Alone Above the City

Leviticus 13:46 All the days wherein the plague [of leprosy] shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be. (KJV)

Up and Up to the Leper Colony

It stands in the middle of Bangalore, perched on an island of rock above one of the most modern, high tech cities of India.  An island that took us back four thousand years…an island of lepers.

Russ and the Team climbed higher and higher on unsteady slabs of stone, across tilted landings between the stairways, and then into sloping, narrow passageways.  Tiny concrete row-houses lined the dark alleys.  Children spilled out to stare, then trooped after us.  Adults gazed from the doorways in curiosity.  We were definitely strangers, entering a closed community that most of society shuns.

At first glance, it seemed just another poor Indian village.  Women swept the spaces in front of their brightly curtained doorways; children played; grandmas sat on the steps with their friends in the evening.  Men in lungis strolled by…then we realized that some were stick-thin, with discolored skin and missing 

Alone....

toes.  Some of the women had no fingers.  Eyes were failing due to lack of blinking reflex.  Leprosy is a slow and silent disease.  A lonely disease… 

Extended families live together—a blessing to the victims who otherwise would be totally cut off from human contact.  But, it is a curse to the children.  They are the offspring of lepers—unclean—and the stigma follows them.  The little school on top of the hill is for them, apart, alone—together—above the city.

We brought a little song and sunshine to the dark alleyways and lives of the outcasts.  God is speaking to Pastor Babu Prasad and to us.  His nearby church began with one leper seventeen years ago.  How can we bring the Gospel of Christ to them in a meaningful way?  The Lord will lead us.  Meanwhile, our hearts were broken with a reality the world seldom sees.  And they were touched briefly by our Team and the love of Christ. 

Russ and the Lepers' Children

Mark 1:41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!"  

When Jesus touched that leper, it was probably the first human touch he had in many years --yet it was also the touch of God.  May the Lord use us in the same way.  Please pray for these outcast families living alone above the city.  

Leper Grandma

Spreading some Sweets and Sunshine

---Alice Sharrock