PHIL SMITH speaks to student Thomas Delaney about his life in two worlds…
Thomas Delaney at St Laurence’s College. PICTURE: Liam Erini
“At home a place among forty students in a poorly equipped classroom is a privilege.”
In Christian tradition, Thomas the Believer has a strong connection with India. In recent times a much younger Thomas Delaney has come from India to share something of what God is still doing in that country.
Thomas is a year eight student at St Laurence’s college this term, immersed in a Brisbane Catholic school while his missionary parents take a furlough and study break. Boys’ obsessions with the latest X-Box are puzzling for a lad who carries drinking water in buckets at home.
His parents, Mark and Cathy experienced short term mission visits to India during their university years.
“When we eventually met, we both had a sense of the third world and a sense in which it just wouldn’t be right to walk down a career path to a comfortable life,” says Ms Delaney.
They have lived for almost 15 years in one of East Delhi’s ‘illegal’ Muslim communities, Janta Colony. Both their sons, Thomas and Oscar were born and raised there.
“We never thought we would necessarily be there for this long, but we take it as it comes and God is using us, good things are happening and it’s working for us as a family. There’s no real reason to change anything.”
One thing that has changed recently: the Delaney house now has a legal electricity supply!
The family home in Janta is a single upstairs room, with access to a shared bathroom facility and a small courtyard. It has a concrete floor, raw brick walls and a roof that doesn’t leak – everything one can ask for in a crowded neighbourhood that began as a huddle of hovels made from cardboard and tin.
‘HOME’: Top – The Delaney Family in their tiny courtyard. “We have potted plants and some space.” ; Bottom – The “basti” (settlement), where the Delaney family lives. Janta Colony is now well established, but remains an illegal settlement.
‘Home’ is the word 13-year-old Thomas Delaney chooses for Janta. His three month stint at school in Brisbane is like an interesting look at a foreign culture, a short break from reality, for someone whose life is in Delhi.
At St. Laurence’s Thomas marvels at things other students take for granted: facilities for art and science, the opportunity to study in small classes.
“At home it’s a privilege go to school at all,” says Tom. “Many kids don’t.”
While his parents worked informally in the neighbourhood, and with a Christian medical NGO, Thomas attended the nearby Muslim school before home schooling through to junior high standard.
In Brisbane he is surrounded by 1,400 other boys in a playground like nothing he would see in India.
This is a young man with a rare world view. The wide diversity in St Laurence’s student population is a welcome environment for a white Christian boy well acquainted with being a very small minority.
“Most of my new friends here are Sudanese and Sri Lankan,” said Tom. “I am looking forward to being home with my good friends in Janta.”
Two days after Australian media published schools’ comparative academic results, Thomas isn’t measuring his future by professional income.
“Jesus said to serve, so I’ll look for a way to do that.”
When asked about what field he might explore, Tom responds with geography instead of vocation.
“I will be in India,” he says with absolute certainty. “That’s where I have always lived and I love it.”
