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GreetingsFrom

Alamin Raju Kumar Bijoy

My team arrived in Kolkata, India on Satur-day, June 30 after several days of travel from Hawaii. There are certain things you can expect for sure when stepping off a plane in Kolkata: its overwelmingly hot, smelly, ridiculously loud & crowded. After we struggled with immigration for a good amount of time, we were finally on our way to our home for the next 5 1/2 weeks. Kolkata’s metropolitan area is home to around 15 million people, so you can imagine how busy it is in the city. Luckily, our contacts, Sona & Chuba, who are with YWAM Kolkata, live in the outshirts of the city in a town called Howrah. Howrah is still busy & loud, especially early in the morning, but it is nothing compared to living in the city limits of Kolkata. Sona & Chuba have been excellent hosts making the tranisition to life in India surprisingly smooth. We are so blessed to be able to spend time with them and the other YWAM Kolkata staff while we are here.There are not many people as selfless as they are in the way they devote their lives to the Lord’s work. The ministry we are working with started by Sona & Chuba is called Life Connection. Howrah is home to one of the world’s busiest train sta-tions & bridges with over 1 million people pass-ing through it in a day. Unfortunately, this train station is not only a place for travel, but for many kids in Kolkata, it is also home. Most of the chil-dren who live in the station are either working to make money for their families or they have run away from home and are living on their own.

Because life on the streets is difficult, espe-cially in Kolkata, many of these boys turn to sniff-ing glue & cutting their arms with glass to try to alleviate the pain of their rough lives. The staff at Life Connection have devoted their lives to finding these children in the Howrah Station and bringing them to a day center for restoration and healing. Currently the center has around 12-15 boys who are coming consistently everyday. Most of these boys have made major improvements such as stopping the use of glue and cutting and are now focusing on a relationship with Jesus. The hope for the ministry is that they will be able to start a boys home in the near future so the children will have a place to call home other than the station. My team’s role in working with the ministry is to attened morning/evening prayer walks to the station to rescue new children. We also work daily in the center to care for the basic needs of the boys, pray for them and help build their iden-tity in Christ. Below are a few pictures of some of the boys that have been coming to Life Con-nection for several years. Please be praying with us for this ministry. We plan to use our talents in photography and media to tell the stories of these boys and the staff who devote their lives to them in hopes to help their goal of someday soon run-ning a boys home!

In Christ Alone...Hollyhollann1@gmail.comwww.hollystout.com

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