Day 4: A busy, rewarding schedule.

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Day 3 Continued...



After music lessons where Pam taught the children "Every Move I Make", we were able to go out into the fields and teach the children some games. Anne did a fabulous job teaching the students duck duck goose, head and shoulders, and Pam lead them in a rousing chorus of Boom Chika Boom. It started to get dark out so we had to stop, but I'm sure we'll get a chance to do it again! Supper was at 8 pm and I'm pretty sure we all almost fell asleep in our plates. After travelling for 32 hours and staying up for who knows how many hours, sleep was much needed!

Day 4:

40 degrees… YUP, you heard that right… that was the temperature today. The kinda hot where you are sweating in places you didn’t even know could sweat; the kinda hot where you shower only to feel like you need to shower again by the time you change into new clothes; the kinda hot where you feel like a sweaty mess, but then look around at the locals to find they are in jeans and a long sleeved shirt and don’t even look hot; the kinda hot where you can put on SPF 60 and still get a burn (or at least I do…).

But, it was a great day! We were so fortunate to be able to sleep in this morning, so the first thing on the schedule was breakfast and devos at 8am. Following breaky the team split into 2 groups, one going to computer class to lend a hand, and the other to the kitchen to help prepare lunch. I (Amy) was in the group that went to the kitchen. We joined 3 ladies that were sitting cross legged on the ground on potato sacks, cutting eggplant, potatoes and onion on pieces of wood as cutting boards. We tried to learn the ladies names, and after about the tenth time of repeating their names, they seemed to give up on our bad pronunciation. It was all going great… until the onions happened. I had tears streaming down my face, blood shot eyes and the ladies in the kitchen just laughed! I couldn’t believe they cut the onions no problem! The computer class supposedly went excellent with the team interacting with the students. Then we were taken for a trip into town to get Western Style snacks. It was quite the adventure! Driven by Bapu and double Dillip (There are 3 men named Dillip, single Dillip, double Dillip, and triple Dillip), we got to see the city of Nagpur in full swing with all the shops and businesses open. The shop we went to was very large, filled with aisles of cookies, chips, pop, peanuts and all kinds of indian and western products. Errol introduced us to a local drink box (a yogurt type of drink) that was delicious! After that we were taken to a fruit stand where we got to sample some of the delicious fruit. Unfortunately mangos are not in season right now (India is known for it’s mangos), but we were able to buy papayas, oranges, grapes, pomegranate, kiwis, and sugar cane. I bought one large papaya, 2 small round brown fruit that I forgot the name of, one pomegranate, 2 oranges and 1 bag of sugar cane for $1.50. Unbelievable! Then came Tessa’s highlight of her day… she got to pet a camel! Our drivers so graciously stopped on the side of the road for us to be able to get a picture with a camel and pet it if we so dared. It was very cool.

We arrived back at the school at 1:30 pm, half an hour past lunch time. We went straight to eat lunch at Frank’s house. I will just take this time to say that although Errol warned us that the food would not be that exquisite, it has far exceeded our expectations as well! Every meal we have chipates (not sure how to spell it - a type of flour tortilla), lentils in a sauce, rice and sometime curried vegetables. It is all so tasty! We are definitely not starving!

At 2:00 pm we helped in an English class which was very interesting, and then at 2:30 some of the team were helping in the kitchen again. By 3:30 pm we were all in the chapel to help with Music lessons where Pam taught the students "Every Move I Make". Anne and myself taught the students the chords on a keyboard while Mike and Soren helped the students with guitar. It was a blast teaching them! They seemed so eager to learn.

At 4:30 pm the women of the team had the amazing opportunity of being apart of a women's service. All of the wives of the teachers at the school gather at someone's home to have a church service. As we walked up to the home they were singing "How Great Thou Art" in Marati. Just like everywhere we have been, we were treated like royalty. Anne shared a short message with the ladies, we sang a couple songs for them, and they sang a couple songs for us. But I think the highlight of the whole experience was at the end when we sang "How Great Thou Art" together, them in Marati and us in English. It is truly amazing how music really is a universal language! It was incredible to be able to praise God with these women!

At 7:30 pm we lead all 650 students in a chapel service. When we entered the eating area (where they do chapel since the chapel is not big enough for all the students) they all started clapping to welcome us. They then taught the actions to one of their songs. The energy was incredible. They loved seeing us do the actions to their song! Mike spoke, the team did their "David and Goliath" drama, and we taught all the students 2 songs, "Every Move I Make" and "My God is so Big". I have to say that I think the highlight was when Soren came out as the giant on Connor's shoulders. The dramatic facial expressions of Soren had all the children in fits laughing. It was a fabulous performance of the Bible story, although the giant fell over dead BEFORE the pebble was shot... very hilarious. I got it all on video, I'm sure you'll be able to see it when we get back. We had so much fun teaching the children "Our God is So Big". Some of the team (aka Soren) is getting quite the fan base and they just loved watching us doing the actions.

A very packed day with little down time, but it was such an incredible one! Please continue to pray for safety and health. With the heat, a couple have had a bit of mild heat stroke, so please pray that we will find ways to deal with the heat. We are having the time of our life seeing God working in this place and being ministered to by these amazing children.

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Comments

[Sherrene]

Thanks so much for such a detailed account of your day and for all the pictures! Tessa, you got to pet a camel! I hope you got a picture :) Believe it or not, we are still waking up to snow every few mornings. It is snowing right now! Nothing like the heat you are experiencing. Lots of love and prayers being sent your way!

[Wendy]

i am blown away...
so you have to tell s/s/k... that in listening, i've received such amazing pre-notice of what to pray for. and for today, i want them to check out with some of the kids if they know what a sarayu is. soren will know what i'm talking about... from the shack. it's a hindi word... so they may know it too. ps... then tell them to watch out for her! ; ) btw... you don't need to post this publicly. no one else will really get it. FORTY TWO!!! oh my word. drink water, and take in salt... lots of both. love, wendy ... mom, friend and nurse. :D

[India2012]

Thanks for the prayers and blessings...
To all of you, we have read your encouraging words and feel the prayers in the heat. More updates on the way.