Helen Eager writes: We visited a prison where there are three men who were out of food and no way of obtaining any, so they cut down a tree to sell the wood. For this they have been given five years in jail. It reminds me of the story about the grandmother in UK years ago who stole a loaf of bread to feed her hungry grandchildren. The judge handed around his hat in the court and said everyone there should contribute to the ladies fine seeing that they lived in a city where a grandmother had to steal to feed her grandchildren. It seems senseless to lock men up away from their families and for the families to suffer and the Govt to have to pay for the food and care of the husbands and fathers for five years. A friend of 3 Angels from Australia is going to pay the fines of these three men so that they can go home hopefully within the next month. We met two of the wives and a daughter of the third man.
We travelled to an area where some of our rescued girls come from, some of them have gone home and are either studying or working from their homes. It was so lovely to see them. In that area some of the godpods that 3 Angels has distributed have done a great job and 19 people were baptised. It was a long walk to the river thru the rice paddies. We gave all the baptismal candidates a new towel. Most of those baptised were young people.
The next day we went to a remote area where six more people were baptised. The road we had to travel went along the side of steep mountains where there were landslides every few metres. It is not rainy season now but in rainy season it must be a very dangerous route with HUGE boulders flying down the sides of the mountain.
Our next stop was at the Chisapani prostitute community where 3 Angels is building a school, just a simple village school as most of the children there do not go to school at all. Asian Aid and Forever Friends are sharing the cost. This is the community that was out of food recently, we were able to give every family a food package or bag might be more correct as a number of our friends have been very generous. Most of the men in the community are working on the school building now so that gives them some income and we have plans for income generating projects there that we hope will start very soon. We have a plan for goats for some families, some chooks, fruit trees, training in making furniture etc from bamboo, fencing so that the local cows and goats do not eat everything that they grow. Currently their fencing is just bits of sticks and can easily be pushed over by a hungry cow or buffalo.
When we reached Danghadi we went to the prison to give photos to the mothers of three of our girls who are in our Homes. We found that the three mothers have been discharged but in the prison are new children with their mothers. Please pray for these precious kids.
These children really need to come to our Childrens Homes, there is also a bigger brother in the mens side of the jail, I feel for him especially.
One brother and sister had their father die and then their mother was electrocuted and died. The culture here of girls getting married very young to boys who are also very young brings about many deserted wives and children abandoned as well as young married women being trafficked and sold. Another brother and sister in the photo are numbers three and four of a family with five children. The father died of TB and the mother has a problem with her lower jaw that prevents her from speaking properly or being able to eat normally. The two eldest children never went to school and at the ages of about 10 and 12 were the breadwinners working as labourers, when we brought the two children here I thought it would be a help with two mouths less to feed then when in the west we heard that the eldest which is a girl and probably 13 if you are lucky has got married and moved away, she is working as a labourer and I guess her husband is now benefitting from the pittance she would earn. The boy has been taken by a man who says he will use him as a servant and send him to school – afraid I doubt the school bit. So now this dear lady is left with just the one small child – the local pastor who also is very poor and living in a mud house is trying to help her with a bit of food here and there. The stories and tragedies go on and on. This pastor actually built the small mud house that this lady lives in, he is a practical man and built his own mud house also, how he manages to help her so much is a real sacrifice.
We also visited the new Border Crossing Booth which is a building put right beside the bridge at the Govt’s request as they say 3 Angels is doing the best job at stopping the trafficking of the girls into sex slavery in India. The Govt provided the land and Asian Aid and Forever Friends from Australia provided the money for the building. Our girls stop every bus that goes past and with the other girls that they stop, most days have around 40 girls taken in and questioned. It is a dangerous job also, and at times their lives are threatened . It is work that
Today we went to church in a mud house, very uncomfortable sitting on the floor on a blanket and leaning against the mud wall. The man who owns this mud house actually moved out into a much smaller mud room so that his house could be used for church.
Then we went to a beautiful river and 21 more people were baptised. Two of them are girls who were in our SafeHaven Home previously.
It is a beautiful spot where the baptism was held.
Regarding other new children, all are very special children with sad sad stories. Most of these new children in our 3 Angels Homes are in the photo below.
One brother and sister had their father die and then their mother was electrocuted and died. The culture here of girls getting married very young to boys who are also very young brings about many deserted wives and children abandoned as well as young married women being trafficked and sold. Another brother and sister in the photo are numbers three and four of a family with five children. The father died of TB and the mother has a problem with her lower jaw that prevents her from speaking properly or being able to eat normally. The two eldest children never went to school and at the ages of about 10 and 12 were the breadwinners working as labourers, when we brought the two children here I thought it would be a help with two mouths less to feed then when in the west we heard that the eldest which is a girl and probably 13 if you are lucky has got married and moved away, she is working as a labourer and I guess her husband is now benefitting from the pittance she would earn. The boy has been taken by a man who says he will use him as a servant and send him to school – afraid I doubt the school bit. So now this dear lady is left with just the one small child – the local pastor who also is very poor and living in a mud house is trying to help her with a bit of food here and there. The stories and tragedies go on and on. This pastor actually built the small mud house that this lady lives in, he is a practical man and built his own mud house also, how he manages to help her so much is a real sacrifice.
We also visited the new Border Crossing Booth which is a building put right beside the bridge at the Govt’s request as they say 3 Angels is doing the best job at stopping the trafficking of the girls into sex slavery in India. The Govt provided the land and Asian Aid and Forever Friends from Australia provided the money for the building. Our girls stop every bus that goes past and with the other girls that they stop, most days have around 40 girls taken in and questioned. It is a dangerous job also, and at times their lives are threatened . It is work that they deserve a medal for doing.
There is a new border check post about 30 km east of Danghadi. There is no bridge there to take anyone into India but folk go across on a boat – just a wooden kind of rowboat that is poled across the river. The local people reported that a lot of trafficking was happening there as nobody to check. When you look at the river and see how easy it is to get across it discourages you to even think you can make a dint in the number of girls who are being trafficked and sold and given a life of hell
Today is Sunday and we just got back from visiting the check post mentioned in the paragraph and photos above, it was a horrible road, so dusty and rough. But today we had a special experience, we decided to buy some things for the children in the prison. We bought balls, colour pencils, toy cars, checkers games for the two biggest boys, some brightly coloured books and a pencil case for the bigger ones. It was so lovely to give them to the children and see their eyes light up and smiles on their faces. Even the biggest boy in the mens prison smiled when he saw the small helicopter that you wind up and its propeller whizzes around and it moves forward. There really is a special joy in doing something to make someone happy.
Monday was special in that there was a program to get together all the girls who had previously been in the Safe Haven Home. Forty four girls came, some of them are married, often too young to really understand what they are getting in to. They loved being together and it was wonderful to see them. It was difficult to get a good photo of such a large group and one or two got chopped off at the sides of the photo. These are just the girls from the far west area.
I don’t want this to be a begging letter but have to mention that there are a few very special needs just in case any of you reading this have any spare dollars. You all can pray even if you don’t have spare money.
This time of year we badly need money for blankets to give out at the prisons and also in the poor villages. People die from the cold in Nepal. Also our radio never has enough money to send the gospel and healthl messages into the remote areas where people have nothing but many do have a small radio. These are the places where you go to the end of the road and then have to walk for 10 days. Hinduism is a religion of fear, there are thousands of gods and many of them need sacrifices, there is no love or forgiveness.
Please look at our website 3angelsnepal.com – God be with you each and thanks for your time in reading all this.
Sincerely, Helen