I "met" Michelle nearly three years ago when I stumbled across her blog while searching for other PW's to connect with. Michelle and I are as different as night and day (and I'm not talking color...lol). But despite our many differences (she hates shopping or dressing up, and loves the outdoors...all of the things I am not....lol)we connected. She has been a great partner in prayer to Marc and I since we came to WABC. She loves to torture me with gross photos of animals (and feet) and I love to hear the stories of her very fashion forward daughters dragging her to the mall! I would have to say I have never come into contact with a more dedicated mom then Michelle Wegner. I especially love the heart that she and her husband Rob have for the mission field! I'm very proud to call Michelle Wegner friend!
Michelle and Rob have been married for eighteen years and have three girls, Madeline, Whitney, and Isabelle. They have served together at Granger Community Church for nineteen years. Every day is a new adventure, whether it's in India, or Indiana.
In January of 2011, Rob and I released our first book called Share the Well. It was a great experience writing it together. Here’s a bit more info about it:
How did this project come about?
We have been dreaming about gathering the stories of the amazing men and women who are leading the charge in India. Their stories are remarkable, amazing,m and read like mini-novels. The men and women who work so hard to bring hope to the villages they live in and help are in the most remote places, with no outside voice to the world. We knew their stories needed to be told. We were excited to know the timing was right last summer.
Why India?
With 2.75 billion unreached people on the planet more than 50% of them live in one nation – India. In 2001, Granger Community Church found a new home in India. From the first meeting of 15 people in an old run down YWCA, deep friendships were formed. Those friendships turned into a partnership that has birthed an unstoppable movement transforming entire villages.
God has released a tidal wave of His Spirit in India. In the last 10 years, over 950 churches have been planted, some of them in the most remote corners of unreached India. 120,000 people are now a part of this Jesus movement, gathering in over 950 churches, with over 84,000 who have received amazing grace and declared Jesus as Lord. Like the early church, these numbers are growing every single day.
We trace the source of this tidal wave to a well.
Where Did the Photography Come From?
There were a few photographers that donated their time and skill to making our book not only full of amazing stories, but National Geographic quality photos as well. Photographers Dustin Maust, and Ron Zimmerman travelled with us to India to capture the stunning photos that are in our book.
How Long Did it Take to Complete Your Book?
Truthfully, the stories from our book have been accumulating since 2001, but we started actively gathering them, writing them down, and taking photographs in the beginning of 2010. Our book was released in January of 2011, so about a year from start to finish.
How did you balance your life as you worked on your book?
When we actually gathered the stories to write them down this past summer, we packed up our whole family along with family friend Jeanna Tripp, who lovingly cared for our girls while Rob and I interviewed the men and women church planters for our book. Once we got home, we began the work of translating our notes into stories that made sense. This fall, all 3 of our girls were in school all day for the first time ever, so I worked from the minute they left for school until the minute they got in the door. Rob did his part at his office, and we exchanged many emails and phone calls back and forth editing details and re-writing each other’s sentences, and then writing them back to the way we wanted before the other edited them (slightly funny)
Who Should Read it?
Anyone who wants to gain a further perspective about what life in a third world culture. Village life in India is of course, completely different than anything we as Americans have ever known. The stories of survival and resilience that the men and women told us were truly remarkable. We wrote down their stories so others would be changed, but found ourselves forever changed as well.
Pastors and relief and/or development workers would also find our book interesting, since we have developed a tool called Bore Well church planting.
Bore wells are common in India. They are drilled and excavated by rotary-drilling machines that drill hundreds of feet under the earth--deeper than a hand-dug well could ever go. A bore well reaches the clean water, keeping a village hydrated for many years.
If there’s water in a community, there’s life. That’s the purpose of a bore well.
The concept of Bore Well Church Plating is simple - plant a church in an otherwise unreached village and then equip that church to become the hub for community development, bringing living water to every area of life. If the Kingdom of God comes to a community, it will elevate health, education, housing, employment, justice, arts, family life and more.
What made us want to donate our proceeds to India?
We have everything we could ever need. We have running water. We have electricity. Our children get an amazing free education. We have all the food we need and even food we don’t need. When we visit with our friends in India who are living on less than a dollar a day, it is a no-brainer for us. We want to live our lives to give all we can to help those who don’t have what they need. We could have lined our pockets with cash made off of the stories of men and women who are impoverished, but that did not feel right. We want to show our girls and the rest of the world that giving back is what life is all about. Every penny past the amount it cost to print the book goes to Bore Well church planters who are transforming the lives and communities of the villages they work in.
Can you speak a bit about the micro-enterprises? Can you give some examples?
Why is the micro-enterprise model so important?
We have experimented with various micro-enterprise models in southern India. Two examples that have been very successful have been goat herding and tailoring. In one of the villages we are helping, the young teenage girls are much too old to begin school, since they would literally have to start in first grade with 6 year olds. They are now being trained in the trade of tailoring so they will be self-sufficient and break the cycle of extreme poverty in their own lives. We are also looking into purchasing a brick kiln. Brick making is one of the main industries of Southern India. Unfortunately, most of the workers are literally slaves to their bosses because of corrupt systems that use them and manipulate them into years of indentured servitude. If we owned a brick kiln and employed these men and women, they would be able to work their way out of extreme poverty very quickly.
You have three daughters who have been to India with you. How has that trip and your passion for India affected their lives?
Our oldest daughter Maddie has been to India with us three times, and Whitney and Isabelle have been with us twice. Their world view is forever altered because of walking into the homes of children their age that are the same size as the play houses of their peers in America. Watching my girls play with children who are in the “Untouchable” caste has been one of the biggest honors of my life--All children play in the same language.
Our India experiences are something we have shared as a family, and they could never expect their friends here to understand, so they really don’t talk about it very much outside of home. When they do bring it up, it is usually something very thought provoking and profound. The day we got home from India this last summer, Whitney stopped before she went into our house and said, “I never realized how huge our house is. It’s like a mansion compared to our friends in India”.
The girls fight, argue, and make unreasonable Christmas lists like any kid, but deep down, they know to be so grateful for what we have. They like to remind one another of this, when they hear one of their sisters’s complaining. And of course, they are forever going to be reminded by us when they complain about what’s for dinner. Instead of a general, “Eat that, because there are starving people in Africa.” We tell them, “Eat that. Remember Sangeetha’s house? Remember how she had no toys and only one meal a day?” They roll their eyes like any kid would, but deep down they know that it’s the truth, and what it looks, smells, and feels like to live in extreme poverty.
The other night we tucked Isabelle in to bed and she asked for our book. The next morning, she proudly told her daddy, “I read the whole book last night…well, not really read it, but I looked at every single page.” Rob said, “What do you think it’s about?” Belle replied, “I don’t know, but I know it is very, very important, and I am glad our family wrote it.”
It will be interesting to see as the girls get older how these experiences will shape the rest of their lives.
