Updates

Crystal: I didn't get to say but Sunday we had a fun bible class...we did the story about Elijah and Elisha and the Chariot of fire, Elisha helping a widow to pay off her debt, Elisha repaying a couple for their kindness by asking God to bless them with a child, and the story about Josiah, who becomes a king when he's eight. Then the children decorated crowns to wear on their heads. Aaron also had the opportunity to teach the young adults class and preach for worship.

Lately we've been working on the welding shed for Raju and Niranjan. Raju has been helping in the mornings because his school is starting later this week, so we've been able to get a lot done. We've also pretty much finished the water filter, but the flowrate is a little too fast, so we have to slow it down.

Yesterday we went with Ricky to St. Mary's College and talked to the Education students about America. We were kind of nervous about it, but it was really fun. My cheeks hurt by the end because of smiling so much. We tried to work in stuff about the church and Christianity. Ricky asked who was going to come to the church on Sunday and a couple of them said that they would. It was funny because we would start talking about America and Ricky would finish what we were going to say in translation...either he is a mind reader, or he really knows his American History...hmm. Aaron played a song on his guitar and then we sang two songs acapella- a Christian song in English, then Naa Pranama, a Telegu song. It was really fun. They asked all sorts of questions about rumors they heard of America, and they asked how long we agreed to be married, which we said forever, and Ricky said 1000 years. I guess they heard about our divorce rate in America. They also thought that in America you can't go out past 8 at night or somebody will shoot you. We also told them how America is a lot different than they make it out to be in the movies and music videos.

The village that we started digging a well in hit a boulder and couldn't get through it, but the government decided that they would help them, and they used machinery, so God blessed their faith and hard work anyway. Joseph, the preacher we worked with, has been starting wells for his other congregations and is having some success. The people there have the mind to work he said. Aaron went with him to buy pump stuff for one of his wells. The money that people gave our group is also providing for a baptistry for a congregation, a sewing machine for a congregation for their outreach sewing class, finishing the church building for the congregation in Bukaluru (where we first started digging a well), and we still have some more to allot to certain things. Thank you all for giving to us, we want you to know that God is allowing us to put it to good use and the need is great here.

Please continue to pray for us. We only have a week and a day left.
Love,
Crystal