INDIA PROJECT
Dubbo Church of Christ has been involved with a mission outreach in India since about 2006. In that time we have helped support Martin Glansy and family (wife Marilyn & daughters Martina and Margaret).
Martin has a ministry called ‘Faith in Action’ and he has been actively involved with 6 Leprosy villages south of Chennai in Tamil Nadu India for over 25 years. We as a church have provided funds to buy rice and bandages for these people from time to time. We have also paid to have some of the roofs re thatched, replaced a submersible pump that supplied drinking water to a village, purchased goats for various families at several villages so that they could have a source of income.
A couple of years ago we partnered with west Dubbo Rotary and funded a new water bore and overhead tank for a large leprosy village.
We have also partnered with Martin to establish and maintain a sewing training project for women and girls. Many poor women and girls have been abandoned by there husbands/fathers through death, drugs/alcohol, imprisonment or just abandonment. Martin wanted to provide a way for these women to have a semi-skilled job. By training these women for 2 or 3 months in sewing skills they are able to either get a job in the tailoring industry or get a better job. Some have even started their own tailoring business. Martin finds a church that is willing to provide a place for the training, Dubbo Church of Christ (through Faith in Action), provides the sewing machines (anywhere from 2 to 4 per location) and also give a small salary to the sewing teacher ( who usually is a member of the church).
The women are usually from the village and are mostly Hindu and some Muslims. They come to the church building for the training and get a chance to mix with the Christians from the church during the training and hopefully get an understanding of Jesus.
Martin has reported over the years that many of the women have seen a dramatic improvement in their life and their families because they had a chance to learn a skill that made them employable.
These programs have been established in Tamil Nadu, Andra Pradesh, Pondicherry and Karnataka states.
Also for 10 years now Martin has set up opportunity for us to run pastors & leaders training seminars.
