India Partners' History
in Brief
In 1984, a pastor from India spoke at a church in Eugene, Oregon, USA about his orphanage ministry. The people of the church wanted to help and began a child sponsorship program. In 1994, India Partners incorporated as a separate nonprofit charity. In 1995, India Partners was granted 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status as a U.S. charity.
in Full
The tapestry that is India Partner's history has been woven by many people, in many ways. India Partners grew out of a mission program of a Eugene, Oregon, USA church in 1984. However, the tapestry began even earlier, with a letter to a member of that church.
Person-to-person
It is 1972. In Marietta O'Byrne's mailbox arrives yet another letter from India. Having decided to support an Indian pastor some years earlier, Marietta and her husband Ernie had been receiving these unsolicited letters ever more frequently. Frankly, many of the requests for help in these letters had a hollow ring to them. However, on this day a letter of a different sort arrived. It was from a sincere young pastor named Parishudha Babu Gadelli.
Pastor Babu and his wife, Mrs. Vijayasree Gadelli, had a heart for the many orphaned children in their town in Andhra Pradesh. In 1972, they began taking these youngsters into their own home as they could, one or two children per year. Soon they realized that what they wanted to do was to start a small orphanage in their hometown in order to provide the same kind of care to orphans that Babu himself had received growing up as an orphan in a local Christian orphanage. Pastor Babu heard about a couple from the United States who had been supporting Christian work in India. He wrote them a letter.
When Marietta read Pastor Babu's letter, her heart was moved. After further correspondence with Pastor Babu and Vijayasree, the O'Byrnes decided to support their ministry to orphans.
Over the following years, Pastor Babu's ministry slowly grew. In December 1981, construction on the Orphans Faith Home finally began. Located behind Babu and Vijayasree's modest home, this first orphanage was a simple, two-room structure.
He Had a Dream
Earlier in 1981, Brent Hample, a college sophomore and member of the same church as the O'Byrnes, had had a vivid dream that involved Jesus, foreigners, food and himself. He understood that the dream was a call for him to go to India, but did not know when or how that might happen.
Church Support Begins
In addition to running the orphanage and pastoring, Pastor Babu had served with the local chapter of Lions Club International. In recognition of the good he had done in his community, the Lions funded a trip for Babu to visit the United States in 1984. His itinerary included meeting the O'Byrnes face-to-face for the first time. The O'Byrnes arranged for Pastor Babu to speak at several Eugene-area churches including their own, Central Lutheran Church (CLC), in August 1984. Babu shared of his dreams, his struggles and his vision for doing the Lord's work in India. The parishioners of the church were moved by Babu's dedication and diligent work. Shortly thereafter, the church council voted to support the ministries of the Orphans Faith Home through a child sponsorship program called “CLC India Mission.” Marietta agreed to be its volunteer program coordinator. Babu returned to India, excited about starting the sponsorship program.
In January 1985, Babu sent the first twenty child sponsorship profiles to Marietta. She spread news about OFH from friend to friend and neighbor to neighbor. Over time, more and more people became sponsors, both within and beyond Central Lutheran Church.
In that same year (1985), a half-acre of land for the expansion of OFH was purchased at a generous discount from a local landowner who wanted to help Pastor Babu's ministry. The plans included an orphanage for 100 children(!) and a permanent elementary school building. OFH was set to grow by leaps and bounds.
A Passage to India
Ever since his dream in 1981, Brent had prayed about what shape his response to the call in that dream might take. Now, in 1986, Brent, a college senior, realized that his portal to India was the child sponsorship program of his church. He had previously confided his dream only with family and friends. After much soul searching, thought and prayer, Brent shared his dream with the pastor and congregation of CLC. They embraced his vision and commissioned him to visit the Orphans Faith Home on their behalf. In India, Babu was excited about the prospect of welcoming his first visitor from Central Lutheran. From midsummer 1986, he and Brent began corresponding regarding Brent's upcoming trip, which was set for January of the following year:
24 July 1986
Brother Brent Hample,
Yes, my Brother, you can stay with us as you like?.
We eat rice and curry. Vegetable curry we make, eggs curry we make, fish curry we make and mutton curry we make: but with curry, rice must be there. So, please start learning how to eat rice and curry. I have showed one time to Brother and Sister O?Byrne how to cook rice and curry, but they eat very little. Brother, can you eat spicy food?
The Spirit of the Lord [is] impressing me to take you to all the working areas where we are ministering the Word of God?. [P]eople will be looking to receive your loving hands upon them for prayers.
Your Brother, G. Parishudha Babu
On January 6, 1987, Brent arrived in Chennai (formerly Madras). He was met by Pastor Babu and escorted to OFH. During his stay in India, Brent regularly wrote letters to the congregation that had sent him. Here's one excerpt:
January 16, 1987
Dear Everyone,
[Pastor] Babu is taking me to spread the Gospel of the Kingdom to nine villages this month. I preach for about 20 minutes, and Babu translates. I'm also laying my hands and praying for the sick (there are so many and too poor or far away to see a doctor). I feel that Jesus can heal through a person's faith, not any supernatural power that the "healer" possesses. If the sick person believes my prayer (in Jesus' name) will heal them, then praise God for such faith!!
...The present orphanage house is too small (and there is no money) to buy separate cots or places for the kids to sleep. Thus, when one kid gets a wound, it spreads to the others quickly. The orphans sleep like sardines. At least they stay warmer this way. At the new orphanage site, hopefully, there will be space and money for separate sleeping areas or cots.
Love, Brent
Brent returned to the United States six weeks later a changed young man. He could not wait to share with everyone he met his vision of helping the poor and needy of India. Over the following months, he spoke and presented a slide show at more than forty churches, civic groups and schools in the Pacific Northwest. In his church's newsletter, he wrote, "I know now that the Lord has brought me back ... for several reasons: to share the miracles and stories and deeds of our Christian brothers and sisters in India; that our faith may be increased through theirs; that we may marvel at how Christ works his love in a country on the other side of the globe; that we may praise God for the love and faith we share with our Indian family; and that we may learn to love our neighbor as ourself in reality."
Orphans Faith Home Expands
As Brent spoke, people responded with prayers and donations for the 100-child orphanage and school building. There would be space for separate cots for each child, as Brent had hoped in his letter. By 1987, 150 children attended the associated school, named Stephen Elementary School.
Even as Stephen Elementary was being built, the ministry of OFH was growing rapidly. Thus, the need to educate the growing number of children was acute. In 1988, Pastor Babu visited the United States again to raise support for a second school. In 1989, the new school, named Karunamaya (“Mercy”) Elementary, was dedicated. As the children at OFH grew older, upper grades were added to the Stephen and Karunamaya schools. Over time, two more schools have been built. In honor of the ongoing dedication to the ministries of OFH by Brent and the entire Hample family, Hample Elementary School was dedicated in the summer of 1992. Later, Galilee High School was built with the support of a Jewish couple from Manhattan, New York. These four schools continue to provide an education to hundreds of children today.
The services provided by OFH have expanded to serve others besides orphans. The Ashajothi (“Joy”) Sewing Center at OFH provides job training to young women and widows. The Dhya (“Grace”) Medical Center provides basic health care needs to those in the community. OFH even funds a water truck that provides clean drinking water to impoverished neighborhoods that lack it.
Give Them a Fish....
Teach Them to Fish
The number of child sponsors steadily grew. One sponsor, an Eastern University graduate business student named Richard Ross, used his thesis project as a means to benefit the Orphans Faith Home. In 1990, he researched and wrote on the potential for OFH to build and administer a self-sustaining fishery. The fishery would bring short- and long-term jobs to the area and provide the orphanage's children with a high quality source of protein. And proceeds from the sale of fish would bring much needed income to OFH. The project was enthusiastically adopted by OFH and CLC. Land acquisition and startup costs totaled a sizeable $100,000. Preparations for the fishery continued for four years. In 1990 and 1992, Richard and Brent visited the site. Richard performed feasibility studies, tested the soil and conducted market surveys; Brent gathered information for fundraising. Between donations from individual supporters and grants from foundations, the funds were raised and the Krupa (“Grace”) Fishery built.
In January 1994, Richard returned to the Krupa Fishery and trained local leaders and technicians in sustainable fishery technology and economics. The eight-acre fishery project was a success in every way. The first harvest and profits were netted in 1996. To this day, Krupa—the fishery that began as an M.B.A. thesis—provides jobs, food and income to the people of OFH.
From CLC India Mission to India Partners
By 1994, over 100 OFH children, as well as widows and teachers, had found sponsors through Central Lutheran Church's India Mission. Marietta O'Byrne had continued as volunteer coordinator of the church's mission program ever since Babu had sent her the first sponsorship profiles in 1985. The ever increasing number of sponsors was both a blessing and a burden to Marietta, who had managed the program single-handedly throughout. She was ready to retire as the coordinator of CLC India Mission.
Over the ten years of CLC's mission program, some sponsors had inevitably moved from the Eugene area, continuing their sponsorship all along. In so doing, they had laid the groundwork for the geographic expansion of what would soon become India Partners. And wherever they lived, many of these sponsors encouraged their own churches, friends and family to get involved. OFH sponsorship spread across the country as it also grew across many denominations. What had begun as a mission of one church in Eugene had naturally transformed itself into something different. It became apparent that CLC India Mission was ready to become an independent non-profit organization. But how would this happen, and who would continue Marietta's work?
In the eight years since his college graduation in 1986, Brent had studied in seminary and worked in a number of places in the U.S.A., speaking about CLC's India Mission wherever he went. When Marietta told Brent that she wanted to retire as volunteer sponsorship coordinator, Brent, now married and living again in Eugene, volunteered to do the work. He took the reins from Marietta in 1994. At the same time, CLC India Mission became incorporated as the non-denominational Christian non-profit called India Partners.
During the following years, India Partners continually expanded its scope. The year 1997 saw India Partners' first support for the construction of small churches in local villages around the OFH area. The entire plan called for churches with adjacent self-sufficiency projects such as gardens or fisheries to be built in ten villages.
New Partners!
As we have seen, up to this point India Partners' partnership had been exclusively with the Orphans Faith Home. India Partners' Board of Directors endorsed expanding IP's partnerships to additional Christian organizations in India so that God, through India Partners, could bless and help still more people.
Thus, 1998 saw IP's support of Agape Rehabilitation Center, our second partner organization in India. Located in Tamil Nadu, Agape had been founded in 1995 by Mr. & Mrs. Daniel and Avitha Victor. Agape provides job training for the physically disabled, who normally are rejected by Indian society and even by their own families! The Victors, however, embrace the disabled. And they naturally share the love of Jesus Christ with their students, in a parallel ministry called Jesus Enables Ministries.
In that same year, 1998, India Partners began supporting the ministry of Reaching Hand Society, founded by Dr. Iris Paul, M.D. and her late husband, Dr. RAC Paul. Reaching Hand Society works in a remote, tribal area in the state of Orissa. Projects include water management, village health centers and a prison ministry. Under the guidance of Dr. Paul, and through the support of India Partners' donors, Reaching Hand Society is building St. Luke's Temple Hospital. When it is completed, it will be the first modern hospital to serve the surrounding population of 500,000 people.
In 2002, India Abundant Ministries (IAM) was approved as a partner organization. Headed by Pastor Isaac Benarjee, IAM is involved in planting and constructing churches, training pastors, conducting Vacation Bible Schools and disaster relief. IAM also runs a free sewing center, and sponsors needy women, children and pastors.
Our newest partner organization was also approved by IP's Board in 2002. Living Sacrifice Ministries is headed by Mr. Eliezer Devasahayam and Mrs. Prema Kumari. Its mission includes community development, literacy classes for children, a childcare center, and a microlending program. The staff of Living Sacrifice invests heavily in one-to-one mentoring. In so doing, they are laying the seeds for church planting, of which they have already started five.
Expanding at Home
India Partners' offices have expanded, too. From incorporation in 1994 until 1999, Brent ran India Partners from his home, just as Marietta had run the CLC India Mission from hers. India Partners moved into rented offices in 1999. By 2000, two employees were hired to administer the sponsorship program and assist in program development. The increasing workload, including more than 280 sponsorships—a blessing, indeed!—is now handled by a staff of five.
Partnering in India
While much of our support of our partners' ministries is done from half a world away, there is an opportunity for persons to serve in India by joining an India Partners volunteer team. Since 1990, people from all walks of life, and with a wide variety of skills—mechanic, teacher, contractor, homemaker, banker, dentist, physical therapist, among others—have joined our volunteer teams. Please consider volunteering your time on a future India Partners team.
Partnering in North America
Just as India Partners teams have gone to India, so have leaders from many of our partner organizations come to North America. Our annual volunteer partner speaking tours have encouraged, inspired and educated many church members, students, and friends, from Seattle, Washington to St. John's, Newfoundland. If you would like to invite a speaker from India Partners to your church or group, contact us.
Looking to the Future
As you can see, India Partners has grown steadily in size and scope. We firmly believe that this is not our doing—though we at India Partners, like our partners in India, work diligently to help those in need. Instead, we believe that our ministries are reaching out to ever greater numbers of people—and blessing people on both sides of the globe—because God is working in the hearts and minds of many of you, our supporters.
When you ask yourself, “How can I get involved with India Partners?” you are ultimately asking how you can help the desperately poor and needy in India. You have just read how others have been involved with IP: by writing letters, praying, sponsoring children, developing a fishery, funding a village church, sharing skills on a volunteer team. Perhaps one or more of these activities speaks to you. We hope so!
If you have never supported the ministries of India Partners, this would be a great time to start. To all of you who have faithfully supported the ministries of India Partners, we humbly say thank you. We ask for your continued generous support, as together we partner with the people of India in ministry and together help weave the tapestry that is India Partners. Your gift in any amount will help to transform the lives of many people. Whatever you donate to the ministries of India Partners, we express our heartfelt thanks. Pray that the seeds that God has planted through India Partners during these last two decades will bear much fruit in the years and decades to come. With your support, it will!
