A Day to be Remembered

Come with me to a small village. In a small hut with a thatched roof and a dirt floor, is a young woman with dreams in her heart that she is afraid to express. It is the lot of this young woman like a thousand others to live her whole life here in these four walls and within the limits of her village. Traditions and rituals are all she knows, marriage is quickly approaching and her dreams are slowly fading.

Her parents took a bold step. Her brother was willing to drive his sister for miles through the country side, for the chance that she may have a different future and with hope that the smile that he so well remembers will dawn her face once again.

She like 20 other girls have arrived here at ECBC for a 6 months Vocational Training Course, where they learn Tailoring, Computer Skills and Spoken English. The girls are painfully shy as their eyes stay looking at the floor during orientation.

Now 6 months later it is graduation for the first class of ECBC’s Vocational Training Courses. The girls have are all laughing together and talk to the staff and college students with ease. They have learned English amazingly fast and we spend time together as often as we can. The library is an assortment of colors today as their tailoring skills have paid off and their work is displayed. There is laughter as one story after another is told how they were terrified of the computer when they first come, but now they LOVE it and hope that they can get more training.

Among the life skills that they have learned there is a true transformation that is undeniable even to their families. There is a light in these girls’ eyes that was not there before, and that light is JESUS. “I didn’t know there was a living God, a one true God, now I do and it has changed me!” One girl tells me, as I interview each eager graduate (They all want to tell there story).

ECBC Vocational Training Courses was born out of a desire that the Lord placed in Pastor Jeevan’s heart to see young Indian woman grow into who God created them to be. To show them that they are not inferior to the boys but that God has a perfect and beautiful plan for their lives.

I am thankful for the time that I have been allowed to spend with this group of girls. There were many tears as each girl said goodbye to her new friends and family. Many will be returning to a very dark environment. But it will be different this time because they have hope, they have the light of Jesus. They realize now that they have a voice, and that many brothers and sisters in the Lord are praying for them.

It was a bitter-sweet day.