While I was away and moving forward

I spent the last 12 days in Nepal teaching CPR and while I was gone my wonderful friends continued making the meals for the kids! They said that both weeks went really well, and that last week the kids themselves did almost all of the passing out! It is incredible.

This week Asha Guwahati took some big steps forward! Rosie and I went out on Saturday and purchased the largest pressure cooker and rice cooker that we could find. Thanks to everyone's generous donations we are now able to more efficiently make the food which also enables us to make more meals. If you have had the opportunity to help us here then you know that previously we were having to make all the meals in batches and it took hours. Yesterday we found ourselves twiddling our thumbs after about one hour! This week we stuck to our normal amount to test the equipment out but next week we are increasing by 50% then doubling the following week if all goes as planned. That will equal 100 meals per feeding. I think 75 is enough to cover every child and adolescent in Lakhtokia. I have my eye on a group of about 15 or so that have appeared by the train station so that will be who the additional meals go to. Also, a friend who is local gave me some very exciting news this week which I will share more about later, good things are happening in the heart of Guwahati my friends, thanks for sticking along for the ride!

I can't help but scan over the children of the slums feet everytime I see them. Or the patients as they lay in bed recovering. The feet of these children are hard and rough, some run deep with wounds. Its as if their soles alone tell the story of their lives. Hard and rough and sometimes running deep with pain. Every once and a while when we arrive to hand the meals out there is a new injury on someone's foot which I later come back to clean. I usually return by myself after buying soap, gauze and a clean cloth. I walk in and no one bothers me but the injured child comes right up, knowing why I am there. We find a 'quiet' spot and I squat down to clean. In this act of cleaning there is significance beyond taking care of a wound. In many eastern cultures a person's feet are considered the lowest and dirtiest place on the body. One should not touch another with their feet or point the soles of their feet at someone. A servant washes his masters feet, that is why the biblical tale of Jesus washing the disciples feet carries such weight. This sentiment still rings true in this part of the world. Your feet are the vessel that carry you through life and in a culture that still struggles with castes, one look at a persons feet and you can guess if they would be the servant or the served. That is a barrier I fear will never be broken... So I wash. We wash. We clean.  It may be one hurting foot at a time or thirty pairs at a street kids day,  but as I stoop down to wash the injured and dirtied feet of these children I hope they know I am theirs. I am their servant because I am His.