At last, here I sit in the office at Pauline Bhavan. The window before me is open so that I can enjoy the delightful breeze that helps counteract the sun's heat . . . yes, getting warmer day by day, but still not too bad, and still cool enough at night to sleep well! I have turned my fan back on because I do love sleeping under a fan. It means that blankets are still required for part of the night . . . I like that too!
Each week when my English class of adults meets, I introduce them to an Idiom. 'Too many irons in the fire' was the one we talked about a couple of weeks ago. Those sentiments have been ringing in my ears ever since. Since my last post, there seem to have been SO many irons in the fire!!! Just two British guests left now. The team left yesterday, Naomi leaves tomorrow and Anne leaves in a week. I am guessing that I am not the only one breathing a sigh of relief! Though I have had little to do with guests this year visiting EMC, just the energy, the extra people and the displacement of routine is challenging for people like me! Two Fridays, for example, the room where I generally have my English class was taken, even when my class is "on the books"! Oh well . . . next week should be better. Yesterday we met in the hall!
On Feb 10th we celebrated 11 years of sobriety with Utpal during our worship service. Now, I thought, that is something I have never done in a church before!
It was fun having Dewy and Carolyn here and visiting Connexions with them. Bapi, who is in charge of that project, asked me if I would come over sometime and help them with color combinations that foreigners like. Wow, I would love to do that, but when . . .??? I also enjoyed learning more about Free Set and Sari Bari, and do hope to visit Free Set next week.
Just a little update from FREEDOM FIRM . . . if you are not on their mailing list, you should be because they rescued a number of girls again recently!!! Glory to God, and thank you, Father, for the way you are leading Mala, Greg and the others!
There was a strike on this week on Wed which meant that I couldn't go over to have devotions with the boys. So, I arranged to do it on Tues. It went better than the week before, but they were still difficult to read. On Thurs night at an art workshop by one of the Brits, Suraj sat next to me. You may remember that he is the one who asked me to start coming each week. I had wanted to have a chance to ask him for some feed back. His encouraging reply went something like . . .'we really like it Auntie, and later we older boys discuss it!!!' Glory to God!!!
Girls are more ready to give feed back, and I am getting positive fibes from the girls here.
Before I left the US, it was on my heart to give the kids in these two residential programs a Bible. Once I got here it seemed that they already had one, and so I put that thought on the back burner. Some of the women at SPC had even made 'nameplates' for the Bibles. Long story short, I learned last Mon night from the girls that the Bibles I see in their hands aren't really theirs! They WANT a Bible to call their own and were touched beyond belief at what the women had done, that they had taken their pictures and that they were praying for them!!! Their only complaint was that they didn't know who to thank . . . by name . . . I promised that I would work on that!!!
So, I am now working with Premila to get some Bibles at a very reasonable price. I am only here now until March 12th, so I pray that we can get everything in place before I leave. I have also learned that there is an easy to read version of the Bengali Bible. Many of the boys who live at Anandaloy go to Bengali medium school.
I hate it that I don't know all of the boys' names . . . not even all of the ones who go to CES. I have gotten a list from Prashanto and have started working on it!
I have decided to extend my stay in India by one week so that I can be in Mumbai for a week on the way out. I have peace that this is the right thing to do. My target date for heading west is now Mar 19. It isn't too early to start praying that I will get on my flights . . . you may remember that I was delayed by 24 hours coming out. I will be visiting FRIENDSHIP CENTRE (this is not a misspelling . . . it is the British way to spell the word) OF INDIA, which is run by John and Priscilla Gladstone.
With the weather heating up and with the many trips back and forth across the city that I am making these days, which often include time restraints or crowded buses, I have begun to travel more by taxi. To give you a little bit of an insight into traffic here, let me tell you about two recent rides home!
It is not unusual to see a driver 'dusting' off his car, and someone generally washes cars everyday. The other day my taxi driver was getting his 'dusting' done as he waited at traffic lights! It took him two lights to get it done, but . . . drivers always turn off their engines when they are stopped at lights. Yesterday, my driver fell asleep at a traffic light, but when everyone turned on their engines, he was quickly awake and ready to go!
Sashi and I became friends last time I was here and yesterday we finally had some time together to just sit and chat at the mall over a cup of coffee. In his mid twenties, a recovering alcoholic with a heart for the Lord, an artist in training for something like graphic design, a wonderful guitarist . . . what a blessing. I wish he were in one of my studies. He needs to learn more about the doctrine of GRACE, but then don't we all!!!???
This time last week I was in rainy Lucknow! Monika and Daniel's wedding celebration was such a blessing. I wish I could have had more time with them and Monika's amazing family. With the rain, a lot of change of venue was required.
I need to really get focused on leaving now. I hate it, but want to leave well. I felt it went well last time. I hope to spend some time with Premila at her home before leaving. I would actually like to 'leave from there' which would mean moving out of here at least by the 10th when someone else is coming and will be staying here.
Thanks for reading!
Each week when my English class of adults meets, I introduce them to an Idiom. 'Too many irons in the fire' was the one we talked about a couple of weeks ago. Those sentiments have been ringing in my ears ever since. Since my last post, there seem to have been SO many irons in the fire!!! Just two British guests left now. The team left yesterday, Naomi leaves tomorrow and Anne leaves in a week. I am guessing that I am not the only one breathing a sigh of relief! Though I have had little to do with guests this year visiting EMC, just the energy, the extra people and the displacement of routine is challenging for people like me! Two Fridays, for example, the room where I generally have my English class was taken, even when my class is "on the books"! Oh well . . . next week should be better. Yesterday we met in the hall!
On Feb 10th we celebrated 11 years of sobriety with Utpal during our worship service. Now, I thought, that is something I have never done in a church before!
It was fun having Dewy and Carolyn here and visiting Connexions with them. Bapi, who is in charge of that project, asked me if I would come over sometime and help them with color combinations that foreigners like. Wow, I would love to do that, but when . . .??? I also enjoyed learning more about Free Set and Sari Bari, and do hope to visit Free Set next week.
Just a little update from FREEDOM FIRM . . . if you are not on their mailing list, you should be because they rescued a number of girls again recently!!! Glory to God, and thank you, Father, for the way you are leading Mala, Greg and the others!
There was a strike on this week on Wed which meant that I couldn't go over to have devotions with the boys. So, I arranged to do it on Tues. It went better than the week before, but they were still difficult to read. On Thurs night at an art workshop by one of the Brits, Suraj sat next to me. You may remember that he is the one who asked me to start coming each week. I had wanted to have a chance to ask him for some feed back. His encouraging reply went something like . . .'we really like it Auntie, and later we older boys discuss it!!!' Glory to God!!!
Girls are more ready to give feed back, and I am getting positive fibes from the girls here.
Before I left the US, it was on my heart to give the kids in these two residential programs a Bible. Once I got here it seemed that they already had one, and so I put that thought on the back burner. Some of the women at SPC had even made 'nameplates' for the Bibles. Long story short, I learned last Mon night from the girls that the Bibles I see in their hands aren't really theirs! They WANT a Bible to call their own and were touched beyond belief at what the women had done, that they had taken their pictures and that they were praying for them!!! Their only complaint was that they didn't know who to thank . . . by name . . . I promised that I would work on that!!!
So, I am now working with Premila to get some Bibles at a very reasonable price. I am only here now until March 12th, so I pray that we can get everything in place before I leave. I have also learned that there is an easy to read version of the Bengali Bible. Many of the boys who live at Anandaloy go to Bengali medium school.
I hate it that I don't know all of the boys' names . . . not even all of the ones who go to CES. I have gotten a list from Prashanto and have started working on it!
I have decided to extend my stay in India by one week so that I can be in Mumbai for a week on the way out. I have peace that this is the right thing to do. My target date for heading west is now Mar 19. It isn't too early to start praying that I will get on my flights . . . you may remember that I was delayed by 24 hours coming out. I will be visiting FRIENDSHIP CENTRE (this is not a misspelling . . . it is the British way to spell the word) OF INDIA, which is run by John and Priscilla Gladstone.
With the weather heating up and with the many trips back and forth across the city that I am making these days, which often include time restraints or crowded buses, I have begun to travel more by taxi. To give you a little bit of an insight into traffic here, let me tell you about two recent rides home!
It is not unusual to see a driver 'dusting' off his car, and someone generally washes cars everyday. The other day my taxi driver was getting his 'dusting' done as he waited at traffic lights! It took him two lights to get it done, but . . . drivers always turn off their engines when they are stopped at lights. Yesterday, my driver fell asleep at a traffic light, but when everyone turned on their engines, he was quickly awake and ready to go!
Sashi and I became friends last time I was here and yesterday we finally had some time together to just sit and chat at the mall over a cup of coffee. In his mid twenties, a recovering alcoholic with a heart for the Lord, an artist in training for something like graphic design, a wonderful guitarist . . . what a blessing. I wish he were in one of my studies. He needs to learn more about the doctrine of GRACE, but then don't we all!!!???
This time last week I was in rainy Lucknow! Monika and Daniel's wedding celebration was such a blessing. I wish I could have had more time with them and Monika's amazing family. With the rain, a lot of change of venue was required.
I need to really get focused on leaving now. I hate it, but want to leave well. I felt it went well last time. I hope to spend some time with Premila at her home before leaving. I would actually like to 'leave from there' which would mean moving out of here at least by the 10th when someone else is coming and will be staying here.
Thanks for reading!
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