Ted Contag's Story...
While at a conference in Arizona several years ago a business associate approached me and said, "I need your help, would you be willing to help me provide a future for the children of India?" I was hesitant and told him, "Now is not a good time. I have little kids at home, I have a business that takes all of my time, my parents are not well and I need to be available for them etc." My wife overheard the conversation, asked a couple of questions and said, "Sure we will do it."
Because of that decision in the deserts of the American Southwest, children on the other side of the planet have hope.
Not long after the conversation in the desert I was back in Minnesota when I and got a call from this friend asking if I would go to India to experience first-hand the ministry of Bethania Kids. Again, I started listing the reasons that I could not leave my wife and kids and business for what would turn out to be a nearly three week trip to the sub-continent. And again, my wife said, "You should go. They need your help."
In October of 2006, I was on a plane to Mumbai, India. After several hotels, planes, cars and buses we made it to the Indian city of Chennai. We found ourselves on a small bus winding through muddy narrow alleys passing countless children wandering aimlessly around their shacks. To say these children were poor would be a ridiculous understatement. They had nearly nothing. Their homes, if lucky, consisted of a few sticks with an old plastic tarp for a roof, they had a few scraps of clothing and if they had parents, it is unknown. Worst of all, you could see in their eyes, there was no hope. The bus stopped next to a high masonry wall topped with broken glass. We got out of the bus while hopeless, stone-faced children watched us from behind their filthy shacks. Dirty emaciated dogs wandered past barely noticing us. We made our way to a gate in the masonry wall, the gate was opened and we walked into the compound of one of the orphanages run by Bethania Kids. As the gates were closed behind us, I looked around the entire space. There were buildings around the perimeter, large, clean, open spaces for playing games and pathways through sparse gardens. Most notable were the children lining the path to greet us. They were organized by age on both sides of the path from the gate all the way to the main school building, each of them wearing a clean uniform and complete with huge smiles on their faces. We greeted each of them as we slowly made our way to the school building. We would spend the next several hours with these children. They sang for us, they danced and recited prayers in English that they had memorized for us.
These are the children of Bethania Kids. They are of the lowest cast of Indian society, the untouchables. For generations, these people have been told that their fate has been written on their foreheads and it cannot be washed away. They are throw-away humans and these are their orphaned children. Out of the 500,000,000 children in India, these are among the most destitute. When I left the comfort of my home in Edina on this mission I expected the children that I met to be sad and hopeless, like the kids outside of the wall. However, standing among them, all I felt from them was joy, happiness and hope. While these children grew up in a society that told them that they were useless, disposable and that they should be ashamed for not having a father, Bethania Kids has taught them that they DO indeed have a Father: A Father who loves them, cares about them and prizes them -- a Father who has given them wonderful talents and who wants them to use those talents for His glory. These children are given medicine, food, clothing, education and shelter but the thing that makes the biggest difference in their lives is the hope provided by their faith in Jesus Christ.
After several hours with these children they asked us through an interpreter if we would bless them. We sat in chairs along one wall of the schoolroom and the children lined up in front of each of us 15 or 20 deep. As the first one approached me, she fell to her knees and bowed her head waiting for me to bless her. I placed my hand on her head and said, "May the Lord bless you and keep you, may he make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you and give you peace." These first generation Christians absorbed this blessing like water poured on parched soil.
While these children are helped by our financial gifts to Bethania Kids, I really do not believe that our being with them for a few hours on that sweltering morning really did much to change their lives. However, I was changed. When I placed my hands on the head of this first generation Christian and offered her a blessing, and saw the joy pour through her entire body, I knew that I would be forever changed.
I left Minnesota thinking that I would be going to India to help the sad and hopeless. When I left India, I was the one who was helped. I was the one who found joy.
If you would like to learn more about the ministries of Bethania Kids please ask me, Ted Contag or my wife, Karen Contag, or check out the website at www.bethaniakids.org
