Hello from Team 3 (Becky M, Andrew, Vanessa, and Matt)! We have the morning "off" today which feels nice after traveling and working from 7 AM to sometimes almost 10 PM the past couple days. Even though I am tired, I am having so much fun and thank God each day that I am here and able to share His love and truth with others. Your prayers for us are definitely being answered, so thank you for all the love and support back home! "The effective fervent prayers of a righteous man avails much." James 5:16
Teaching has been going well, and every evening has been a little different with its own unique circumstances. I was a little nervous before the first lesson in Chennai on Thursday. I kept praying that the Holy Spirit would guide me through the lesson and work through my nervous jitters. We had to climb a steep and narrow stone staircase (with no railing) to get up to the area we would be teaching in. This was somewhat of a challenge while wearing a long skirt and carrying a heavy backpack on my back, but I made it to the top (and back down again with the pastors urging "please be careful. Go slow.") The kids sat in front of us on a mat as we taught and they had so much enthusiasm that my nervous fears quickly faded. They cheered and applauded when Pastor D. Paul introduced us. Some of the children were called up to "give us honor" by draping shawls over our shoulders and flowers around our necks. They had a man taking photos of everything so we paused to pose for pictures before starting our lessons. I had changed some of my lesson at the last minute and wasn't sure how it'd go over, but it seemed to work okay aside from going over my 10 minute time limit (but Pastor D. Paul said Missionary Use was also too long so I don't feel as bad). :) It was raining quite hard during our teaching but thankfully we had a roof over our heads. Vanessa, Andrew, and I have been teaching the kids the song "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." This group sang along very loudly so I am wondering if some of them already knew the song.
We were already out of time but the pastor of the congregation urged us to wait a few more minutes so they could show us a video from their VBS. We watched recordings of kids singing and dancing and it was really cool to see Indian style praise songs. The people were beaming with excitement to have us watch this video. It made me smile for sure. :)
At the end of teaching, we hand out small gifts for the children. Matt has a suitcase of toothbrushes and he asked the Chennai group to guess what was inside. They shouted out rice and candy or chocolate! :) You would think they'd be disappointed to learn the gift was a toothbrush, but not so...The toothbrushes accidentally fell out on the ground and the kids cheered, squealed, and scrambled to pick up a brush. We had thought Matt dumped the toothbrushes out on purpose but later learned it was just an accident that made for a cool dramatic effect. I think it was God's idea - just helping to add excitement for us. :)
We finished handing out the brushes and also Jesus puzzles and then we were rushed out to the car so the kids could get home as it was already getting quite dark outside. I was sad we had to go because the children were coming up to shake my hand and tell me their names. But Pastor was pretty insistent and so we climbed in the vehicle and drove away, waving to people as we left.
Traffic was bad that night and it took a couple hours to get home. But there were some fireworks in the sky as we were stuck in traffic which was a fun surprise. Everyone was drifting to sleep by the point so I forgot to ask what the fireworks might've been for.
The next day Andrew, Vanessa, and I would be painting a church while Matt taught pastors in the morning. Stay tuned for the post about our painting and teaching adventures in Tiruvallure!
Becky McKenney
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