Friday/Saturday recap

The last two days have been great. 80-95 degrees mostly, and a nice wind. No rain, so keep praying for the farmers here in the district. We can all use some rain these days...

(S.Vincent, Emrys Rees, G. Bhushanam, Josh Paroubek, Adam Basha, V. Bhaskar Rao)

Above are most of the members of the LINK team. They are p/t Chaplains of the hospital, and they roam the countryside villages in the evenings and Sundays to help new Christians and support many of the local village churches (15-50 people each usually). They are a bunch of characters. They have been working in this function for over 10 years already. We had a usually "Friday Meeting" (10am-3:30pm) today (break for lunch). It was good to be with them. Adam was present for this meeting, his father "John Basha" recently had lasik eye surgery and is chillin' a home with some special sunglasses on for a week.


After the meeting we bumbed around. I read and watched some cricket. Kathryn was helping her mother is several things today. We stayed on campus in the evening and attended the Yerperdu Christian Church's Friday fellowship study (songs, bible study-conversation, and some snacks at the end). The wind picked up tonight.. it was great. 20-25 mph gusts while you are outside on mats singing to the Lord. A little sandy at times, cause of the wind. But fun.

Today we have been busy. Kathryn has been documenting step by step with the camcorder, how to make chicken biryani. It is a great dish. And India favorite. The wife of a worker here at the hospital came to show Kathryn and her mother how to make it. I finished my sermon for one of Vincent's village fellowships tomorrow. Lunch was extraordinary. So good, even, that we had left overs for supper also!













Here is a picture of the meal. It was definitely a great "early" birthday present (mine is next Saturday). Actually I don't need a gift, now that we have had this. mmmmmm.... if only the Internet had a "scratch n sniff" option. Santhosh usually takes 1 hour to eat his food. But for some reason pizza and biryani are gone in 10 minutes.

Today the final counts for all the Elections over the last 2 months are coming in. We are still waiting to here what the local make up will be. Basically who will be in power in the local division headquarters of Thirupati. That is the city of 500-700,000 that has the largest grossing Hindu Temple in the world. Second only to the Vatican. And the policies of Thirupati affect the hospital quite a bit. DLRH is a famous hospital here, it is the only free hospital for what we offer in over 600 square miles (think of 80 miles by 80 miles... that amount of space). So it is good to know that the leadership in the local gov't is friendly.

Emrys and I had a 4 hour marathon meeting today. Nothing really accomplished on any one subject... but progress on several things...slowly it is coming together. I think.

Tonight we are just relaxing, catching up on stuff, talking more about the immediate 6 month needs, etc. Kathryn and I spent a good hour out in the front yard talking about life, the mission, the future... it was good. I fed dusty popcorn, which he loves, and only gets once in a great moon. The Puppies didn't quite know what to make of popcorn.

(the puppies outside in our front yard, more pics to come, promise)

Prayers: For the Indian election - so far the current government has spanked everyone (stability is good here). Please keep praying for rain for our soil! We really really really need it, it hasn't rained since April 25th last month (our last Monthly Meeting for our HIV positive kids).

Praise: Kathryn's hands have not itched for 2-3 days, and she can enjoy the last few weeks of time here. Please pray for our conversations and planning since we only have 10 more days here on campus, and 5 days in Chennai/Madras before we leave. And Praises for what we have accomplished so far. AND praises for iPods. The last few days when I have been running in the morning it has been good to listen to some Hillsong United. So praises for technology, praise and worship bands, the coolness of the morning, and Jesus!

Thanks for reading and looking!