Students Help Women and Children in Kolkata

(The following story is reprinted from a e-newsletter prepared by the Office of Advancement.  If you would like to receive this periodic e-newsletter please click here.)

Canadian University College students Kaylie Copeland, Brady Eshleman, Katelyn Hutton, Andrea Lavy, and Michelle Launio, travelled with former Assistant Chaplain Shantel Smith and CUC alumnus Crux Phiri to Kolkata, India this summer to work with women and children in the region of Khalighat. They all committed to going to serve God by helping needy people. And they did. But what they didn’t expect was how the women and children of Khalighat were going to bless their lives and teach them about God and His redemption and love. 

The group travelled to India on July 28 and spent a month working in Kolkata. The mission trip was an extension of The Stoplight Project - a non-profit organization founded by Pastor Shantel Smith and directed by the Adventist Southeast Asia Projects that organizes comprehensive plans to minister and rehabilitate at-risk and trafficked girls and women in Cambodia. “The mission trip was an extension of The Stoplight Project inasmuch as The Stoplight Project helps students to combine social justice with mission to work with other global human trafficking agencies that are on the ground overseas,” explains Pastor Smith. 

The purpose of the trip was to work with women who are working in the red light district in Kolkata to help rehabilitate them and provide them with microloans and to teach them micro financial skills such as jewelry making so they can generate an income for themselves to gain financial independence. This work was done in conjunction with Jewels in a Crown, a non-profit organization offering Kolkata’s trafficked and exploited women safe, alternative employment and a new life. (Please see www.jewelsinacrown.com) 

“A lot of our time was given over to prayer and worship services in the brothel community. The men worked with the children in the orphanage helping with schoolwork and chores, with mentorship, discipleship, organizing sports activities, and, most importantly, building relationships and loving the kids. In the afternoon the girls worked at Mother Teresa’s Home for the Destitute and the Dying - massaging those who were disabled, serving the food, giving baths, monitoring patients, and general care-taking for the men and women who were there,” shares Pastor Smith. 

Brady Eshleman recounts his experience from the mission trip. “Some of my greatest memories are of seeing the kids’ real relationship with God. I got to hear about how He talked to them, when they dreamed of Him, I even got to see them laying their lives down for Him. I really fell in love with all the kids. I still remember them all, and wish I could see them again. Even for a day to see how they are.”
 

“My trip to India was filled with a lot of growth, laughter, heartbreak, and tears. God worked in me over there, and the things He taught me there really changed my life,” shares Kaylie Copeland. 

“I left a part of my heart in India,” shares Andrea Lavy. “I went there with the idea that I was going to bless those women and God was going to use me to help them and to show them God’s love, but I left realizing that they blessed me and that they showed me God’s amazing love towards me.  Their stories of redemption are all such beautiful ones that they just made me fall more in love with God.” 

Andrea wasn’t the only one that felt this way. Pastor Smith shares, “We spent time building relationships with the ladies and got to know their stories. They were a huge blessing to us, I feel more so than we were to them.” The experience left the group with a single desire, the desire to do more. Brady writes, “I want nothing more than to say yes, to hold nothing back and give my life to see God’s redemption. More than anything else this trip made me hungry to see change. I know my part now too, and I pray for the grace to actually surrender everything.” 

Kaylie shares, “We all struggled with the want to do MORE for these people, to give more, help more, love more, and pray more. It was hard to come to the realization that we could only do so much - that at the end of the day, it was all in God's hands. It was a really helpless feeling, especially when seeing these things every day.” 

But perhaps the greatest realization the group had was of how much God loved each of them. Kaylie shares the story of a particularly difficult day that led her to sitting on a rooftop protected by a little overhang, watching a storm, and praying. “As I sat there, crying to God and watching this crazy storm take place, an incredible sense of peace washed over me. Despite the mighty storm that was raging in front of my eyes, God told me to just be still and know that He was God (Psalms 46:10). God helped me to understand that night that I just needed to trust Him, to just be still and know He's in control of my life. He had brought me to India for a purpose - whether it was to teach me things, or to reach others, or both. And even greater than Him bringing me all the way to India for a purpose, He had a purpose for the rest of my life.” 

Andrea Lavy shares, “God took me all the way to India to show me how much He loves us all. I felt His presence so much when I was there and in so many instances I would break down and cry because I would become overwhelmed with His love for us.” 

Praise God for His wisdom, protection and love in allowing this wonderful group of students to have this experience. If you would like more information on missions at Canadian University College or to support mission work, please contact Pastor Adam Deibert, lead chaplain at adamdeibert@cauc.ca.