Advent Outreach

The combined congregations of St.Paul’s, Hindustani, and Christ Church do some outreach service every advent. The Woodstock school bus takes us all down the hill to DehraDun. This year we re-visited two past sites – the KKM Leper Colony and the Charisa Orphanage.

The residents at KKM requested our return because they remembered our Christmas carols. One member of Christ Church, Vijay Das, is the son of a songwriter who penned numerous Christian folk songs and carols in various Hindi dialects.

We brought a meal that we shared while sitting around on the ground: some fry-bread, a packet of cooked chickpeas in spicy sauce, and a sweet pumpkin squash packet, with a banana for dessert. The weather was sunny and warm (80 degrees F), and the welcome was palpable. Leper colonies are still important in India because of the elderly that suffered before modern medication, and the stigma that remains attached to the disease. This group is sponsored by a French charity that has formed a weaving cooperative, that sells high quality rugs and cloths.

We also visited Charisa Home, an orphanage for HIV-affected children. We visited there last year and found fifteen delightful children under-10. This year we arrived to see 30 more children in their day-care program. These newer children were even more needy, though still quite happy in this loving place. They all sang several songs for us, and the resident orphanage kids recited the entirety of Psalm 38 for us – in Hindi.