My favourite thing about our trip so far has been being able to spend time with the kids. It is very humbling to hear them pray for us when they have so little. We have had our first kids meeting which went very well and we are sitting down to eat at the moment… yum! The language barrier is hard at times and trying not to be disrespectful when you don’t know what is disrespectful is also difficult. Missing everyone heaps,
Lots of Love,
Nicaela
One of my favourite things about the trip is talking to some of the Bible College students and listening to their stories, Some of them have travelled a long way to study without much money and have been rejected by their families for their beliefs. The children are also another great part of the trip! One of the hardest things is trying to eat all the food they give you! I shouldn’t complain though because it tastes fantastic! Missing you all,
Much love,
Kylie
I love India!!!! Teehee. The main thing I have loved seeing is the kids in their prayer time. They praise God with such passion and fervour. They have so little, and for the little they have they are truly thankful to God. They’re all such beautiful kids. What I’m finding hard is communicating with the kids. Many of the children will sing solo in their prayer time, and the hardest thing is not being able to tell them how well they did. Sounds a bit weird. Oh well. I love the food =] … Lunchtime!!!!!!!
Love you all,
Cassie
I love spending time with and getting to know all the kids. It’s good to see them all smiling, singing and shouting God’s praise. I also like the road trips =D
10minutes is about 40minutes over here so it takes a while to travel around – except for lunch. The restaurant is only 5mins away. There’s not many road rules [whoever’s bigger goes first =P] There's not much to complain about over here. . .so yeh, I won’t complain about nothing =P
Adios,
Dave
I like it all…
James
Hi all, India is an amazing place with all the culture, sounds, and sights! And one of the things I love is the passion and commitment the Christians and children in the home have for Jesus. There prayer time and singing is loud and with lots of energy, what they don’t have in instruments they make up with their voices. One of the challenges is the barrier of communication with our accents making it hard for those who do speak English, and then those who don’t its time to do charades… very funny. But we have a great translator most of the time in Ps Samuel, is a real preacher and has great English.
Well, talk soon, keep praying for us in the ministry, health, and travels.
Much love always
Conrad
The great thing about our trip is getting to see and do it all together !! Watching “all” the kids play and sing and do actions is great !! I have to say the Indian kids have more stamina than ours …..Dave shared his testimony last night at the main convention and that was incredible and Kylie and Conrad really blessed the pastors school this morning. The challenging thing is they look after us so well everyone feels too at home and want to stay.
Looking forward to more teams coming and seeing and experiencing all these amazing sights and sounds and making friends with these incredible people.
Cant wait to see you all, I doubt I will have any words left but we will see?!
Lots of love Melinda
Thursday, January 8, 2009
G'day from Kottayam
G’day mates. Us aussies have been havin a ripper of a time so far. We had a good old yarn with the youngins this morning. Crikey! The rat we saw this morning was big as a roo. The youngins were happy little vegemites…until they ate vegemite.
Meh, talking normally now, we have been having an awesome time mucking around with all the kids teaching them games such as dodgeball (you should see them, its mayhem.) and as always it ended in tears. Conrad tried to teach them a game unsuccessfully, Dave shared his testimony, Kylie went through a skit with them, Nicaela expanded on the story, James shared about Australia and Cassie videoed it all. Tonight the convention starts so we would appreciate your prayers for all of the people gathered and that we will be able share Gods love with all of the kids. We are all a little homesick but everything here is new and exciting so there is much to occupy us. We have found an Internet café now so hopefully blog updates will be a bit more regular for the next few days. Right now we are at a restaurant eating lunch. Yum!
Lots of Love,
Melinda, Conrad, Kylie, James, Cass, Dave and Nicaela
Meh, talking normally now, we have been having an awesome time mucking around with all the kids teaching them games such as dodgeball (you should see them, its mayhem.) and as always it ended in tears. Conrad tried to teach them a game unsuccessfully, Dave shared his testimony, Kylie went through a skit with them, Nicaela expanded on the story, James shared about Australia and Cassie videoed it all. Tonight the convention starts so we would appreciate your prayers for all of the people gathered and that we will be able share Gods love with all of the kids. We are all a little homesick but everything here is new and exciting so there is much to occupy us. We have found an Internet café now so hopefully blog updates will be a bit more regular for the next few days. Right now we are at a restaurant eating lunch. Yum!
Lots of Love,
Melinda, Conrad, Kylie, James, Cass, Dave and Nicaela
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
India
Namaste and greetings from India!!! We arrived at the home at 1am Friday morning. After a good but quick night sleep we were given a tour of the compound; all the buildings are fantastic and the accommodation is very comfortable, they are looking after us very well. We have running toilets, showers and air-conditioning, you would think we were in a hotel! We spent the morning buying local clothes in Kottayam and seeing, hearing and smelling the sights of India. We had our first Indian meal for lunch of curry, rice and paratha bread followed by ice-cream sundaes. Driving has been interesting to say the least road rules in India are this, 1. The biggest vehicles have right of way… that’s it. When the kids finished school we had the privilege of meeting and playing with lots of them. We played soccer, cricket and taught them songs with actions and tomorrow we are giving them other sports goods such as volleyballs, soccer balls, badminton sets, nets, frisbees and cricket sets. Tonight we have had a prayer meeting sharing devotions and songs with the kids. They are very passionate worshippers and full of love, hugs, smiles, and handshakes!!!
Needing to be mentioned was that Conrad was woken up by Dave & James doing push-ups in their beds (a new exercise routine without getting out of bed – it might catch on?!). Dave during the tour of the home was confused by the children as to weather he was a boy or girl (due to the long curly hair – which they love!) and so his new nick name is ‘Davina’ – he prefers ‘Davey Baby’. James helped a local pull a boat out of the water (the boat had been sunk). The girls are obsessed with playing 7’S, and Nicaela seems to be the one owning us all! Nicaela, Kylie, and Cassie taught the girls Hokey Pokey, and we think they were enjoying it more than anyone else was! The boys were watching on with very strange looks! And the clothing is interesting with the all the girls in the team were looking great in the Indian outfits, Dave and James have dresses/skirts (ones for the boys, but they couldn’t tie it properly, so it was constantly falling down) Conrad got a safer option of a traditional Indian top – so wardrobe malfunctions there.
Please keep praying for us while we are away, for the time we have with the children and bible college students will be impacting. For the ministry we will be doing on the weekend, and next week at the home and villages nearby. For Ps Melinda as she is preaching this weekend. For safe travelling on the Indian roads, and health for the team.
With much love always from the team in India
Melinda, Nicaela, Kylie, David Cassie, James, Conrad.
Needing to be mentioned was that Conrad was woken up by Dave & James doing push-ups in their beds (a new exercise routine without getting out of bed – it might catch on?!). Dave during the tour of the home was confused by the children as to weather he was a boy or girl (due to the long curly hair – which they love!) and so his new nick name is ‘Davina’ – he prefers ‘Davey Baby’. James helped a local pull a boat out of the water (the boat had been sunk). The girls are obsessed with playing 7’S, and Nicaela seems to be the one owning us all! Nicaela, Kylie, and Cassie taught the girls Hokey Pokey, and we think they were enjoying it more than anyone else was! The boys were watching on with very strange looks! And the clothing is interesting with the all the girls in the team were looking great in the Indian outfits, Dave and James have dresses/skirts (ones for the boys, but they couldn’t tie it properly, so it was constantly falling down) Conrad got a safer option of a traditional Indian top – so wardrobe malfunctions there.
Please keep praying for us while we are away, for the time we have with the children and bible college students will be impacting. For the ministry we will be doing on the weekend, and next week at the home and villages nearby. For Ps Melinda as she is preaching this weekend. For safe travelling on the Indian roads, and health for the team.
With much love always from the team in India
Melinda, Nicaela, Kylie, David Cassie, James, Conrad.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Singapore
Hey fellow Aussies, here we are at our first stop; the island of Singapore, home of the wannabe western culture with hundreds of hotels and shopping centers. We arrived at 10pm Monday night and headed straight to the hotel, suffering from a mild jet lag. After having a well deserved sleep-in to 7am Singapore time (or 10am Melbourne time), we headed out for a full day of adventure.
We began by getting in touch with our 'Melinda missionary' by visiting the famous Orchard Road and window shopped at boutiques such as Louis Vuitton and Tiffany's. In search of something cheaper we headed for the local markets only to be overwhelmed by the heat and stopping for a quick respite in the form of Haagen-Daaz ice-cream.
Deciding the heat was too much to bear we opted for a swim back at the hotel after lunch. For lunch, we could have had the luxurious local delicacy of pigs liver and other vital organs, but chose to brave the local McDonalds. Conrad indulged even more than the rest of us with a mega-mac (basically a double big mac) and a cheeseburger on the side, but he only got a small coke and fries. The rest of the day included a quick swim, a 'workout' for Dave and James because Melinda was too busy writing sermons and Kylie too busy messaging Brendan. This mission thing is harder than it looks.
P.S. Everyone is safe and well except for a little over-eating and materialism overload.
We began by getting in touch with our 'Melinda missionary' by visiting the famous Orchard Road and window shopped at boutiques such as Louis Vuitton and Tiffany's. In search of something cheaper we headed for the local markets only to be overwhelmed by the heat and stopping for a quick respite in the form of Haagen-Daaz ice-cream.
Deciding the heat was too much to bear we opted for a swim back at the hotel after lunch. For lunch, we could have had the luxurious local delicacy of pigs liver and other vital organs, but chose to brave the local McDonalds. Conrad indulged even more than the rest of us with a mega-mac (basically a double big mac) and a cheeseburger on the side, but he only got a small coke and fries. The rest of the day included a quick swim, a 'workout' for Dave and James because Melinda was too busy writing sermons and Kylie too busy messaging Brendan. This mission thing is harder than it looks.
P.S. Everyone is safe and well except for a little over-eating and materialism overload.
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