Construction, oh well...and the village with the girls

Today Jim and I helped the OC group do some work at the Childrens' home. Jim helped paint and I poured concrete for a couple of stoves. We poured a 6x6 pad which we mixed by hand. We rented boards to use as forms for 15 rupees a day. Jordan, one of the guys from the OC group, shared the pleasure of carrying the boards back to the childrens' home with me, on the back of a bicycle. We finished the pouring the concrete. However, it started raining about three hours later. I hope it is still there in the morning, oh well. We have been staying busy and we love all the kids here. Please keep us in our prayers. Love Aaron

Crystal: Today Ricky, Ronnie, the girls, and I went to a village called Gunlapallie. This congregation started about a year and a half ago with only 4 members. Now, there are 60 adults (mostly women) and 70 children. Ricky said that the preacher is really hard working there. He actually made our delicious meal, which is usually made by one of the women in the congregation. The girls (Sarah, Michelle, and Marie) taught the children three stories using the puppets. They taught the story about Jesus getting left in the temple as a child, Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and Jesus calming the storm. As I was talking I kept on hearing the children clapping and giggling when the girls were teaching them. The girls said that they LOVED the puppets, so it was good that Beverly brought them. I got to talk about God's perfect knowledge of man, in which I also talked about grace, idolatry, Luke 9:62 which talks about not returning to your old life.... It was really fun. Afterward, Ricky preached to them, using Judges 2 and some other stuff about idolatry. Afterward, the woman surrounded me and wanted me to pray for them. It was really neat. The people were incredibly sweet. The old women always grab your hand tightly and tenderly and kiss you. They were really loving.

Beverly asked Ricky how many congregations are around Kakinada and he said about 1000. Ronnie said that Ricky visits each one at least once a year. Wow, he is really busy! He is making us busy too, which is good. Tomorrow they are having an eye clinic at the church.
We are having a preacher's workshop on Friday and Aaron, Beverly, and I are speaking. Aaron is speaking to the preachers and Bev and I are speaking to the wives. Fun! Fun! Everyone is doing such a good job and is getting along really well, I am so proud of them! We are all becoming good friends. Today one of the girls at the Children's Home have told me that Marie is their best friend...she is so loving. Please continue to pray for us.

New Pics

Today we went to our first village. Aaron got to preach about Freedom. It was really good. Then some OC guys preached and we sang with the OC group. While they were preaching the children that were sitting in front of us kept on turning around at us because of our white skin, and then they would smile after we smiled at them and turn around quickly. They were really cute. One man was baptized after the preaching which was cool. After, the OC group taught a children's bible lesson, and we ate on banana leaves. It was really good, the people were really sweet and chopped off the top of some coconuts for us to drink and eat. Then, we took pictures of the children and they loved it! No matter how many you took of them each time they would look at the pictures they would giggle over and over. They love digital cameras. Thank you everyone who made this trip possible for all of us. We really appreciate it and it is awesome seeing the Lord work here.

Jet Lagged

Yesterday was great we went to Church and the OC group was doing a great job of teaching the children songs and Bible stories. We helped a little but they did most of the talking. I think they were giving us an idea of what to expect from the kids and what we are expected to do. After Church we ate and our team all had to deal with our jet lag. I slept from 4 pm to 5 or 6 am. I do feel better though. This morning our team is going to go to a village. It will be our first trip and I will be excited to tell what happens. Love Aaron

We made it!!!

Our trip to Kakinada was successful! We are all doing okay, we are still awaiting our check in baggage, but the OC team had the same experience and they all received theirs, so we should receive ours also. We have had the opportunity to talk to the team from OC, and they have been busy doing God's work here. We are also looking forward to staying really busy, and are excited to work with the OC team. Continue to pray for us, that God would lead us in speaking to these wonderful people in India.

Love you all!
Crystal

Our last meeting

As many of you may know, we've been meeting almost every Monday night to prepare for India since the beginning of Spring semester. We've had people talk to us and give advice, wrote out lessons for the adults, made bible story books for the children at the orphanage, talked about cultural taboos and travel information, and yesterday we set up a mock water well drill and dug into the dirt about 3 feet. We didn't have a digital camera for all the other meetings, but we have pictures of our drilling and meeting.