Thanks Maria and her team of friends at Love without Borders. These young Indian women that now live in North America connected with our message and wanted to do something to help support their sisters in India. Next month they will host an event to do just that! Thanks again Love without Borders!!!

She is the head midwife in one of the villages we work in in South India. We had just finished participating in the daily milk program we started a few months ago – each pregnant women receives one liter of milk and a mother with a newborn daughter receives 2 liters of milk. Sister Malar (one of our paid staff) also works with the pregnant women to educate them on prenatal care and schedules and travels with them for their monthly checkups at the hospital.

It is easy me to have rage and anger for this women when I hear her tell us that she has proudly killed 5 of her own daughters. I also know that her hands have killed (The practice in this village is the new born girl is taken from her mother at birth, placed in a jug filled with water until she expires. The dead baby girl is then buried by her siblings in the front yard of their home) hundreds if not thousands of girl babies in this village alone over her lifetime (2 years ago up to 50 girl babies were killed each year just in this one village).

But God tells me to have compassion on her. To pray for her. She has lost all hope. She has been beaten by her husband for only bearing girls (I know its the male that determines the sex of the child). She has been mocked and spit upon by her neighbors for only giving her husband one son to care for them in their old age. For years she beat her son’s wife and treated her as a slave. She has drown her own granddaughters. she hates her daughter-in-law because her husband treats her as his young second wife. Now, her daugher-in-law has started to seek revenge for the years of mistreatment and has started to beat her. You can feel the evil surrounding this women – she is most likely possessed by a demonic spirit that has attached itself to one of the many Hindu gods she worships.

In India you hear stories time and time again of a man of peace, dressed in a white robe appearing in a vision or a dream to a person. After the visit the person’s life is transformed. They become a new person in search of a true God that will give them hope, a purpose and heart of love. God may have a different plan for changing the heart and attitude of this midwife. It may be through Brother Phillip, Sister Malar, Raj, Prema or through the actions of a strange white man with gray hair from America.
Hindu Midwife
I would like to ask everyone that reads this post to download this photo, share it with others and pray with me that God will touch the heart of this misguided woman in a small rural village in South India. He already knows her name and exact location.

God’s speed!

Most times when we reflect about the magnitude of the problem of female infanticide the solution seems daunting – almost impossible to overcome. But then see Rachele’s story unfold in two short years and you think anything is possible.

June 2010. Shortly after Rachele was rescued she was so fragile and near death. Her parents did not want her because she was born with a cleft palate and lip.

Sept 2010. Smile Train performs surgery on Rachele. Aroma Ministries cares for her. The Rhema Project covers the travel costs and financially supports her foster parents.

February 2011. Today she has been adopted by an Indian family. Her parents meet all of her needs and will give her a great education.

Our financial support is no longer required. We simply get the joy of knowing she is loved and well cared for.

Together, we can do this!

Last week we were visiting baby Rhema’s home village in South India. It had been over two years since we were able to celebrate her birth and life with a name and a few rupees. Shortly after her birth her parents moved north for more job opportunities. Every time we would visit the village we would ask about her welfare and was told she was doing fine.

So, as I was sharing the story with my stateside friends Mike and Deb Piedt and Judy Eck they asked to see where it all started. As we started to walk down the side street the crowd of children began to grow. We stopped in front of Rhema’s grandparent’s home and I shared how we were sitting in this spot.

Then it happened! Two year old Rhema and her mother stepped out of the house and approached us. Rhema’s mom was in a nice saree not typically worn by village women. Rhema looked healthy had bangles on each ankle but was a little taken back by all of the commotion. We learned they had returned to the village for a short visit.

Just moments before we had been in a discussion with one of the older village women as she defiantly defended the practice of killing her granddaughters was the best and only choice worth considering. We walked away disheartened on how far we still needed to go to help change an attitude deeply ingrained in the culture.

It always amazes me how a small dose of hope inspires your spirit to press on. Seeing baby Rhema that morning did that for us. It is our prayer and purpose to provide the same to village families all over South India so that the killing of girl babies will be no more.