By Robert Dilday
Associate Editor
From the beginning of Kunjumon Chacko's work with Prison Fellowship, it was the children of inmates that tugged at his heart-and eventually led to his network of children's homes across India.
Last year, when thousands more children were left orphans in the wake of South Asia's disastrous tsunami, Chacko was spurred to expand his Precious Children's Home-which has opened an opportunity for Virginia Baptists to be partners in the ministry.
For 30 years, Chacko, a businessman turned Baptist minister, has coordinated the work of Prison Fellowship India, an affiliate of the American organization founded by Chuck Colson. Chacko's work put him in close contact with children left alone when their parents were imprisoned-children who often were victims of crime themselves and who sometimes turned to crime to survive.
Some 13 million children in India are homeless, cites Chacko. About 4 million children under age 14 are prostitutes; two out of four girls are sexually abused, as are three out of eight boys.
“Who is there to provide rehabilitation and after-care service to these unfortunates?” he asks.
“The idea of the Precious Children's Homes is to care for children by providing food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education and skill training,” he says. “Our goal is to see that these children mature as law-abiding and responsible citizens and keep away from criminal activities.”
Chacko believes that that goal-combined with the Christian upbringing each child receives-will change the face of India.
“This could have an enormous impact on our nation,” he says.
As the number of Baptists in the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu has increased, the homes have received additional support from the India Baptist Convention, a loosely organized fellowship of about 100 congregations. Nearly 1,000 children are cared for at Precious Children's Homes in Jaipur, Madurai, Vijayawada, Hyderabad and Bangalore, as well as in Chacko's hometown of Kottayam in Kerala.
The Kottyam home is adjacent to the India Baptist Theological Seminary and not far from the Areepparmbu Baptist Church, which Chacko and other seminary faculty and staff attend.
Significantly, the children's home was built before the seminary. “We wanted seminary students to be in the midst of a mission opportunity while they are students,” said Chacko, who also chairs the seminary's board of trustees.
All 100 beds at the Kottyam home are filled, and currently an additional 30 children-most orphaned by the tsunami-are living in the nearby men's dormitory at the seminary.
That will change next year when an ambitious “children's village” is completed about a quarter mile away from the Kottayam home.
The new facility, being built on land once filled with banana and pineapple trees, will house about 330 children.
Virginia Baptists have provided initial funds to help build the facility. During a recent visit to India, Virginia Baptist leaders John Upton and Jerry Jones laid the first bricks on the children's village.
“This is such a significant day for Indian Baptists,” said Upton, executive director of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board. “This home will make a difference in the lives of so many children, and Virginia Baptist are delighted to have a part in it.”
“These bricks form a firm foundation for the children,” said Jones, team leader of the board's glocal missions and evangelism team. “May their changed lives form a strong foundation for the future of India and further the cause of Christ in the world.”