Benson Raj

This guy seems so passionate about Christ and reaching the poor for Him and is spending all his effort, money and time in loads of different projects that have been established through years of work and experience living and working in India. From talking to him it is apparent that everything he does is for someone else’s benefit and he gives Christ all the glory in the extensive and exhausting work he does. This is a brief over-view of the things he is involved in.
Blessing Streams
School for slum children in a slum called BAGLUR. This is relatively small school consisting of roughly 20 kids aged between 7-14 years old. The school runs every day from 9am – 1.30pm and runs on very low finance and funding. It is in fact running at a loss because of the lack of support and is in great danger of being closed. The education system is very informal following a government provided syllabus which is designed for uneducated children to reach a level of education where they will be able to join a regular school. So far around 50+ kids have ‘graduated’ from the school and moved into main stream education. Being established by Benson and Pastor Jaye Prakash, it has been running for 5 years. It encourages the local slum kids to flourish in areas of learning that they have interest in and if they are finding education too difficult it helps them to find a trade that they can learn by identifying their interests and skills.
Currently the school rents small premises and employs 2 full time teachers. It provides lunch for all of the students and teachers everyday and is able to administer some medical attention where needed. However, all of this comes at a cost of Rs. 18000/- (£250) minimum to keep running each month. At the moment the funding they receive is from raising money themselves by exporting gifts and ethical merchandise abroad, and by receiving donations from visitors (mainly foreign).
On the weekends they have a scheme called ‘Winner’s Club’ (Saturday, 3pm) where everyone from the local neighbourhood is invited to play games, sing songs and fellowship together. On Sundays there is a church service held on the premises where all of the children’s parents are invited to come along.
Benson has ambitions to open a hostel for these slum kids where they can receive shelter, food and medical care. His vision in this ministry is to see “one teacher like himself in every district in Karnataka (more than 26 districts)”
Football Outreach
This ministry works with young people from the local slums, aged around 15+ years, who are very ‘rough’ and often violent, facilitating and training them to play football and have competitions. A lot of these young people are heavily influenced by alcohol and are often used by political parties to stir up animosity and violence between other parties. By playing and teaching fair play and control through football, Benson and others are able to communicate good values to these youths by example and instruction and eventually introduce them to Christ. This sort of evangelism and discipleship through sport has been running for over four years and is a very good tool for rehabilitation and helps young people to become part of acceptable society by giving advice on how to get jobs. This program runs from 6am – 8.30am every morning.
Bible Clubs in Schools
Benson has been visiting schools and delivering short bible clubs for the last 25 years. Providing classes and clubs for years ranging from 1st standard to 10th standard, they last for 15-30 minutes and include;
- New songs (Christian)
- Prayer
- Talks from the Bible
Some schools give permission for him to deliver classes often without Government approval. He has to be very careful however, about ‘preaching’ the gospel. There can’t be anything like an alter call or an open invitation to give their lives to Jesus.
His talks from the Bible are often based on things that they children can use and relate to, tailoring them to each specific age group. Some typical topics are;
- Faith
- Friendship
- Trust
- Loving one another
- ...etc
He finds using visual aids very helpful to keep attention and make things more interesting. However because of the lack of funding (in fact virtually nonexistent) there are lack of resources, like a guitar for songs and a variety of visual aids.
I have not yet had a chance to visit any of Benson’s ministries, but I am so keen to get involved and learn much more about the work and the workers.