Thom, Eli, Jenny and David (left to right) are this year's Kolkata Action Team with BMS World Mission. They have spent the last six months in Kolkata, India working with various projects.

On Sunday 26th April they spent time with the congregation at Upper Stratton Baptist Church (see usbc.org.uk) in Green Road, letting them know about their experiences as the first stop of their two month tour of UK churches. They have also spent time in local primary and secondary schools, speaking about their experiences – many students found the difference in cultures especially challenging.

The congregation presented them with some gifts - things the youth thought they would have missed whilst in India - including Andrex, Easter eggs, chocolate, music, Christmas baubles, bubble bath and a copy of the Slum Dog Millionaire book.

The Team's main project was to teach children in a mobile school, as part of an organisation called the Good News Children's Education Mission. GNCEM works with over 2500 kids in and around the city. The school was mobile in that it collected children from the slums and the streets every day and brought them to the school. Each day, the kids were given the opportunity to wash and given a blue school shirt, which they were very proud of. During assemblies they sang Bengali songs together and the team told them Bible stories, translated by local staff. Sometimes the kids acted out the stories too.

Breakfast of biscuits and milk was followed by lessons. English was taught by the Action Team and Bengali by local staff. Topics included numbers, alphabets and conversational English. Free education is not considered a right for every child in India in the way that it is in the UK. Having this education is crucial and gives the kids the chance of getting jobs so they can get off the streets, especially as they can't afford to attend other schools.

Playtime was always a chaotic part of the day, many games involving tag and turning the Action Team into human climbing frames. It was great fun for both the Team and the kids. Lunch was the main meal of the day. Many of the kids aren't fed at home, so they would have huge portions of rice and daal (lentil curry) and were allowed to take leftovers home to share with their families.

The team also worked two afternoons a week at the Union Chapel Second School, another project for teaching street children. This was based in a local church, which paid one teacher to look after a class of 4-30 kids. Sometimes classes were small when malaria was going round. This teacher was fantastic but didn't speak much English, she was really keen to get the Team involved and learned with the kids! Lessons were very interactive and lots of actions, props and dressing up took place, which the kids loved. The kids were also told Bible stories which the Team had translated into Bengali, and they loved telling them back. On Friday nights they visited the Entally Girls Hostel, and spent time with 42 7-18 year old girls, chatting, playing music, dancing and doing craft activities. These girls share 2 dorms and only a single lightbulb so the Team went to cheer them up and let them relax and have fun.

The Team’s work with the Little Sisters of the Poor was perhaps the most humbling. This order of nuns provide care for the elderly who cannot afford to care for themselves and the team were able to help serve food, wash up and generally provide support to the nuns in their work.

Working with Freeset had a real impact on the Team. Freeset is a business set up in Sonagacchi, the most notorious red light district in India. There are 6000 women working on the streets and 20 000 men visiting the area regularly. Freeset gives 'at risk' girls the chance to be free from prostitution. The business was set up in 2001, by an amazing couple from New Zealand, Kerry & Annie Hilton, when they employed 20 girls. Today there are 180 girls working with them and they dream of one day employing thousands of girls, giving them all the chance to be free and bringing the sex trade in Sonagacchi to an end. The Team helped out where they could, doing odd jobs that no one else had the time to do, and had a great time playing their small part in this life-changing project.

Throughout their time in India, the Team were often amazed at the way God is working there. People with God’s vision for the poor believe the whole area is being changed and transformed by God. Many people’s lives are being changed by acts of love - often in the ‘small’ things that make a real difference.