Steve’s Story

Hands of Hope Blog

In January of this year (2015), I had the blessing and honor of traveling with a small group to India to spend a week and a half with the children and staff of Faith and Deeds. Although I looked forward to assisting with the planning of the construction of a new building and spending extensive time with the kids, I never could have imagined the spiritual growth and connection I would have with Christ as well as the kids of Faith in Deeds.

It was evident throughout the week the way these kids looked out for one another and frankly they looked out for those of us on the trip as well. I have shared this many times since I have been home, but the story that impacted me the most was the relationship of Prasad and Andrew.

For those that may not know these two boys, Prasad has muscular dystrophy, and at this point can no longer walk. Prasad sits on the floor all day, no longer able to play all the games the kids do, but you would never find him without a smile on his face and willing to offer a “Praise the Lord.” His buddy Andrew is maybe a year older then Prasad, but they are close friends. One evening Thomas asked our team to perform mock job interviews with some of the older kids, as they will be entering the job market in the near future. Our team was peppering Andrew with some standard questions. “Why do you want to work here? Why should we hire you?” etc. Then someone asked Andrew how often he was late to school, “If we hire you will you be late to work?” Andrew answered, “Five times.” Ok, we said, “Is that five times a year, five times a semester?” Andrew said, “Five times a week.” It didn’t look good in this mock job interview for our candidate to be late so often. Andrew’s follow up changed all that and I am sure any company would be glad to hire Andrew. He replied, “I am late because I carry Prasad to school, on my back.” Wow, we were floored. Tears flowed and we were humbled by this young man’s unselfish service to his good friend. It was a living tangible act of service that had a profound impact on us all.

by Steve Jansen