REACHING INDIA
Spreading the hope that comes with the message of Jesus Christ
Since 2000, Kensington has partnered with Christ’s Evangelical Mission in Dowlaiswaram, India. Together we have provided medical care, education, teaching and Bible training, given care to widows and orphans, and helped to spread the hope that comes with the message of Jesus Christ to these marginalized people.
AREAS OF IMPACT
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” ~John 15:12 NIV
The vision and mission of Impact India 360 is to help impoverished communities in rural India. Through a holistic development model we aim to provide basic necessities for all people regardless of race, creed, and gender.
TRANSFORMING LIVES
Church Planting
One of the challenges of spreading the good news about God’s love through Jesus Christ in India is that Christianity as a religion has been too often far removed from Jesus. As Gandhi noted, "I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
The focus of the Missionary Training School is to create Christians who are more like Christ. Select men and women are recruited for an intensive two-year training program that equips them to be spiritual leaders in their respective communities. The program produces pastors, church planters, and evangelists to carry the Good News and represent the teachings of Christ to unreached peoples in India.
Short-Term Trips
Short-term trips to India are built around relationships. Each team gets to spend time getting to know CEM staff, pastors and the children. Each afternoon the courtyard is filled with the laughter of teams playing with students. Additionally, CEM is prepared to host medical teams. Working with the poor in the neighboring community, teams have helped with medical and dental clinics. Teams traditionally travel to India in October/November and in February each year.
Medical
In February 2011, we opened the doors of a 27,000 square foot secondary hospital. The facility is equipped to provide care in the areas of general medicine, surgical services, OB/GYN, emergency response, vision, and dental. To support medical treatment we have an onsite laboratory and full service pharmacy. This care is available to everyone! We do not turn away or refuse service to a patient that does not have the financial means to pay for treatment.
In addition to the hospital, monthly outdoor medical camps are provided to the surrounding areas to provide care for those who may not be able to get to the hospital to receive treatment.
Partner Organization
In 2000, Jaya Sankar, an already successful pastor and church planter, started reaching out to the thousands of homeless children in the communities surrounding Rajahmundry – a city of over a million people in Andhra Pradesh, India. What began as a small initiative to reach forty kids has grown to nearly two hundred in the Grace Children’s Home and expanded into a holistic ministry reaching a broad spectrum of forgotten people, including hundreds of widows and aging poor in Rajahmundry. Visit Impact India 360 to learn more.
Elder Care
As we reflect upon the impact that organizations such as NoChild.org have had on caring for children around the world, we celebrate with grateful hearts – and we should! But the harsh reality is that children are not the only marginalized people group that walk among us, both here and around the world. In the recent past it has become painfully obvious to us that we have not done all that we could do for another group of people; the elderly. These are mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, people who have reared children and passed on values and life lessons while often times living in brutal conditions. Shouldn’t they be honored in their later years? Given the dignity they’ve earned?
Orphan Care
There are an estimated 11 million homeless children in India. These children end up homeless due to circumstances such as the death of one or both parents, family illness, financial constraints, or HIV/AIDS, just to name a few. Our solution to the orphan problem in Dowlaiswaram is Grace Children’s Home, offering refuge to 125 children. Through our NoChild.org program each child is given hope by receiving food, shelter, clothing, mentoring, and an education. Grace Children’s Home is allowing kids to be kids, learning to live with others, and teaching necessary life skills to prepare for integration into society.
Women's Empowerment
Poor women in Indian society are considered twice oppressed, once for being a woman, and twice for being poor. They are subjected to long hours of backbreaking labor in rock quarries, fields, or domestic service just to bring food to their children.
The Sewing Training School teaches women basic tailoring, dressmaking, and embroidery techniques. During the one-year vocational program each student receives room and board, hands on training, and sewing materials. Upon completion of the program, every student is given a new sewing machine of their own.