Martha's Wedding

Martha is my sister-in-law who has lived with us for the last 7+ years. She's getting married this year. We set a date of November 9th but when we sat down with her fiance's family on Sunday it turns out that November is not a good time for them since it is Harvesting Season. They are farmers (and pastors.)

Now to some people who have grown up rurally this probably sounds like just the rational-ist thing in the world - you don't plan to get married during harvest season. But to a city girl like me - it's just downright amusing.

Sorry, we can't get married in November because we'll be bringing in the sheaves. (Yes, pretty much all I know about farming I learned from Little House on the Prairie.)

So, the new date - which actually works out much better for me - is December 28th. We'll be in Bombay on Monday searching for a wedding gown. What fun. Shopping - much more to my liking than working in the fields.

This post is getting it's own label of "Martha's Wedding" because I have a feeling as the date approaches we'll be blogging on it a lot.

Blogging

Man, loads of people I know are blogging nowadays. I LOVE it. I just killed a mosquito.

We Got A House

Last Saturday we were told we had to move out of our current by the end of October. By this Saturday we have already booked a house. So, that is Good news.

We will be staying in this house for the next few weeks because we have a man coming from the USA and we could use the 3rd bedroom. So, we are basically renting 2 houses for the month of October - oh well.

The new house has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (also a 3rd outside -weird). It's very nice and in a great location. It is fairly new although it has been lived in before and has a "worship room" that has been worshipped in. Worship to Hindu gods. Yuck. I really don't like that but we'll pray.

We're very thankful that we have a place to move for the few months remaining til we get into our OWN house. Yay. Thank you for your prayers.

Our own house work has basically begun, - putting in the well for water first and getting permission to take temporary electricity. Building will start very soon. I'll put up pictures when it does. Getting kicked out of this house has had the added benefit of kicking our butts to get our own house work started - at last.

Home Pharmacy

My house smells like a Doctor's office.

We just got through a week of free medical camps. It was sponsored by Operation Bless India. They sent the Pharmacist and all the medicine and we had to provide a doctor.

The Medical checkups and medicine were free for all who came. I never heard a final number but in the course of four camps we treated over 1000 people.

Medical Camps are a great way to build relationships with the community. We kept two camps in our city at both our school and 2 camps in cities nearby where our pastors are working. We didn't have a Christian doctor but we were able to share the Gospel with the one we had and the camps opened the door for us to enter some places more freely with the Gospel.

The team that came from Bless India left us with all the medicine they had left over. The total cost of the medicine they brought was over $5000 and there is lots left - and sitting in my house.

Anyone know any Doctors who want to come to India? - We have the medicine. (see pictures at top)

Waiting For Cake

Cutting cake after church. These pictures aren't very clear, but I LOVE the sight of all those little hands.


In the evening I cut a small cake at home with the kids. They sang "Happy Birthday" to me and then "May Gooo-oood Bless You" to the tune of "Happy Birthday." This shot is from the "May God Bless You" song. It's blurry because they were waving their hands at me in a "blessing" gesture as they sang.
I was truly blessed.

I Ate A Lot Of Cake

As far as birthdays go it wasn't too horrible. I mean, other than going out last night for my Nice Birthday Dinner and the electricity being out in the entire city. I mean, I realize that this is India, but Come On.

We eventually ate at a restaurant that I can't stand because the service stinks, but they had a generator and that meant electricity. Beggars can't be choosers I always say.

Today was church. Having your birthday on a Sunday is nice. We had cake after church, I ordered cake for everyone, so did O. Don't ask. Suffice to say, everybody Ate A Lot of Cake today. I feel a bit ill.

There was a 60th birthday party for a lady we know held after church, I was glad to have the attention off of me.

All in all, I barely cried at all this birthday.

And We're Moving - Again

We got the news this morning that our house owner sold the house we are currently living in and we have to be O-U-T in a month. Lovely.

So, I'm not really too stressed since we are building our own house and hope to be in it in the beginning of the new year. But we are still going to have to find a house (minimum 2 bathrooms) to live in in the interim - which means moving my entire house twice in the course of the next 4 or 5 months.

Almost there - just Almost there to our own home where we will never have to fear being kicked out at a moment's notice.

I heard the news while I was on the way to browsing at the furniture store and the jewelry store. (my birthday is tomorrow) Shopping helped - a lot. I decided to wait on all furniture till we're in the new house and I exchanged 3 pieces of old jewelry for 3 pieces of new jewelry (you can do that here).

In addition to the shopping, I'm feeling pretty OK in general. I had a few moments of stress earlier today where I would think, why do I feel bad? Did I hurt someone's feelings, Did someone not treat me nicely, was I overcharged and cheated on something I bought? Oh no, I'm just internally contemplating the effort and expense of Moving - Again. Sigh.

Grant Approval

We have recently applied to a Charitable Foundation for a grant to complete the 3rd floor of our school building.

Here is a picture of the school taken only hours ago.
The school building actually looks better in this picture than it does in real life. Most of the 3rd floor is just bricks and cement. The plaster is only half done and there is nothing done but the roof on the left side of the building. Even so, we are using these rooms to teach classrooms of children.

Just FYI, the entire school should be that same golden color.

So why do I waste your time with this boring post.

You can PRAY! If God wills it our proposal will be approved. One way or another - we have to get this school completed!

We hope to know the outcome later this month. Thanks.

Shark Shark Baby

This is a scary picture of the inside of E.'s mouth. She is almost 7 years old and her two front bottom teeth are loose. Thank goodness.

However, I was somewhat dismayed to see that her 2nd teeth are coming in - NOT beneath the baby teeth pushing them out, but BEHIND the teeth. For a few days after she showed me I was imagining the horror of having to have E.'s baby teeth deliberately extracted by the dentist. I'm pretty sure none of us would have survived it. Thankfully, the front teeth are now wiggly but I'm not holding out hope that we may get through E.'s teenage years without orthodontic work.

Anyway, I did ask E. if she was related to sharks and when she denied it I kept at her telling her to admit the truth - that she was somehow related to the shark species - I'd have made a great homicide detective - E. continued to deny the accusations. This back and forth banter went on for a while until E. burst into tears, effectively ending the interrogation.

I asked her why she was crying and she replied that she's afraid of sharks.
I have no idea why, she's obviously related to them...

** Update: An hour after writing this post E. came home from school and one of the bottom front teeth is MISSING! Man, we can't help losing stuff over here...**

Stolen And Found

I promised you a story last week. Here it is.

Several of us were going to an out of town meeting last Wednesday and we were all going in our car. We were to meet at our school/church at 5:30 and go together. When I arrived at school I looked over from the car and saw people in the compound but no one was coming to the car. After a couple minutes I got out and walked over.

I asked where everyone was and was pointed up to the 2nd floor. As I reached the top of the steps I heard this voice say, "Everyone come up here fast, I found something!"

At that, several people (who were supposed to be getting in the car and going with me) went rushing past me up the stairs. I caught one of them who was lagging behind and blocked his way.

"Somethings disappeared hasn't it." I asked.

"Yes, Madam." And off he went.

It turns out our (very expensive) LCD projector was "missing." (think: stolen) Oh dear, that's not good.

But whoever took it, did it during the day and hid it on our school roof where construction was going on. It was hidden under some construction materials. The thief would return in the night to smuggle it away under cover of darkness.

By God's grace our Choir team was leaving on Thursday morning to sing at a conference and we were taking all our instruments and materials - including the LCD - with us. Our sound guys knew immediately that it was missing. It must have been spirited away during the school hours when the church was open and someone was working inside.

Needless to say, Everyone was VERY relieved. And our Ministry President, Mr. Praveen, was crowned hero of the day for the quick thinking to check the roof and actually find the projector.
Whew.

This entire situation was made worse since it came immediately on the heels of the court case, etc.