Ashish [ah-SHEESH] and Preethi [PREE-thee] live with their parents in one of the largest cities in India—Mumbai [moom-BAI]. Their home is a single room made of tin—tin walls, tin roof, and dirt floor. People call the area where the children live a slum.
Sanji [SAHN-jee] picked up the homemade broom and swept the leaves in the dirt yard around her family’s new home. Life in town was different than on the farm. As Sanji swept, she heard singing and stopped sweeping to listen. It was coming from a building nearby.
Priya sat down under the huge mango tree on the farm where her nani [Hindi for grandmother] lives. She picked up a ripe mango and peeled it with her fingers. Then she bit into the sweet, juicy fruit. When she finished eating it, she slid down onto her back and looked up into the tree.
Kavitha [kah-VEE-thah] lives at Sunshine Children’s Home. Some of the 37 children who live there are orphans. Kavitha has parents, but when her father became ill, he couldn’t care for her. He asked Kavitha’s auntie to take his daughter. Auntie was the only Christian in the family.
Honey and Devi trembled in the corner of their small home. Their father was drunk again, and he threatened to beat their mother. Mother ran from the house weeping. Only when they heard their father snoring on his sleeping mat could the girls relax.
Aaron and Alan are twins. They live in Bangalore, in central India. They are seed planters; they plant seeds of faith in the hearts of their teachers and classmates. Seed planting comes naturally to the boys, for they see their parents sharing their faith all the time.
A few days later Mrs. Reena helped Joseph pack his small bag. She packed some food, and the two walked to the train station. They boarded the train and sat down near a window where Joseph could watch the countryside pass by. Lulled by the motion of the train, Joseph fell asleep.
Seven-year-old Joseph* awoke with a start. “Get up!” his boss’s voice roared. “There’s work to do!” Joseph jumped up from his thin sleeping mat. There was no time to wash his face or change his dirty clothes.
Hadassah* is a student at an Adventist school in southeastern India. Although her parents are not Christians, they enrolled Hadassah in the Adventist school because it teaches in English.
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Esli [EHS-lee] lives in Chennai, a city on the southeastern coast of India. She studies at an Adventist school, even though her parents attended a different church. "I like it here!" Esli says. "The teachers are nice, and the students respect one another."
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