To India

Gordon has been granted a one-year professional development leave from Brigham Young University. He will oversee teacher development at the Peery School for Rising Stars from May 08 through April 09, focusing on teaching English as a Second Language and implementing positive behavior supports. The K-7 English-language school serves children of leprosy-affected individuals in rural Tamil Nadu, near Chennai, India. The campus is situated on a 14-acre plot of land owned and developed by Rising Star Outreach, a nonprofit humanitarian organization based in Atlanta, Georgia that provides health care, micro-credit, and education for leprosy-affected individuals and their children. The campus includes family-style residential hostels for the students. Gordon and Vickie will live in an apartment in one of the hostels.

The Reason . . .

"If we can lend a helping hand to the oppressed, if we can aid those who are despondent and in sorrow, if we can uplift and ameliorate the condition of mankind, it is our mission to do it, it is an essential part of our religion to do it."
Joseph F. Smith