A Long Walk to School

Imagine how it would be if your little first and second graders had to walk 2 1/2 miles through busy streets to get to their Christian school. At the end of the day they would trace their steps back home. That is the route taken by the 50 orphans who live at New Life Christian Home in the town of Kesinga in Orissa, India.

In India many children are abandoned because their parents cannot afford to raise them. Siani and Suphala Harpal, a young pastor and his wife, decided to commit their lives to providing a safe, happy home for as many of these children as possible. If you were to visit New Life Children’s Home you would see these 50 children gather at 5:00 each morning to sing together, whether or not an adult is present to lead the singing.

Kesinga is a town of 17,000 people in a region that is almost completely Hindu. Forty-five percent of the people in this town are illiterate. Siani and Suphala wanted something better than Hindu schooling for the children who live in the orphanage and together this young husband and wife team founded new Life Christian School in May 2005. The building they found to rent for the school was on the opposite end of town but it was the best they could do.

Six days a week at 6:30 in the morning three teachers lead the children past a Hindu temple, past a local Hindu school, past the cows standing in the road until they reach their own school. There they are joined by 85 children of Hindu parents who find that the education offered by the Christian school is so much better than that offered by the government schools in their town. After attendance and a check for lice, the children sit cross-legged on the floor in one of three classrooms, or in the entryway, which is currently functioning as a fourth classroom.


Every month Worldwide Christian Schools sends $700 for the support of the children’s home. The three teachers live at the orphanage along with Siani and Suphala and the two children born to them. The teachers are paid approximately $25 per month over and above room and board. All are certified teachers and are working toward college degrees, or have already secured degrees and are working toward advanced degrees.

Alongside the children’s home is a foundation for a new building. Siani and Suphala dream about building a school so that the children will not have the long trek through the city each day, but up to this point they have only been able to afford the foundation. Hindu parents have begged them to start a larger school so that there is room for more children.



Siani says that $80,000 would build a lovely, large new school. Just imagine how it would be if the parents and students in 20 Christian schools in the western world would each work to raise $4,000 for the new school! Imagine how it will be when many more children of Hindu parents come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior!



Gloria is the Director of Continuing Education for Teachers for Worldwide Christian Schools. She can be contacted at 509-468-5233 or by email at stro@calvin.edu