It truly has been a wonderful time making new friends and developing a partnership with 31 Bits, to bring sustainability to women who are struggling to provide for their children and families in India. The model behind 31 Bits is making a lasting mark in the lives of the women that they are already serving in Uganda.
As the weeks went on we were able to build connections with vendors working in each raw material needed for our 2012 venture... except we were still looking to find a leather factory that would be able to supply us with leather for finishings. We had done the research, phoned in our findings to Premanandam, a friend that Suresh had in Chennai, and thoroughly searched Tenali and Vijayawada for any and all leads on leather in the area. We found absolutely nothing an our leads were getting us nowhere. Our last shot was finding something in Chennai and because of the huge Hindu festivals at the end of the September we could only get train tickets to arrive in Chennai 12 hours before Kallie had to catch her flight. We knew our odds were not looking good. Our train was delayed and we arrived in Chennai starving and a bit exhausted. We grabbed a quick bite and started walking to our first stop that Premanadam had found for us. (Not a good sign since all leather factories are quite some distance outside the city) Half way to our destination it became clear that our connection in Chennnai had no idea what we were looking for as we passed shop after shop of leather belts, purses, wallets, shoes, you name it. We re-explained that what we wanted to see was a leather factory for the purchase of raw leather. Something seemed to click but Kallie and I had already lost hope of anything working out in our limited time. We jumped in Premanandam's car and headed out of the city, a much better sign. We arrived one hour later in Chrompet at the building site of the church Premanandam had planted in 1996. We laughed as we completely lost hope and gave in that our leather factory hunt was turning into another ministry tour. Just as we were mentally about to throw in the towel, I was reminded of all the times in my journey in India I have been completely taken aback at the ways the Harvest India network is able to accomplish almost any task because of the magnitude of people in our vast network. As we sat down to have a cold drink, a man approached the church. It turns out that Chrompet is one of the largest producers of leather in ALL OF INDIA... AND the man approaching us, Bani Patrick, is a church member and works one of the machines in one of the bigger factories in the town. He immediately went to his factory and got permission for us to visit the factory. They approved permission for us to visit and within 10 minutes we were on our way to the leather factory! We were greeted by George, the sweetest man you could ever meet, who processes all of the orders for the factory. He personally toured us through the entire factory, showing us each and every step of the process, answering all of our questions and introducing us to all of the staff. AMAZING! We were then escorted to his office where he let us hand choose samples and place a small sample order on the spot that will be ready for pick up in just 15 days!
In utter shock, Kallie and I sat in amazement as we recognized the most unlikely course of events that God had chosen to lead us to the exact place he wanted us to be... fully recognizing that HE IS TOTALLY IN CONTROL and He's got this all under control. Hysterical, humbled and having just had our minds blown Kallie and I headed back to the hotel... In tow... new friends, a leather factory partner, and deepened faith in Christ's leading as we move forward in this Kingdom advancing work.
IN SHORT::
Because Premanadam responded when he was called by Christ Jesus to plant a church in Chrompet in 1996 Bani Patrick came to know Christ's love in his life. Bani Patrick got a job working in a leather factorry and used his influennce to get us a meeting with George. George is the exact person 31 Bits needed to meet before they left India on October 2nd at 5:30AM and at 7:30PM on October 1st Kallie and I sat at George's dest sipping chai and building a partnership... ALL OF WHICH IS BECAUSE JESUS IS WONDERFUL!
WooooHooo! God is so good!
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