Recent Update (up to Friday)

Sorry for not posting to the blog for a while. Internet access is not always easy and we’ve been very busy. Just to ease your fears everyone is still alive and pretty well. A little bit of upsets and germs but nothing serious. Tele had a rather nasty fall (of his own making) and now has a shiner. I wonder if he’ll get through security at the airport?!
We’ve been a lot busier this week, working hard at the orphanage every day. Morning and afternoon have been spent painting and playing sports and helping at the school and doing therapy. As well as that we have been given a child each to look after while we are there. They are such lovely children and it’s wonderful to work with them. I think each of us will come away with many memories.
My child is a bit different, he is 46 years old and he runs the orphanage. I have really enjoyed spending time with him, reading the bible and chatting and just encouraging him. His work is very hard and yet he loves those children with all his little heart.
At nights we’ve been going to the church, in fact, we’ve been going to a little house church which is part of the bigger church. Each night we’ve been doing kids club and the kids have loved it. Last night (Friday) we gave bracelets telling the story of Jesus simply. Not only did many of the kids come, but all their parents came and wanted bracelets. It is a very humbling experience to think they want us to be here so much.
At the same time each night we have done bible teaching for the church. It is very daunting because many of them are old and wise and they meet every morning at 5am for prayer and every night to do bible study so they know God’s word well. Over ¾ of the people in the house church are women, I think this is very common in India.
We also visited some slums this week. I went to one slum area where there are 25000 houses. There are water containers at a few street corners where people go for water. There are no real roads. When it rains the whole area is likely to flood because it is down a slope. We met a few families. There are maybe 30 Christians in the area and only 1 church. It has 4 walls and not much else. The whole area only has electricity a few hours a day. Most staggering of all there are kids in the street who are locked out of the house in the morning and left until night. The mother has 2 choices, stay at home and starve with her child or leave her child in the street so she can buy food to feed it. It is hard to know what we can do for these people. What can you do for thousands with nothing? I met one boy and the only man I spoke to was the pastor of the church. The men take the first opportunity to leave this behind.
Today we took some of the teenagers from the church to a town where they showed us the sights. Many of them never had been to a restaurant and despite the fact that Chennai is beside the sea many of them had never been to the beach. It was really good craic and we are enjoying being more busy.
Also some of the guys got results this week for their exams and some will get theirs before they get home. They are looking forward to getting home to sort out what is happening next. Everyone seems to be getting on all right. Some of them are getting on a little too well in my view, but then I get uncomfortable when people hug.
So that’s the update. We’ve plenty more still to do. Next week we have more slum visits and more work at the orphanage and it’s supposed to be a more relaxed week. We hope you are all well. See you next week