Day 3 - Destiny

Day 3 - Destiny 

What a great first day of ministry.  Seriously every year I come here and God ALWAYS confirms why He gave me a heart for the people of India.  Destiny is just one of the many reasons.  There are some true heroes in the fight against human trafficking and Smarita Sengupta is just one of the many heroes.  She and her staff are doing amazing things at Destiny.  More on that later.

We started out the morning with a tour of the older part of Calcutta.  Our amazing guide Ifti was full of information about the area.  He speaks 7 languages!  What an interesting morning.  I have no idea how far we walked but it was a ton of walking.  After the tour we headed over to Destiny.

We started out at Destiny with a brief introduction of the company and their mission.  Destiny is an organization that hires only girls that have been rescued from sex trafficking. They train them how to sew, which is a very valuable skill as there are so many garment factories in India. PLEASE go to www.destinyreflection.org to learn more about the mission of this amazing ministry.  Then we had lunch with the Destiny girls.  We had yummy biryani.  So good!  Then we did some shopping in Destiny; the girls love it when we shop in their small store and purchase items that they have sewn and we are happy to oblige.  :)

After we shopped we went back into the sewing room and showed the girls what we had purchased. They love seeing who buys the items they had made and it is fun to see the pride on their faces.  For many of them this is the first time in their lives that they feel HOPEFUL FOR THEIR FUTURE.  Destiny is doing an amazing thing with these girls. 

We brought a few crafts to make with the girls. It always amazes me how quickly they catch on to what we are showing them and then end up making it better than our example that we had made. Ha!  They made feather hair clips and also decorated masks.  Seeing them model their masks reminded me that it was  such a perfect metaphor for their life. For many years these girls were forced to mask their feelings and now they have finally removed it and are able to express their feelings. They are being counseled and taught how to express their feelings in a healthy way. 

After our craft we had a special time of sharing some music and henna stories. Kay found a really cool website  that shows how to draw and tell bible stories using henna. Rachael sang "Beauty from Pain". After our special time together we announced that it was time for us to go and the girls told us through a translator that they wished we could just stay all night and sing and talk with them. 

As we were leaving I stood up and ripped my tunic. Apparently the corner had gotten stuck under a chair leg (I was siting on the floor). One of the girls insisted I change clothes so they could fix it. I borrowed a sweatshirt and she sewed the tear in under a minute.  So sweet. 

Destiny is just ONE of the reasons I love Indis