The Joy of Serving

I love this little village girl though I never even met her.  I love her spirit and playfulness, even amidst her poverty.

Perhaps ours was the first automobile she had seen in days.  The opportunity must have been too good to pass up, so as we casually drove past her remote Indian village she clenched her fists and set her jaw and, giving no heed to the impossibility of her victory, the race was on.

I look at her picture now.  I am tempted to shake my head and smile “knowingly” as I contemplate the futility of her challenge.  Then I remind myself, “Had it been God’s will she would, indeed, have won that race”.

O, Spirit of a Child

Where is it you go when we come of age?

Are you gone forever,

Or are you merely hiding

That we might still seek you?

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Mark 10:14

Mike

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The orphanage we visited in India has stairs leading to the roof.  From there you can watch in the morning as the surrounding community comes to life for another day.

Roger and I were up there early one time and as we looked about we saw that we had been noticed by a very young girl of one of the “tent families” nearby.  She was waving to us enthusiastically and so we waved back.  So, of course this encouraged her to wave even more.  Pretty soon her family noticed what was going on and they all began to wave.  It was a very nice way for us to start off the day.

On the way down the stairs Roger, being the very outgoing person he is, suggested we go over and meet these people.  So we walked over to their camp and introduced ourselves.  All of us had to make use of lots of hand gestures and body language in our greetings because of the language barrier, but it worked pretty well.  We even “asked” them if we could take their pictures which they were happy to allow.

During the course of things one of the men, probably the head of this family group kept trying to say something to us which we couldn’t figure out.  At one point I said, “Roger, I think he is asking us to pray for them”.  Roger wasn’t sure about that so we continued with our visit, taking pictures and generally wrinkling up our noses and saying, “Huh” whenever they would say something, or occasionally nodding if we thought that was safe.

Finally this man must have realized we were somewhat slow, so he helped us out by putting his hands together in front of his face and uttering something like, “Praee?”.  Of course, having assumed this was a Hindu family, we were really surprised that our prayers were actually what he had been asking for all along.

But we were glad to lay hands on, and pray for each of them individually then.  And when we were done this man went into his tent and came out with a photo album for us to look through.  It was full of pictures of all the family members being baptised!  And Roger was especially struck when he even recognized the pastor who was baptising them as one he knew from meetings in Hyderabad (Shakur, or Sakir, or something.  As usual, I can’t remember the name).

So, it seems that day God gave us a gentle reminder that we are not to judge others, though it comes so naturally and is so hard not to sometimes.  In a way that God does so well, he also blessed us at the same time with the assurance that the body of Christ reached out into the community beyond the walls of the orphanage.

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Here’s a slide show of some of the pictures we took. I noticed this show switches pictures fast. But there is a control in the lower left corner that lets you stop the auto mode and go forward/backward manually. If you don’t see the control hover your cursor about 1/4″ above the “Get Your Own” tab until you see the words “Click to activate this control”. Once you click there you will be able to view the slide show at your liesure.

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Here are a few snapshots of our India trip:

Sharon was very popular with the kids at the orphanage

Most of the kids at the orphange wanted to be remembered.  So they would test you regularly to see if you knew their name.  I finally confessed my poor memory and suggested they write them down for me.  Some of them were too eager and wouldn’t wait until I fetched some note paper, with the result seen here.

We went to the village of Tongaturu to join them in a worship service.  As in all the villages I went to last year, their worship here is fervent.  I especially enjoyed watching and hearing the children sing and clap.  I wish I could understand the words.  I made a sound recording of it and will try to find a way of posting it.

When the workers finally get down to business they don’t let minor technicalities get in the way.  OSHA would have a field day with this if it was over here.  This painter is prepping the wall while dangling from a simple rope tied to a board.  I don’t even know what’s anchoring the other end.

This street market is actually located in a narrow side alley.  There was very little room to walk down the row of vendors.  Sharon took one picture, then they all wanted equal exposure.  The vegetables actually looked delicious, although we could only identify about 1/3 of them.

A couple more of the kids at Mercy House Orphanage

Two girls begging in downtown Jangaon

This old woman was actually sitting hunched up amongst all the vegetables she was selling.

More orphanage residents.  These are fortunate that their teeth are not yet mottled from the excess fluoride in the water.  One of the first things Roger and Jan accomplished upon their arrival there was to get the water treatment system in proper operating condition.

Check back for more photos soon.

(If you enjoyed these pictures please leave comments)

Mike

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We returned home on the 5th of Feb.  As we left Jangaon there were plenty of repairs left to do at the orphanage.  I don’t envy Roger.  He has his hands full trying to keep the hired workers on task.  It seems they don’t share our concerns for getting things done according to a schedule.  But I still think things will work out in the end.

Jan has it no easier.  But she’s a good and dedicated teacher who really cares.  Most of the children may not speak English but they will know she loves them.  So they may try just hard enough to make things work anyway.

I have been struggling with this blog to insert photos.  Things were not going well at all and I had about given up.  Whenever I put a couple pictures in it would stop accepting any more.  But an hour ago I happened to be on the phone to our daughter, Erica.  She’s one of 2 computer geeks I can usually count on to bail me out.

Well, I think she did do it again.  She told me she uses an online service called PhotoBucket.  You just dump all your pictures in there.  Then you can do a number of things to share them with others.  I set up my account and put a bunch of the pics in there and noticed they have a ready-made slide show template.

On one of my next couple of posts you will find the slide show I made.  Leave me a comment telling me whether you like it, or not.

I will also be using PhotoBucket to post still shots here, in a subsequent post.  So check back.

Mike

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Hi,

It’s Sunday afternoon.  The internet has been down for us for most of the last few days.  It seems there were a couple severed fiberoptic cables out in the Mediterranian somewhere.  So I will make this just a short post so we don’t lose connection while I go on and on.

I got some good recordings of the kids at church today.  We will be showing some of it for them tonight in the meeting hall.  I also put together a slide show.  I don’t think they children know we are going to do this.

I am getting over my cold now.  But the bad news is Roger, Jan and Sharon now have it.  I know Sharon was particularly miserable last night as she only slept about 2 hours.  Right now (about 4:30 PM) she is in bed trying to catch up.  Tomorrow night we start our long trek home.  So she will need lots of rest now.

We will be back home on the 5th and see all our Grace and Glory friends next Sunday and can share more afterward.

Mike

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