Bekah and I have been friends ever since I can remember. She was adopted from India when she was 11 months. We were such kindred spirits -- I don't ever remember thinking that she looked different than me.
She was three and I was four. Our friendship has continued these past 13 yrs, even after a move that has placed us seven or more hours away. Thank goodness for pen-pals ^_^ Her friendship has been such a blessing to me. Bekah and her family are mission minded and solid in their faith. I love our friendship -- It's foundation is of Christ's love. We love to encourage each other by posting quotes or Bible verses on each others facebook walls, emailing, calling and of course writing letters! -- always ending them in some Bible verses that stuck out to us, or that we were encouraged by and sometimes quotes from encouraging religious leaders. I know she is going to accomplish great things for the Kingdom of God. She's amazing!
Bekah has graduated at the age of 16 and is now attending college. She began Pennies for India to raise money for her hometown, Ahmednagar, India. She feels God's calling her to help end slavery in India. She plans to go on a trip to her hometown, hopefully, next year.
Pennies are everywhere and people often view this solitary copper coin as worthless. I would encourage you to save your pennies for my friend's organization. Those pennies do add up and quickly.
Please read her remarkable story below:
I was adopted when I was 11 months, but let me start at the beginning. :) After I was born, my birthparents put me on the streets of Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India as an infant because they couldn't afford to take care of me. To this day no one knows who or where my birthparents are. It's a miracle I survived because usually babies who are put on the streets of India are eaten by dogs. After I was adopted I was very scared of dogs, and we still wonder what might have happened to me in India. I hope my parents still live in Ahmednagar, because that's why I started Pennies for India.
When I was 4, I told my adoptive mom that I wanted to see my Indian parents in heaven. So we started praying for them. A few years later, when I about 8 or 9, I took a little red bucket around the house saying "Pennies for India, Pennies for India!" In my young mind, a penny was a lot of money! But I never changed the name, because even a little money can go a long way.
Since I started Pennies For India, the money that goes into it has to go somewhere, so my parents founded the Bekah Fund. We have an Indian friend (whose wife babysat me when I was a baby) in India who was at that time the president at Jubilee Bible College. This college trains missionary students, then sends them out into India/other countries. The money that goes into Pennies for India goes into the Bekah Fund, which then funds missionaries from Jubilee to go into my hometown, Ahmednagar. By doing this, we hope to spread the Gospel to my Indian parents, that I may see them in heaven.
Since starting Pennies for India, people from all over the country have sent in money. We have already funded at least one missionary to go into Ahmednagar. We haven't yet raised enough money to actually settle a missionary in Ahmednagar, but we're praying that that will happen in the future.
Recently I began to realize the horrors of human trafficking. Now that I am in college I have started to really pray about what the Lord has for me in the future. I believe He is calling me to missions in India. I am majoring in music and intercultural studies, and I plan to use them both in the future. I want to move to India, set a home in the middle of the sex trade, and intercept the girls. From there I would give them a basic education, teach them English, and use music therapy to help them "rehabilitate". I am still praying about this, so nothing is set in stone. I am praying that the Lord will open doors for me! I plan to start an organization that would hold funds for these plans, if this is what the Lord has in store for me, but I believe that if the Lord has put this on my heart, then He'll use it. It must be for a purpose!
My main motivation is that I could have BEEN one of these girls!! If I hadn't been adopted, I would be living a life that I now only see in my worst nightmares! As Rev. Chandapilla (the head of the Evangelical Church of India) said as he held me as an infant in India, "At least one more has been snatched from the fire." And how true!! If I would still be in India, I would most likely be in forced prostitution, experiencing poverty, or much worse. This is why my "life verse" is Psalm 113:5-8: "Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people."
He took me, a little orphaned infant in the depths of poverty of Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, and brought me halfway around the world to a wonderful Christian family, just so I could be given the opportunity to spend eternity with Him. Now it's my turn to give back to Him at least a portion of what He's given to me.
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ReplyDeleteBekah and Angie, nice article. I love the pictures of you two! May God bless your ministry Bekah!
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