This morning we left early to travel to Munnar.  On our way we stopped at Marayoor Tribal Mission which is run by sisters Jansi and Freeda. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a mission run to teach and look after 60 children aged from 8 to 18.  These children are from the tribal areas in the surrounding mountains.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We travelled through some beautiful scenery on the way to Munnar and we even saw a few monkeys.  We had to keep the windows up in the car incase they jumped in.  We passed by a lot of children who shouted and waved saying “hello, how are you?”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weather was really nice and sunny but the further up the mountain we got it became more like Scotland, cold and raining.

Tomorrow we are going elephant riding and also on the speed boat to try and catch a glimpse for the wild elephants

We’ve just had some very sad news. Michael John Sunderaj who visited with us in 2006 as part of our World Without Walls programme died today.  John was an outstanding young man in his late 20s or early 30s. He got married around two years ago, in fact just after his visit to Scotland and last year his wife had a little baby.

John  was admitted to hospital around two weeks ago. Those of us who knew him had been praying for his speedy recovery however Capt. Thacker received the call this morning that John had died.  The cause of his illness is unknown to us but I believe it may have been a form of cancer.

I was looking forward to seeing John again. He was a young man with so much enthusiasm for life. He loved his family so much, and had so much respect and love for his brothers and sisters and his parents. He was deeply affected by the loss of his father in a motorbike accident in 2005, and now today it is the turn of his friends and family to grieve for him. John like his father Sunderaj had a deep and profound faith. He had a very gentle heart and a caring spirit especially toward the poor. Listen to John narrate a short movie he made on the work of his late father in serving those who suffer from leprosy. Click here

 

Well we have arrived safely in India. We had a good flight with BA and had no problems with luggage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived at 4 am but it took a while to get through security because of the Swine Flu checks. We stayed at the YWCA and left at 9:30 pm to travel to Dindigul by train. The train ride was good and it was Vikki’s first time on the train.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived in Dindigul at 6am and we were met with Abraham and Danny. We proceeded to Parson’s Court. After a couple of hours rest we went to visit the Martha Medical Clinic, where we met Benjamin’s new wife, Gloria. She is a doctor of Natural Medicine.
The clinic is doing really well. Abraham was telling us that 5000 people have been seen at the clinic over the past year, and over 150 families are coming to the clinic on a regular basis. The clinic provides free/low cost health care to the surrounding villages and provides care for those who can’t afford to pay for health checks or treatment. Today we saw a man having an ECG done as he had been having chest pain, there was someone on a drip, someone else had blood take and another had their Blood pressure and lungs checked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The clinic is going from strength to strength. We gave some money to help support the work they are doing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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