Story told by Ronald Titus, Bhopal Yearly Meeting
The Meeting House of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, was given a nominal lease rent by the King of Bhopal long back, which was purchased by Friends in 1939. This was an old building and was in a very dilapidated condition. Bhopal Friends took the decision in the years 2012-13 to change the roof of the building with concrete. We collected donation from our local Friends which was just enough to change the roof. But while making pillars, all the walls of the meetinghouse were collapsed. This was very unexpected and we all were puzzled what to do.
All the members sat together and discussed this problem with concern and everybody decided to contribute one month of his/her income for this cause. One of our members who was very old, living in an old age person’s home, earning nothing, on a Sunday he brought berries (a kind of jungle fruit) collected from the tree of the old person’s home campus, and the same were auctioned after the worship meeting. The auction proceed amount was donated by him for the construction of Meeting House. He repeated this 2-3 times and he felt very happy that he could be able to contribute something to this cause. This was an encouragement to all of us and I am happy to share with you that our new worship Meeting House was completed in 2014-15 with more contribution than what we needed. For this cause, we also received donations from New Zealand and Australian Friends.
Thanks for posting this story. It is inspiring to hear of Bhopal Friends and their care of the Meeting House. May it serve you many more centuries!