1000 Posts

I loved seeing "1000 Posts" when I opened my Blogger account today. This is 1001, whoo-hoo.!

Our boy Bible Students performed their Award Winning Nativity skit a few more times over the Christmas season so I got to take some pictures.

Here are Mary and Joseph before the census guy. (notice donkey in red in the front.)

Mary on the donkey. (She really rode him.)

Utterly unforgetable. I wish it were videoed.

Skit And Dance

We organized a competition for our Bible Students that consisted of 2 skits and 2 dances. The performances were tonight. The boys and girls were split into 4 groups, girls with girls and boys with boys. Each set had one dance and one skit to perform. The boy's skit group came in first.

The reason I write all this (sadly I forgot my camera) is to describe the performance of Mary. Since the boys could only make a Christmas skit (any skit - but the theme had to be Christmas) they had to have a boy play Mary. This kid, his name is Vijay, was the best Mary I have ever seen. Every actor in the skit was as serious as could be and I felt bad, but I couldn't help bursting out laughing few times. Mary actually gave birth to baby Jesus with sound effects.

Well, they won and they deserved it. They get to perform it in our big Christmas program on December 22nd and they get prizes on Dec. 24th!!

Actual Ministry Related Stuff

It's June and here in India (at least where we are) that means everything is starting up again. School. Bible College.

Our new batch of Bible students are arriving day by day and actual classes start next week. I'll be teaching Old Testament again. I'm not sure what's going to happen since we're leaving for the US in a month. I'll start the course and then have to have someone cover for me for two months. Hummm.

We are getting students from all over India which was one of our prayers for this year. So far, from Manipur, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. More on the way.

We also have someone coming to spend three days teaching our Bible College teachers how to best teach our courses. That starts on Saturday, so I'm excited for that.

Then we are having our village pastors coming in next week for some time together with us and some training. O. and I wanted to spend some time with them before heading to the states. Busy busy.

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.

The Last Supper

It's Good Friday.

I threw myself into preparing 2 skits with my Bible Students this week. I have loads of IDEAS but I fall short on the Hindi. But God gave me someone skilled to work with me and together we prepared 2 skits for my Bible Students to perform during our Good Friday Service. I had 7 short skits in mind, but we only had time for two.

Since we have 13 Bible Students, the Last Supper seemed like a given. The lady who helped me had already prepared a skit for Peter's denial so we did that one too.

Here is Shambhu, he's who I chose to portray Jesus. I chose him because he is gentle spirited and not outstanding in any way. I stuck by my casting choice even when over the last 3 days of practice he said all his lines (most lines were his) in a monotone. However, during the actual performance today - he did great. But the real vindication came when O. said after the service today (unprompted) "That boy playing Jesus was good." Whew.
Preparing - notice they are using the back of a steel plate as a mirror.
All 13 Bible Students in costume.
I do love my students dearly. Last week when I was sick, they prayed for me for an hour every night and every morning.