Edgeroi Clearing Sale Brings Health to India

In August of this year, Pastor Keith Bates and Grant Mison from New Life Christian Fellowship travelled to Sri Lanka and India to teach and encourage pastors and church members there.

They had been invited by pastors in Bogowantalawa in the heart of Sri Lanka's tea growing areas and Hyderabad in India.

In Hyderabad they visited slum areas including a leper colony and a settlement consisting of 60 or so little shanties or humpies made from sticks, tarpaulins and rice bags. This settlement is located in a low point of the city where all the rain water and sewage accumulate.

In a country like India where there is little in the way of social security payments, it is left to churches and NGO's like World Vision to support people who are, for whatever reason unemployable.

Keith and Grant were able to accompany Pastor PK Moses who each week takes a bag of groceries to the people at the leper colony and enough milk to give each child one cup in the slum.

When Gary and Tania Baxter decided to sell up their farm at Edgeroi, members of New Life decided to operate a barbecue at the clearing sale to raise some money for missions. Initially, funds were planned for the "Living Room" Ramp at Narrabri High School. But with the success of the fundraiser bringing in more than needed it was decided to allocate $800 to the work of Ps Moses and his team

Early in September, Pastor Moses contacted the church with a request. For about $950 he could supply mosquito nets for all of those humpies in the slum. Mosquito borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever are a real health threat in most parts of Asia, and these people living so close to polluted water are at real risk. With no money for medical care these diseases can kill.

The clearing sale barbecue, which was on the 17th of September, raised $800. This was added to some other donations by church members and a total of $1,000 was sent to Pastor Moses. Not only was he able to purchase enough mosquito nets to protect each family, he is looking to buy blankets to keep the youngest children warm in their cooler season.

The New Life congregation is now working towards sending enough money to buy Christmas presents for the 90 children in the slum.

So a sausage sandwich at a clearing sale in Edgeroi is changing the lives of people half a world away.