This is Becky M from Team 3. We just returned a few hours ago from our two night stay in Madanapalle where we taught an energetic group of children and experienced a Sunday morning worship service. We had no internet during our stay so I sadly could not catch up on blogging. But seeing that tomorrow is already our last day in India, I am going to attempt to recap our week of adventures as much as I can before we fly out to London on Tuesday morning (5:30 AM - we'll be sleepy!)
On Monday (July 1) we went to Tirruttani. Originally we had been told we would be painting that morning, but painting got moved to Tuesday so we ended up joining Matt as he taught a lesson to the pastors. Vanessa, Andrew, and I sat inside a small room in a house just next to where Matt was teaching. So we were out of the sun but could still listen in on the lesson. A young girl who lived there was curiously watching us from a doorway. She was very quiet and didn't say a word but waved when we waved to her. I dug into my backpack and pulled out two Lifesaver candies and offered them to her. She smiled and accepted them eagerly. She went into the other room and closed the door. I could then hear the sound of the candy wrappers crinkling as she ate her treats in private. :) As I watched this girl during the hours we were waiting during the pastor meeting, she reminded me of my little sister back home and I began to feel a little homesick.
VBS that night became a little hectic when we handed out the gifts for the children. Children were reaching at us from every direction and we couldn't get them to stay seated. Suddenly we ran out of the plastic animals we were handing out and many children still had not received any. We looked at one another very confused because we KNEW we had brought more than enough gifts for the number of children that were there. All I can figure is that some of the kids took more than one without our knowing.
Despite that, it was a fun VBS night and I took many close-up photos of the children which I am excited to share when I get back home and can upload them. Throughout the evening, two boys kept asking me to pose for photos that they took with a cell phone. I found myself stopping very frequently so they could snap another picture of me. When they asked me to pose once again as we were leaving, I smiled and asked if I could take a photo WITH them, and I pointed to my own camera. Suddenly these outgoing little boys turned rather bashful, but agreed to pose with me. I asked Andrew to take our picture and then I showed it to them on the camera. They became bashful once again as they looked at the photo, but then one of them smiled up at me, did the Indian head wobble (their version of nodding your head) and said, "Beautiful picture!"
Tuesday morning we painted the inside of a church blue. We met the church's youth leader who was a lovely girl named Mary. She watched us paint for awhile and then spent a few minutes painting too when one of the men took my paintbrush and told me to take a rest for 10 minutes. Before we left the church for lunch, the pastor said "Your painting is very beautiful. God bless you." After 3 mornings of painting in the heat, that was the perfect way to end our painting work. :)
After lunch we spent some time sitting in front of a fan in a nice coffee shop. After running out of gifts the night before, we used our free time to finish assembling the bags of puzzles and crayons that we had left to give. As we assembled the gifts, a few people stopped by our table to ask where we were from and what we were doing. They were curious about the puzzles and seemed a little, well, puzzled when we tried to explain how to play with one. It seems that while puzzles are a common childhood plaything in the States, they aren't very common over here. Pastor O told us to break the puzzles into only 3 parts because the children would not be able to put together the pieces if the puzzle pieces were completely separated.
VBS was a lot of fun that night. There was lots of music and the children were very well behaved. They had us use microphones which was the first time during the trip. I was hesitant to speak into the microphone - and even more so to sing into it! - but oddly enough it actually turned out to make me feel more confident as I was teaching. Not sure why! Although I still felt shy singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" with the mic since I don't feel like I've got the singing voice for a microphone. But insecurities have to be let go of when working for the Lord! Thankfully God stills works through shakey singing. :)
The video that Matt posted is from that evening. The drummer picked up on the beat of our song and played along with us which added some fun Indian-style rhythm to it. After singing the song every night, it was nice to have the surprise of the drumbeat.
Before we left that night, a girl came up to me and shook my hand, asking for my name. She then introduced me to many members of her family. Soon I had many people surrounding me and they began to plead for me to pray over them. Everyone else was already in the car ready to go home so I sadly told them that I couldn't stay. My heart ached when I had to walk away, but I called out "God bless you!" to all of them as I turned to walk to the car, hoping that they would understand that I cared for all of them and that they would be in my prayers even if I couldn't pray for them right then and there. We waved to people as we drove away, and I prayed silent prayers for the people I met that night with the joy of the Lord in my heart and the drumbeat from the music in my head.
That night we checked into a hotel to reduce the amount of driving we would have to do. We spent the night watching three episodes of The Office from Matt's iPod. We also enjoyed a meal of Tandoori chicken and buttered naan. I learned as we ordered food this week that Indians think it is weird when we order just naan without "gravy." Matt explained it in comparison to how we think of meals as needing a carb and a protein. He said Indians see food as needing "wet" and "dry." So when we order dry chicken and dry naan, our waiters often question us several times about whether we want gravy! :)
The next day Pastor Bhaskar and the son of Pastor D. Paul (who is studying at a university in the city we stayed in) would be taking Andrew, Vanessa, and me to see a large Hindu temple while Matt taught in the morning...
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