A Spiritual Awakening

In 2008, Marlyn Brokenshire’s son John was introduced to Harvest India (HI) at Rock Harbor.  A group of young believers were planning their next trip – RH sends a mission team every year, around Christmas time.  In this particular year, John’s friends were among the group going, so John decided to go for a 3 week trip.  When the three weeks ended, John contacted Marlyn and said he was going to stay for 3 months, although he was not sure how that would be possible with the financial commitments in the US.  Of course, when we respond to God’s calling, the worldly issues have a way of working out.  John’s passion for HI grew, and his service for HI continued for 3 years, with intermittent trips home as required on his VISA. 

About half way through John’s time of service, Marlyn and her husband felt compelled to go see what had grabbed their son’s heart in such an extreme way.  Their life would never be the same.  The need was great; HI’s impact was significant.  Marlyn’s heart broke for the people of India, but in particular for two specific groups of women.

Ashraya Women:  These young ladies (teenage girls in many cases) have been rescued from prostitution in the red light district, and provided safe housing by Harvest India at the Ashraya House, including regular meals and medical care.  They are taught to sew, and provided machines and work as part of the International Princess Project.  Mission teams visit the sewing workshop to view the transformed girls as a way to encourage contributions to continue the work.  The distant expressions and lack of joy in these young girls haunted our team leader – the girls have accepted Christ as their Savior, but didn’t know how to experience the joy of being saved.  Our team leader was moved to action, to create DOK to build relationships with these sisters in Christ, and reveal the joy they can experience.

Elderly Women: These women have served their families throughout their lives, until their age or health limited their ability to contribute.  In the Dalit culture, if a family is short of resources as often happens, the elderly are tossed to the streets to save food for the younger in the house.  The elderly are left to fend for themselves, without shelter, and with a very real threat of being eaten by wild dogs in the night.  Harvest India has built numerous elder homes to provide shelter, a bed, food, and medical care for these people.  With such amazing provisions, the elders are often quick to accept Christ, and spend much of the day in prayer and expressing praise.  However, these elders  almost all women – are isolated from society, and long for relationship and affection.