Fun in India
December 22, 2007 email #12
Along with Christmas programs there are also a lot of birthday parties.  Our CE Director’s daughter, whom I named Hannah, had her first birthday.  This is a BIG deal!  There must have been over a hundred people in attendance.  Most of them come knowing there will be food, but all had a good time.  We asked if we could take the girls from RGI, (We paid for their food) so they could have a time out.  The girls don’t get off campus much so this was a real treat.  They played some kind of singing game and it was hilarious!!!  I was sitting on the bench/pew with some of the girls and when the program and food was over I was literally surrounded.  I sat with my armss around them while their probing fingers found a way to touch my blondish hair and white skin.  Some of them have never seen a white skinned person, maybe on TV, but not live.  Skin color is their main criteria for beauty . . .I’m so lily white I must be gorgeous!!!  Just kidding!!!  When I tell them I would love to have a tan, it is unimaginable to them.  It was a perfect opportunity to reiterate that we are to be content with how God has made us.

Someone has said we are like the “Key Stone Cops.” Well, that is just about true.  Sometimes, it is just too funny for words.  Loren is now on MONKEY PATROL with about three staff people.  Because the girls have gone for holiday recess, there is no one to keep the monkeys out of RGI. So Loren bought a lot of firecrackers and is over throwing them at the monkeys.  It is a sight to behold.  The monkeys are really destructive, so it is necessary, but still too funny to watch. 

Also yesterday he caught several very small children climbing over our compound gate.  He couldn’t understand what they were after.  So he had our driver translate for him.  Come to find out, we have a number of trees that have a special tiny fruit on them.  This is the time of year for harvest, and they were simply helping themselves to the bounty.  You have some and I have none, therefore it is not stealing. They started emptying their pockets, etc.  Loren said, “You cannot climb our wall, BUT if you will come back tomorrow at 12 noon, I will open the gate and let you take all the fruit you want.” NOBODY is on time in India, but believe it or not the kids were there at 12.  Loren was like the Pipe Piper with all these kids and their plastic sacks picking up “berries.” Naturally, he had a pocket full of chocolates (any candy in India) that he gave them when they left with a promise not to climb the wall or gate again.  You can’t build walls tall enough to keep them out, but you can build relationships.  They asked, “When can we come again, Sir?” Next time we will have a little Bible story time with the berry picking

Keep us in your prayers.  By the way, the well is working perfectly, and all of you who helped make that happen. . . THANKS, THANKS.  We received just the exact amount we needed.

http://www.prakash4india.org
Sylvia H. Eckhardt
Prakash for India