The India Hope Campus continues to flourish. Last summer, finishing touches on sports courts were made by visiting teams and the children are readily found playing sand volleyball, badminton, and basketball in their free time. In addition to new sports courts, the team/staff house is close to being finished. Staff hope a visiting team later this… Read more
The room was quiet. Pairs of girls were spread all around the common area in the home. One teen girl for every younger one. Their heads were bent low over notebooks, as pens, pencils, colored markers and crayons scratched across the surface. Occasionally, soft talking broke the silence as the teams of girls worked together… Read more
Wild. Fearless. Uninhibited. Reckless. A willingness to trust even when lacking understanding. As Back2Back Ministries celebrates 20 years, we want to share how stepping into the global orphan care movement has made your faith more wild, fearless, uninhibited and, perhaps, even a bit reckless. I held the picture in my shaky hands. The colorful crayon… Read more
The girls all stand in a large circle on the Back2Back Samuel Suzuki India Hope Campus. Ganesh stands in the middle of them, holding a volleyball in his hands. As he walks around the circle, explaining the different ways a volleyball can be passed or hit, he gently bumps the ball into the air towards… Read more
Sathwik’s cry could be heard throughout the campus. It was clear he was a little boy in a new environment, still fearful from earlier trauma. A visiting team engaged him in play and watched encouragingly as the older boys Sathwik lived with were patient and gentle in their attempts to calm him down. Sathwik has… Read more
Her cry broke through the steady monsoon rains. In a rural village 3 hours outside Hyderabad, India, on a humid, July morning in 2002, V. Bindu, entered the world. Her parents, agricultural workers of the Banjara tribe, spend their days doing the labor intensive work of rice farming. But today they enjoy the sweet first… Read more
Pranay looks down at the ball as he dribbles it from his left foot to his right and then back, again. He raises his eyes to the goal just up the field from him; bobbing and weaving between boys taller than him, with more experience than him, he edges closer to the net where the… Read more
Madhu carries the flag against his shoulder as he walks around campus. The colors of his country – orange, white, and green – wave in the humid air as music pulses in the background. It’s Independence Day in India. As a visiting mission team spends three days mixing and pouring concrete, the children on the Hope… Read more
Mariah slowly opens her eyes. Surrounding her, small voices fling hopes high to a Father – and she feels her heartbeat quicken. Ashwini’s black veil carefully covers both her head and Mariah’s, honoring an Indian custom of women covering their faces in prayer. Ashwini prays aloud next to Mariah, praying over her new friend and… Read more
Neha, a Hindi word meaning love, is a quiet girl with soft, brown eyes, who watches intently as people talk and laugh around her. Receiving a smile from her is a gift – it happens slowly and is always intentional; her smile is something to be savored. At fourteen, Neha lives with nine “sisters” around… Read more