Week 7: What on earth...

On Friday, Mark and I heard the news about the devastating explosion at the factory in Tianjin, China. We watched the footage on-line on Mark’s laptop, with some of the children from the orphanage also wanting to see what had happened. We spent time praying for the people in Tianjin after viewing the videos several times over – it was the only thing we felt we could do.

Saturday was celebrated by people across India as the 68^th anniversary of independence from British rule. The school had planned to host an event on Saturday morning to commemorate the special occasion. This meant that Mark and I were chief guests and had to wear some fairly unusual clothes. It was even suggested that we would be raising the Indian flag, but it ended up being left to two other chief guests. The event involved children singing, dancing, marching and giving speeches. It was especially awesome to see one of the children reciting a speech that Mark had written out for him!

Mark and I hanging by the washing lines

School girls performing a traditional dance with pom-poms

Straight after the event, Mark and I joined up with some friends from the local church and took a bus to Chinchoti, where we spent the day trekking around some forest and swimming in rivers. There were a number of stunning waterfalls, with the best saved until last. I lost my glasses there but at least my friends told me that the waterfalls looked really nice… actually I could still see pretty well so it wasn't a problem!

I almost stood in some animal muck just then

I love forests

This is just before I lost my glasses

School's been ten times better this week - I've been able to teach a series of lessons rather than being given random topics by teachers with no notice. I've just finished going through different categories of animal and plant life with Year 10, whilst for Year 11 I've been able to bring some Uni knowledge into science classes on pollution. Overall, working with the same classes each day has been a lot more productive and enjoyable than before!

Simple drawing and labelling exercises on the board

Praise Points:

• Praise for the continuous kindness of the men and women at church and at the orphanage. who have generously looked after us and invited us into their homes
  
• Praise for further opportunities to read the Bible with some of the older guys at the orphanage
   
• Praise for having the most enjoyable week so far!

Prayer Points:

• Prayer for the world we live in - from Tianjin to the Middle East
  
• Prayer for wisdom and love as I prepare to leave in two weeks time