I've known Doug for a number of years now and have been intrigued with Serve The Children's work, both in Liberia and in India. I went with a team last year to Liberia and, this year, I went with the team to India for the first time.

If you haven't been to India with Serve the Children, allow me to take you on a "virtual tour" of our recent mission trip to the Ankoor Children's Home. 

Our combined travel was about 30 hours from Sea-Tac airport to our final destination in Maharashtra. India is 13½ hours ahead of us so, between the time change and the travel adrenaline (in other words, no sleep!), we arrived in Nagpur pretty bleary-eyed. It was here that we loaded up the vehicles for our four-hour car ride to Lasina.

In India, they have center lines on the road, but no one really uses them; they consider lanes more as suggestions--not rules of the road! On several occasions, our vehicle (think: large SUV) shared a single-lane road with a bus, a motorcycle, pedestrians, and a herd of water buffalo, all at the same time! 

As Danny Gaikwad (our driver and host) deftly bobbed and weaved his way between vehicles, oncoming dump trucks, buses, motorcycles, taxis and animals, there were moments when I felt as though we were characters in a live video game... only we had no game controller!

We arrived in Lasina tired, but grateful to be there. However, I was not prepared for what happened next.

When the gate opened and we entered the driveway, we could see children on the playground next to the driveway, and others running to greet us. Their bird-like voices rang out as they ran to meet our two vehicles shouting, "Hello uncle! Hello di-di (sister)!" Soon the playground was empty as the children flowed around the vehicles to welcome the Serve The Children team.

Mike Sandefur and I talked about this experience later in the week, and I described Ankoor as a "Jesus-bubble." It was as if we drove for four hours through a "dry and weary land" into a place of refreshment; like crossing a desert and entering a cool, refreshing waterfall. God's presence was palpable.

Most of the children knew "Doug-uncle", "Lu-auntie", and "Noel-didi", and were excited to meet the rest of us as well. Later I discovered that some of these children are from villages up to three and four hours away from Lasina, so they live at Ankoor during the school year. For others, due to abandonment and other tragedies, Ankoor is now their new home.

Here is a partial entry from my journal dated November 7th:

"From the looks of their health, their attitude toward us and each other, these are no ordinary children. These are children who are loved and well cared for. The Gaikwads have shown them Jesus and brought hope into their lives. What impresses me most is the children's spirit of cooperation. Each morning, the older children wake the younger children and sing praise songs and gather to pray at 5:30 AM. Then, at 6:00 AM, they begin their morning chores. Everyone takes part in morning chores. Some sweep, some feed the animals, some water, some wash clothes, some help with meal prep, but all have a part.

Nalini and Kiron (Ankoor's houseparents who are known as "Mommy" and "Daddy," respectively) provide leadership and direction, but they have empowered the older children to oversee the younger children in their chores and responsibilities.

After breakfast, it's off to school! Some go to a nearby public school and the younger kids go to school on campus.

Much of the food is raised right here on the property. There is a vegetable garden on one side of the property and a fruit garden on another part of the property. The garden raises such vegetables as eggplant, beans, turmeric, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, and other vegetables as well. The fruit area contains banana trees, lemon trees and some fruit I've never heard of! But the children revel in it...it is their garden; these are their trees. They tend, water, weed and care for these plants.

The children are so excited to have a part in providing for the entire school of 80 children plus staff, and they love showing their accomplishments to guests. Their level of responsibility is amazing. As they walked me through the fruit garden, they exclaimed, "Look, uncle, lemons!" "Look uncle, bananas!"

Next they wanted me to see the fish in the well. Water is scarce, but essential. During the monsoon season they catch as much of the rain runoff as possible and store it for later use by the entire school. Since there is no water piped into the property, all water must be collected during the rainy season or trucked in during the dry season. They also have a holding pond from which they get water, however the holding pond is empty now."

Each day ends with a chapel time of singing and encouragement from God's Word, then it's off to bed. Nalini and Kiron tend to each of the 80 children as if they were their own. They have assembled an incredible place for these children to live.

We went there with the purpose of encouraging these children by teaching English, guitar lessons, Bible-storying and just playing with them.

But somehow in God's economy, we came away as the blessed.

Jesus' driving mission was to see His disciples live out God's kingdom priorities in our world, that believers would live out His priorities in a way that is undeniably real. I've been to many places around the planet and few live out Jesus' kingdom priorities like Ankoor. This is a beautiful place of transformational Christian community. Jesus is changing these young lives and I look forward to seeing, by God's grace, what the seeds of these lives will produce in the years to come.

Click here to see more photos from Bill's trip to India.