India: Untouchable No More
If you are born to a shepherd family in India, you are forever labeled “untouchable’, and part of the lowest caste in India. According to that system, you and 150 million others are considered too impure to even drink from the same water fountains as the higher castes, and too [...]
India: Cursed from birth?
“People said Vinay (a 3-year-old born with a cleft lip and palate), was cursed…that he did something wrong in the past. Children would not play with him. They would mock the family,” laments Vinay’s aunt, Parvatrani. Vinay recently returned to his village after receiving surgery at Central India Christian Mission from volunteer doctors of the LEAP [...]
India: Once an orphan, now a teacher
Living on her own as an orphan, Anamika was in danger of becoming a child slave like thousands of children in Chattisgarh, India. She often lived in the forest, home to Bengal tigers, with other children, scrounging for food and protection. But, an orphanage run by Central India Christian Mission intervened and gave her [...]
Ecuador: “I promised to return”
Carlos Guerrero was just a “normal little boy” that grew up in San Jose, Ecuador, a small village of a few hundred that snuggles up to the Pacific Ocean along several miles of flat pristine beach. He played soccer and fished as a child, but also shouldered the heavy responsibility of finding food for his [...]
India: Hope for the burned
When Arman was less than two months old, a pot of boiling water fell onto his arm. The intense agony at the time of the accident was only compounded by his mother’s financial and mental inability to take him to a doctor. During the healing process at home, his forearm fused to his bicep and [...]
India: 525 children living in a tiger preserve
In the middle of a tiger preserve, eighty miles from medical facilities, in an area frequented by Maoist terrorists, live 525 orphans and children at risk. They have no electricity and live in mud and straw homes. Yet, Central India Christian Mission provides food and education for them in the best way their current resources [...]
India: Disowned by family
The serenity on her face is evidence of the peace she says is now in her heart. Maya, 21, raised in a Hindu home, chose to follow the teachings of Jesus and express her decision by baptism. But, painful memories of her family’s rejection after her decision are still very close to the surface. In a [...]
India: Cemetery sunrise on Easter
Sakshi, 8, sprinkles flower petals on her brother’s grave on Easter morning in central India. Four-thirty on Easter Sunday morning, the cool pre-dawn air in the cemetery is infused with the sweet smells of incense and candle smoke. The cacophony of morning traffic and the dry heat of 100+ afternoons is still hours away. Stillness [...]
Pakistan: Persecution covered by CNN
Few people know about the plight of Pakistani Christians. My photos on the persecuted community living there are on CNN’s photo blog. Vivian’s reflections on our experiences are linked on the Belief Blog. Please go to the links below and feel free to comment and share to get the word out. CNN Photo Blog CNN Belief [...]
India: A success story for children
“We’ve found babies in the trash dumps.” “We’ve found babies in the train toilets, on the train tracks.” “We’ve found babies at our doorsteps.” “People leave babies at the hospital sometimes.” “In Hindi, the word orphan means ‘a godless child.’ So we call this place a children’s home. Bal Bhavan (the name of the home) [...]
India-Nepal: Four Faiths and a Lot of Questions
Four faiths all leading to the same place? The same end? Can everyone be right? Are there multiple roads to eternity that all join together as they near a place called heaven? Can I do enough good works to merit a place in heaven? What do I really deserve? Is it us vs them…a fight [...]
India: How can we understand the desperation?
This child is more fortunate than many babies abandoned in India. She and her twin sibling were found in a railway station and immediately rushed to the Mission Hospital run by CICM, Central India Christian Mission. Just two days old in this photo, the twins will become part of the growing family of children given [...]
Atlanta: Under the Bridges
Matt Brandon of The Digital Trekker once asked me during an interview if I ever did any humanitarian photographic work in my own backyard, Atlanta. I was stumped. I have traveled days to get to a remote village in many of the 60+ countries I have photographed in. But I have never had an assignment [...]
Home: Drink Coffee. Do Good.
Drink coffee. Do good. This is not just a catchy phrase, but the premise by which Jonathan Golden started Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Company just north of Atlanta in Roswell. An Anglican priest by vocation, he started a coffee growing business that also fosters healing among warring tribes in Rwanda. Former enemies [...]
Kenya: Outpouring for Orphan Care
A few days ago I received an email from a friend in Kenya telling of an emergency need for food and hospital care for several orphans. Vivian and I gave some, but knew more would be needed. I decided to share the need via Twitter and Facebook and within hours the immediate emergency need was [...]
Jerusalem: Christian
Tourist traps are anathema to me. I had never wanted to visit Jerusalem because of the envisioned legions of tourist buses crowding the historic sites. I was predisposed to look on cynically as thousands of Christians from all over the world come to the Old City of Jerusalem to “walk where Jesus walked.” And thousands [...]
Haiti: “I will return”
Dr. Ines Espallargas from Barcelona, Spain, a general practitioner, spoke of her recent time in Haiti with the Christian aid group Manto de Guadalupe: My greatest desire was to be able to doctor and heal, or at least relieve, the physical suffering or raise the morale of all the people I could treat. However, my [...]
Haiti: Fasting and Praying
Worshipers gather daily outside the shell of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption to fast and pray. The cathedral, built in the 1800′s, was destroyed by the January 12th quake that also killed the Archbishop. (Canon 5D2, 24-105mm @24mm , 1/800 sec, f4.5, ISO320) Photo ©Copyright Gary S. Chapman 2010
Pakistan: Life of Persecution
Persecuted by Gary S. Chapman | BOOK INFO The persecuted often suffer in silence, not knowing if anyone or even God cares for them. This book project on the persecuted church in Pakistan is an on-going effort to increase the western church’s understanding of what it means to suffer for the faith. What should our [...]
Ethiopia: Benji Update
From Kevin Turner, SWI.org: “While we were able to keep Benji from prison, it was clearly God’s will that he go back to the refugee camp. His malaria, typhoid and severe malnutrition were treated and he was able to eat many good meals. He went back to the refugee camp, not as a refugee, but [...]
Ethiopia: Benji
Benji endured over three years in Eritrean jails, beaten and tortured to deny his Christian faith. He recently escaped, walking hundreds of kilometers to relative safety in Ethiopia. Benji told us of being locked in a suffocatingly hot metal shipping container in the middle of the desert with only two slices of bread and a [...]
Pakistan: Eyewitness to Violence
A few days before our last trip to Pakistan, we listened to our friend recount, via Skype, the horrors of two attacks on Christian colonies. More than 150 houses were destroyed. At least eight persons were killed. I only have this recording of his words because I was testing a new small recorder I planned [...]
Zimbabwe: Feeding the Entire Person
The teacher told me that during the times of hyper-inflation and acute food shortages in Zimbabwe, their students had difficulties learning. Hunger sapped their energy and ability to concentrate in class. Many just did not bother coming to school. Once the school began a free feeding program, the teachers could see a marked difference in their [...]
Zimbabwe-Offering
People prayed. The plate was passed. A few minutes later, an elder in the small church said, “Our offering today is $33.00 and a blue pen.” In fact, he had just used the pen gift to tally the coins and bills. He told me later that they often get eggs or chickens and rarely much [...]