today after meeting up with Lydia, Mary, Anjanli and Junmoni. There should be tons of photographs available on the blog after they return.

Thanks for standing with us over the past three months as the boys and girls continue to stand for justice and freedom and truth. Blessings, Dev

The heat wave across most of North India - including Calcutta - has made life very uncomfortable to say the least. And there seems to be no respite in the near future according to the meteorologists. We are sustaining ourselves by drinking gallons of water...and there's a mismatch between demand and supply of cold drinking water dispensed from our refrigerator!

The boys and girls are attending a week-long Summer Bible Camp (daily) at the St. Paul's Cathedral Church from yesterday and there's a Grand Finale we are looking forward to on Saturday. These few days are providing them with the opportunity of interacting with other students from different Churches and schools besides engaging in creative activities and learning.

Anupam has been released from the government sponsored home and his folks have been pleading with us to make some arrangements for his stay and upkeep. Please pray for wisdom, guidance and God's leading!

And before I forget to mention, besides water, one big crush the children have this hot summer in Calcutta is a almost daily, routine diet of ICE-CREAM!