A eunuch, a camel, and gypsies....oh my....

First, an update on the sick ward. I seem to be on the upswing of my cold, and did not have to visit the doctors. However, both Alan and Lydia are now taking a turn with whatever this sinus thing is, and hopefully will not have to make a doctor visit either! Kayla usually has an iron immune system, and rarely gets sick, so hopefully she will escape this one, as well!

Since his last post, Alan taught our community Bible study on Friday. As is typical Indian custom, he was informed an hour ahead of time!! Fortunately, he has many prepared materials from his years in ministry and schooling to draw upon. He taught on 'Thinking with a Christian Worldview.' It went very well and it was nice to have him at Bible study. Uncle's rule about our Friday Bible study time is that only one of his main teachers are to attend at a time, so that the others are being utilized elsewhere, and also so that they do not become the dominant ones at the study.

Today, Sunday, we attended church. It was the first time I have been able to hear Uncle preach, and it was a wonderful sermon on the blessings and responsibilities we have as believers.

This week is our Spiritual Life Conference for BBCM. Every year, missionaries working for BBCM (mostly indigenous Indian missionaries) from all over India come together so that their work can be assessed, as well as how they are doing in the field. It is also a time for education and the theme this year is 'Having a Circumcised Heart'. The children are separated during the educational sessions, and I have been blessed to be asked to be part of this aspect of the conference. So far I have only been able to help prepare materials and send them to another girl I am working with and we have done some brainstorming over the phone. Sickness in our household right now is keeping me from meeting with the team, but I have still been able to contribute in part. I am praying that the girls and I are healthy enough that we can attend the conference this week so that they can benefit from the children's activities and teachings and I can be there in person to help out with the lessons.

I know you are all curious about the title of this blog. Alan and I took the girls to a mall yesterday that has an indoor playground (pictures to come). It was nice for the girls, who have been climbing the walls at home lately, to have something else to climb on!

Anyway, the car ride to the mall has been our most interesting one as of yet. Indian traffic is pretty horrific, and so you stop and sit on the road alot on your way to most destinations. It is when you are stopped in traffic that the ride becomes interesting. Men weave through the cars trying to sell you things from fruit to rugs to flags of India. One particular person, who I thought was a large woman, came up to our back window and in a very deep voice said to Kayla 'hello baby'. This is a typical way for Indians to address small children, who are truly adored and cared for here. However, this person did not look or sound at all typical. Alan then informed me after the 'woman' walked away that this was a eunuch. I know, isn't a eunuch a type of animal or something? No, a eunuch is a man dressed up as a woman who begs for money! This was the first of several interesting things on our drive.

We also had the pleasure of seeing our first camel! It was right alongside the road! So, now we have seen wild dogs, roaming cows, running monkeys and grazing camels!

Lastly, again as we were stopped in traffic, three little children came weaving through the cars and ran eagerly up to our car (ooohhh......Americans....). The girl was about nine years old and the two little boys were around six or seven. The girl seemed to be telling the little boys what they should be doing. She began, right next to our car in the middle of the road, to do gymnastics and other 'double jointed' things to entertain us. She continued this for a couple of minutes and then the children put their hands up to the windows and began begging for money. It was so sad! It is okay to give these children small coins, worth one or two rupees, but we did not have anything this small with us. They are gypsy children, and their parents make them do this to help earn money for the family. That night, Kayla and I had a talk about how she is so blessed and has so much and how these gypsy children have nothing. She was shocked to hear the conditions they live in and that they have no toys, no beds, and no 'potties'. She began talking about which of her toys she wants to give to these children to make them happy. It is really neat to have these object lessons for her, coming from a society so focused on 'things'. Unfortunately, I also wish conditions like these did not exist so that these lessons were not even available. But, I am hoping that these experiences do impact my children for the better, and they seem to be doing that already.

Alan starts teaching soon, but as you can tell, we are already in full swing of doing ministry here in the three short weeks we have been here! It has been busy, but so fun and encouraging to be able to dive right in and be doing tangible things for the Lord already! Thanks for all of your prayer and support!