Widows
A number of the people employed alongside the various services which we are providing into the community are widows.  Widows tend to be amongst the most disadvantaged people in parts of Indian society.  In the near future we intend to develop a more specific programme to house and provide work for widows.  We anticipate that this will work in close relationship with support of orphans.  We have established a specific fund for the development of our programme to support widows and hope to implement our programme during the coming year.
 

Orphans
Alongside Joyce Meyer Ministries, we are participating in the development of an orphanage at a small town north of Hyderabad.  There are also a number of orphans or single parent family children in Agape School.
 
The children in the orphanage are cared for by two couples who graduated from the Lighthouse Bible College and are now pastoring in the broadest sense in that community.  There are currently 10 orphans in residence but we expect to see significant expansion in this and parallel projects in the years to come.

Pastors
We support a number of pastors in a "sponsor a pastor" programme.  When we do this we agree to fund them for a three year period, during which time they need to establish self-sufficiency of income from their pastorate.
They are supported in their pastoral role by a network of other pastors and experienced church leaders.

Churches
Whilst we do not see the funding of construction of buildings to be a high priority (preferring instead to back people in their roles rather than bricks and mortar), we have worked alongside the community to build one church hall in a village approximately 70 miles from Hyderabad.  We sponsor two pastors to develop the church in the community and are seeing other opportunities for outreach and service to the community emerging alongside the church.

Healthcare

In 2004 we concluded that it was necessary to provide significantly improved healthcare education to the children in Agape School and felt that this was relevant for the surrounding community as well.  We now employ a full-time nurse and provide some basic materials for her to conduct First Aid.  Her primary role however is preventative rather curative.  Her aim is to inform the children, and where opportunity presents their parents and in the surrounding community, on healthcare issues such as sanitation, diet and other disease prevention methods.
 
Since introducing a good quality midday meal and the nursing support, we have seen the rates of malnutrition amongst the children in the school drop materially.

School
Agape School was opened in 2002 and has now grown to around 240 children aged between 3 and 11. 
 
The aim of the school is to provide a good quality basic education that these children would otherwise not receive.  The entry criteria are that the family are unable to pay for education and will ensure that their children attend regularly.
 
We provide every child with a uniform, shoes, a daily meal, teaching and all associated teaching materials.  Alongside the school we also provide basic nursing support to provide both direct care and healthcare education.
 

Bible College
The Lighthouse Bible College was opened in 2005 and provides one year courses for men and women wishing to develop their pastoral skills through intensive study.
 
We do not aim to churn out large numbers of pastors in the narrow sense of those who wish to run a church (although that is one potential outcome).  Instead, we want to see men and women grow in their capabilities as Christian leaders within their communities as teachers, carers, pastors and a whole host of other activities serving local people.