Sorry I’ve not been posting on Italker for a few days. I’ve been caught up with the blog we are keeping for the church. Today I decided that someone else should do some of the posting. So Jackie and Beatty are as I speak making up today’s post for WWWTraveller.

So I’ll tell you italker readers what I’ve been up to here in India.Well  when we finally arrived in India, what a welcome we received. Captain Thacker, and a number of the Pastors whose churches we’ll be visiting arrived to greet us at the airport. Garlands made of sandlewood beads were hung around our necks. We felt like royalty, real celebrities.  the it was getting re-accustomed to the busy noisy streets of Chennai

Our arrival here in India was 24 hours late, but tiredness someone disappears amidst the ecitement of the adventure we were about to embark upon.

We are staying at Stumpers Inn and interesting guest house that is run by Mr Sririam. there are also four house boys who work as waiters and general helpers around the home. Breakfast was scrambled egg and toast. Everyone was tired but no one wanted to go for a rest so we found ourselves visiting the sights of Chennai.

One prominant Scot in the 19th Century, John Andreson has a church named after him. Here is the plaque up on the wall of the church.  To read more of the past few days adventures go to www.standonline.org.uk and click on the India blog.

This morning we spent sometime in what Pastor Raj calls the slums. They truly are slums, probabally not all that different from what was in Scotland three hundred years ago. Indeed at the turn of the 20th Century, many of our cities in the UK were challenging places to live.

We visited a small sewing class taking place in what we might call a slum tennament. Pastor Raj and his church rent out these two rooms who teach the women who live in this area to sew. At the same time they believe that they are sowing into their lives the possibility of becoming self suffient people.