Transcription
So excited about my guests today! Reverend Dr. Halab Bontine is the founder of Bain’s Kolkata Mission. Her daughter, Bonnie Bonane Long, is president of a ministry that began making a difference in India in 1954, under the late great Reverend Dr. Mark Bonane, who passed away in June 1989. I got to see him either that year or the year before, which is so meaningful because he’s truly my husband’s earthly hero.
And I don’t know if Richard took this picture. Hala and there’s Mark. Um, I don’t know how old would he be there, do you think? Um, in his 60s? In his 60s. And when Richard visited you in 1981 in India, he took this photograph. And I’m just going to tell you what we’re seeing here. This is a mother and child lined up. Can you see that? The people behind there, lined up for a feeding program along a sewage canal, waiting for the japati. Uh, 25,000 people were in that line for, I think, daily feeding. Daily, yes. And that’s 30 years ago. Yes. What is amazing about that—that’s just one little slice—is that this, and so much more, came out of what initially was a one-year call to India to do evangelism.
Yes, sir. Right. What happened? I think God had different plans for our lives. That was for sure, because we were only going to hold evangelistic meetings in all of India for one year. Mark had just come back from the Orient and had done the same there, and we were asked to go to India for one year, but it all changed.
Now I understand that one beggar turned the tide on the direction of your ministry. Yes, we went there to Kolkata. No church had been built in Kolkata in 100 years. Years. And we started in a tent on some bare piece of land that later became the land that we had built the church, the first church. But during the service one night, a beggar came in. He wouldn’t even take a seat, and in the middle of Mark’s message, he screamed out these words: “Preacher, feed our bellies!” And then tried to tell us that there’s a God in heaven that loves us. And then a little girl in our first school fainted, and Mark said to her, “When did you eat last, darling?” She said, “I don’t remember.” And he rushed her to a city hospital. With two in the bed, two under the bed, two under the bed. Yes, two under the bed, two in the bed, lying on the floor. H. And he saw that they didn’t care if she lived or died—low-cast child. So he came home and he said, “I will not only educate these children, but I’m going to feed them and medically treat them.” And that started our compassionate ministries.
We are going to try to give you a big picture of what compassion is taking place through the obedience of the Bontine family. I have to say family, because that’s right, you know where God guides, He provides. Bonnie, you’re the only child of Mark and Hala, and you really became the answer to, well, the, the, the longevity and the continuation. Right, when Dad died, you know, the compassionate part of the ministry became a big load for the church to carry, and God had called us into the medical field, and it was like instantaneously my husband, you know, just said, “Well, I guess this is where we pick up.” And so the compassionate part of the work is where we’ve come alongside my mother. It’s been really wonderful.
Where did you and your husband meet? In India. He was the first white boy I ever met. I was seven. My parents had taken me out when I was nine months old, and I remember this strange family that came in. They were all white, you know. He has a brother and a sister, and we sat, and they wouldn’t eat Indian food, and I thought, “Who are these people?” You and then God put us back in the same university, Evangel in Springfield, Missouri, all those years later, and we became good friends, and history, you know, got amazing. And you, of course, in the culture, we say it’s arranged, and I mean, so be it. God doesn’t leave a stone unturned. What were you studying? What was he studying? Well, I was going into nursing. He was going into medicine. And I was in cardiac nursing, and that’s where my interest was, and he became a cardiac physician. So it just put the two together. And I remember when we were going through those years of training and trying to figure out why are we getting this educated, especially my husband, he’s like, “Why are we doing this?” And now, you know, you can’t tell the future, you don’t know what God has in mind for you. And now here, when Dad left, that’s exactly what we needed. And so it’s worked in God’s plan. He’s truly a heart specialist.
Yes, he is. Um, the story—hold up. I just—this must be just hot off the press. Yes, isn’t it? Yes. Uh, it’s time you did this. How, how for how many years? Well, this is the third book, actually. I’ve read, uh, I’ve written, uh, the first book was Treasures in Heaven. Yes. And then Woman of Courage. And then after Mark died, they wanted me to write a book because he died so suddenly, and the whole ministry overnight, you know, so many wondered what’s going to happen now for the Kolkata Ministries, because Mark was actually the strong leader. And so they asked me to write this book as to how God helped me, and it is just a miracle. I often wondered why God took Mark, ’cause and you don’t die in your 60s anymore. And um, he, uh, he had such a vision for what was going to do, and I just wish he had lived to see his prayers and vision fulfilled. Don’t you think he gets to see? Yeah. Well, I hope he does. Oh, I think so. I think he’s part of that great cloud of witnesses. He can through the portals and say, “All right, girls, you go.”
Pathway to the Impossible. I love the byline: “Before it became incredible, it was impossible.” And it, it truly is astounding. We’re going to try and give a picture of, of, uh, what you’re doing today. 1977, the Mercy Hospital opened. Yes. Um, you are reaching out now to 10,000 prostitutes. Yes. And their children. Now this is actually what Bonnie is involved in because, um, it has been marvelous. Maybe she’ll tell the story. Uh, we have a government-recognized hospital. Oh, Mother Teresa brought all patients to your hospital. Well, you know, our doctors treated her till she passed away. Yes. I’ll never forget the last time I was with Mother Teresa when she brought a patient. The word she said to me, you know, “It’s not what you do, but how much love you put in the giving that counts.” And I said, “Do you mean if we don’t put God’s love in the giving, our work is in vain?” And she said, “That’s what I mean.” And you know the compassionate ministries. So these 10,000, we were able, under a government-recognized hospital, to put a clinic right in the center of the red-light area. Uh, this is her—what she’s involved in. She would be able to tell you more about the clinic through the hospital. The arm of Evangel has really been huge. I mean, first it was getting into the hospital and getting it standing on its own, which was God’s grace, and it’s doing great, meeting those 40,000 free and trying to get ourselves, but there was a greater need. And Jim always wanted to get more into the villages ’cause he knew that that’s where Mom and Dad—I mean, she talks about Dad, but I mean it really was her dream too. And so our idea was to get in there, and in Kolkata is one of the largest red-light districts. It really is. I mean, Bombay has one, but then Kolkata really does. And so our goal was to try to get in and to try to get a clinic built in there, and it took a while, but we now have an established clinic where we’ll be able to treat these girls, and, uh, our goal is to build a home for them so that those who want to come out, because really the thing to understand is is that it’s not that they choose that life. Poverty has a, you know, and any mother will do anything for a child. Yeah. And if you’re illiterate… So the go—my father really did have the vision prior to us all understanding it’s education and it is healthcare, and the component of the both give people the choice—choice to understand what God is all about and Christianity and the love that it shows and the compassion which is the heart of Christ. And so it really going into the villages and meeting people that knew my dad has been unbelievable for me.