It was exciting to see the crowds his slide projector attracted. As soon as he began to put up the white sheet that served as a screen, thousands of adults and children gathered along the beach. Mrs. Paulose sang Gospel songs over a loudspeaker powered by a car battery, and their five-year-old son quoted Bible verses to passersby.
When the sun had set, Brother Paulose began his slide presentation. For several hours, thousands sat in the sand, listening to the Gospel message while the sea murmured in the background. When we finally packed to leave, I had to walk carefully to avoid stepping on the hundreds of children sleeping on the sand.
But the tragedy behind all this was the secret starvation Paulose and his family faced. Once I heard his long-suffering wife comforting the children and urging them to drink water from a baby bottle in order to hold off the pangs of hunger. There was not enough money in the house for milk. Ashamed to let the non-Christian neighbors know he was without food, Paulose kept the windows and doors in his one-room rented house closed so they could not hear the cries of his four hungry children.
On another occasion, one of his malnourished children fell asleep in school because he was so weak from hunger.