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![\"Welcome](\"http:\/\/www.covchurch.org\/uploads\/ru\/_z\/ru_zgQeKRxkvgNy4K3Pt5w\/India-sign.jpg\")
\u201cWe were so covered in flowers,\u201d recalls Jim Sundholm, director of Covenant World Relief (CWR). \u201cIt was like a wedding where they throw rice on you, except it goes on for blocks and blocks.\u201d<\/p>\nBy Stan Friedman<\/p>\n
SANTHINAGAR, INDIA (February 6, 2007) \u2013 Hundreds of residents lined several blocks of the small town to give two leaders of the Evangelical Covenant Church a hero\u2019s welcome. As the two passed, the crowd fell in line behind them during a parade in their honor.
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\n\u201cWe were so covered in flowers,\u201d recalls Jim Sundholm, director of Covenant World Relief (CWR). \u201cIt was like a wedding where they throw rice on you, except it goes on for blocks and blocks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were throwing leis and flowers, and there were marching bands and fireworks,\u201d says Elliott Johnson, the Covenant director of finance and controller. Townspeople also placed turbans on the heads of Sundholm and Johnson as a sign of honor.<\/p>\n
The festivities were in response to donations Covenanters had given in the wake of the December 2004 tsunami. \u201cI can\u2019t say enough about the gratitude,\u201d Johnson says, still incredulous. \u201cIt\u2019s embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the residents thought the 2004 tsunami had destroyed their world, but the Covenant has pumped tens of thousands of dollars into the community to help the people experience new life.<\/p>\n
During dedication ceremonies in the town\u2019s center to celebrate newly constructed homes and other development work, 15 mothers shared what a difference Covenanters had made in their lives. \u201cYou felt so unworthy of it, and it\u2019s true,\u201d Sundholm says.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI told the people repeatedly wherever we went that we were just the couriers,\u201d Sundholm says. \u201cIt is people who ran Kool-Aid stands, elderly people on fixed incomes, and other persons across the country who should be thanked.\u201d He recalled the story of a seven-year-old boy whose dream led him to raise more than $700 in a bake sale to help victims of the storm.<\/p>\n
Explaining why Covenanters were so willing to help, the pair told the people of India and Sri Lanka that \u201cthere are people who believe that if one suffers, we all suffer; if one rejoices, we all rejoice,\u201d Sundholm says.<\/p>\n
Others who rejoiced and expressed their gratitude to the pair were students at a school in Pune, India, that is working to help children escape living on the town\u2019s slum streets. The Hindustani Covenant Church operates the school, to which the CWR has begun to give assistance. The children greeted them with a special dance (accompanying photo).<\/p>\n
One of the girls \u2013 only 11 years old – told Sundholm, \u201cYou saved my life.\u201d What she doesn\u2019t know, he adds, is that \u201cthere are so many people who have given so much. I\u2019m just the face of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have sat in my office and cried at times because I\u2019m so overwhelmed by the generosity of the donors,\u201d confesses Sundholm, \u201cand the incredible gratitude of the recipients.\u201d<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s note: The last of a three-part series will appear tomorrow. It focuses on the plight of children living in the slums and efforts to improve their lives.<\/p>\n