Christmas and New Years in Hyd

As Wes and Darryl were no longer with us, Dad trained down on their ticket and Mum, Erina & I traveled on Christmas Eve. We arrived at the compound 2 hours later than expected in the middle of the last minute bustle I raced for the shower and achieved a lovely burn from the hot water pipe which wasn’t really the best way to start the festivities.
I was amazed at how many foreigners were there!! Tim Uncle had prepared the meditation on Jesus being the light of the world, and us radiating that light out to others around us and it was really inspiring.
Then somehow we managed to fit all the visitors and the Shunem and Moinabad people onto transport and headed out to Shunem for the lunch.
Grandiosity of Grandiosities… Shunem was decked out for the king and queen. Floor tables had been set up and we all reclined at table and were served scrumptious chicken, curries, salads, and so many good things. It was a hot day so everyone retired to the shade in the afternoon to share presents etc. After traveling all night I found so many people overwhelming and retired to Cals room to rest! Everyone left quite quickly and by the time I surfaced again, there was really only the Abel’s and a couple of others left that were actually staying at Shunem. I found the next couple of days more peaceful and it was really nice to finally meet Colin & Val Edwards. They are such lovely people who organize the fundraising for Shunem in the UK. Most of the children went home on Christmas day, so we had fun spending time with the kids whose parents were too sick for them to return home.
Our family had organized a catchup with Frank, Dorothy and Lois Abel as we only had one day overlapping, and we decided to go to the craft fair together. The plan got out and we headed there with all the Shunem kids in tow. Lois and I spent the afternoon trying to find things that would be suitable for her wedding. The most amazing thing from that trip was the quickness in which Aunt Dorothy purchased her wedding outfit. I was completely shockedJ Her only desire was to please her husbands and daughter’s tastesJ
That night our family went out for dinner with the Abel’s, Tej and Chaitanic. We fared sumptuously on pasta and steak. Such flavours…. To be compared with amazingly expensive restaurants in the west. A rare treat.

I really enjoyed being around so much later this year as I’ve got to do so many extra things, including the Visak & Moinabad End of Year camps.
We helped Suzi & Maggie with the SS, and it was cool because most of the children were from Shunem or Moinabad and knew English well. Discussion group time was focused on first principles and on New years day we had 12 baptisms, which was lovely. A beautiful start to the year. Two of the newly baptized I’d taught in SS at the Vijayawada meetings, so it was very special for me to be there to see them start their new walk in Christ.
The classes were on ‘all creatures great & small’ and ‘marriage’. The first topic was dealing with how God is such an incredible creator, and how all things work just so. The second topic was amazing. The brother basically gave marriage-counseling classes. He came to a point in one of his talks ‘now courting is a beautiful thing’ at which point Tim Uncle interjected with ‘we have arranged marriages in India’ and Simon moved on with another topicJ
New Years Eve was another treat! We started by singing while waiting for the bonfire to be lit, and then Tim Uncle arranged another Song and Praise, meditations and hymns interwoven together in front of the campfire. We were praying for a blessing when the new year commenced all around us. Seemed the right thing to do, seek God first in the New Year before anything else. And then, there were the birthdays, and the cutting of cake, and the firecrackers and more singing, and some walking round the fire!!
It was really hard getting up the next morning in time for the bus to head back to Moinabad and help out with the baptism interviews, but it was a very moving occasion when we had 12 new family members by mid morning.
In the afternoon we restedJ and by evening we were ready to be partaking of a goodbye supper for Cals who was flying home the next day with Mum and Dad. Then a 2nd goodbye supper of pancakes and good things in the guestroom.
The 2nd was an early morning into Hyd with all our ‘luggages’ in the van. Mum, Cals & I treated ourselves in the morning and then had lunch with the crowd at Tim & Sarah’s. They finished their time in India with a massive dinner at the Tej Hotel with our group taking up about 6 tables.
It was my privilege to be staying at the Catholic compound that night and the gates were shutting at 9pm. I went to the airport to say goodbye to the fam and came back by 10, thankfully I arrived as another man did who had the key and let me in. They must lock them all away at night from the outside?? Weird.
Sadness was there! But in India there is never much time to be sad! The next day was a sleep in and then a mad rush to make sure we had bought food for the train, and packed the bags and then Erina, Annie Kortman and I were traveling the 28 hours to ‘God’s own country’ as they like to call it!!