By Noel Prasad
Our TAL program in Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), India, has many interesting and heartwarming stories. Young Lakshman, about five years old, and his sister Rekha, about three years old, caught my attention. As I spoke with them, I came to know that their grandpa is a leper, and that fact alone increased my curiosity to know more about their family. However, as is typical in such a situation, the children hesitated to talk about their grandpa. I know that Final Frontiers has a great interest in evangelizing lepers and that Touch a Life also has several feeding centers for the children of lepers.
Wanting to learn more about their situation, I went to their home to get more details, but it was pad locked. After getting the neighbor’s phone number and speaking with them, we learned the family had been gone for two months, and the landlord locked their door. Fortunately, the landlord was able to give me a contact number.
After many attempts, I finally contacted the grandpa and got the details I sought. The family consists of a father, a mother, two children, and a grandpa. The mother didn’t like her father-in-law because of his leprosy; thus, there was always a fight in the family concerning the leper grandpa. The father was an alcoholic and used to fight, beat, and torture his wife and children and never gave them proper food. The mother was fed up with her life, so she abandoned her two children and husband.
The father-in-law and other family elders spoke to the mother, encouraging her to stay for the benefit of her children. Still, their words were all in vain, so now the children were without their mother, and after a few more months, the father also abandoned the children.
Lakshman and Rekha were left with their leprous grandpa, who could not work and had no means to feed his grandchildren. His only income was to beg on the street, but most people do not want to give to a leper. Many Hindus believe that such a tragedy is deserved and serves as a punishment for sins of past lives; therefore, to relieve the punishment would require it to continue in the next life until the sin debt is paid. Many days, the grandpa received no help, so the children went hungry.
Seeing this tragedy, other lepers from the colonies would feed them, and when they learned about Touch a Life at our church, they brought them to our TAL program. Of course, we accepted them and helped them enroll in a government school where they could study and have a daily lunch, and then in the evening, we gave them dinner in our TAL program, tutored them in their classes, and bought them clothes and uniforms for school and made sure they were in safe hands.
We have a weekly program in the leper colony, and the rest of the time, they have to walk two kilometers (1.24 miles) every day to attend the TAL program in our church as they need food and care, which the program provides them.
Once a month, my father and I are allowed to visit the leper hospital. Only my father and I visit the hospital because it is prohibited for more people to visit. We have permission because he is a pastor and cares for the lepers. With permission, we distribute food for them and provide fresh bandages. (My mother is a doctor and has access to medical supplies.) It was during a recent visit, and after we had enrolled them into our program, that we went to the hospital to visit their grandpa, Gowindappa, who was hospitalized for wounds in his legs. We prayed for him and told him not to worry about his grandchildren as the neighbors and the TAL volunteers would care for them. He thanked us with tears of joy and pain.
The neighbors and our church family now care for the children. We pray that in time, they will come to the savings knowledge of Jesus Christ because we show the love of Christ to them.
Noel Prasad is the teenage son of our Director in Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), India. His mom is a medical doctor. As a young man, we encourage him to provide us with reports of the preachers and children we assist, particularly among the leper children. He is discipled by his father and hopes to work with us full-time as a future administrator. Reading his reports over time, you will see his maturity and understanding of ministry increase. He is one of many hand-picked Timothies serving with us around the world.
