In Chennai, Team India heading to the airport

Hello all with another message from Team India. Ian just phoned with an update, and a request to let you know that they are all packed up, waiting for another car to take them to the airport. The taxi was not big enough for all of them and their "stuff", so a contact in Chennai will assist in transporting them. They were at a Salvation Army church. Chennai is very hot and humid.
They are bracing themselves for the return to Alberta tomorrow, it sounds like both physically and emotionally! It sounded like they had found the adjustment to India challenging, and now are experiencing equally mixed emotions about leaving. At the same time, they are excited to be coming home.

They think they are going to venture into Frankfurt, to fill the 7 hours of layover time. Pastor Pinno will not be going with them, as his departure to Vancouver from Frankfurt is 2 hrs earlier than theirs.

From Ian, via Joe and Barb

Beginning the homeward journey - a message from Ian

We just heard a voice message from Ian - must have been left early Friday evening our time/Sat AM their time, with a request to update the blog.
He was phoning from the train station in Chirala, as the group was waiting for the train (which was running late). He wanted you to know that they were taking the train to Chennai at the time he phoned, and that the group would be participating in a gospel meeting Saturday evening, and a church service on Sunday morning. Sunday evening they would be heading to the airport, in preparation for their very early Monday morning departure home. He doesn't think they will have an opportunity for further blog updates.
Healthwise, they are generally well; Christian has a bit of a cold.
Prayers for safe travel would be appreciated.

I think we will all be anxious to hear their stories and see their pictures.
Blessings to all!
Barb (for Ian)

Kev's post to the blog

Hey to all back home. Things are going pretty good over here in India. We left Bapatala on Sunday which was a bit of a bummer for us to have to say good-bye to all those who we had met. We are teaching at the school this week and going to gospel meetings. Today we went to the beach with the kids which was a blast once again. Health wise the team is doing much better than last week and we seem to be doing relatively fine now. Other than that, it has been an amazing experiance to be here in India, to meet the people and to watch as God works in and amongst the people here in a place where Christianity is just a minority. Prayer wise, it would be nice if you could pray for us to remain healthy and strong, our travels around India and as we prepare to leave at the end of the week, the good-byes that will be had in the coming days and for the people of India in general, they would really like that. Other than that, I hope you guys are still having fun back home and I look forward to seeing you guys in a few days. God BlessKevin

Fun In The Sun

Well on a good note things are starting to slow down a bit around this part of the world. The last couple of days were a little more on the relaxing side than the rest of the trip has been. On Friday afternoon we were sort of taken back by a surprise meeting. It was more of a farewell to us as we were leaving Bapatla today(Sunday). We were given our new outfits, jewellery and shown some videos on the ministry around India. We also were able to help out at a medical camp in a small village on Friday morning. We had to take a small boat across a canal to get to the village where we first had a small church service before the medical camp began. On saturday Sarah and myself (Tasha) slept until 2 in the afternoon, we must have needed it. We were woken up just in time to catch the boys before they headed to the beach. But we decided to stay in our rooms where it would be way cooler and better scenery! Just Kidding!!!! The beach was amazing!!! We went to the seashore which was only 9km from the house. 9km here takes about 20 min of driving manoeuvering around heards of water buffalo, goats, rickshaws, motorcylcles, auto rickshaws, bikes, buses, people, tractors and the list goes on (no joke). The seashore borders the Bay of Bengal. The weather was very warm about oh let's say 28 degrees. The perfect sun tanning temperature, not too hot, not too cold! At one point the driver moved the jeep so that we could have some shade. Things were starting to heat up a little too much. But not too worry the ice cream man made several stops by our blankets.It was nice to have a day of rest after so many late nights and busy days. We have arrived safetly back in Chirala for the rest of our journey. It felt like home again to return after being gone for some time. We will continue teaching this week at St. Paul's but only in the afternoon. This week is examination week at the school. Please pray for the studies of the children as they write their exams all week. We will also be traveling in the evening for more gospel meetings, please pray for safe travels and open hearts and minds. I am over my cold, Sarah is feeling alot better, and Kevin is up to Par! Christian and Ian are starting to catch bits and pieces of the bug but remain strong fighters in their will. Continued prayer for health will always be appreciated around here.Thanks again for your continued prayers and supportThe girls

Hallo from the chalabogundee country of India!

For those of you who don't know, chalabogundee means beautiful in Telugu. Tasha and myself (Sarah) have been slowly learning words from this facinating language, it has become a favorite passtime with some of the kids and teachers, trying to teach us words and laughing with us when it takes forever to pronounce it correctly. They have tried to teach us phrases a couple of times, but it always feels like too much to learn at one time. The kids in the house here at Bapatla are very eager to learn new english songs from us and even a couple skits; they catch on so fast and we love to watch them act, they're facial expressions are allari (funny)! The Gospel Meetings have been quite the experience; we have only attended one Gospel Meeting as a whole team, the rest of the time at least one of us has been too tired or really sick. We have had one Gospel Meeting every night since Monday, they usually get back about midnight from them, and we will keep having them every night for the rest of this expereince. They usually involve a bit of travelling, sometimes a couple hours to and from our destination and the meetings are about three to four hours long, so by the end of the day we are all beat. We had the experience of going shopping in Guntur, a larger centre about 1.5 hours away. That experience ended up being quite frustrating for us girls because we didn't have much say in what we bought. The women we were with were very pushy with different products, alot of the times we felt that we didn't get what we really wanted. We appreciated their generosity in purchasing outfits for our whole team, however we were frustrated that we didn't have a say in the style of clothing. We are always finding that we need to take a step back from ourselves and try to see where they are coming from, try to understand where the cultural barrier is affecting our relationships with the people here. We could all use prayer for patience, to have more understanding hearts, and that even in the midst of our frustrations to always show compassion and love to these children of God. Also a continued prayer for health as Kevin is still unwell, Tasha has a bad cold, it seems a constant headache and is quite tired, and the rest of us I fear may be getting slowly run down, i guess only time will tell. Vandanaloo (thanks) to all of you for your love, support and prayers. We miss you all and we will keep you in our prayers and hold you close to our hearts. Much love, Sarah and Tasha.

Greetings from India

Hello and greetings from India. Today we have the afternoon pretty much free so I thought I'd take some time to tell you what we've been up to lately. We travelled to Hyderbad to days ago and attended a English church service in which we performed a song for them and one of us (Sarah) did a testimony. Then we went to a church commissioning service, in which we did the same thing except that that one lasted for about 3 hours. I guess it was the first service of that church. So then we drove back to Bapatla, where we are staying for the next couple days and driving to nearby towns/cities to go to worship meetings. Its an eight hour drive from Hyderbad Bapatla so we've been doing a lot of driving lately. Everything's been going mainly well, Sarah's better but last night Kevin started to get sick. So if you can pray that he gets better that would be great. With all these people getting sick it has become a personal mission for me and Ian to not get sick. We would like to stay healthy the whole time. So we'd appreciate your prayers that we succeed in this endeavour. A personal issue for me is the tea. Since no one has addressed this in earlier entries I will now explain. Tea (and Coffee) in India is not made the way we make it. They don't use any water and instead make it with Water Buffalo Milk and a lot of sugar. Now while it does actually taste pretty good it doesn't taste like tea and I would really like a cup of tea. But I guess being in India is worth this particular sacrifice. Again thanks for all your support. We miss you all, Christian.

3rd post - from Kevin

Good morning/afternoon/evening or whatever it is back there in North America. Here is my special shout out to Kyle, Jesse and Adrian and all the rest of you guys back at CLBI and back at our homes. Words cannot explain how things are going over here in India. It has been a huge blessing from God to be here and to meet the people that we have met so far whether it be the kids at the school, the teachers or just random people. They all seem to have some kind of impact on you. We were back at the school again today teaching and once again the smiles on the kids were always bigger than their faces. Their appreciation for us is amazing just because it isn't really something you would expect. After school we played some more cricket and other games and the kids continue to give us a workout everyday. After that we went to this girls house who we had met because she wanted us to come over for a while and meet her family and she showed us around her house and we sang a couple songs for her dad. It continues to be very hot over here, which is a good thing but is something not typically felt back in Canada and I think some of us are missing our snow and ice a little bit. Also if you could keep in your prayers, Sarah was sick today so if you could pray for her health to be restored and to keep the rest of the team healthy. Also for the team to have safe travels over the next week as we head to and from different villages next week. As well don't forget about yourselves back home and for the other teams too because we have definitely remembered you guys over here and are thankful for your prayers. Other than that it has been great to see God at work in this country and through the people here so far. Miss you guys and God's BlessingsKevin

Second Post From India

Hi everyone. Well its wednesday night here and we just finished a long day of teaching and playing with kids. (Honestly more so with the playing then the teaching.) The kids here are amazing and a lot of fun. As we mentioned before the only game they play really is Cricket so we do a lot of that. There's been some difficulty learning Cricket but we are slowly getting the hang of it and the kids are very patient. Ian taught them how to play frisbee which they seem to enjoy. They will often comment saying "very simple, but very interesting" We've been teaching class in the morning and that's been a lot of fun as well. We mainly teach VBS type lessons. It's been an entertaining challenge to think of enough stories, songs and games to fill the morning. At the end of the week friday (we will be leaving Chirala to visit neighbouring cities and towns and leading bible studies and church services. So far we are all having a great time and learning a lot. Thankyou for all your support so far. Goodnight and God's blessings with all of you.

Team India's First Post

Hi from team India. So far we are all doing well. It has been an excellent experience this far. When we finally aririved in Chirala we received such a warm reception at the train station. We stopped by the school where we were all introduced, and some of the kids made presentations of songs and we felt a little overwhelmed with how nicely we are treated here. We got settled in at our house on Saturday and Sunday we attended two church services, one in English and the other in Telugu. Today we were at the school teaching songs and stories, and we all really enjoyed the experience. The kids are all so great, they want to learn and play and they love it when we do anything with them. Particularly they love to play cricket with us and honestly we dont really know whats going on but we are catching on slowly. The food has been excellent, no one has gotten really sick (Pastor Al was sick for half a day shortly after arriving, but he is fine now). We all seem to be unaffected by the Malaria medication, which was Ian's greatest concern. I know as a group we struggle sometimes with how much we are served here, we don't have to cook, do dishes, our laundry is taken care of, but it has been a learning experience. The culture is definitely different, but people are still people, kids love to play and God's love is universal. If you would like to pray for our team some concerns are: continued health and willingness to embrace the culture around us, for the children we are teaching that the language doesn't prevent them from understanding the message, as a group that we will seek to allow God to do the work instead of us relying on our own strength.