India - Mission - April 2004

Written by Steve Kiely and Simon Hunnisett

After about 2 weeks of business stuff & traveling to 5 cities, we decided to take an extra few days to visit a mission school/orphanage in the tribal areas of the mountains of Orissa state. This is one of a number of orphanages & missions through India that are sponsored by Word of Life Ministries in Melbourne, a Christian missionary organization. We flew to Vishakapatnam on the east coast of India, from where we traveled by car through the mountains to the village of Jeypore.

This was the most dangerous car trip we have ever been on, our driver hit 2 motorcycles on the way up (on the way back we insisted that Steve drove!). The mission school we visited has some 200 children enrolled from the surrounding tribes, mostly living in mud huts with no other education available. The children receive clothing, education, health & nutrition etc, a start in life not normally available in such areas . Most of the children had never seen a white person, & there was much excitement in the air when we arrived. The teachers organized a concert where the children sang & danced for us (as there is no power, a generator was hired for the day).

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