Chicken meals For the Kids

Dear Partners after many months December was a good month. We were able to provide Chicken meals every week throughout December. Thank you once again for your support and prayers.

Pillows and Pillow Cases

Thank you Judy (and her Church group) for providing hand made pillow cases.

Count Down to Christmas 2013

Kids are counting down to Christmas.  Thank you Carmen Vianese for the Advent cards. We are praying for this Christmas to be special to all of our supporters.

Beating double digit Inflation

With Vegetable prices experiencing double digit inflation, the kids themselves have been planting and harvesting vegetables. This week they got radish and when we weighed it, we had 2 kg of radish.
With rains not being consistent, the vegetable garden needs daily manual watering and weekly application of organic fertilizer. We do not use any pesticide, but because of that we see a lot of plants get eaten by insects.
This week the kids will get broad beans out of their garden. They have also planted for pumpkin.
If we keep this up, we are taking care of about 15-25% of our weekly veggie requirements.

Miracle Garden School provides quality education for more than 200 poor students

The vision of Miracle Garden School is 2 fold:
1. Provide quality education to the orphan children of Miracle Garden.
2. Provide quality education to the poor children of the surrounding villages.

We started the school in 2010 with just our orphans. Today we have 200 poor students from 9 villages attending our school. We have 2 vehicles, a mini bus and a van, that bring the children to school. Most families pay a minimal tuition and some even pay for the transportation. After 3 years we are happy to announce that 60% of our school's budget is being met by the small fee collected from the families.
The greatest need we have today is school furniture. Tables, chairs, benches for kids to use.

Keeping the Smile On!

Every parent knows that the smile on your kid makes it all worth it. The sacrifices, the toil, the tears everything seems so inconsequential when you know your kid is happy. This is the same feeling we have at Miracle Garden. The happiness of our children is the ultimate joy we experience.

We try to do the best we can to provide a safe, secure and nurturing environment for the kids. The emotional needs are the toughest to meet. Each child comes from a distinct background filled with negative connotations. To decipher all this baggage and be able to bring them to a state of stability and real happiness takes a long time. We are not professionally trained, but we learn from experience how to minister to the children.

It’s not always so easy, an orphanage is not a 2 parent or for that matter a single parent environment. In an orphanage love must come from everywhere. The staffs have to love the children, but the children have to love each other and support each other too. Teaching kids to be supportive of each other is a big part of orphanage culture.

Regimen and rules have to be followed, much more so than in homes. But these rules cannot become a burden, or they must not be perceived as punishment. It is imperative that orphanage kids must be taught that rules help to make their lives easier and more enjoyable.

Sometimes people may romanticize life on a mission field, but when it involves trying to keep a smile on an orphan; it is more than what a human can do. Jesus loves these little children, all over the world, living in orphanages, only He can help us touch their hearts. Yes, He surely does and I can vouch for it!

Plumber Kids

Kids are taught several skills while living in Miracle Garden. These are skills that they can use to gain employment at good wages. One of these skills is plumbing. From basic to advanced level of skills are being acquired by our kids. At Miracle garden we have so many plumbing situations every week. This gave us the opportunity to get kids to watch and apprentice under qualified plumbers. Now some of them are able to perform some complicated plumbing jobs on their own.
In the collage above, you will see Paul and Anis, on their own, dig the trench to place new pipes which replaced the old ones. In this project they themselves did all the measurements, went to to the hardware store bought the right amount of piping etc. This job was done without any professional plumber employed, and it was a major job. It also saved us close to $100.
In India plumbers are in high demand and most of them become plumbers through apprenticeship. There is no need to be licensed.
We would like to buy a complete set of  plumbing tools to continue making these kids more proficient and help in their training. Remember this is only an informal training program, the kids still attend school. But having employable skills is also essential. If interested in helping in this area, please contact us.

Thankyou Trudi

Talent Day for the Kids

Our Kids practiced for several weeks and performed several dances as part of our annual Talent Day.

Kids get Training to use Fire Extinguishers

The Local Fire Department trained some of our older boys in the proper way to use the fire extinguishers that we have placed all over campus as part of the new regulations for fire safety.

It feels good to know...

It feels good to know that many of you think of our kids even while going about your busy schedules. Here is a case in point. Our good friends Martyn and Sue from Great Britain, were out celebrating one of their grand daughter's birthday at Pizza Hut. They came across an activity book being handed out to kids. They asked the manager to donate some for our kids and they happily did so. Thanks Martyn & Sue.

Thank you for remembering us on Valentines!

Kids at Bethany UMW in Madison, WI sent valentines cards and gifts to the kids. They also sent some hearts for our kids to write on to share their love with them. here are some of the kids with hearts they drew on for the Bethany kids.

Kids Enjoy a day of Games and Fun

Kids enjoy a full day of fun games and sports. Many even win some prizes.

First Grader Moses Wins Statewide Drawing Competition

Moses who is a first grader at our home practices every day with the crayons and pencils loving donors have provided for our kids . It paid off as he won the Statewide competition in drawing.

Christmas Play Participants

Many of the kids were participants in the annual Christmas play staged at the school.

Christmas Day Cheer

Kids are hyped about Christmas day. They had good special food, toys, clothes and a lot of fun.

Kids Show off Their Model Art

Kids proudly show off their school projects. The above 4(Suresh, Manik, Vignesh, Nandini) won on their categories.

Count Down To Christmas

Kids are counting down to Christmas.  Thank you Carmen Vianese for the count down cards. We are praying for this Christmas to be special to all of our supporters.

KIDS CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING

The kids learn about Thanksgiving in America. They share some things they are thankful for, pray for Miracle Garden and its supporters. They enjoy a special Chicken and fruit meal. Chicken has been scarce this year, so this was one of those special times for them to enjoy a really special meal on a really meaningful day.
Happy Thanksgiving to all our supporters!

KIDS MAKING PROGRESS

The younger MG Kids had their term examinations and they excelled in the exams. Here are the kids with their report cards. Also seen is the staff, Teachers of the School who help our kids become brilliant.

PenPals

RWC students visited the kids in June 2012. They have now written to some of the the kids and would like the kids to write back in return. Kids will write this weekend.

NEW BEDS FOR KIDS

We are in the process of giving out new individual beds for the kids. These beds are made out of special memory foam. It is fold-able for storage and has a liquid resistant cover on top.

Celebrating India's 66th Independance Day

Homework Time

Every day home work takes 2 hours to complete. That is a lot of homework! We need donors to help get kids some desks and chairs to be put inside the dorms, so that they can do their Homework in the dorm itself.

Thank You Bethany UMC for the Classrooms

This classroom built with funds from Bethany UMC was outfitted with the smart class.

Thank You For the New Kitchen Roof

Happy To Get New Uniforms

NEW SCHOOL YEAR STARTS

Our School started on June 4th. We are exited to learn new things and make new friends.

SIFE Team Paints Girls Dorm & teach kids to paint

The RWC SIFE team went out bought some paint and painted the inside of the girls dorm building. They also taught the older boys on how to scrub walls, mix paint and roller paint and edge. Thanks RWC SIFE.

Roberts Wesleyan College SIFE Team @ MG

RWC SIFE team makes another visit to MG to be with the kids for 8 days. This is the second year that SIFE has come to MG. The team members are all different from last year. They are led by Dr. Ervin Starr and Carrie Starr.