The Month Of May

Everyone is on vacation. Or going on vacation. Or acting like their on vacation already. May is so depressing. I love the hustle and bustle of the other eleven months. May is way too quiet (not to mention HOT) for me.

We leave for vacation on Saturday. A week in the South Indian beach state of Goa. We were there 4 years ago and loved it. I think we’re gonna have a great time. I’m a little apprehensive since it’s just going to be me, O. and the 3 girls*. No highchairs, no strollers. Nine days of lugging a 1 year around, with a 5 and 7 year old in tow. Doesn’t sound like a relaxing vacation to me, but I’m going with the flow and I’m sure we’ll have a wonderful time. I’ll probably even develop some arm muscles with a side of stiff neck.

*We’re all way too adapted to the communal living thing. Just the five of us, weird.

Bible Stuednt Report cards

Our Bible students received their first year report cards last week and most of them went home for the summer that night. They’ll be back at the end of June.

Please pray for them while they are at home that they would not fall back into any sinful lifestyles. Also, pray that they will have many opportunities to serve the Lord alongside their local pastors.

I miss them already and can’t wait til they come back in June. It’s so quiet around here.

Conversion Law

"Conversion law violation is a criminal offence now"

That's the headline of a recent newspaper article in The Times of India that refers to people converting from one religion to another. We call these laws "anti-conversion" laws and in our state it came into effect on April 1st after 5 years of pending.

The article states that, " From now on anyone wishing to convert (from one religion to another) will have to tell the government why they were doing it and for how long they had been following the religion which they were renouncing, failing which, they will be declared offenders and prosecuted under criminal laws."

Basically this law states that if you want to convert from one religion to another you have to get government permission to do so first. Failing to do so can get you arrested and charged under criminal charges - you know like, Murder and Rape. It's that high an offence.

There's not much I can say about this other than let's pray and watch what God will do.

Shankar And Manju Got Married

In 1998 I traveled to India for the first time. I stayed at a Children's Home/Orphanage in Rajasthan. It was there that I fell in love with India AND my now husband.

Occasionally, the (now grown) children find their way to O. and me. Two children who were at the Children's Home the same time as me in 1998-99 were Shankar and Manju. I don't remember Shankar, but I remember Manju. She and her little sister, Anju, were two of the lovingest, sweetest little girls there and they attached themselves to my good friend Karen.

Shankar is from O.'s village and came to work with us as a security guard. Last year he brought Manju from the orphanage with the intent to marry her.

Their wedding was last night.

I told Manju her wedding reminded me of mine.

We were both married in this city.
We both were married on a Sunday night.
We both were at our weddings without a single family member in attendance (she's an orphan)
We both married men from the same little village in Rajasthan.

She wore my veil.

Signing the register (of course these pictures are in backwards order).

Manju.
There was a real wedding photographer. I'd really rather not jump up in the middle of the ceremony to attempt to get good shots, that's why most of mine stink.

Party Pix

The little monsters from C.'s birthday party last week. C. is in the blue top near the front. Don't let their angelic expressions fool you, they were only behaving for the photo becase they knew the cake was coming.
I made a pinata, at the end O. broke it open. You can see the little nightmares, I mean kids, kids, rushing for the candy on the floor.

C.'s Birthday Party

The Kid party we had for C. was a Night Mare. Over 40 children came, many of whom I had never seen before in my life.

They were all little animals. I'm never doing this again, or at least not until I forget sufficiently enough to consider another "Kid Party."

5 Years Old Today

Sweet C. (a.k.a. "Barbie") is 5 years old today.
I woke up this morning and thought I'd make her pancakes, her favorite. After brushing my teeth I went right to the kitchen. C. came in and said, "You didn't wish me Happy Birthday!" and she was right, and that's just like me and my Martha tendencies. I was so focused on making her the pancakes for her birthday I didn't even remember to seek her out to say "Happy Birthday."

Poor kid with a lousy mom.

She forgave me. As it happened, I didn't have any eggs for the pancakes but they turned out ok. C. didn't much like them and asked if I could go to the store and get her a Pepsi instead.

A New Computer

I finally got my own computer in my office. Will this mean I'll blog more? I sure hope so.

Himalaya School

I went to get C.'s Report Card from school today and on her last exams (she's in Lower Kindergarten) she got perfect grades in every subject except for Hindi. She lost 2 points for something. I told her to blame it on her mother.

However, her mother's lack of school-learned Hindi skills may not be such a problem in the future. A somewhat new friend of mine, Shelly, who is an American woman working among Muslims in our state, recently returned from a 6 week intensive Hindi course at Landour Language School in Mussoorie. (In the Himalayan mountains, it's a Hill Station. See photo above of the view from the school.)

Shelly told me that what she really wanted to learn was conversational Hindi but that all they teach at the school is Hindi Grammar. Since having that conversation I had been thinking and dreaming and praying and thinking some more. I've got the Hindi conversation skills, but no formal grammar. I picked up all my Hindi by ear.

I, of course, googled the school and stared at it for a while on the computer. The course is 3 months long, or a 6 weeks intensive course or you can take the classes by week - two being minimum.

Two weeks. In the Himalayan mountains. All alone. Improving my Hindi, perhaps significantly. It just sounded too good. I brought it up with O. a couple days ago and he said... "Yeah, sounds good - Go."

So, I'm preparing to go in September, probably over my birthday. Whoo hoo!

A New Project

We're opening a stationary store. Yes, you read that correctly, a stationary store. We're running it in conjunction with our school because we already sell textbooks, notebooks, ties, belts, diaries; it was just the next step to sell a bunch of other school supplies at the same time. One stop shopping for parents. Great opportunity to make money for the ministry.

But the thing is, we haven't got a clue what we're doing. We're learning, but we need to have this up and running by, let's see, next week.

School is out in India and parents are signing up their little ones for school starting in two months. Returning students will flock in in June but we really should have the store open this month the reap the full benefits. It's kind of stressing me out.