In 2003, Lyn Miller, a Pastor from Rockingham, Western Australia, heard about Pastor Raja and his orphanage in Rajamundry, India and decided to start supporting this good work.

When the Tsunami hit the south-east coast of India in 2004, Raja sent an email asking for donations to help the many people who had been affected. He personally knew fishermen who had been killed and other families that had been affected.

Lyn in turn emailed some Pastors in Western Australia, including Phil Howell from Perth, asking for support. Phil indicated that he would love to send some monies to Raja in India, as he had been praying about helping Tsunami victims at a grassroots level. That was the first contact that Raja had with the Without Walls ministry.

Raja was able to share his heart at a Without Walls meeting when he visited Perth in April 2006. As he spent time with Phil and Jeannette Howell and many other people from the Without Walls fellowship, Raja stirred a desire in many hearts to support the orphanage project and change the lives of the children involved.

In January 2007, Lyn and her daughter Andrea travelled to India to meet the children at the orphanage in Rajahmundry. Two weeks later Phil and Jeannette took a team of six to India for the same purpose. In the wake of this trip Phil decided to pledge AU$60,000 to help build an orphanage for the children in Rajamundry as their current living arrangements are seriously inadequate.

 

 

Pastor Raja visited Without Walls in Perth once again in August 2008, this time with his wife Ebba. They were thrilled to attend the first major fundraiser – an Indian dinner and silent auction conducted at The Overflow Café in Northbridge. Over AU$10,000 was raised through this event, where Craig Goodridge had his head shaved to help raise funds for the cause. 

In November 2008, the building plans were submitted, and the cost of the orphanage building project was estimated at AU$70,000. Three months later, in January 2009, Lyn Miller returned to India and witnessed the laying of the foundations of the Home of Blessing Orphanage. 

In the same month, another AU$15,000 raised at the Without Walls Tent Crusade on the South Perth foreshore. By the end of January 2009, a total of AU$30,300 had been raised, and a website had been launched to help raise funds for the orphanage building project.

Early in February 2009 a Gift Card initiative was launched by the team at Without Walls. This fund raising initiative offers supporters of the building project the opportunity to choose an item from a selection of building components ranging in cost from AU$10 to AU$500. The donor purchases a Gift Card to that amount, indicating the item that has been purchased, and the Gift Card is given to a friend or loved one as a Birthday or special occasion gift… or ‘just because’.

February 2009 Phil and Jeannette travelled to India with a team of six others and had a wonderful time meeting the children.

The Easter Camp 2009 rasied $1,041 from an auction of easter eggs, it was so much fun, we even had a professional auctioneer who made it hilarious and we would never have raised as much without his input. We have raised over $2,000 from selling the gift cards many were sold as Easter gifts.

In August 2009 Dave Williams went to visit the project as there had been a problem with the purchase of land. Unfortunatley the land that we had purchased was not outrightly owned by the individual who had sold it, so we had to stop building and return the land to its rightful owner. Fortunately we were completely reimbursed financially. Seemingly this happens often in India that land can be owned by a government body and the individual “owner” is not aware of this …. not easy for us here in Australia to understand. 

September 2009,  good news new land has been purchased only 15 minutes from the previous block and it is much better and bigger and this time the sale was legitimate. The builders are hoping to commence construction early January 2010. See photo below.

Things are moving - we’ll keep you posted on the progress of this exciting project as it unfolds!