HOPE...

Yesterday I was standing in a hallway at church with Micah. With the weather being so hot, I noticed a window open and a breeze coming in. I had to take Micah over to see if  the weather had finally cooled off. The building I was in overlooked a slum village. Thousands of families live in these little houses with dirt floors and thatched roofs. As I looked down I saw a little boy running out of his house in only a t-shirt . I thanked God in my heart for allowing me to be born in America, as I have done so many times since being here in India. I knew I am lucky to be born in America, but until now never realized just how blessed we truly are. In America the sky truly is the limit. It doesn't matter where you come from or where you have been, if you have a dream inside your heart and the drive to fulfill that dream you can be someone. That is not the case here in India. If you are born into poverty the reality is you will NEVER get out. Imagine living your life feeling like the only thing you can ever be is a maid or a rickshaw driver. We are brought up in America to believe that you can be and do anything you put your mind to.
              BUT, God is doing something...something BIG...He is changing India and He sent US. US who come from a very blessed country only because our fore fathers established our country on God. Many people asked us why we would go to another country and help them...our only answer was we knew God called us here. And now I know and fully understand why God called us here. We have all the resources in the world where we come from and we believe God is Big and doing amazing things here in India. Only God can change a country that is rooted in unbelief and an awful cast system. And he asked us to give up our comfortable homes, our car and not see the ones we love the most for a period of time. So that we can see the people of India through His loving eyes. To bring them hope that they can become anything they want.  Here is a video of a little girl who now has HOPE!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE5b9QdF8ec

Maha is the little girl in this video. Ryan and I met her the day after her and her 2 brothers were rescued off the streets. Maha's parents are drug addicts living on the streets. Freddy and Daisy found them and after a month of watching them from afar, giving them food and getting all the proper paperwork together they brought them into their orphanage. God created this precious girl for a purpose and she is now being loved on and taught about Jesus Christ. What a beautiful story of God's redemption. If it had not been for His love for us we would be lost ourselves.
If you are interested in being a part of what we are doing her in India please let us know! We are currently working on a jewelry project that is not only benefiting orphanages, but women rescued from human trafficking as well. We cannot do this without our wonderful support team!

Love the Toliver's

Life in India

Several of you have asked what it is like living in India so I thought I would share a few pictures with you to show where we live and so on...

Here is the front of our house. We live here with The Doherty's

 We wave these down everyday to get around town. They call them auto's or rickshaws. There is a law that the drivers are to use meters to determine how much they get paid. We have yet to have a driver use one, they always say they are broken, so we have to barter with them on a good price before we get in. This can be difficult because we have been here for a month now and know what decent rates are and they like to make it a lot more expensive.

This is the house across the street from ours. Just this morning I looked out of our window to see women carrying bricks on there head. On the bottom right corner of the picture is the stack of bricks and the women carry them to the roof on the 3rd floor.

I asked someone how much they get paid. They said "Oh, they get paid well, 300-400rs a day". That is equivilant to $6-$8 a day. The cost of living here is not cheap either. Makes you grateful for your job and living in America, huh?

 On Sunday we went for a walk from our church to the mall to buy some milk. We saw a family of goats on our way. This is in  the middle of the city, there is a main highway about 100 yards away.

During the same walk we also passed by a water buffalo...Sorry I could get a better picture. I was not about to trudge throw the smelly trash heap to to get to him. :). The interesting part is that just to the right of the buffalo was someones clothesline. Wouldn't want to find him in my backyard!!!

To give you an idea of how big the autos are... this was an abandoned auto on the side of the road. A street dog was taking a snooze on the seat where the driver normally sits.

This is me posing in my rain gear. I am so grateful the monsoon season was mild this year. They say there are times during monsoon season where it rains for 10 days in a row. They don't have good drainage systems here and 2 years ago the water rose to peoples chests when outside.

Hope these give you some mental images of what life might be like in India. We are settled in and working on projects for potential future BFO business's along with visiting orphanages and getting to know the children.

The Toliver's

My Heart is Overflowing!

       My mind is reeling after a wonderful and informative meeting with Dr. Lolita Edwards. Dr. Edwards has 3 different ministries within the red light district here in Pune India. The first one that sticks deep in my heart is called The Cresh. This is for the children growing up in the red light district. The men start arriving around 4pm, this is when they (The Cresh) get the children and take them into the children's home and feed them a good meal. They are only able to keep them until 9pm and have to return them to brothals to witness all the aweful things happening. They are often drugged to either have them fall asleep so they are quiet and are raped. The Cresh is a safe haven for them, but for only 5 hours. They are trying to get the hours extended so that they are able to keep the children the entire night. Please pray that happens quickly.

         Dr. Edwards also runs an AID's orphanage which is currently housing 39 children. All of them have been rescued out of  brothals. Their ages range from 4yrs old to 21. 

        The third ministry Dr Edwards runs is with helping the Eunichs. These are men who have either willing or unwilling through being drugged have had all their male parts removed leaving only an area for them to pee. Then they are given female hormones. Dr Edwards explained to us that their are 3 casts within the Eunichs and that it is much like the mafia. The top cast is very wealthy and saught after, they are in Bollywood films and things of that nature. The second being those that work in weathly families homes as cooks. They are paid very well for this. The lowest cast are those that work in the sex trade. From what I understand those that are willing subjects are lewerd in with aspirations to reach the top cast. These men are often paid 100 rupees per encounter and must give 50 rupees to the brothal owner and 20 of that goes to the cops to pay them off, because prostitution is illegal here. This is the group of men that Dr Edwards reachs out to and many have converted their lives to Jesus. She said that she is so thankful God uses her to help as a doctor for their health along with the mental and physical things that these men have to overcome. 

Dr. Edwards reminds me of what I think Mother Theresa might have been like. She has such a genuine heart toward God and a love for people. I can't wait to work more with her ministries.

And here is a picture of our Cookie Monster. I was on the computer and Micah got quiet. So I peeked around the desk to find him with 2 cookies in each hand. This was at 8am this morning. Haha, he sure knows what he wants and he is determined to get it. I know God is going to use Micah's determination and Focus for something awesome!

3 MORE DAYS!

      As we get ready to leave Illinois and head back to Houston for a 34 hour layover the reality of us leaving is setting in. So much time and prayer has gone into this outreach and even though we have not hit 100% funding we are believing God for the remainder of our support. Everything on this Earth belongs to Him and His glory! These last few days in Illinois have been filled with meeting old friends and enjoying family. Please join us in praying about this transition in moving overseas, for rest and peace over Micah and us as parents. We are so blessed by everyones prayers and support up to now and pray that God blesses you in return. We love you all and will post again soon!

In God's Will,

Ryan, Britt, and Micah

15 Days and Counting!

Update!!! Update!!!
God is so faithful! Our wonderful renters Sam and Kim started moving in on Friday. Kim is a teacher  Ryan worked with at Kreinhop. It is such relief to know we have reliable renters we can trust and will treat our home like their own. (Which is exactly what we prayed for)

Getting ready for India has in been an expense pursuit from plane tickets to vaccines, passports and visas. And God has provided for everything we have been in need of.

Prayer Requests....
We are in need of $2,000 a month to be able to do the work needed in India. At this point we have $1150. We are still in need of $850 a month. As our wonderful friends and family I wanted to ask for your prayers for the rest of our provision to come in.

Also, pray for our health. For God to prepare us emotionally, spiritually and physically for what we are about to do. There are alot of unknowns as we move our family to a third world country. I have been praying for God to prepare us for things we don't even know are ahead of us.


As I was praying this morning, I thought of the scripture do not cast away your confidence, and in Heb. 11:1 that faith is the confident assurance that God is going to do what He said he was going to do. I have no doubts that God is going to provide for us and prepare the way ahead of us, but I know prayer is powerful!!

http://www.businessfororphans.org/www.businessfororphans.com/Donate.html

The Count Down is On

25 days until we board our India bound plane, 4 days until we hand over our keys to our renters and 8 days until we visit Ryan's family in Illinois.

I wanted to share with you some statistics on orphans in India and worldwide.

It is estimated there are between 143 million and 210 million orphans worldwide (recent UNICEF report.)

The current population of the United States is just a little over 300 million… to give you an idea of the enormity of the numbers… (The current population of Russia is 141 million)

Every day 5,760 more children become orphans

In 2007, there were 25 million orphans in India, according to UNICEF. However, only 3,332 adoptions (853 international, 2479 domestic) took place in 2006

There are 738 verified orphanages in India.

Where are these orphans sleeping at night? What do they eat? Who is loving on them and caring for them?

For millions of them they have no place to lay their heads at night and scrounge for food in dumpsters. They are told that they are untouchable, unlovable and must have been awful in their past life, that is the reason they are an orphan. 

We are learning more each day why God is sending us to India. The need is great but our God is HUGE!!!

James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

The Toliver's