Thursday 24th January 2008
After a good but short sleep (talked with Ashok till 1am) we arrived in Chennai, ate brekky at a veggie restaurant, dropped Rachel at the Blue Diamond for a much needed sleep and headed for the boys home at Orakkadu where I preached to 35 of the IVE preachers and 4 “bible women” with Pastor Timothy as my interrupter. It was very well received and the team all prayed for them individually. The afternoon was spent playing cricket with the boys (they truly are obsessed with the game, and very good too!) while Kaz and the girls really got into the spirit of India by washing our clothes by hand. Pete.
After a good but short sleep (talked with Ashok till 1am) we arrived in Chennai, ate brekky at a veggie restaurant, dropped Rachel at the Blue Diamond for a much needed sleep and headed for the boys home at Orakkadu where I preached to 35 of the IVE preachers and 4 “bible women” with Pastor Timothy as my interrupter. It was very well received and the team all prayed for them individually. The afternoon was spent playing cricket with the boys (they truly are obsessed with the game, and very good too!) while Kaz and the girls really got into the spirit of India by washing our clothes by hand. Pete.
Wednesday 23rd January 2008
More singing and dancing for all of us! Mum, Mahalia, Jenny, Ps. Bev and myself were invited to teach the girls some more dances and songs. Obviously the concert was not enough! After an hour and a half our throats were pretty much numb. ‘tea n coffee’ was what mum, Ps. Bev and Jen were saying. After lunch we went on the bus to the wind farm then came back to play some games with the girls. (link ups, tunnel ball etc..)Before we left for our overnight train trip back to Chennai they asked us to plant some trees in memory of us. On the train we met Ashok Jain, who is a diamond dealer and lives in a palace, with his nine brothers and all their families, plus his mum and dad, 50 people in total. WOW!!! He even invited us to come but we didn’t have time.That’s it for the night. Maddi
More singing and dancing for all of us! Mum, Mahalia, Jenny, Ps. Bev and myself were invited to teach the girls some more dances and songs. Obviously the concert was not enough! After an hour and a half our throats were pretty much numb. ‘tea n coffee’ was what mum, Ps. Bev and Jen were saying. After lunch we went on the bus to the wind farm then came back to play some games with the girls. (link ups, tunnel ball etc..)Before we left for our overnight train trip back to Chennai they asked us to plant some trees in memory of us. On the train we met Ashok Jain, who is a diamond dealer and lives in a palace, with his nine brothers and all their families, plus his mum and dad, 50 people in total. WOW!!! He even invited us to come but we didn’t have time.That’s it for the night. Maddi
Tuesday 22nd January 2008
Today I got off the train at 8:30am and went to a restaurant and had breakfast (yum). Then we went on the bus to the girls Home /School it took 45 minutes to get there. We got flowers and a great welcome and then we went to have a tea and coffee and then went to play with the girls then I went to.... DRIVE in the bus out in the paddock. It was great. My teacher was Morris who is 16 years old, then Nathan had a go. Then at night we did a concert for the girls. And me and Craig did the actions to “who’s the King of the Jungle?” then they did a concert for us and then we went to bed. Good night. Elijah
After meeting with Easupathum and his wife Dianna, the directors of the IVE work down here in Tirunelvelli, and the wonderful greeting Elijah mentioned, we visited the tailoring school/shop they have set up and met with a group of local Hindu girls they are training. What a great opportunity they are providing for these girls to be skilled up and self-sufficient. Maddi, Mahalia, Kaz and I then ducked into town with Bev & Tony to buy some gifts for the Pastor we sponsor over here through IVE, John Victor. We bought a beautiful sari for his wife, a couple of outfits for his little toddler (Leah) and a couple of nice shirts for John. When we got to their house (also where his church meets) we chatted and prayed for them (all with Dianna interpreting). These guys are incredible. They live a very simple life in a very small house, he is in a fully Hindu village and yet has managed to grow his church to about 95 members. They are needing to extend the building as they can’t fit everyone in! It was a very humbling and moving time for us. The concert Elijah mentioned was great fun. The girls did among other things, a traditional Indian welcome dance. Cool. Maddi and Mahalia danced for them too as I managed to beat out a tune on a dodgy 5 string guitar while Kaz & Rachel sang as their backing track. We also taught them all the favourites from primary school RE classes (“My God is so Big”, “Hallelu Hallelu”, etc). Pete.
Today I got off the train at 8:30am and went to a restaurant and had breakfast (yum). Then we went on the bus to the girls Home /School it took 45 minutes to get there. We got flowers and a great welcome and then we went to have a tea and coffee and then went to play with the girls then I went to.... DRIVE in the bus out in the paddock. It was great. My teacher was Morris who is 16 years old, then Nathan had a go. Then at night we did a concert for the girls. And me and Craig did the actions to “who’s the King of the Jungle?” then they did a concert for us and then we went to bed. Good night. Elijah
After meeting with Easupathum and his wife Dianna, the directors of the IVE work down here in Tirunelvelli, and the wonderful greeting Elijah mentioned, we visited the tailoring school/shop they have set up and met with a group of local Hindu girls they are training. What a great opportunity they are providing for these girls to be skilled up and self-sufficient. Maddi, Mahalia, Kaz and I then ducked into town with Bev & Tony to buy some gifts for the Pastor we sponsor over here through IVE, John Victor. We bought a beautiful sari for his wife, a couple of outfits for his little toddler (Leah) and a couple of nice shirts for John. When we got to their house (also where his church meets) we chatted and prayed for them (all with Dianna interpreting). These guys are incredible. They live a very simple life in a very small house, he is in a fully Hindu village and yet has managed to grow his church to about 95 members. They are needing to extend the building as they can’t fit everyone in! It was a very humbling and moving time for us. The concert Elijah mentioned was great fun. The girls did among other things, a traditional Indian welcome dance. Cool. Maddi and Mahalia danced for them too as I managed to beat out a tune on a dodgy 5 string guitar while Kaz & Rachel sang as their backing track. We also taught them all the favourites from primary school RE classes (“My God is so Big”, “Hallelu Hallelu”, etc). Pete.
Monday 21st January 2008
Today we hopped in the bus of freedom with our tummies full from breakfast that Francis the chef had made. We arrived at a village where we met a family that was building a church. We prayed for them in the roofless church and after two girls came and put flowers in mine and Maddi’s hair. We waved goodbye and drove off back into the dust. We arrived in the next village where there was another church under construction, we prayed for the pastors there and had some sweets then left to do some shopping for our sponsored children and ‘Craig’s crew’ went and got some cricket gear for the boys at I.V.E. We were all shocked when we saw a elephant crossing the road in front of us and it made it even more shocking when Jen was screaming “ahhh look everyone there’s an elephant. My prayers have come true”. We came home had some lunch made a veggie soup with Rachel, while Elijah, dad, Bob & Craig played cricket and volleyball (wolleyball) with the boys, and are now packing our bags for a 12 hour train trip down south. Mahalia Hi Girl & Boy Munka!
Today we hopped in the bus of freedom with our tummies full from breakfast that Francis the chef had made. We arrived at a village where we met a family that was building a church. We prayed for them in the roofless church and after two girls came and put flowers in mine and Maddi’s hair. We waved goodbye and drove off back into the dust. We arrived in the next village where there was another church under construction, we prayed for the pastors there and had some sweets then left to do some shopping for our sponsored children and ‘Craig’s crew’ went and got some cricket gear for the boys at I.V.E. We were all shocked when we saw a elephant crossing the road in front of us and it made it even more shocking when Jen was screaming “ahhh look everyone there’s an elephant. My prayers have come true”. We came home had some lunch made a veggie soup with Rachel, while Elijah, dad, Bob & Craig played cricket and volleyball (wolleyball) with the boys, and are now packing our bags for a 12 hour train trip down south. Mahalia Hi Girl & Boy Munka!
Sunday 20th January 2008
Well...This morning we headed off on the bumpy road in the ‘bus of freedom’ (as Craig would say) to the girls home in Andhra Pradesh. On the way we bought about 800 bangles, 600 chocolates and some balls for the girls to play with. Once we arrived after 2hrs in the bus we were greeted with yet some more flowers by about 90 beautifully dressed girls. They were all ready for Church so the staff took us up to an open area where we had a church service. They all sang for us, we sang for them (Lord I lift your name on high), Dad preached on Jesus having a plan for all the girls lives and not to let the ‘storms’ of life discourage them (with an interpreter), and we had communion. The girls did some dances for us and we gave the girls four bangles and three chocolates each! YUM! They were very grateful. After lunch we taught them some games with the balls we gave them that kept us all occupied for a couple of hours. I met a girl named Anitha, I was glad because when you meet someone they always come up to you later on and say “what’s my name?” to make sure you are their friend and because their names are always so long you can never remember them. But out of all the girls I could have met I met someone with an easy name!!! She was 14yrs old and she had been going to the Andhra Pradesh home for 8 years. She was nice. Later on they were presented with their certificates and then we had to go. Maddi xox
The road trips here are amazing. Today we saw a duck shepherd with about 300 ducks marching up the road with nothing but a long stick to control them. Very cool. Pete.
Well...This morning we headed off on the bumpy road in the ‘bus of freedom’ (as Craig would say) to the girls home in Andhra Pradesh. On the way we bought about 800 bangles, 600 chocolates and some balls for the girls to play with. Once we arrived after 2hrs in the bus we were greeted with yet some more flowers by about 90 beautifully dressed girls. They were all ready for Church so the staff took us up to an open area where we had a church service. They all sang for us, we sang for them (Lord I lift your name on high), Dad preached on Jesus having a plan for all the girls lives and not to let the ‘storms’ of life discourage them (with an interpreter), and we had communion. The girls did some dances for us and we gave the girls four bangles and three chocolates each! YUM! They were very grateful. After lunch we taught them some games with the balls we gave them that kept us all occupied for a couple of hours. I met a girl named Anitha, I was glad because when you meet someone they always come up to you later on and say “what’s my name?” to make sure you are their friend and because their names are always so long you can never remember them. But out of all the girls I could have met I met someone with an easy name!!! She was 14yrs old and she had been going to the Andhra Pradesh home for 8 years. She was nice. Later on they were presented with their certificates and then we had to go. Maddi xox
The road trips here are amazing. Today we saw a duck shepherd with about 300 ducks marching up the road with nothing but a long stick to control them. Very cool. Pete.
1 comment:
A Pachyderm! How exciting :)
I think Indian elephants are the best kind (and no, I'm NOT biased!)
African elephants are all big, majestic and angry looking... but Indian elephants just seem to say "I'm cute, love me!"
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