News from Faith United Presbyterian Church

The work has now grown to encompass four villages, and two slums, each poorer than Kandithankulam. In the fourth village, A.M Kulam, we have built 16 houses. Each house is has one room (10ft. x 8ft.) and one kitchen (5ft.x 5ft.) all with cement flooring. The families for whom we have built these houses were living in little huts with thatched roofs that served as part of the outer walls. They had only dirt floors. This village, as well as the other villages, has benefitted and is continuing to benefit in many other ways, because of our congregation's involvement. We have, even, helped a few exceptionally talented girls to get college education.

THE LIGHT ETERNAL AMERICAN CLINIC
Seeing the suffering of one woman in particular, and the absence of medical access in the area, in general, a couple from our congregation - who wants to be anonymous - came forward to build a Medical Clinic in Kandithankulam. With the $17,500.00 they donated, The Light Eternal American Clinic was built, equipped and furnished. From the year 2000, the clinic has been serving the medical needs of the people in Kandithankulam and several area villages. As the people of some nearby villages pointed out that this clinic was too far away for their sick to benefit from the services provided by it, a few months ago, we opened a small branch clinic closer to those villages. Both clinics are in the care of the same doctor and resident nurse.

I should add that each year two to three Medical Camps are held in our Village Clinic when about 200 to 300 patients are treated by our doctor and several voluntary physicians (gynaecologist, ophthalmologist, dentist and general practitioners) who bring their own nurses and proved free service. During each camp, we screen senior patients for cataract and arrange for free surgery for about 10 to 20 of them. Without this service many of them may go blind.

Thanks to the compassion and generosity of this congregation and other friends, we have built an endowment of a little more than $80,000, the interest from which pays the salaries of the physician, the resident-nurse, the janitor, and the utilities. Because we have invested the amount in an Indian bank, the interest is close to 9%.

When the Light Eternal American Clinic was officially declared opened, we were there. One Mr. Solomon, the then head-master of the Elementary School in Kandithankulam, said a meaningful, and moving prayer. We, often, recall some of the sentiments he expressed. He payed a tribute to our congregation. He said "The people who have built this Medical Facility for us have not seen us. They do not know us, and we do not know them. But the spirit of compassion, generosity, and Christian love has motivated them to reach out to us. We thank you, God, for them." A couple of weeks ago, at the young age of 57, he passed away. Please remember his widow and three daughters in your prayers.

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING YOU HAVE DONE
This was intended to be a thank you message from Raj and me, with a brief overview of the work we have done. I'm afraid the summary went longer than planned as our work spans 20 years. And, we have left out so much that we have done. As many of you, perhaps, know, 100% of your contribution goes to development work. There are no overhead costs.
We thank all of you for your continued prayers andsupport of the Kandithankulam Projects. A special thanks to Pastor Myers and Will Myers for the amount they raised through a very interesting competition Of course, the "hair and tortoise" competition was made very worthwhile by many generous and enthusiastic contributors. May God bless you all.

Saro Ambrose