Go Beyond | Kolkata

Thursday our team headed to the slum village to serve at New Hope School. Pastor Rudra and his wife Mita Singh have poured their lives into people who live in this slum. In this village there are many lovely people but Pastor Rudra tells of the many corrupt people who live here. Many girls are not safe as they are in danger of being stolen, sold or abused. Pastor Rudra provides education for free and he teaches the children about the love of a Savior who came to find them. He calls them missiles of faith as they then take that teaching home and share with their families who are striving so hard to please a plethora of gods.

We love seeing the children each year but are saddened many times as some children do not return. The children of New Hope dream of great things.

Dibasi is a great helper as well as a student. He is a leader and has a personality that lights up a room. He hopes to be a policeman when he grows up.

Prianka wants to be a doctor.

Uttam wants to be a doctor and Suman wants to be a police officer. Heather wants to be a princess. 🙂

Payel wants to be a police officer. Sourav, her brother wants to be a pilot. They are children of an abusive father. Their 15 year old sister lives with the Singhs as she was being repeatedly raped by her father. Sourav is learning to be a kind young man and not follow in his father’s footsteps. Pray for Payal as she becomes older. Her safety is in question and in this small village and because of the culture surrounding it there is little support for protecting girls in homes like this.


Santu who is dear to our hearts wants to be a Children’s Pastor. He has been teaching at the school for few years and has given much to pursue his university studies and continue serving at the school. He is 25 and we are all looking for the perfect girl to marry him — he blushes a lot when he is around us!

Today the children learned about fruit and the fruit of the Spirit. They were taught about showing love. They are very good at that!

We ended our day at Jewel In A Crown. This is a ministry that teaches women to make jewelry. They are all women over 18 that have decided to earn their way out of the sex trade. Our day was so very blessed by being in their presence.  Un-deserving was the feeling that most of us had as we pampered these special women.