VBS

5 weeks of Bible Schools leaves you feeling quite exhausted. We did have 1 day off inbetween each of them, but it usually involved catching a train to the next venue, so it was nice to have 2.5 days down south at the end of the Kerala bible week to ourselves.

I'd love to introduce VBS at Cumberland. Those weeks were truely exciting and will be most memorable looking back at the time I've spent in India this year.
It was busy, but I learnt so much from the classes and about the students from the questions they asked me. The VBS in Hyderabad began on the 14th of May and we had classes every afternoon starting at 4pm and the offical closing time was 6pm. But with the 30 minute singing period at the beginning of each session, and with the lesson being translated, and activity books to fill in, and crafts to complete, and a drama to prepare, there seriously wasn't enough time allotted for the children, and my classes ended up continuing on to 6:30 most days!!

The classes were based in Genesis and our first one was on proving the bible true, and then moving onto Creation through to the story of Jacob. Looking back, we also tried to cover to much in the lessons with the amount of time we had each day, but it did give the children (especially the older ones) quite a good summary of the first twenty or so chapters in Genesis.
I loved teaching about the character of God and His purpose with the earth, and tried to make as many links with the kingdom as possible and show them the consistancy of the message throughout the whole bible.

My class was 12-15 year olds and ranged between 5-15 students each day. The 2nd day 3 guys turned up and asked some detailed questions from the content that we'd covered on the first day and when I explained to them we'd already covered it and could they stay back and I'd answer it, they said they'd come an hour early the next day to have the whole lesson again. It made me so so excited. The whole 2 weeks I was on a spiritual high because of this group of kids...I loved them to pieces, and was quite emotional when I had to leave them. God Willing, they'll come back to the start of the sunday school year in June.

Chasing the Monsoon

is the title of a book that I have been recommended to read, and I feel it is what my soul is doing at the moment. It's been a very hot 5 weeks, with some added mugginess last week in Kerala so yesterday when some pre monsoon rains hit us they were very much enjoyed.

When we were originally booking tickets down south, Tim Jenner suggested that if we were visiting Kerala and had a few days off, then we should head down to the tip of India, and see KanyaKumari. We ran with the suggestion and it was a high moment when we got off the train on Sunday (late afternoon) and smelt the sea air, felt the sea breeze, saw the sea view from our hotel room (200rups for the night) made our way to the southernmost point India has to offer and sank our feet into the sand and the let waves crash on us.

I think I stood in the water for at least an hour. I was disspointed with what India had to offer at it's tip, but completely satisfied with being on the beach, and later that night to feel the wind blow on my face as Sarah and I watched the full moon rise in the sky.