Like Cold Water to a Weary Soul

Proverbs 25:25
Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.

It’s 89.2 degrees in our bedroom at 9pm this evening. It got up over 106 today! In this hot weather a cold coffee or cold drink of water from the fridge hits the spot. Similarly, hearing good news from our family back in the good ‘ol US of A also is refreshing.

We’ve heard some great and wonderful news from our close friend and Merrilea’s brother, Jonathan:

One month to go before he marries Sarah Ko!

We wish we could be there for the USA wedding!
We’re very much looking forward to attending the Korean wedding later this year.

This is probably the single most difficult thing about being on the flip side – not being around for family. We’ve missed birthdays and anniversaries and just plain hanging out with our relatives, watching the kids play and enjoying each other’s company.

Love you Jonathan and Sarah!

Merrilea's Birthday

At midnight on the 27th we had a knock on our door . . . several of our friends came by with cake to wish Merrilea a happy birthday! They stayed and played cards for 2 hours! (I went to bed in the meantime!)

While I took Merrilea out for cake & coffee at Coffee Jar and shopping, our kids decorated with flower petals! That's 2 Kilos of rose petals! They even made a trail of them from the front door to the bedroom!

While Danielle and Maria went to ballet class, Joseph and I learned how to crimp our own Ethernet cables! After 4 unsuccessful crimps we've got 6 that work! Now Joseph is making crepes for supper! The girls are back from ballet but they appear exhausted . . . could it have something to do with going to bed at 2am this morning?

We'll try for a family photo this week. They fam is too tired right now!
Blessings on this special day!

Family Time Out

Last week we enjoyed a meal out with our kids and another family…we weren’t sure what to do for supper and decided to give our friends a call at the last minute…we met at a local vegetarian restaurant called Shiv Sagar.

Nafisa enjoyed the attention the waiters were giving her, too. After some mini-taco shells filled with macaroni, a large dosa – real thin rice-pancake with coconut and potato relishes, Pau-baji - buns with a spicy bean sauce with onions, we enjoyed loud conversation, being the only ones in the A/C area for an hour! We walked home, about 3 blocks, passing by our favorite coffee shop, Coffee Jar, to say ‘hello’ to the owners. We fed our family for $13.95. Pretty good for all 6 of us!

Meanderings from Up in the Air

Every time I take off on another flight, I wonder why I didn’t take a bus or train?! For some reason the turbulence on the first and last 15 minutes of the flights are quite bad and very unnerving. I’m not sure why they are so unnerving…I’ve been doing this for more than a few years now. On a recent trip with a friend, he even commented that the flight’s turbulence was the worst he’s experienced this year. For me, it was just a normal flight. My job changes based on the opportunities which arise. So for the last year I’ve been taking monthly trips to Bangalore. The topography we fly over is an arid plateau surrounded by low mountains and forests with temperatures fluctuating from over 104 during the day to 80 at night. I understand about the sun heating the air and it causing irregular masses of air to rise. Also, Jet Streams of air at higher altitudes fluctuate due to air pressure changes causing more turbulence.

But the experience of turbulence in a Boeing 737 is a bit more traumatic than that sounds. Maybe it’s due to me traveling alone so I’m alone in my thoughts? I think I’ll book a train for August. Here we go again…descending into Bangalore!

This doesn’t help either: http://www.airsafe.com/events/models/b737.htm

May 1980; Indian Airlines 737-200; near Rampur Hat, India: The aircraft experienced severe en route turbulence. Two of the 132 passengers were killed.

Joseph’s Cricket

A few times a month, Joseph has gotten together with some friends, boys from an orphanage along with some adults who were involved in Danielle's old school to and play cricket…THE sport of India. He sure enjoys it!

Danielle enjoys just watching Joseph's cricket game from a good spot (she didn't sit there too long!) :-)

On Thursday, Merrilea and I went to Thane, just north of Mumbai overnight to lay ground work for some visitors we have coming from South Carolina in May. Boy was it hot and humid! It was not as hot as Pune but because Thane is closer to the coast, it sure was muggy. Not jeans weather! We were looking for one particular area of the city and we ended up walking in a big circle for 2 hours! It was a laugh when we realized we actually were back where we had started! That does not happen very often to us…but it sure was funny!

Krazy Kitab!

Kitab (Kee-taab) in Urdu means 'book.' We spent hours and hours this last week logging over 2,000 books in a computer spread sheet. When Danielle's school shut down this last week we received all the books back which we had loaned them. We still are not done but we are sure well on our way!
We've got other boxes of books that we will use for this school year as well as ones we've used in the recent past which we need to log and shelve. Joseph will be happy as those boxes line his bedroom walls!

It remains pretty hot here...now most days over 100 degrees. It should remain this hot till mid June when the rainy season starts.
Either way, some of us are having fun!

Easter Sunday Sunrise on the Flip Side

This Picture was taken from our bedroom balcony this morning.

Plans for the day:

Sunrise coffee on our bedroom terrace and reading through “The Suffering Servant of the Cross” from http://stevenjcamp.blogspot.com/2007/04/o-sacred-head-thou-wounded-shame.html#links
along with the Resurrection story from Matthew’s Gospel account.

Eating hot cinnamon buns from Coffee Jar – something which is rare in India.

The kids go to local church service at 11:30 by rickshaw
Our house church will meet at 2-4PM over a church member’s home about 1 mile from our apartment। We’ll enjoy a late lunch together, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

10:30 this am:

While all this will happen, it is a normal Sunday in India: Muslims going to the mosque 5 times today, Hindus visiting their various temples, and the various Christian denominations celebrate in their churches this morning।

This afternoon we helped our friends put on an Easter party in their apartment complex. We had a great time of fun and literally explaining why Good Friday is good when it's the day Jesus was killed.

Fashion or use...which comes first?

Maria has new glasses!

Style and Fashion... whatever happened to just plain 'glasses?'

Congrats Maria! We like 'em!
Dad

Remembering Emanuel Mission School

कूदाहफिज़

Goodbye to a school where our kids learned about various countries and developed life-long friends from across the globe.
Goodbye to annual jog-athons, daily traditional Indian lunches, endless 'ups and downs' the 3 flights of stairs.