“The best kept secret in the PCA” is what a recent visitor called the Bhogpur Children’s Homes in North India. How did it become such a secret?

It was no secret in 1964 in the Reformed Presbyterian Church (RPC), which was formed in 1774 by Scottish immigrants. It was in 1964 that the RPC was much concerned to find someone to replace their retiring missionaries at the Bhogpur Home.

In 1945 Reformed Presbyterian missionaries, Dr. and Mrs. (Elizabeth) John C. Taylor, Sr., both of whom were medical missionaries in North India, had taken some children from a leper colony in Roorkee, about 120 miles north of Delhi, to raise on the mission station. The parents, suffering from Hansen’s disease and very poor, had requested that their children be taken out of that environment.

By the time David and Eleanor Fiol arrived in 1964 to replace the Taylors, news had gotten around to other leper colonies in North India and the number of children had grown to 125. The children and their care givers had been moved to a rural setting near the village of Bhogpur, about 150 miles north of Delhi, and had become known as the Bhogpur Children’s Home.

In 1965 the Reformed Presbyterian Church united with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church to become the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod (RPCES). The Home was no secret then as three missionary couples of World Presbyterian Missions, the mission board of the RPCES, were involved in the Bhogpur Homes. David and Eleanor Fiol, were living there and looking after the children, assisted by Gordon (son of Dr. and Mrs. John C. Taylor Sr.) and Beth Taylor, who at the time lived and ministered in Roorkee. Bruce (David’s brother) and Judy Fiol also worked at the Home from time to time.

By the time the RPCES joined the Presbyterian Church in America in 1982 the Home had grown to around 500 children in two homes and wonderful results had been seen. An English medium elementary and high school had been established at the Bhogpur home for the children of the Home. Most of the students had become believers and were graduating , most to get training and higher education, and were leading useful lives as home makers, teachers, nurses, military personnel, pastors, mechanics, and house parents and other workers at the homes, etc.

That may have been the point at which the problem of “secrecy” started. In the earlier years churches and individuals had been sending financial support. But by this time a funding agency from Europe had become interested in the work and wanted most of the sponsorships for the children to come from their organization. There was no need to inform the churches in the PCA that hadn’t been in the RPCES about the Homes, though they were still being managed by MTW missionaries, Gordon and Beth Taylor.

The agency in Europe encouraged expansion and two new homes were opened. By 2006 there were 800 children in 4 homes. Most of the administrators, teachers and other workers in the Homes had been brought up in the Bhogpur Homes and many graduates had become responsible citizens and church members in India. Some had become pastors, church planters, lay house church leaders, seminary professors, administrators in Christian institutions, workers in World Vision, The Leprosy Mission and other social work and community development organizations. A few had gone abroad to work. But it was still largely a secret in the PCA.

And then the agency changed its mind. It tried to convince the board of the Bhogpur Homes to send the children back to the leper colonies and work with them in daycare centers so they could be with their parents. But parents remained adamant, as they were in 1945, that they could not raise the children in leper colonies. Prejudiced would make it impossible for the children to study in local schools, moral conditions were not suitable, etc. Most important to the board, consisting of nationals and a few missionaries, was the fact that in the colonies they could not be kept under the teaching of the Word of God. The children were thought of as covenant children by many on the board; this plan was unacceptable to them. As a consequence, in November, 2006, the agency withheld all funds and did their best to close the homes.

But the Lord was protecting, partly through the laws of the Indian government, and the work was not harmed. However, the amount of money needed monthly was (and still is) staggering. The Lord has been providing, but now this “secret” must be told on the roof tops in the PCA. A work that was started by your missionaries and has born much fruit for the Kingdom and for the good of Indian society needs your help in picking up and supporting what God has preserved through many years

Sometimes we wonder what would have become of Sammy if he hadn’t been brought by his parents to the Children’s Home in Bhogpur back in the 1960’s. Mischievous and happy-go-lucky as he was he might have gotten into serious trouble in the leper colony, associating with those who might have turned those qualities into instruments of evil.

After his parents, reluctantly and sadly, handed him over to the keeping of the Christians at the Home when he was five, his bent for mischief remained relatively harmless. One day he dutifully brought the requested egg from the chicken coop to the lady who was in charge of his dormitory. Little did she know that he had stopped on the way, punched a hole in the egg, drawn out the insides and replaced them with water. That is, she didn’t know until she cracked the egg and an egg-full of water splashed in the hot grease.

No doubt Sammy was involved when a group of boys brought a friend, crying and screaming, saying that he had been stung by a scorpion, to a new missionary one afternoon. The boys had no idea that the missionary had just heard of a new cure for scorpion sting. He ran to his motorcycle, unhooked the wire to the battery, touched the end of the wire to the spot of the sting and kicked down on the starter. The suffering victim again screamed, dried his tears and declared himself completely cured. That was one prank that backfired, for the boy hadn’t been stung at all; they were just testing the new missionary to see what he would do!!! He passed the test that time.

Another opportunity to get even came, probably partly from Sammy’s efforts, when the boys asked the missionary to show them how to get honey from a bees’ nest. He donned a motorcycle helmet, heavy coat (in the summer) and gloves, tied a kerosene-soaked rag to the end of a bamboo pole, and climbed the tree. Unsuccessful, he retreated. Proudly the boys lit a fire and burned some green leaves from a certain shrub that produced lots of smoke under the tree. They waited an appropriate amount of time then climbed the tree with no protection and lifted the honey from the hive.

Today, when the same missionary visits the Home, he finds a grey-haired, bearded Sammy, with the same twinkling eyes and happy disposition, teaching succeeding generations of children rescued from the leper colonies of North India at Home Academy, the school established especially for those children by the same missionary. It is from Sammy he buys his honey. Sammy himself by now has no doubt been the brunt of many jokes.

Arun was the life of the party. He made up for his disadvantage of having a darker complexion than most of the children by having a very bright personality. He was the clown of every drama, whether the part he was playing was meant to be comic or not!

The day Arun ran away was a sad one for all at the Home. A light had gone out. Anxiously we waited, praying and hoping that he would be found.

After several days at last the good news came. He had somehow made it through the many miles of wild, animal-infested jungles to the railway station and then sneaked on to a train to the city where his parents lived in a leper colony. His dad scolded him, spanked him and brought him right back, to our delight.

Today Arun cheerfully serves many in the leper colonies where he came from as a director of a project of the Leprosy Mission. What a joy it was to hear him tell of his ministry when he came back to visit.

Stories like this abound and could abound even more with your help. Each year there are more applications than can be admitted. It is heart breaking to have to turn children away when you know what a difference could be made in those little lives.

Come and see for yourself and we guarantee that your heart will be touched. Check the website at www.home4children.com, (be sure to read the alumni testimonials under “endorsements”). E-mail your MTW missionaries, Calvin Taylor, grandson of the founders, now chairman of the Board, at [email protected], or David and Eleanor Fiol at [email protected] for more information. Help us uncover this secret in the PCA.