Thursday: Children's Time Or Child Time!!!

Normally on Thursdays, we have a children's time at the centre. But today only one child showed up, Mallappa. He came along with Sangeeta. So, we had a nice time of prayer and singing. Interesting news is today Cameron was singing quite good. After this, the boys went to play carroms.




After taking Sangeeta and Mallappa home, we went to beach, just for short walk. But we saw a lot of people and many childrens playing in water. It was so fun to watch that even though today there was much rain the people couldn't stop themselves to play in water. Before leaving the beach, we saw some children playing kites. We enjoyed today's day which god made it perfect.

First Time Visiting?

It's easy. Just scroll down to read through the most recent posts. Older posts and wedding photos are to the right.

And if you didn't receive it in your inbox, here is our August update letter.

Tuesday Evening

We all made it to Sangeeta's house for our children's time today! And a pretty nice turnout considering the weather.

John Leading The Singing

Coloring Time

One of the great things about this time with the children is that there are always a bunch of adults observing from near and far. We kinda built it into the schedule to allow for some time to talk with the parents while the kids are finishing up their activities. It all just works really nicely. And, hey, Hephzibah and I even got a new invite to come over for a dinner on Friday. I can't say no to that!

We always go to Sangeeta's house for dinner following our program. The past couple of dinners there have turned into worship, prayer and a dinner.


To wrap things up, we all had a wonderful dinner prepared by Sangeeta's sister, Renuka. Fish curry fried fish rice and chapatis. I took about 20 photos trying to get a shot of Deena and Hephzibah eating dinner. This house has no electricity so I had to use the flash. For some reason, Deena had no problem but Hephzibah kept having such strong reactions to the flash. These are about as close as I got.

Sunday Service (26/8/07)

I always enjoy snapping away during a morning service. Today was extra nice for I had Hephzibah to help me when I wasn't able to take the picture.

Sangeeta Leading During Children's Songs

When The Adults Don't Show Up,
The Boys Move Up

Today I started speaking on Moses. This will continue through the month September. Below are two photos during the children's bible story time. Even though you can't see it in either photo, I have a book with pictures to show the children. This morning, we focused on Moses as a baby. Then at the end of the service, we reread the story from Exodus specifically for the adults (which we had really, really low attendance today!!!) and focused on how the mother placing the baby in the basket should reflect our own lives of handing everything over to God.

Tea Time After Service

Hephzibah Looking Too Serious

Above is our tiny group for today. Some of our people were away in Karnataka or Rajastan, but I think most of the blame goes to continuing rain. It's part of our life here but I'm always thankful to see the faces that do show up anyways.

I'm quited excited for this new time. We've had a lot of big things happen over the past months. Things that have been good but that also managed to disrupt the regular flow at the center. And so, I bring you...

Some Plans for the month of September (and what is left of August):

1. We have been singing a lot of new songs lately at the center. This has made our current, "old reliable", Hindi songbook pretty unreliable. To get things back on track, Hephzibah has been typing up songs in Hindi and Kanada and their English translations which, when completed, we will be able to easily print and reproduce for use at the center.

2. We are starting back up our bible study times for the leaders on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This is always a wonderful time of growing and fellowship for the leaders. It has been missed with so much traveling happening in the past months, by me and others.

3. And lastly, I will be returning to my Hindi studies. Some of you know that I had two months of Hindi earlier this year. I learned to read and write and picked up a fair bit of vocab. But with not having too many opportunities to practice it over the past five months, I've already gotten rusty. I'm very excited to start things back up again. And take a guess as to who my new teacher will be. ???

That's almost all for now. I'm also working out my monthly update (read: semi-monthly update) which many of you will be finding in your inboxes shortly. If you do not receive the updates, don't fret, it will also be placed on this site.

A Tuesday Trip

Hi, this is Hephzibah. This is my first time writing on this website. I want to tell you about our trip today. And Cameron let me use the camera today. Today the climate was quite good so we both had decided to go on a little trip. First we went to a Catholic Church. It takes about 20 kilometres. We had fun driving on the Activa. Church is on a hill and gives nice view and from the top we see all tiny houses, beach, trees mostly coconut trees, and churches down below. And all small roads. It is fun for me to see these new places too because I am not from Goa. Goa is very different from my Karnataka. While we were up there i took a photo of Cameron with his favourite tree and Cameron made a new friend. I will introduce Cameron's new friend, OK?














After the church we started driving back to south. And we went to quiet road that took us to a beach. This beach is quite peaceful compared to the other beaches. This beach is good for family picnics, i think. I hope you enjoy my photos which i took today.









Then we went home and Cameron prepared a yummy dinner.

Honesty

Today, Hephzibah and I went for a mini drive to two of my favorite spots in Goa. The first was to this small catholic church on a hill with a wonderful view of, well, everything. The second was a nice beach just north of the touristy beaches. Quiet and pleasant. Hephzibah said she wanted to take photos and write about the drive on the blog today. So, expect her debut later today.

The North, Part 8

And on our way back to Goa, we stopped in on some good friends living near New Delhi, Amos and Rowena Stoltzfus. And for another example of good timing, Dirgham (their son), Becky Blimline and Janine Leaman arrived in Delhi after their flight from the states one day before our visit. I know Becky from my Harrisburg Discipleship Center days in Harrisburg, PA and Janine paid her dues at HDC as well though our paths never crossed there.



Below, Amos having a serious conversation with Roger about...
...refrigerators.




After a pancake breakfast, we went for a very hot walk to their church which was still under construction. I like the colors they went with.





And now for my favorite photo of the entire trip...


After visiting the church, we went to visit with Pastor Alex.



On our walk back home, I added some new movie poster pics to my growing collection.


Early the next morning, we got in a van and drove to the train station. Roger and I went to Goa. Everyone else went to the Taj Mahal. Jealous.


And that's all. We got back home safely. Hephzibah is back from visiting her parents. It was a wonderful trip. I wish I had more time in Nepal and had taken more pictures and looked around some more. I wish I had more time in Mussoorie with the family. And I wish I had more time in Dehli, even though it was really hot. Not enough time.