But not really, since we have the awesome fantastic UK tour ahead of us…. and God is never done working in us anyway. So, only five full days left here now, its quite a strange thought. Anyway, here is some of what has been going on recently in school…

Over the past couple of weeks a kid in Becky’s class has really changed a lot- going from hardly ever joining in and being uncooperative to suddenly doing everything wholeheartedly and being first finished with all the work they do. Its an awesome change- Becky has been saying that the kid was really lacking is self confidence and so didn’t want to have a go at stuff, so its a really great thing to have happened. Becky’s also become increasingly addicted to “the stones game” (sort of a skill/tricks game with 5 stones) and has been known to make kids stay after school to play with her, and has been practicing by herself in her room so she can beat the small children at it. Please pray.

Naomi’s class has taken a really amazing turn since easter-they all requested to have lessons on “why Jesus died for us” and other such Christianity related stuff, which Naomi was more than happy to give them. Being given opportunities like that is such an answer to prayer since we ‘re not really supposed to directly tell them about Christ and stuff unless they ask. This week is officially party week for her class now, with a birthday pretty much every day. Please pray for that class and the stitching group they have sort of smooshed with, since with Naomi leaving and Sumitra getting married soon the class will be without any teachers.

Anna’s kids class has exploded! There are suddenly about ten new boys in it, with more almost every day. This is great news but has been a bit of a shock for Anna, since her class has become so much bigger and more rowdy. Please pray that she will have a really good final week with them and be really inspired with lessons that can engage the whole class.

My classes have been going swimmingly recently. I was looking over some of my first photos recently and realized how much my kids class has grown up and changed. Half of their lives seem to be full of exams but their final exams are finally over and kids I haven’t seen in months are trickling back which is so good. I went to the boys’ class every day last week to rehearse a dance with them, which was very hot and tiring, and I’m not entirely sure what it was for, but I now know a great Indian dance to a punjabi style song called “Jesus loves me”! I really have no idea where they got the music from.

Preparing things to leave seems to be taking up a lot of time, and we are really wanting to say bye to everyone properly. Please pray for us, with the big mangle of stuff going on in our heads and for enough energy to make the most of the last week.

 David

This morning we had a fantastic easter service in our newly decorated church, which was a memorable event since it was Naomi and Anna preaching for the first time. The girls hadn’t had any opportunity to preach in church yet, not because of women not being allowed in leadership but I think because of the general culture of the area- if a newcomer was to come they would be quite taken back at a woman preaching. They gave a great gospel message to everyone, which was followed by an opportunity to respond and communion.

I mentioned the church was redecorated- it had a new carpet, curtains and paint job, all the hard work of a guy called Ram who happened to turn up at church last week and got recruited for the job. Throughout the week he worked solidly, and came to all of our church meetings too. The most exciting thing was seeing him at the end of the service, on his knees, being prayed for and surrounded by new friends, and asking for the gospel to explained to him more. He’s a different man!

It was great to see Kuldeep’s mother there again too- the same woman who just a few weeks ago had been adamant about her son not coming to church and mixing with those sorts. There were also a huge amount of women from the area there, one of whom got healed at the end of the service and was brave enough to go up to the front and tell everyone.

It was a great time, but strange to think of it as our second last time at church here. Its great knowing that God is using us right to the very end of our time here, and beyond.

David

Its Holi! No one seemed to be entirely sure what day it actually was this week- either friday or saturday. Holi is a mad festival where loads of stuff happens but the main thing is throwing gulal (powder paint) and water at each other. The paint and water thing doesn’t really have a religious significance to people (around here anyway), its just about having fun and getting messy really.

So on thursday at the village school, after the kids had been itching with anticipation for a good hour or so, we all ran outside and slapped paint all over each other. It was awesome. Theres something very satisfying about throwing powder paint at people. True to most things Indian, they were the most lurid colours possible- fluorescent pink, purple, blue, green yellow, red and orange. Somehow the predominant colour I ended up being was pink.  Not cool.

We got home that evening to find that our apartments had no water, so Anna and i had to sit in the apartment for the next few hours waiting for the water to come back and trying not to touch anything. Naomi and Becky arrived home after us looking remarkably clean- the city school had been far more reserved in their celebrations because half of the colony probably would have turned up with water, mud and colours otherwise!

There was nothing reserved  about how our apartment block celebrated Holi though. On saturday we didn’t go out because unfortunately Holi also means a lot of drunk people, stoned people, groping strangers, and the occasional throwing of things other than water (cow poo, acid etc.), but we did have a massive water and colour fight with all the residents of our block. The taboos of man and woman, young and old were completely forgotten as everyone got smeared in every colour possible and completely soaking. I got hugged warmly by a lot of purple men. There should be something like this in the UK!

We all spent about an hour in the shower trying to scrub the bright pink off our faces, we all had slightly strange coloured patches of skin and streaks of hair at church this morning. Tour training at IMC should be fun… we have quite a few packs of paint powder left…..

David

This Saturday was my birthday so we decided to go to the Taj Mahal. We set off on Friday night, got to the train station at 8.30 for our 9 o’clock train, got in the queue and eventually got to the front at 9.10… amazingly the train was delayed by 15mins so we got tickets and caught it! I feel slightly sorry for anyone who tries to travel when we are! That’s the third train that has been late by exactly how long we needed it to – God just keeps sorting it out!

We were the second people in the Taj at 6am when it opened and had a magical hour watching the Taj as the sun rose. It is so beautiful and incredible and amazing! Wow!! Went and had some breakfast (curry) before going to Agra Fort- another huge, incredible place. Had lunch and then got the train back at 2.. unfortunately it was delayed so the 3 hr journey became 5. However we were home in time for the team to give me an amazing mini birthday party with pizza, coca cola and cake!

Today at church we celebrated International Women’s day which was really cool. Women from the city school stitching and English classes and some of city school children’s mums came in their sarees! The church was packed! It kept being full and we kept moving forward until we had 80+ squished in. Was a great service- Abha preached which was great in a culture where women preaching is still very unusual. She talked about how God made both men and women in his image and how we are equal in his eyes and should be in the eyes of the world. It was a really important message that many of these women would never have heard before. According to their children, the women really enjoyed themselves and some, we know, are planning to come next week!

Naomi

Last Friday we left our comfortable abode in Dwarka for the bright lights and stuff of Jaipur- an amazingly historical city in the rajasthan desert. We left at 5.30am and had a very hot 5 hours bus journey to get there, only for me to realise that in my sleep deprived state I’d left my passport behind. It turns out that passports are absolutely essential for staying overnight anywhere, and i was told very bluntly by the hotel management that trying to get around it would be fraud… it didn’t look good for our weekend away.

We called up John our host to explain to him what had happened- and he told me that Anand would find a way into our appartment, then hung up. 30 minutes later scans of my passport were being faxed through to the hotel! When we got back from our trip we found our front door bolt loose and slightly mangled- Anand had simply taken a mallet to it and was in in a few seconds! What a guy.

So our weekend went on as planned- we visited all the general “must see” places like Amber Fort and Hawa Mahal and were thoroughly architectured out by the time we were done- we were in a bit of a daze. We spent our first evening in a place called Choki Dhani a bit outside the city, which was pretty much a cultural theme park (but without rides) which according to lonely planet is particularly popular with middle class Indian families. We had an all you can eat meal off banana leaves, wore turbans, had ‘traditional’ head massages (I’m sure it was just an excuse to beat us up- there was a lot of slapping, face smooshing and joint cracking) and rode on camels for 5RS (7p).

All of Saturday was spent sight seeing, the “monkey temple” was best. Set up in the hills, it has pools ’several elephants deep’, amazing temples and hundreds of monkeys, which took peanuts from our hands and climbed on us. We were guided around for part of the time, and went into a very small dark shrine which felt slightly disturbing- we had to get out. There is some pretty strange stuff going on in the area- at one place we passed they daily sacrifice goats, and it used to be a daily human sacrifice.

Our bus journey back was a bit longer- we got stuck in a 4 hour stand still on the motorway so we didn’t get back until about2.30 am. It was amazing though, a man on the bus told us when to get off, which seemed to be a completely remote part of motorway, but an auto was sitting just along the road so we got on that and were home in minutes.

It was such an awesome weekend, this weekend we are hopefully going to see the Taj for Naomi’s birthday- trying to cram it all in before we leave oh so soon.

David

Sadly on Tuesday night, Lucky, the daughter of a women at church and a close friend of some on the girls in the city school girls class died. Please pray for the family as they grieve for her. She was only 12 years old. Wednesday was therefore a quiet day at the city school. The girls’ class spent the lesson writing letters to God about how they are feeling and praying for the family together.

Thursday was a holiday so we went with our host’s family (minus John who was in Hyderabad) to the cinema to see Jodhaa Akbar, the story of a Mughal ruler who married a Hindu Princess to avoid having to fight to gain a kingdom. It was an absolutely stunning film. The sets and costumes were unbelievable!

On Saturday we spent an exciting day in Delhi visiting the toilet museum, Lotus temple and Akshardham. The toilet museum is run by an NGO providing sanitation in rural areas of India. It was interesting to see the work they were doing and also to have a guided tour of the museum which had displays on the history of toilets, toilet humour and toilets around the world! The Lotus Temple is a huge, beautiful Baha’i temple in the shape of a Lotus flower. It would make an amazing church. Akshardham is a huge temple complex (the biggest Hindu temple in the world) which looks like it was built 500 yrs ago but actually was finished in 2005! It’s beautifully carved and also had a professional film and show with moving waxworks telling the story of the Hindu man who started the section of Hinduism which built the temple. There was also an ‘India Through History’ boat ride. Really random.

However we have had a good couple of weeks with our classes and have really enjoyed getting back into school after the holiday. Anna and my classes have both performed the plays they practiced whilst we were away and both were amazing!

We’re trying to make the most of the rest of our time here which is rapidly decreasing, please pray that we do so!

Naomi

Last Sunday the girls had anouther chance to get on their silk saris when we were invited to a wedding- Leckshmi Aunty’s (the cook/cleaner/baby sitter for our hosts) son was tying the knot with a south Indian girl. We were slightly disappointed when we got there to find out the actual ceremony was long finished- it would have been fascinating-but since the whole wedding process lasts several days there were still loads of people, food and decorations. We enjoyed a fanta with the new bride and groom and then went to the big marquee thing for some food.

It was amazing we didn’t get unwell- the food was great but it was definitely designed for Indian stomachs- we ate salad (BMS’s big no no) and mayonnaisey stuff off banana leaves (which was cool) with dirty hands (we forgot hand gel stuff- oops) and washed it down with some good old tap water. We left and spent an hour or so at a posh mall, before going to Seema and Sunny’s house (John’s sister and husband) for one of their absolutely epic dinners. We gorged ourselves on hot roti and the 5 different meat dishes they offered and then had just enough time to watch some of Godzilla on TV. Good day.

We have been thinking quite a lot about arranged marriages recently, especially since we have seen one of the of the older- and one of the not so old- girls at the village school leaving to start a new life with a man they have never met. Its been really hard seeing how gutted they were about leaving  all of their friends and family, to live far away in a different village. I was slightly shocked at Arnold’s comment at the wedding we went to, that the bride was the happiest bride he had ever seen. I would have described her as polite, but not noticeably happy. Its such a shame.

I just don’t see why families but their children through so much grief over getting married- it seems to me to be so far away from what God intended marriage to be like.

Please continue to pray for our friend Sumitra as her arranged marriage gets closer.

David 

We got back from our holiday last week after a really amazing time in South India with the Kolkata Action Team.
The train journeys (52 hours each way) were actually really fun – t’s impossible to get bored on Indian trains as there are so many people trying to you sell things (regular calls of “chai, chai” starting at 5am), things to look at, people to talk to and rats to dodge!
We spent the first few days relaxing on the beach in a place called Varkala – a very touristy resort set out along a cliff top overlooking the sea. It was a bit strange seeing so many white people after almost 3 months in Dwarka where we’ve seen about 3, but it was beautiful and SO nice to be able to jump in the sea! We had some really amazing evenings on the beach worshipping and praying whilst being surrounded by God’s awesome creation. We spent a day in the backwaters, punting around tiny villages where we were shown the traditional farming methods they use and how they grow and harvest the different spices for our curries.
We then travelled inland to the jungle – a long and eventful bus journey during which the bus filled with black smoke and had to leave us on the side of the road in the middle of no-where half-way up a mountain! When we finally arrived at our accommodation they had given away one of our rooms, so the 6 of us girls had to all cram into one room with some mattresses on the floor!
We spent 3 days at the wildlife park in the jungle; riding elephants, going on jeep-safaris and trekking through the jungle. We saw elephants, giant squirrels, chickens and a frog – I think our guide was quite disappointed in our lack of interest at the last two. We also saw some massive poisonous spiders on a night trek which was quite scary, and a poisonous water-snake in the lake we’d just gone swimming in (fortunately we weren’t attacked by anything and so far seem to be amoeba-free). We also visited some tea plantations and a tea factory, and had a go at harvesting some tea with the women who work there; Naomi got a bit excited at all the tea so the women dressed her up in their tea harvesting outfits.

It was an amazing 2 weeks and we really felt God’s provision for us throughout – a lot of things could have gone quite badly wrong but jaimasiki it all went smoothly in the end.
We are now back at school feeling really refreshed and excited about the last two months of our time here.

Anna

One of the most unexpected things that happened to us in Kerala was our visit to a flower show in the town outside the wildlife park. Becky and Sarah (from the Kolkata team) had both headed back to our house thing after a large dinner, but the rest of us had our attention grabbed by the bright lights and exciting noises of the flower show, and at 10RS each (13p) what could possibly go wrong- however after wandering past rows of flowers, shrubs and large vegetable carved as the taj mahal, the novelty wore off. It seemed India had let as down.

But no! As we rounded the corner (after the taj mahal melons), a huge structure came into view with a large poster on its side- stating it was a circus . The noise coming from it was insane- it was a large “wall of death” made of what looked like scaffolding and old planks, and the whold structure vibrated and swayed as the motorbikes roared along the walls. We bought our tickets for 15RS each and headed up the stairs, slightly worried to see that parts had sheared off with all the vibrations.

We stood around the top of the top of the wall of death and watched with goosebumps as four motor bikes and two cars roared vertically around the wooden walls (with planks missing and broken). Only in India. The guy next to Jamie and me told us it was the most dangerous circus in India (no kidding), and showed us how to hold out money for the bike riders to snatch as they went past. we held out our 10Rs notes and had our arms nearly torn of by the guy grabbing it. There were no pads, no helmets, no barriers. It was the most insane place ever. It would have been absolutely awesome if it wasn’t for the three year old kid they put in one of the cars- Anna and Naomi left in disgust-it was horrible that they put a kid through such danger just for shock value.

David

On Tuesday 22^nd we are leaving for our holiday to Kerala. This is pretty much as far south as you can go in India, so we will be spending 52 hours in a second class non AC train compartment to get there. We are really looking forward to the journey- despite the toilets (Abha just laughed when we asked about them), and the fact that we will be sharing our compartment with two random Indians. Our host John, who has been spending a lot of time on the Indian railway system recently, has encouraged us to see this as opportunity for ‘bringing people into the light’ (he words it a bit more bluntly), which he seems to manage to do on every journey – last time it was an entire family of seven, as well as giving marriage counseling to four of the presidents butlers!

On arrival in Kerala we are travelling to the coast where we will meet the Kolkata team and spend 4 nights staying in beach huts on the edge of a beautiful beach and the Indian ocean. This will include a trip to the backwaters and maybe even an elephant ride at some point.

After 3 days on the beach we will catch a bus inland to a wildlife park for a few days of elephant spotting and trekking in the jungle (the same jungles as the Jungle book is set in!). We were hoping to stay in a tree house, but after a rather embarrassing and very confusing phone call trying to book them we don’t think that will happen- the woman just repeated the word ‘hut’ loudly every time I asked if there were tree houses available.

We are all really excited about having some time to relax and unwind and see some more of India before we get properly stuck into the rest of our time here.