Year after year, an endless river of Hindu pilgrims flows into Rameswaram from all parts of India, as has been so for countless generations. Under the mandate of ancient Hindu texts, each family comes to seek absolution from their sins, through superstitious rituals, bathing in the balmy sea, and the sprinkling of sacred temple water.

Some of the families who make this unique mecca also employ it as a sinister opportunity to rid themselves of demented, disabled, blind, deaf or disfunctional family members. They bring along sons, daughters, or other relatives who are a burden to care for. After the Hindu rituals, they abandon their unwanted kin alone on the island, and depart back to their distant home villages. Some simply put their derelict family members on a train, whose last stop in the geogaphic funnel of India is our island of Rameswaram, where they disembark to their final doom.

Many of those abandoned like this are unable even to speak the local language. Pity for them among the Hindu populace is quenched by the doctrine of Karma, which teaches that these must have done something awful in a past life, for which they now must suffer without mercy or interference. Those who manage to survive are reduced to an animal existence. They grub for scraps, beg, raid and steal, living and dying in the squalor of the dusty lanes. Even the untouchable castes do not dare to help them, regarding them as lower than beasts.

We know the truth, that, like all of us, they just need a Savior. Month by month, the BCM disciples gather them in from where they are found languishing in the streets. Sometimes dozens at a time are gathered into a protected acreage near the Training Center. There we cut their unkempt nails and hair, then bathe, clothe and feed them. We pray over them, and speak truth and comfort to them. Some show signs of recovery, while many wander off again. As we are able, we feed those who return or stay around, and help them stay clean and secure. Most of the time we see more new faces than familiar ones. A few have made remarkable recoveries from the misfortunes they were once cast into, and have endeavored to make themselves useful. The greatest and most encouraging change is when we perceive the spark of faith in them, and the healing joy that comes from one who begins to really understand, even in a simple way, that Jesus is, and that He loves them as they are.