A Divine Calling
The Orphans’ Faith Home (OFH) began in 1972 when Pastor Parishudha Babu Gadelli and his wife Vijayasree began taking local orphaned children into their hut and caring for them. Born into the Dalit (Untouchable) caste, Pastor Babu was left in the street when his parents could no longer afford to feed him. A Finnish missionary couple saw the starving and sobbing child Babu, and they took him to their orphanage and cared for him for 16 years. He later dedicated his life to serving the Lord, and he and his wife decided that they wanted to open an orphanage so they could provide the same kind of care to orphans that Babu received.
CAW president Mike Monteith met Pastor Babu at an annual Global Missions Conference in the early 2000s. A few years later in 2008, Pastor Babu reached out to us for help, and after much prayer we made the first trip to India. Over 35 years, Pastor Babu expanded the orphanage to a much larger, separate building that currently houses and educates over 250 children. His son, David Samuel, assists him with running OFH.
Sustainable Initiatives
Today, Come Alive World is the primary financial supporter of Orphans’ Faith Home. We actively support 50 children there monthly. We also host Vacation Bible School (VBS) for the children of the home and the neighbouring villages — over 350 kids! We helped Pastor Babu and David create a small farm for the home that serves as both a livelihood for the residents and a source of income for the home. Thanks to some generous donations, we were able to buy some water buffaloes that produce milk for the home and some extra milk that gets sold to the neighbours. There are some chickens on the farm that are raised for their eggs and meat, and we’d like to help OFH purchase some goats, too. The children also get to care for rabbits, birds and flower beds as a sort of chore.
We encourage you to pray with us about the future of this ministry, and if the Lord so leads you, consider making a donation or sponsoring a child at the home.