Heading Home!

As our suitcases are being rolled down the hall right now, I'm typing this final blog post from India.  We're about to get in a car to head to the airport where well catch our first in a series of three airplane rides back home.


our team (minus Jen behind the camera) with the young women of Rescue & Restore Jewelry Project

Our team dynamic has more than exceeded my expectations and each one on the team has served those we came to help with incredible love. Thank you Kelly, Jen & Crissie. You are awesome, and I'd eat carbs & ride in a rickshaw with you in India anytime!



Patty

Check back soon for more info on our jewelry!

Photos by Jen Price

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Making beautiful Jewelry = SUCCESS!

Today we worked hard making jewelry side by side with the young women of the Rescue and Restore Shelter jewelry project.  This is our third project and there are six young women we worked with to create new jewelry designs.  Thanks to the creativity of Kelly Jo, we are leaving 9 different earrings for them to make! Woohoooooo!  Can't wait for you to see the earrings.



Can you hear us cheer all the way from India?

Photos by Jen Price

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Day 2 in Chennai

As Jen & I made our way by auto rickshaw from the jewelry project to a nearby slum, a young woman came to mind who I met on my last visit to Chennai. Her name is Bhavani. She has two small sons and lives in utter poverty. I wonder what her life story is, and hopefully someday I'll get to know her more. As we drove up to the entrance of the slum, surprisingly Bhavani was walking toward me. She smiled a beautiful smile when I called her name. What a wonderful thing to know her name. Even though she lives tucked inside this destitute place, she is not forgotten, definitely not by me. She kissed my shoulder as we said goodbye.



The slum is not a great place to raise a family. The stories that come from this place are not pretty. A while back an eight year old boy was going around sexually abusing the little neighborhood girls. Finally their mothers went to the mother of the boy to get him to stop. She just laughed, and said that's what boys do. This is not the safest place to raise a child.





I also met Vita, a young girl maybe 15 or 16 years old. She has a baby about a year old now. When I started coming to Chennai four years ago, she was about 11, and I used to give her and the other children of the slum candy. She is a young mother now.



We visited a preschool in the slum and spent some time with the kids. They were proud to sing songs for us and loved the treats we brought. Rescue and Restore works every week day to give these kids a place of refuge. They feed them a hot meal before sending them back home. For most of the kids it is their only hot daily meal.

Check back for part 2 of Chennai Day 2...jewelry and more jewelry!

Photos by Jen Price

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Sitta's Story...Day 1 in Chennai

A blast of hot humid air hit us as we walked out of the Chennai airport last night! Wow, it's hot here.

What a terrific first day we've had, though. This morning we loaded up in two rickshaws and headed to the bulk jewelry supplier to purchase some raw materials to use for jewelry designs for the women to make. The market was dusty, crowded and very HOT. A motorcycle hit me in the leg, but thankfully I squeezed out of the way at the last minute and didn't get crushed.



In the afternoon we worked with the young women of Rescue & Restore jewelry making project. This is our third project that's being launched in a home that rescues orphans and young women from the streets.



Siita's story is one of heinous abuse, but also of intervention. She lives in Rescue & Restore home. While she was growing up, Siita's mother was a prostitute. When she was about 14, as her mother was leaving for Dubai, she gave Sitta to a local pimp. After being terribly abused, the pimp finally took her to the hospital. When she arrived she was barely hanging on to life. At that point the directors of Rescue & Restore were called by the psychologist at the hospital who knew them. They were asked to come and take her to their home because she was all alone and at great risk for her life. Now, several years later, Sitta lives at Rescue & Restore home and she has started working in our jewelry making project. Today it was wonderful to see her smiling and making beautiful jewelry with the other young women! Her dream is to one day be a lawyer & fight for the rights of young women who've been exploited & abused.

Hope's Gate exists to give hope to orphans, victims of human trafficking and the most vulnerable. It's our dream to help young women like Siita achieve their dreams & have hope for the future!

Check back tomorrow for day 2 at Rescue & Restore jewelry project....

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In Transit

Tonight we fly to Chennai to work on the development of a third jewelry project! Tomorrow we'll be working with some young women on jewelry making techniques and purchasing some supplies. Check back tomorrow for more.....



Photo by Jen Price

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Jewelry Project: day of training at Rescue House

28 hands twisting, shaping, clipping. The young women of Rescue House crowded around a small table as our team worked with them to master the basic jewelry making techniques they need to know in order to create beautiful jewelry. All 14 young women, ranging in age from 18 to 21, have been rescued by the police from a life of sexual slavery. When I first met them, almost two years ago, their stories gripped my heart. I remember weeping long and hard as they sang the hymn "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow". What struck me today was how much they have changed in the past two years. Two years ago they seemed a little tougher. Today they are softer, more tender, even joyful. It's obvious something beautiful is happening deep inside their hearts and lives. They are being changed from the inside out. Healing has come.



We taught them how to make a new earring design, and I am bringing back 39 pairs of fresh water pearl earrings they made today for you to buy! Please let me know if you are interested in purchasing a pair or two.






At the end of our time we celebrated three of the young ladies birthdays. We sang, they blew out their candles, and then all the others started yelling, "kneel down, kneel down!" In their home they have a tradition to pray for each birthday girl and the girl must kneel down in the middle and they surround her. What a privilege it was to join in the celebration. We felt like family. After the party we offered to give the girls a manicure. They selected a color, we washed their hands, and then painted all of their nails.



Earlier in the day we visited with the directors of Rescue House and they helped us understand in a clearer way what good timing this jewelry project is for these young women. Over the next three years they all have to transition to living on their own outside of the safe house. By making jewelry they will earn an income and that income will help them begin a life on their own and also achieve the dreams they have for the future.

That is just what Hope's Gate is all about: hope for orphans, victims of human trafficking and the most vulnerable. Giving them a way to have hope is our goal! Please keep praying for each step along the way, and for their lives to be changed forever!

From India,

Patty

Photos by Jen Price

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Thoughts on being in India from Jen

Thirteen years ago I came to India. After that trip, I never wanted to come back. Everything about it was tough. Being here a second time, I've had the time to reflect on the differences. During this reflection, I've realized that my heart has totally changed toward this beautiful, crazy country.

During our time here we've visited a brothel, the area where the street kids live, the children's homes who have rescued these kids, and the various jewelry projects. You can't understand the impact these children's homes and jewelry projects are having without seeing the other two places.





We started a new jewelry project the other day with some ladies. They had such a joy as they learned to make earrings for the first time. Later we heard their stories. Many of them had been rescued off the streets when they were young children and had been living in the home for eleven years or more.

One girl in particular caught my attention. Maybe it was her love for art. Maybe it was her sweet spirit. She shared with us that one day she wanted to start an orphanage, so she could help kids. I was amazed as my mind flashed back to the street kids and the girls in the brothel. That street kid was her and those girls in the brothel could have been her, but she was rescued and now she is learning to make jewelry, so she can earn an income and attain her dreams.



The number of street kids and prostitutes in this country are overwhelming. You can easily get lost in the numbers and start to feel a sense of hopelessness. BUT there is hope! There's hope in Jesus. We do our part one by one, and God is faithful. One child rescued from life on the streets, one girl saved from the slavery of prostitution leads to tens, to thousands of kids with a hope and a future. Let's all do our part and start with the one and see God change destinies...

Check out my blog at www.jeremynjenprice.blogspot.com!
Photos by Jen Price

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