Mission Trip with Glory Gopinath
Hello my beautiful OSLC family! It’s been about 3 weeks since I returned from my trip to India. I had a great time but was ready to come back to what I call home now. Most of you all know me by now but let me share a little history for those you that don’t. Of course, India is my birthplace. Although most of you may be fooled by my Southern drawl…ha! My family and I immigrated here almost 50 years ago. I have been to India numerous times throughout the years for vacation to visit family and friends, but it was always my dream to someday do some charity work and spread the gospel there. Now that I am retired, I have plenty of time on my hands, even though I may not have as much energy as I did in my younger days…but nobody can see that, right?
Even with great economic and technological growth, India is still considered a 3rd world country, due to high rates of poverty, pollution, and gender inequality. Also, believe it or not, Christianity makes up only 2.4% of India’s massive population. So even though I can’t change the world, I try and do what I can every time I visit. My parents started working for Christian missionaries many years ago and raised their six children as Lutherans. I just consider this just my little way of repaying them for what they planted in my life so many years ago.
After I retired and moved to Tyler to live with my daughter and son-in-law, I was nervous how my life would change. However, I never imagined that I would have been so lucky to find a church like this that welcomed me in and made me feel like part of the family. I can honestly say that I have never been so happy as I am now.
The last two years have been a challenge with Covid but even through all of that with the generous help of the social ministry and congregation donating the used clothes for children, my charity work didn’t get shutdown for long. I was able to ship 7 boxes of clothing that was distributed successfully to several poor communities in 2021.
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