India, Kolkata Short-Term Study Abroad: Letter from a university faculty leader.
I have been given several opportunities to serve in Calcutta (Kolkata), India as team leader and faculty member for Azusa Pacific University's School of Nursing’s short-term study abroad program and through the Office of World Missions. Our teams have collaborated with health care providers from Calcutta Mercy Hospital to observe, serve, and learn from those providing care to the poorest of the poor. Our team will be working among the extremely needy who live in very difficult conditions and are stricken with poverty and disease. We will observe malnutrition, homelessness, and how the people of Kolkata survive hardship on a daily basis. India has one of the highest percentages of undernourished children in the world (Archer 2007).
We have been able to work in the Mother Teresa Centers of the Missionaries of Charity in their orphanages, home for the destitute and dying, and other areas for the very sick. Additionally, we continue to work alongside Good News Children’s Education Ministry, providing health care, witnessing to street kids through praise songs, Bible stories, feeding, and love. Most recently, we joined Big Life Ministries providing health care and testimonies to a remote village where it is anticipated that a new church will be planted.
I feel truly blessed to have been given these opportunities to serve in the great country of India. Our team(s) would appreciate your prayers for the health and safety of each member as we go to an area of the world where there is much suffering. Pray that our presence in Kolkata serves to demonstrate the great love our Savior has for His children. Pray that we experience a broken and contrite heart. Pray for careful planning of the next team of nursing students and nursing faculty (2014).
I have been given several opportunities to serve in Calcutta (Kolkata), India as team leader and faculty member for Azusa Pacific University's School of Nursing’s short-term study abroad program and through the Office of World Missions. Our teams have collaborated with health care providers from Calcutta Mercy Hospital to observe, serve, and learn from those providing care to the poorest of the poor. Our team will be working among the extremely needy who live in very difficult conditions and are stricken with poverty and disease. We will observe malnutrition, homelessness, and how the people of Kolkata survive hardship on a daily basis. India has one of the highest percentages of undernourished children in the world (Archer 2007).
We have been able to work in the Mother Teresa Centers of the Missionaries of Charity in their orphanages, home for the destitute and dying, and other areas for the very sick. Additionally, we continue to work alongside Good News Children’s Education Ministry, providing health care, witnessing to street kids through praise songs, Bible stories, feeding, and love. Most recently, we joined Big Life Ministries providing health care and testimonies to a remote village where it is anticipated that a new church will be planted.
I feel truly blessed to have been given these opportunities to serve in the great country of India. Our team(s) would appreciate your prayers for the health and safety of each member as we go to an area of the world where there is much suffering. Pray that our presence in Kolkata serves to demonstrate the great love our Savior has for His children. Pray that we experience a broken and contrite heart. Pray for careful planning of the next team of nursing students and nursing faculty (2014).
