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Caring Hands
www.caringhandsindia.com 
In 2005 concerned friends at NFC shared a growing awareness about the reality of modern day slavery. As they met in one another's homes and in local coffee shops it became evident that God was up to something among them and that their simultaneous awakening to the reality of this injustice was not coincidental. God was stirring something within them and calling them to respond.
As word spread, the elders of NFC called together a group of people who would serve as a traveling discernment team; exploring the possibility of a ministry partnership with a group of Friends involved in protecting children and young women from being exploited as religious prostitutes (devadasi) in southern India.
A team of 11 people (young and old, men and women, from different walks of life) traveled halfway around the globe and met an amazing couple, Arun and Shobha Massey, who founded and direct Caring Hands Ministry in Dharwad, India.
Their ministry is multifaceted and involves church planting, ministering to those infected with HIV, conducting after-school programs for more than 2,000 children in the surrounding villages and overseeing a Bible college that prepares men and women for the challenging work of ministering in the villages.
 But at the core of their ministry is a home for 70 girls ranging in age from 3-19. These girls, being orphaned and/or the daughters of devadasi, are the most at risk of becoming devadasi themselves, pressured by their family and villages to provide for their mothers and appease the local goddesses. Caring Hands provides the love and nurture of a family along with clothing, shelter, food, health care, private Christian education, and the chance to learn vocational skills that will provide job opportunities that pay a living wage and protect them from being exploited.
Newberg Friends has sensed the call of God to be in relationship with Caring Hands and to support their ministry. At our December 2007 business meeting we affirmed a ministry partnership that would have three aspects. Click below to read more.
Relational
Prayerful
Financial
Relational
We don't need just another faceless address to send a check to. We want to be in relationship with Caring Hands. We recognize that our money is not always the most valuable thing we have to offer. Perhaps our friendship, encouragement, and network of Christ-centered abolitionists will be of great value as well.
We want to know the names and faces of the people we support, so that if they happened to walk in and sit beside us in worship one day, we'd know who they were.
This means that we are committed to staying in close relationship through the use of technology, like e-mail and Skype. We're also committed to supporting Caring Hands by sending faithful and useful volunteers who will use the gifts and temperament that God has given them to serve the ministries of Caring Hands.
Twenty-one individuals from NFC have now visited Dharwad with more planning to go in 2009. Some are pastors and educators who are teaching Bible college courses and equipping the pastors. Some are young adults who are using their degrees and gifts in administration to support the office of Caring Hands. Others are children and youth who are serving Caring Hands by befriending their daughters; playing, eating, helping with chores, and sharing their lives and faith with them. Some have stayed for two-weeks, some for two months, some for six months.
Prayerful
"Ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all his people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers."
(Ephesians 1:15-16)
If you've had the chance to visit Caring Hands, you know that our commitment to pray is the most important and meaningful aspect of our ministry partnership. The girls at Joyful Children's Home are enthusiastic about knowing who their prayer partner is and knowing how they can pray for their prayer partner.
Because of this, our prayer partnership goes both ways: us praying for them and them praying for us. Prayer partners are given pictures, information about their partner, along with personal prayer requests that have been sent home with NFC visitors.
Prayer partners are given monthly updates from Caring Hands Ministry and are invited to gather several times each year to hear updates from NFC friends who have visited and to pray with one another.
If you are interested in being a prayer partner for one of the 70 girls or a Bible college student or one of the Caring Hands staff members, contact Gregg Koskela at the NFC office (503.538.8381) or by e-mail: gregg@newbergfriends.org
Financial
"If any one of you has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in you? Dear friends, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."
(1 John 3:17-18)
When we are among the richest members of the planet, joined in partnership with some who are among the poorest, it seems biblical and natural for us to share our resources. Money given to Caring Hands through NFC provides scholarships for Bible college students, support for the full-time staff and their children, supplies for their offices, books for their Bible college library, and much needed resources for their Share and Care projects, which provide after-school tutoring, nutrition, and school supplies for more than 2,000 village children six days a week. You can also support NFC's effort to support Caring Hands with volunteers who will serve for free.
Interested in making a financial contribution to Caring Hands Ministry? You can do that in one of three ways:
- You can make a one-time or ongoing donation that will go directly to Caring Hands Ministry by putting "Caring Hands" in the memo line of your check to Newberg Friends.
- You can make a one-time or ongoing donation to the "NFC to Dharwad" fund that supports the ongoing relational connection between NFC and Caring Hands by enabling NFC to send volunteers who will go to Dharwad. To support NFC members who will go and serve, just write "NFC to Dharwad" in the memo line of your check to Newberg Friends.
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