TAILORING PROJECT
These pictures show our Tailoring Project! We ran the project in 2020 for the first time, and had two more schools in 2021 and 2022. In total we have equipped and graduated 75 women through the Tailoring Project and helped them to create a healthy work environment and a steady income. We are planning to continue this project in 2024.
CHURCH
Simon’s father is a former political leader who radically came to Christ when Simon was 8 years old. That time he started Jesus Comes Ministries, a church that is still growing to this day. Every Sunday they have a church service and they have weekly intercession and fasting times, where they focus on welcoming everyone, poor or rich, high caste or low caste, everybody is welcome! We also have a Sunday school where we disciple around 20 children! They learn Bible verses and dances, they express what they learn in various creative ways!
CHRISTMAS RALLY
Every year the JCM church organizes special Christmas Rallies. We go around the different villages to share about Christmas. During the Christmas Rally we also do awareness programs to educate people on alcohol use, smoking and personal hygiene.
PASTORS MEETING
Every year when we come to India we seek to encourage the local pastors. We organize a fellowship where we invite and gather the different pastors from different villages and we spend time together in worship, learn from one another and share a nice meal together. After that we bless them with a gift. All this to encourage them in the work they’re doing for the Kingdom!
MERCY MINISTRY
In India we can see a lot of poverty around us. We long to help those who are in need. We can see that especially old people and widows are suffering a lot. To help and encourage them we bless them by giving some basic needs: we hand out sarees (Indian cultural dress) and food such as rice, vegetables and masalas. Next to this we try to support them by spending time with them, listening to them and just being with them. This is valuable as loneliness is a big problem among these people.
HELPING CHILDREN
We love investing in children’s lives. There are many orphans and children who are poor in our local community. We want to encourage and help them where we can. One of the things we have done is handing out basic school supplies. We highly value education and this is one of the small ways we have supported that. In the future we are looking for more opportunities to support children in their education!
OLD AGE HOME
In India, care for the elderly is very rare. Often old people rely on their children for care but in some cases the children are not able to or have chosen not to take care of their parents. This also goes for people with a disability, for example people who are blind or death, or people with mental challenges. A local pastor, which Simon has known since he was a child, set up an old age home for people just like this, who need care. JCM Church has visited the old age home and provided food for the people living there. We are looking into more ways we can support this pastor and the old age home in the future. There are about 50 old people living there. It is a great initiative but also one that is lacking support. Because of this the living conditions are not great. We want to support them and add value to these people!
ENGLISH CLASS & HANDLETTERING CLASS
Children in India are very eager to learn and whenever we come to visit we facilitate English classes for kids. It is great for their educational growth and we also make it fun, it gives us an opportunity to invest in the children’s lives in a very practical and helpful way! We have also noticed that women in India usually don’t get the opportunity to develop their gifts and talents. They are often occupied with taking care of their family, cooking and cleaning. Our heart is to show them that with a little bit of time for themselves they can create beautiful things. We are giving hand lettering classes to empower women to find their creativity and use it to make something beautiful.