Friday, February 22, 2013

Anganvadi at the Mission House

The upper floor is used for the Anganvadi
The Anganvadi functioning out of the Mission house provides basic pre-school training to the kids of the villagers. All the children are from the Makodiya villages. Many children from the Anganvadi then are admitted to the MGM school of the Church functioning nearby.

By these various programs, I sensed that the mission house had essentially become a very useful and integral portion of the local community. It had gelled well with the local community, and had grown with it. That was probably exactly how Mar Theodosius envisioned it to be, but I could not help thinking - these different programs need a lot of help - skilled teachers would need to be hired locally, day care experts could be useful, nurses could provide basic health care; resources like books, toys, personal baby items all could be very useful for such a program.

(Written by Mathew Samuel (Sunil), a visitor to Makodiya in January 2013)
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1 comment:

  1. ATGMarch 4, 2013 at 7:24 PM

    Lending a helping hand always turns out to be the greatest virtue a Man/Woman can ever have desire of. Its High time that WE complete this ONE of a MILLION dreams of LL HG Dr. Stephanos Mar Theodosius.

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Our Shepherd

Our Shepherd
HG Dr. Joseph Mar Dionysius, our Shepherd and Diocesian Metropolitan, Director of the Makodia Mission is the guiding light in our ministry

Purpose - provide a glimpse of a gigantic vision

In the past I have often heard of Makodiya and Theodosius Thirumeni's work there, but was unable to find much further details or pictures of what happens there, what Thirumeni's vision was, what is its current state etc.

This blog is a small initiative to provide some information, some visibility to this mission - which needs a lot of support and prayers. Hope this endeavor would help focus attention on this place and work that was so dear to Theodosius Thirumeni who remains one of the pioneers of mission work for the ancient Church of India.

- Mathew Samuel (Sunil)

Set up by a visionary

When Late Lamented HG Stephanos Mar Theodosius Metropolitan arrived in Makodia in the 1980s, there were no roads or civilization. It was the visionary grace of the bishop who saw potential to do Christ's work in these remote areas that brought the Indian Orthodox Church to the region.With great patience and love, the bishop and committed disciples built up the mission among the tribals - far away from Kerala, far away from what the Church considered home for many centuries.The Indian Church has now finally begun to embrace India.

Sharing Christ - not conversion

Christian "Mission" is usually mis-interpretted as "conversion" attempts - this is the result of the aggressive Western gospel works in India without properly understanding the richness of the spirituality in India. The Indian Orthodox Church does not believe in forcible conversions, or even that conversion and baptism are the ultimate goals of Christian missions. The Indian Orthodox Church, which has existed in India since the beginning of Christianity, understands India like none else, and sees mission work in its essence as "sharing Christ" which translates itself to serving the poor, loving unconditionally and working for justice. Working for the upliftment of the poor is doing Christ's work. That is gospel work, that is Christian mission - and that is what is seen in Makodiya.