In one of the most populated nations in the world, where
thousands of children live on the street, Mustard Seed International
(MSI) is relying on faith to feed and educate the vulnerable homeless
children of Calcutta, India.
Today
MSI is giving 3,000 impoverished children an education at the eight
schools the missions group operates in the nation’s cultural capital.
Bengali
native Subir Roy and his wife, Eunok, oversee the schools. MSI workers
have a shoestring budget of approximately $6,000 a month to manage a
staff of 60 full-time and 40 part-time teachers.
“Our
schools meet the immediate physical needs of these poor, desperate
children, while also providing them with hope for a more fulfilling and
productive life through education,” says Bill Deans, MSI’s president.
“We seek to provide Christ-like compassion, kindness and love to a
people plagued by abject poverty.”
MSI’s
Calcutta schools are based in church buildings; two are mobile
operations aimed at children living on the streets. Often, the meals MSI
serves will be the only ones the students receive that day. The
ministry has also planted churches and built hospitals and children’s
homes.
In order to operate, MSI has to keep overhead costs down: All U.S. staffers are volunteers, including Deans.
“I
wanted everything that came in to go to the ministry,” says Deans, who
retired from business in his early 50s. “We don’t pay any salaries or
payroll taxes. Things don’t get done as quickly as a hard-charging
businessman would like, but they get done.”
