Day 7: Church

Day 7 consisted of the following:

• Morning
• Church meeting
• After the meeting

Sunday 15 November 2015

Morning:

We went for a light jog just down the road with a few of the older boys at around 5:30am.  I was amazed to see that there were several other people jogging/stretching and setting up shop at that time in the morning.  The boys said that they go for a jog every morning and a lot of the people from the villagers also do this for good health.

For breakfast we had French toast with fried eggs, cheese and jam.  I think they put on really nice meals just for the guests, but when Keith and the French people leave tomorrow I think I'll be expecting to be eat much more simple meals.  I had a shower in the morning, Shanthi very kindly heated a bucket of water for me to use, I will have to get use to use a bucket to wash myself from now on. 

Church Meeting:

At 8:30am all the children ran into a small hall at the orphanage, sat down on the ground in lines, boys on one side and girls of the other.  I sat down with the boys and we remembered the Lord in a simple yet meaningful way, as I am used to back in New Zealand.  The meeting consisted of the following:

• One of the men would start a hymn, and everyone would join in - I've noticed that all of the children always sing very loud and joyfully all the time
• One of the men would pray or read a verse from the bible
• The bread and wine were handed out in a simple way
• Everyone who wanted to give to the collection walked up to the box and gave money
• There was a bible teaching right after the remembrance meeting
• However the whole time it was in all in the Kannada language, so it was hard to understand, apart from when Keith spoke

After that meeting finished we had a short break then everyone piled into school bus vans and drove to another meeting which was at the school's hall.  Raju, Keith and the French people stayed behind as there was a baptism of a young man who is due to get married soon.  The meeting at the school had a lot of the local people attending, there must have been around 100 people in the hall.  It was very similar to the previous one.  I noticed that everyone was dressed in their very best clothes, all the women had very colourful dresses on and they all had a real desire to worship God. 

Picture of one of the school buses from the Sunday morning meeting

After The Meeting:

After every meeting, everyone would go around the room shaking each others hands while saying "praise the Lord", it felt very special to have all of these people wanting to shake my hand, a really nice way of fellowship.  Afterwards everyone piled into different vehicles and headed home.  I've come to understand that in India seat belts are non-existent and  you literally fit as many people as physically possible into each vehicle all the time, however everyone is very good driving.  I'm now becoming good friends with all of the children at the orphanage and a few of the older boys are really getting attached to me and go with me everywhere.

Picture of me in the school bus packed with children

The weather was slightly colder today at around 18 degrees with very light rain at times.  On the way back to the orphanage from the school the boys were pointing out what every shop and building was for, Hunsur is a really interesting and busy little town.  Keith pointed out that virtually every young man in India has a mustache, it must be some sort of trend.  I'm still feeling quite sick with a blocked noise and cough, it's taking quite some time to get over this bug. Tomorrow Raju will take Keith and the French people to Mysore then Bangalore to fly home.  I will travel with the other teachers on the school bus and start my first day of teaching English and Maths at the school. Feeling nervous but looking forward to it at the same time.