Sumathi's stomach growled with the angry pain of being completely empty. It had been days since she had eaten, but that didn’t matter to her aunty and uncle. They still expected the little girl to complete all the family chores, and they would still curse her if she didn’t.
By now, Sumathi had resigned herself to her whole life being a hardship. Her mother had died when she was three years old, and her father, overcome by depression, died after a few years.
Without their parents, Sumathi siblings parted ways, her brothers to pursue livelihoods and her sisters to marry. They left Sumathi alone, so the girl’s aunt and uncle took her in-but they didn’t have any love to offer the orphan girl.
They didn’t allow her to go school, but they valued her labor too much to let her attend regularly. Even when Sumathi did go to school, she struggled to study at home. As years went by, Sumathi began to know life only as sorrow and abuse.
When she was small, Sumathi told them, no one had cared about her, now their aunt and uncle were her parents, and she wouldn’t leave them.
One day Sumathi walked with livelihood with tears, Sumathi met a group of ladies walking happily. And one of the ladies noticed a young girl with tears, sensing the lady's kindness, Sumathi shared her struggles and the Deepam Ministries tailoring women decided to take her to the tailoring center as well as to meet her uncle and aunt.
While there, the staff shared the Gospel with the family and asked them to send Sumathi to the Deepam tailoring Centre so she could receive proper tailoring skills and become a better person. As they spoke with the staff, Sumathi’s aunt and uncle began to feel badly about the way they treated their niece.
As they learned more about forgiveness, she reconciled with her brothers and sisters, and now the little girl who had become part of Deepam's big loving family – including a heavenly father who will never leave her.
Pray for Sumathi and her future Pray for Deepam tailoring Project