01/21/2023
YOUTH MISSIONS FUNDRAISER:
The Youth are sponsoring a fundraiser to help a church in India care for widows and ten orphans. We still have tickets left. We invite you to join us tomorrow night at Long Branch Baptist ~ 2535 Peach Orchard Road ~ Dalzell at 6pm for Spaghetti, Green Beans, and Garlic Bread. We have takeout available. All who dine in will also receive Sweet Tea, Lemonade, or Water to drink with their meal. Tickets at the door are $10 each.
The following is why we are helping the widows and orphans through a local church in India:
Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. —James 1:27
In ancient India, widows were often forced into the pagan practice of sati, dying on pyres of their dead husbands. It was believed wives would assist her husband in the afterlife.
Missionaries like William Carey helped in abolishing the practice (12/6/1829). However, widows who lived were viewed as a burden or bad luck.
Today, more than 40 million widows in India struggle because they are still viewed with contempt. Their husband’s property is taken from them. Families that help, treat them as second-class, and many don’t help at all.
Our youth have been challenged to help raise funds for providing an opportunity for widows to live in dignity. A local church in India has purchased sewing machines to help provide thirteen widows with a source of income.
Funds will help in obtaining training and purchase materials to get them off to a good start.
The church has also taken on ten orphaned children. School will begin for these children in April. Funds will help to feed, clothe, and educate these children through the church.
The cost to aid these children is $300, or $30 per child per month.
