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.