MARIGOLD GARLANDS!!!!!!! I'm trying to save them all and have Mike take a picture with all of them on. Just know when/if I do that they are NOT all of them I've gotten. Some of them have disappeared along the way. Wow. It's been a full day.
We started off today by heading to another village church. This church was started about 20 years ago. It took almost eight years of working with these people to have the first baptism. Now, almost the whole village is Christian. They built one building and outgrew it, so a second building was built. We first met with the school children. They sang some. They quoted some poems. They showed us some of their school work. It was fun to see them when we first drove up. They were sitting in their rows and when they saw us they were just wiggling with excitement. They looked just a-twitter. Then we went to the smaller building and met with the congregation.
Again, they worshipped in their own non-Western way, and what fun it was. They used the same instruments as the other village church -- harmonium, tambourine and little cymbals mounted in a frame. They looked kind of like tambourine noise makers mounted in what looked similar to an Abacus frame. That's the best way I can describe it. They sang songs of their own creation. Dave said they make up songs that are stories and can go all night (literally) long. David said they may start with the birth of Jesus and sing about how Mary cared for him and bathed him and put him to sleep. From there they keep going and going and going and going. Today, David had to give them the cut-off sign.
From there we went to visit Bethlehem Bible College, another ministry David is in charge of. We spoke with the President, and then proceeded to hold a chapel service. Boy can those guys sing!!!!!! Each of us gave a small greeting. Rob preached, then we met all the faculty and most of the students. A quick trip to their library was for me.
Returning to the compound, we walked across the street to the K-12 school. There we looked at some classes, including their distance learning classes. They were doing trig while we were in there. I didn't get to see their library... :-(
Then we visited the eye hospital. It was clinic day. They do the surguries on the weekends. I even had my eyes checked. Boy was it an old fashioned exam! They put glasses on me and slipped lenses in and out.
Back home again for a picnic with the handicapped children from Oasis of Love. Originally it was to be at the river, but David didn't think it would be safe to spend that much time with the children at the river. So, they held it under tents on the mission grounds. We played games with them -- how many peanuts can you crack and eat in sixty seconds? Mike took second in that. I took third. Another game had the kids putting Bindi dots (you know the dot some Indian women have between their eyes) on us to see how many they could put on in sixty seconds. Rob and I certainly looked attractive, then there was a hot potato type game. If the music stopped while you had the ball, you had to sing or dance or recite a poem. I sang Jesus Loves Me. Rob did the Roses are red poem, but incorporated Mamma Pushpa's name iNto it. Then lunch with the kids. Good lunch until I got a mouth full of green chilis. Thought I was going to die. Mark Myers would have loved it.
Took a rest after that. Showered. Electricity was off so there were no fans or AC running. The shower felt good
Tonight we get to go to the Widows meeting. I will give a short devotion for Mamma Pushpa to translate. How much shall I bet the event will begin with marigolds?!
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