Right Hand Ministries started around 1994 as ‘India Ministries’, basically as the missions outreach of a non-denominational church in Oklahoma.
In 2002 there was the conviction that the Holy Spirit was leading us to go beyond our local church, so that other parts of the Body of Christ could also be a part of this work of the Lord. India Ministries became more of a separate entity, and the name was changed to Right Hand Ministries, knowing that the Lord could possibly lead us to assist other ministries in countries besides India. The Home Page gives a brief explanation of the meaning of our name.
If a believer were to visit a nation like India, perhaps he or she would begin to notice something about the different Christian ministries there. There are many gifted and God-fearing Christians in the small towns and villages of poorer nations, who have no “connections” with people from the western world or with the more wealthy believers of their own nation. For the most part the people in their congregations are very poor, so the offerings barely even support the local pastor and his family (often not doing that sufficiently). My friends, this is not an isolated problem found here and there; this is the norm in the poor villages and small towns of the world! As a result, there is little opportunity for these believers to further the Lord’s work through Gospel literature, showing Christian films, helping the orphans, widows or other poor. The average congregation, though faithful to serve Him, struggles to even have the funds to build or repair their thatched-roof church. This is one of the things that the Lord has laid upon our hearts, to be a channel of assistance for some of the many gifted believers who love the Lord, but who have no means to do all the things that they desire to do for His glory. Our desire at RHM is that the Great Shepherd, the One Who hears the cries of His servants, would divinely guide us to these servants whom He would want us to help. “The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due time. You open Your Hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing” (Ps.145:15-16).
A good example of this taking place is when one of our friends from the USA visited a small town called Bapatla near the southeastern coast of India (few people even in India have heard of Bapatla). While staying in a local thatched-roof church, he met a woman named Buelah, who was given the task by her pastor/father to cook his and another brother’s meals. This was the beginning of a relationship that 4 years later resulted in the beginning of the HOPE orphanage/family. Buelah has had a gifting from the Lord for years to work with children, and yet had no means to start caring for the destitute, abandoned, abused or orphaned children. But God heard her cry and sent a brother from halfway around the world, and a divine connection was made. Now HOPE is caring for 32 children, and feeding around 30 widows on a daily basis.
We don’t know all the Lord may have in store for RHM, except that He will always use us as a vessel of compassion to hurting people. At this time, our main burden is for the orphans and widows. Most “orphanages” are actually a mixture of children with different backgrounds. Unless it is in a place where a natural disaster has taken place, or it is a war-torn area, some of the children may have one parent who is alive, but too poor to care for them. Others come from abusive homes, so bad that a parent or relative tries to find a place of refuge for them. Spandhana, the HOPE child in the photo, had both parents, yet the poverty and malnutrition was severe enough that she cried almost continually and she was very susceptible to illnesses. Many of the HOPE children were abandoned by one or both parents. ALL come from broken backgrounds.
* A side note: If you are seeking the Lord about giving to an orphanage, you want to make sure that it is a true orphanage, as there are many organizations that call themselves an “orphanage” that are actually what is called a hostel. A hostel in India (this is probably also common in other nations) is a place where generally poor people send their children during the school year to get an education. A hostel may be funded privately or by the government, so the parents don’t have to pay anything for their children to stay there (many villages have no schools). Although it may be a commendable work, a hostel is by no means an orphanage, as the children usually have families that they return to on holidays and during the summer. So the people running these hostels are not being honest when they are taking photos of the children and promoting the work as an orphanage. We at RHM had to learn this the hard way several years ago!
|
Beyond this, we simply want Him to be able to use us in whatever other ways He may desire. Paul said in Philippians 3:12, “I press on, so that I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” In other words, Paul was pressing on so that He could become everything the Lord Jesus called Him to be. That’s the ambition of Right Hand Ministries.