Happy Birthday!

Saturday Evening: Monthly Birthday Party at Children’s Home

Mercy Children's Christian Home

Part of the ministry here is the Mercy Children's Christian Home which is an outreach ministry to families and their children in Kerala State. It takes children to 20 ages of five and 18 and provides housing, education, and practical living skills for children who would otherwise not receive any. Each month they have a celebration for all the birthdays in that month. We were fortunate enough to be here for this lunch celebration. The children all gather sitting on the floor in front of the main table separated boys on one side girls on the other and they perceived to do songs, skits, Bible readings and memory verse reciting. It was really touching to see that!

Birthday Children

Then they called up the children who had birthdays which in this case one boy and four girls two of which were twins. Then each one came up to the table where there was a small metal coin box and bunch of coins and put the number of coins of the birthday into the box. After all have done that we were told that the coins would be sent to a missionary pastor of the children's choice. Then each one would come up and cut off a piece of cake. After this everybody went outside for refreshments.

Cutting the Cake!

Pastor and I got to tour the building. It had recently been added to which will give them more room. This will allow them to take in more children both boys and girls.

The living conditions every Spartan compared to what we are used to but the children seem very happy with it. The walls, the floors and the ceilings are all made of concrete and there is not a lot of decoration or pictures or things hang on the walls. The kitchen is an open fire kitchen in the main staple is rice. The plans are to build new kitchen adjacent to the building in the near future.