So Be It

This is the point I have reached in my preparations for my nine American guests arriving tomorrow.

So Be It.

The house isn't as clean and neat as I'd like it to be.
So Be It.

I didn't get the milk or the 2 bathroom stools I wanted for tomorrow.
So Be It.

The carpenter hung the curtains backwards and I'm too tired to take them down and reverse them.
So Be It.

The nine of them including my dad and 2 nieces arrive around 3AM tonight in another city about 4 hours away from here. I sent O. and a team to get them. I had to oversee the house.

I know I could get everything done if I just didn't need to sleep...

Christmas Eve, Etc...

Well, the computer seems to be working better. However, the internet is incredibly slow. And we're all really busy. So posts may be short and infrequent for a while.

We DID have our BIG Christmas Program on December 22nd. Several thousand people came and all went smoothly. Thanks for your prayers. Our ladies ministry did a variation on the Lifehouse "Everything Skit." (If you don't know what this is - well, I'd be surprised, ask anybody.)

We praise God that it was a very powerful tool for Christians and non-believers alike.

We had another Christmas program last night that was put together by all the churches in our city. It was smaller and nice (OK, mostly boring) but it was nice to join together with all the Christians in our city and celebrate the Lord's Birth.

Tonight is Christmas Eve. The big gift exchange program in church. Then Christmas tomorrow. Only two programs planned for then.

There is some unity rally planned for Dec. 26th. I'm not even asking.

VBS starts on Dec. 30th and our team of ten from the USA come on that day.

I'll breath again after January 9th. Then it's all about FOCUS on the birth of the baby.

Better Late Than Never

I finally got the pictures of the House Opening up. It was a major chore just getting these here, so that's why there are only two.

The House - All Lit Up!

Ribbon Cutting.

Blame It On The Computer

My lack of blogging has not been for lack of trying. Both my home and office computers had a virus that affected my Internet connection so I could only get a few minutes of connection at a time before my computer would crash and I would have to restart. Very frustrating.

Anyway, things seem better now...

Moved. For The LAST Time

We moved on Thursday - for the last time. We are in our OWN home, no one can kick us out (at least not easily.)

I want to write all about it but I also want to do it justice. Maybe tomorrow.

Not Moving Today

I thought we might move into the new house today. It didn't happen. Our street was dug up and our car couldn't get through, plus O. has been running behind the land for our Christmas program. The owner of the land in front of our school that we use every year refused us this year. Thank the Lord, we got land next to the school, but it was full of bushes and stuff. It needed serious cleaning. So, O. was overseeing that.

I asked him to focus on moving the house tomorrow. So, I may be sleeping in my new house - tomorrow?

This might have been a more interesting post - but I'm packing simultaneously.

A Long Post About December 3rd

What happened at the The Grand House Opening.

Well, while I was cleaning bathrooms at the house on Wednesday morning I got the news that my sister-in-law, Martha, had started with some labor pains. She was well due to deliver her first child and we had all been waiting with baited breath.

I left my cleaning rag at the new house and walked over to Martha’s house. Yes, she had some pain in the morning but it stopped. Her older sister was with her so I left Martha in her care and said call me when she’s really in labor and went back to the house.

Soon after returning to the new house to clean some more bathrooms before the big walk-thru in the night, I got another call. This time it was from the local government hospital. My niece (O.’s sister’s daughter) had been sick for some time so since Tuesday I had her go for chest X rays etc. She was now in the government hospital getting her first morning spit tested. And yes, she has tuberculosis. Now the hospital person is calling me for all her house information because they have to come and see where she lives and then give her the 6 month course of medication.

This is all before the House Opening even began.

That evening when I was getting ready for the event, I started to feel sick. I drank some chai at someone’s house around 3:30PM and it didn’t settle right. I thought I would throw up. I needed to vomit, but I held it back. The last time I vomited a couple weeks ago, it was so strong I burst blood vessels in my face.

Well, you know how it is when you need to clear something out of your system and you don’t. I was breaking out in sweat, I felt feverish – on top of feeling lousy. I arrived at the new house by 6PM and thought, I can’t stay. I’ll stay for the ribbon cutting and go home, let O. do the testimony.

By this time the stomach problems had moved down into my bowels and I decided to use the bathrooms in the new house. I went into a bathroom for about twenty minutes. Prayed and prayed and got a little relief. I thought I might go down hill again after 10 minutes or so, but I didn’t. Praise the Lord. I just felt better and better and by 7PM I was totally fine and feeling great and gave the testimony I wanted to give. Another Praise the Lord.

Micah 7:8a “Do not gloat over me , my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise.”

Over all about 800 people came through the house and were fed. We never did get to show the movie, there was a sound problem, but the team we had come and sing was great and a big hit.

Praise God for a wonderful night and thanks for the prayers.

New Addition

We got a new baby in our family on December 4th. Hence, why all blog info has stopped for several days. After a long day (and night) at the house opening I decided everyone was taking Thursday off and sleeping in.
This worked until 4:11 AM when I got a phone call that Martha was truly in labor. So, we were all at the hospital by 5AM.

We got us another baby girl in our family at 11:45AM. It was a normal (read - non-caesarean) delivery. Which is HUGE. It is the first time in 9 years in this city that I have ever seen a child born in a private hospital delivered non-cesarean. A Great Big answer to prayer. I had even prayed that the Doctor wouldn't even mention caesarean - and she didn't. Normal from start to finish.

Martha and baby came home from the hospital tonight - which is a big relief because in India you have to provide all your own food for patients and since O. left yesterday morning to Rajasthan with our car, it was mighty difficult for me to get food, etc. back and forth to the hospital. Anyway. All is good.

No name yet for baby, but she was born with really long fingernails - she gets them from me - and I thought it very cool of her to use them to scratch her parents' initials on her cheek the first day. M. A. (Martha, Amar).

Me with E. and G. after a long but productive night. (Martha's Doctor is also my Doctor so I keep getting instructed to lay down, take a rest, go home. At one point my Doctor was sending messages up to me via visitors to the hospital. "Uh, your Doctor says you're supposed to be resting."

The House Is Open - Tomorrow

December 3rd is the BIG day for our House Opening. We'll have a small program with a few worship songs, a testimony of God's goodness (by me) and maybe a few words from O. Then a prayer.

After that everyone is free to wander through the house (it's empty - we won't officially move for another week or so) and then EAT.

We'll also have a team singing Christian songs in traditional Indian music and we'll show a Christian film.

Please keep the event in prayer. We expect somewhere over 500 people.

Card Making

We're sending out Christmas cards from here to our mailing list again this year. I had our Children's Home kids decorate them last year and it was a big hit. I planned to do it that way this year too, but, well, in a moment of insanity, I said "yes" to the printer when he asked if I wanted them "plastic coated."

Arg, nothing writes on these cards but pen, crayon and CD markers.

Pens are just boring, crayons are OK, but kind of dull; and CD markers come in a maximum of , I think, three (3) colors.

Well, we're just doing the best we can.