Photos from the Week #7

Another week flies past quickly but I am continuing to see the Lord at work each day and praising Him for His grace and mercy.

The Sunday afternoon Youth Meeting continues to be a success with a large number of young people attending regularly and they are always keen to study the Word of God. Last Sunday we looked at the below Bible verse and what it means to us. We then continued to look throughout the first chapter of Ephesians to find some of these wonderful spiritual blessings that we now have in Christ. We also noticed the difference between the earthly blessings the children of Israel had in the old testament compared to our blessings.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" - Ephesians 1:3

In our Sunday morning meeting we are studying the key doctrine from the book of Ephesians which is rich with teaching that applies to us today. Last Sunday I gave a clear overview of this letter of Paul's to the Christians at Ephesus and then we read the first three chapters together. We hope to dive into the real details of this letter over the next few weeks.

Young people eagerly studying the Word of God at our Youth Meeting

Children from the Northern State of Bihar each receiving a Hindi Bible

As I continue to look for opportunities to support and enrich these children's lives practically this week with the help of Raju we were able to provide the Hindi children from Bihar State with a bible in their own language which they greatly appreciated.

The boys riding the tractor home after buying materials for the children farm

There was another day off school this week as Muslim celebrate the festival of sacrifice, strangely enough they remember Abraham's faithfulness to God in attempting to offer his son (who they believe was Ishmael) as a sacrifice but God intervened and gave a ram as a substitute. Each family kills a goat, eats it and then does other ceremonial things. Between all the Muslim and Hindu holidays it hard for the kids to really progress in their studies at school.

School children excited to head home after being told tomorrow is a holiday

On Tuesday there was the big annual sports day for all the high schools kids in Hunsur. This year Adullam School had to organise it all, which was not an easy task as there were over 600 students attending. It was held at a local sports ground, which was just a large patch of dirt. Unfortunately these kinds of events attract a large number of unwanted local people which are just there to watch and cause trouble. However we are certainly praising the Lord for His mercy on that day as it actually turned out to be quite successful and everyone enjoyed themselves. The events covered a whole range of activities from athletics to field events to team sports. It was very different from a sports day back in New Zealand as the true India culture really comes out.

The boys 100m running race - Rajeev Ranjan from BCH in the middle (black and red top)

Darshan from BCH competing in the long jump event

Girls Volleyball match between two schools

Awards ceremony - Rajeev Ranjan won 1st place 

Unfortunately my health hasn't been so good this past week with having a gastro bug for two days then a slight fever and a bad cold. However I am praising the Lord that it now seems to be under control as it is slightly easing off and I haven't needed to go to the hospital yet. The diet in India certainly is a big challenge as the government regulations on food safely is unreliable as everyone tends to cheat the system. The local's stomach seem to gets use to it as they describe themselves as having a 'concrete stomach'. Raju was telling me of a common problem with local street food sellers mixing crude oil with their cooking oil to cut costs.

The weather has had lots of changes this past week with temperatures dropping and then rising. It would seem that because of this a lot of the children at the home have gotten sick with colds/fevers. 

Below is an update from Tamil Nadu as earlier in the week Raju went over there to see how the progress of the new buildings are going.

The fast progress of the assembly hall in Tamil Nadu

The completion of a new house for a widow in Tamil Nadu