8/20/98: 150 days of travel!… Photo shoot of several initiatives of Emmanuel Ministries: the Pavement Club (an outreach to children of homeless families), a free elementary school for children to help elevated them from poverty, a sewing club that teaches a trade to pre-teen girls on the streets of New Market, and a retreat center for recovering addicts… This organization is making an impact in such varied ways… Also went on a whirlwind sightseeing tour with Aslam, a former “platform kid” that was rescued from a life on the streets by this ministry… We travelled over the Vidyasagar Setu (Hooghly Toll Bridge), visited Victoria Memorial Hall, and St. Paul’s Cathedral too… At dinner had a conversation with the cook, a Christian from a Hindu background, who had much to say about the hodge-podge and falsely idealized version of Eastern mysticism that America and the West have bought into…
NOTE: The photo above shows Immanuel Ministries founder Vijayan P. being embraced by “The Colonel,” his friend who oversaw the retreat center for recovering addicts.
