Sabbath 31 January 2009

Greetings from INDIA!!! Sabbath 31 January 2009

I really slept well last night, so I’m ready for another busy day. It’s a beautiful Sabbath morning & I woke up to the sounds of happy children’s voices outside our house. Our team is in charge of Sabbath School & church today & I’m in the Kindergarten department. It will be interesting to see what their Sabbath School is like!

Later…

Sharla had to go to the village where she’s been treating a little girl with Cerebral Palsy. The girl’s family wanted to give her a sari to thank her for all she’s done for their daughter. She wasn’t back before it was time for us to go to Sabbath School, so we adapted our plans. Some of the girls led the singing & I had prayer. Joy sang a beautiful song followed by the mission story by Kevin. Kevin told the story out of the Mission Quarterly, & then he told a story that happened to his grandparents & father while they were serving as missionaries in China.

His grandfather was called away from where their family was stationed in central China, leaving his grandmother & two little children. The war was getting closer to them & so his grandfather contacted his wife & urged them to leave that area as soon as possible. She bought train tickets for them to leave a few days later.

On the day of their departure, they knelt as a family & prayed for God’s direction & protection. They got to the railroad station in plenty of time, but the train had already pulled out of the station & was a long ways down the track. When grandmother inquired about it, she was told that since the train was already full they decided to leave early! The ticket master offered to get them tickets to leave in a couple of weeks, but she told him that wouldn’t do. He rummaged around the office & finally found some tickets for the next day’s train, so they went home.

The next morning they got ready, had prayer together again, & headed for the station again—earlier than the day before. On the way to the station they heard a paper boy heralding the news that yesterday’s train had been attacked & destroyed by an air raid! The family was very sober the rest of the trip to the station. They boarded the train & started down the track. Some time later their attention was called to look out the window where they saw the wreckage of yesterday’s train still smoldering in the ditch beside the tracks. They hadn’t gone too much farther when the train suddenly stopped. They were told that the Japanese planes were coming again. There was a lake on one side of the train, a field on the other, & if they tried to go back they would be on a bridge—a prime target for the bombers. With no place to flee they just stayed on the train and prayed, recited Psalm 91 & sang hymns. Soon they saw the planes on the horizon & watched breathlessly as they circled the train several times before turning & going back the direction they had come from!!! God had delivered them…AGAIN!!!

When Kevin finished this story, it was time to separate into the different classes. I followed the girls’ dean to the classroom where the kindergarten children were meeting. The Sabbath School materials we were given were confusing to follow, so I decided to take some of the coloring book pages & crayons left over from children’s programs in the villages & use that for my part of the program. It was fun to hear the children sing some of the familiar Sabbath School songs I grew up with!!! After they colored their papers, they all brought them up to me to have me write my name on them.

Before church started, Sharla played several songs on her violin. She had to fill some extra time--Kevin was wearing a lungi (sort of a skirt) & he was worried that it might fall off, so he went back to the house to secure it with his belt.

My role for church was to tell the children’s story, so I told the story about the Christian in jail who was fed with the bread the jailer’s cat brought him. Joy gave an awesome message focusing on the story of David & Goliath. Kotesh was our translator.

I guess I haven’t mentioned before that while most of the children speak & understand English, some of the younger ones only understand Telegu. That’s why it was such a blessing to have Kotesh translate our messages to the children at the school.

After church we all posed for photos by the guest house in our Indian garb & then ate lunch together. I can’t remember if I told you that Sue & Mel have been eating all their meals with us because they have to get propane for the stove in their house & I think their stove has some other problems, too.
JesuDas (the pastor & boys’ dean) & Mel have discussed having Bible studies on Sabbath afternoons for the boarding students. Many of them come from Hindu backgrounds, & even tho’ they have Bible classes in school, it would be such a blessing to have something available for them to attend on Sabbath that would ground their faith & give them a better understanding of Scripture. As Mel & I were talking about this idea, all of a sudden I remembered that I have some Bible studies (Lifting Up Jesus by Karen Lewis & Parables of Jesus by Stephen Bohr) downloaded on my computer. Mel was delighted, & went over to his house to get a jump drive & his computer so he could get copies of what I have. While we were in the midst of this process, it was time for the team to leave for a church close by & do an afternoon medical clinic for them, so I stayed a the house & copied lessons for Mel. Put together, that gives him over a year’s worth of material.

I really enjoyed visiting with Sue & Mel as they shared how God led them to leave Alaska & come to India to be Maranatha volunteers, overseeing construction and maintenance things at the school as well as Sue teaching music & helping the principal as his secretary.

During the late afternoon I developed a severe migraine, so I took my meds & went to bed about 7 pm & slept until close to 9 pm. Consequently, I didn’t get over to the clinic to finish entering information on the computer for the students we saw on Friday. It was time to start packing. John (a photographer working for Maranatha) gave us each a cd of photos from our project & we exchanged contact information with each other.

Sharla & Kevin are scheduled to leave tomorrow morning for Tiraputti & then on to Bangalore to catch their plane to Frankfort shortly after midnight Monday morning. Their trip will take probably 12+ hours because of their stop at Tiraputti to visit a student they are sponsoring at a school.

Joy is going on an excursion to see the Taj Mahal & her plane leaves Bangalore for Delhi late Monday afternoon. My flight back to the US leaves Bangalore at 2:15 Tuesday morning. Joy & I had the option of staying at the school until Monday morning, but we’ve decided to go to Bangalore & do some site-seeing & shopping instead. The extra cost to hire a driver & vehicle to take us tomorrow is 2000 rupees—just under $40. Sue & Vilma have decided to go with us to do some shopping, too. Some foods like butter, peanut butter, soy milk, & canned vegetables & fruits aren’t available in Venpalli or Cuddapah—they have to be purchased in Bangalore when someone goes there. Things we take so much for granted, are much more complicated in India. Kotesh will be going with us. We are hoping to be able to stay at a guest house at Lowry SDA College, located on the outskirts of Bangalore tomorrow night.

I’m almost packed & it’s about 12:30 am Sunday morning—time to get a few hours of sleep before we leave!!!

Blessings from INDIA…where the people are beautiful, the children are irresistible, & the GOD of Heaven is blessing us richly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!