Our trip to India was confirmed the minute we boarded our flight to Chennai. 99% of the people on board the flight were of indian origin.  We were seated in the window and middle seat in the plane and the empty seat was filled by an american lady with a gold cross around her neck.  Her name was Pam and she too was heading to Chennai to work with a Christian organisation.  She is involved in working with women who are HIV +ve and have AIDS.  This is her third trip to Chennai and she was very interested in the projects we were visiting.  We have swapped details and hopefully will keep in touch.  We felt that God had placed us next to each other on the flight for a special purpose.This is Pam collecting her bags.  (see if you can spot Vikki!!)   

We arrived at Christ the Rock church just in time to meet the children from the slum who were there having a meal.  Everyone was so excited to see us, many of them remembered Rae from her trip earlier in the year and some children were asking for the others who had been there too.       Later we were taken around the area where the children live, they were all running to greet us smiling and laughing and desperate to have their photo taken by Rae so they could see themselves and have a chuckle. It is difficult to put into words how you feel when you first see this area, even having seen pictures and been told all about it does not prepare you for the real thing, a very humbling experienceSunday Service, in the afternoon the children from the slum area came for Sunday school, we linked up with St Andrews morning service and the children sang for them, some of the older girls had been practicing a traditional Indian dance, I’m promised I too will be able to dance like that before I go home? Watch this space.  

 We took 200 modeling balloons to india because the children enjoyed playing with them so much last time, the balloon animals went down a treat this time too, we had no balloons left by the end of the day, I think the older children had as much fun playing with the balloons as the younger kids did.  They all left very contented. 

We have arrived safe and sound in India We had minimal delays, no detours and missing only one piece of luggage! It appeared that half of Chennai had gathered in the wee small hours to welcome us at the airport, however two important people were missing.  Yes Houston we had a problem, however after prayers, phone calls and wakening up only a few households Raj’s and Captain Thacker’s, we were swiftly collected, Vikki was given a shawl to welcome her, had her photo taken,  and we were taken to our hotel for the remaining part of the morning.  I’m sure Captain Thacker would have preferred we just stayed up, since it was early we could have had a head start on our “missionary work”.  However Pastor Raj yawning too, negotiated us all a few hours to rest and recuperate. We’ve not had much chance to use the internet and we won’t be able to update for a few days. This weekend we have been a Raj’s Church. This photo is of the slum children having a meal at the church.A lady at Raj’s church was remembering someone who died and she laid on this meal in that person’s honour. The children had a good meal.We also went for a walk around the slum and met some gypsies who live there, their living conditions are very poor and they don’t have much.This is a photo of 2 children who live in the slum.We were at church all day yesterday and are about to set off to the orphanage so I have to go. Will update at the weekend.Missing everyone…Rae and Vikki

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Because I didn’t want to keep two blogs up to date I posted all my India stories on my iTalker blog. So if you want to read about India got o www. iTalker.org.uk. keep looking at this blog because Rae and Nikki will be posting onto it in the the few days as they prepare to visit India mid November. As I write I’ve just heard that Eric and Lorna are now on their way to Sri Lanka. Here is an extract from an e-mail I received from Capt Thacker this morning;

Praise our Lord. Tks for the contribution.

Last few days Raj n family n self very busy in taking care of hospital duties. Raj has another patient to look after at another far off hospital. Robert is here to help us. By HIs Grace doctor released Erica yesterday after noon n now she is staying in Merdian Hotel. This morning we heard Robert n his friend Philip left for Colombo for holidays as they already planned. Yesterday afternoon when I was leaving them in the hotel, Robert planned to take them to Colombo. Both the girls are now in the hotel, Erica may be felt week to travel. ”