"Rescue and Restore" slum based preschool and "Street Church" in Chennai, India

Freddy and Daisy, the Directors of the "Rescue and Restore" ministry are involved in many facets of bringing both the good news of Jesus (the Rescue) as well as the good works which follow those who profess faith in Christ (the Restore).

Part of their ministry reaches into one of the many slums of Chennai. In addition to bringing "street church" to those who live there, they have a medical clinic and a pre-school to about 20 children.

We visited the pre-school and caught little bit of the end of one lesson. However, before we could get to the "classroom" we had to walk through a very long section of the slums with row after row of grass huts, basically, with no running water, but oddly enough, electricity which has been tapped from the main line in spaghetti like fashion, not with any kind of safety or security.

You can see the typical construction from one of the photos I've added here.

From what I understand, the only groups of people "lower" than the slum dwellers are the lepers. But I have to say how surprised I was to see all the ladies dressed in brightly colored saris, I mean ALL the ladies.

The Rescue and Restore have a monumental task they are seeking to perform, but with limited means, they must often make difficult choices about how to allocate their resources. Their plan is to get these children some basic lessons, since they would never be in a school, owing to their economic status, and give them a chance later on to possibly get into school. More than ever, education is a way out of the generational cycle of poverty for many at the fringe of Indian society.

In order to keep the kids around for their lessons all day, they keep them around by feeding them a good meal.



It's nice to know that they are definitely getting at least one good meal a day.

The slums are wide open, with shacks and huts everywhere. Unfortunately for these kids, every one of them has been either sexually or physically abused. It seems as they make their way around, they are preyed on by others. The men in the slums may actually have 3 or 4 women with whom they've had children in the slum, so there in no sense of the "dad" protector being around. These are certainly the most vulnerable kids I've seen so far.

While we were visiting, we had numerous people come to use asking us to pray for them.

85 year old "Noah" asked me to pray for him, and I did. He lives in the slum, and allocates half of his small dwelling to the school when it rains. "Thangam" (which means "Gold") was a 40 or so year old woman who had battled cancer, and had lost her entire right arm (including the shoulder). And there were others seeking healing.

I was moved with compassion for these people. These kids are just not that different from kids I see where I live. They laughed, were rambunctious, and had to be shushed a couple of times, and boy, could they pack in the rice.

Later in the evening we were invited to participate in one of the "Street Churches" which Rescue and Restore has on different nights of the week in different locations. Freddy asked me if I would deliver the message.

Okay, so I'm not a preacher, right. But honestly, was I going to be able to say no? I think not.

I realized, more than ever, that I needed God's guidance and direction, because, honestly, I do come from a much different culture that these people.

I talked about the fact that Jesus wanted them to be healed, starting with their heart. I also reminded them of the story Jesus told about the rich man and Lazurus wherein Lazurus, though poor and sick on earth, went to paradise when he died, but the rich man, who enjoyed all the earthly comforts, didn't go to paradise.

For those who have little to hope in, having a hope for everlasting life with Jesus did just the trick.

It was quite a day.