Olmsted Community Church (Olmsted Falls, OH)

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The members of Olmsted Community Church hosted Vatsala Vijayakumar of Family Village Farm and King’s Matriculation School (Katpadi, India) during her visit to the United States in April 2012. Family Village Farm is a Global Ministries Child Sponsorship site, providing food, clothing, education, and training for approximately 100 sponsored children. Global Ministries also provides support for the Family Village Farm in general for its infrastructure and other needs. 

King’s Matriculation School, where Vatsala is Principal, serves the children of Family Village Farm through high school level, with an elementary school that also serves 300 non-resident children from nearby small villages.

The children who live at FVF are from extremely poor families, some having no parents or one parent who is not able to support them. There are ten to twelve children, a mother, and grandparents living in each cottage in a family-like atmosphere. The mothers and grandparents living with the children are also poor, usually homeless people. At any given time there are 150 to 200 children, 15 or more mothers, as well as grandparents residing at FVF. This ministry provides a home not only for the children, but also for women and elderly adults who would otherwise be homeless. These adults provide “families” for the children and help to care for them while benefiting from the housing and support.

Vatsala gave a superb presentation on FVF and the school and attendees engaged her in a lively Q&A session. During the discussion church members learned of the need for a new well for the Family Village Farm. There was only one well serving the farm and it did not provide enough water for daily needs. Attempts to find water by drilling new shafts, even reaching hundreds of feet deep had so far been unsuccessful. Concerned about the lack of water, the members of Olmsted Community Church responded within a week by making donations totaling $3,905.00 to help make this much-needed well a reality.

Since that time, drilling resumed at FVF. The first drilling resulted in water gushing more than 12 feet into the air!

The children and adults at Family Village Farm remain joyfully grateful to the members of Olmsted Community Church for their generosity and willingness to help.