Bulu
March 5, 1993
We sponsored Bulu for 12 years (2002-2014) and received 95 letters from him! Often his letters were addressed to "aunty and uncle" and a few times he referred to us as his spiritual mom and dad.
Bulu attended Semiliguda Child Development Center (IN 281). He lived with his parents, sisters and grandparents and told us that his family were believers. His older sister was married and had twin sons. Another sister (Nilam) was also in Compassion's CDSP. His parents worked as day laborers.
At the Compassion project, Bulu was very active and attended daily. He mentioned attending the project school, Sunday school, Saturday club and church. He was obedient, punctual and God-fearing. He also attended VBS, the monthly assembly for children and parents, the Christmas programs, youth meetings and teen camp.
In one letter he told us he had fasted a whole day and prayed for us. We also learned that in March of 2012, drinking water was made available at his project.
Miscellaneous info from letters:
- Dec 2007 - wants to be a sports teacher
- Feb 2010 - set up grocery store in the street to help support his family
- Aug 2010 - becoming disobedient - not interested in studying (thankfully this was short-lived)
- Nov 2011 - wants to become a police officer
- In India, the tradition when you lose a tooth is to throw it on the roof
- On birthday received new dress, chocolate and cakes
- Bought with $ we sent: blanket, rain coat, shoes, uniform, school bag, bed sheet, watch 2 chairs (for guests and to study Bible), winter coat and 4 ft almira (wardrobe)
- likes to play cricket
- soccer is favorite sport
- likes to run and do track events - high jump / long jump / shot put
- project friend, Rahim's father died of cancer
- project friend, Lipina, died
- project friend, Sanel, died
highlights from letters... (I noticed that the translators in India always began the letter with a personal message and then often translated the letter in third person rather than just translating the letter directly)
Bulu could change his life only by your kind help. So he is very faithful to you. Thank God that he gave an opportunity to be your sponsor child.
I'm always thankful to you and God to got you as a sponsor. Really a sponsor should be like you. Thanks a lot for your love, care, prayer and help. God bless you for ever and ever.
I know Jesus as my best and true friend who is always with me. Who decrease my sorrow and increases my happiness and have given his life for me and who will once again to take me with him.
I praise God for showing me His love through this project.
and the best letter I think I've ever received....
I am very very excited and very happy because I received in my life Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour and I confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus and believed in my heart that God has raised him from the dead. It is great success in my life. Thank you very much because only for your prayer and love my life is changed. Thanks to God because he saved me. I took water baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit on April 5, 2012. My family and church and friends are very very happy for my baptism. Please pray for my spiritual life growth.
message from the director of child development center....
Greetings to you! I am Samanta, the project director of the Semiliguda Child Development Center that Bulu attends. The project is situation in the state of Odisha, India. Mot people in our community are tribal. They either work as day labor or in farming.
Children come to the project in the morning. They participate in devotion after which children disperse to their respective classrooms for study and learning from the Compassion curriculum. Children get help from the project staff in their academic lessons. After they get done with study time, they sped some times playing and then sit down for their meals. After they finish their meal, children go home to leave for their respective schools. Young children are taught stories from the Scriptures, memory verses and prayer. Older children lead the devotion and share form God's Word. We conduct exercise for children to keep their bodies fit. Older children are getting vocational training in computer, television, refrigerator repair and tailoring.
We conduct parents meeting once in a quarter to address the issues of alcoholism, poverty, adultery and other social evils. Apart from this, parents are also trained on health, hygiene, cleanliness, value of education, and different types of diseases and their prevention. We observe special days at the project to educate children on the importance of these days.
Before the project had started in the community, only five percent of children were going to school, but today all children in the community are going to school, and some are studying engineering, nursing and technical courses. Many children and their family have started coming to the worship service. Parents are happy to send their children to our project because they are safe and learning many things. Parents have learned to maintain discipline and hygiene, learning from their children. In the community, majority people are illiterate, therefore the parents did not send their children to school as they did not understand the value of it.
