Coconut Jungles...our last villages

Today we went to two villages. The first village had a lot of children so Niranjan (our fearless translator) and I (Crystal) went with them into a little room and taught them bible stories while Aaron preached to the adults about becoming like a child with Ricky translating. We taught them 4 stories about Elijah since they never heard of him, 2 stories about Elisha, one about King Josiah, one about Jesus healing the ten lepers and how only one came back to thank him, one about Peter and John healing a lame beggar in Jesus' name, and one about Paul and Silas in jail during an earthquake. It was fun, we just kept on going with the stories because Aaron wasn't done with his sermon outside yet. Since there was only two of us we elected not to use the puppets, but the children saw them and wanted to see them when we were done with the stories. It is funny because there is always a little child in each village who is scared of the puppets, while the other children want to touch them all the time. Then some of the ladies who were in there to watch their children asked me questions and made me sing a song for them. They were a really loving congregation. They asked us to come back and visit them.

The second village we went to didn't have that many children, so I just watched Aaron preach and hung out with the older ladies and the children of the congregation. One lady in particular was really sweet. She asked me to sit by her and held my hand. Lately I've been trying to sing along with the Telegu songs by watching the songleader(since we can't sing in English)...it is kind of funny because the children always look at me and smile. I think they think I actually know the songs, while I only know a few, and not very well. Aaron spoke about how God's gift to man is salvation through the death of His son and how God requires us to search for our gift, and how if we stay faithful we will get the prize at the end of our race of faith. One man decided to be baptized, so we were blessed by being able to see him make that decision.

Please pray for us as we fly out on Thursday.

God bless

Love,

Crystal

The last few days...

The last few days have been bitter-sweet. Saturday we tried to make a solution to the food and water waste in the yard of the children's home. Aaron dug a ditch along the place where the water spilled out, while I poured gravel where he was digging. Then we put sand over that...we still need to find out what we are going to do with the mud that we dug up. We thought it would be good for a garden or a flower bed, but we're not sure if we have enough time to make one or not...we will try.

The children all had exams the past week so we tried not to bother them too much while they were studying. After, they all have a 10 day break, starting Sunday, but most of them are going to relatives houses. It was kind of sad because we were excited to spend time with them up until we left, but then we found out most of them would be leaving today. So, yesterday afternoon through last night we just hung out with them, watched movies, played games, Aaron played guitar for them and then we all sang songs and and we handed out friendship bracelets that we made for them. Aaron gave them a good going away talk, but when I was supposed to talk I started crying...so I had to stop. Then like 6 children prayed for us taking turns.

We went to a village today. As soon as I got out of the car a woman from the congregation greeted me (wuntha namulu-"The churches of Christ greet you" Rom 16:6) and then she hugged me. We taught the children some bible stories, Ricky preached, then they put some cloth on our shoulders. We will miss India, the children and the villages. We are going to two villages tomorrow, then I think we are leaving for Vizag on Wednesday morning to spend some time there before our plane leaves Thursday from there.

One week left...

Crystal and I have been keeping busy. We finished the welding shed and are still trying to get the water filter flowing right. I spent today making tools and buying some plywood. There are a few things we want to do before we leave. One of the gutters at the children's home runs into the yard where it sits until it soaks into the ground. We are hoping to figure something out before we leave. Also we want to pour some concrete around the cooking shed post so it won't move in a high wind. I think we are also going to go a few villages which should be fun.

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

Breaking rocks in the hot sun...I fought with the law, and the law won.

Crystal and I started making a water filter last week. We took a class last spring offered by Convoy of Hope on how to do this. It is a simple project, basically a barrel full of sand and gravel. We found our barrel attached the necessary plumbing, and started to load our sand. To disinfect our sand we washed it and spread it out on a tarp on the roof to bake it. We spent alot of time on the roof stirring our sand which was hot, but fun. I made several sand paintings, a tree a goose, a fountain. Perhaps the sun was getting to me. We have experienced how to make our filters with worst case scenario conditions, which is timely but not impossible.

Yesterday we traveled to see brother Samuel Raju at Skinners Garden. It is a beautiful childrens' home and widows' home. They grow a lot of their own food and teach sewing, Bible and driving to young men and women. We recieved the grand tour of the entire campus and spent some time in their library. Please pray for them and their work. They have been facing persecution from some of the Hindus in the area. They were holding a free medical camp when six men drove up and started to tell them to stop. Samuel said the doctors were Hindu, those benefitting from the clinic were hindu, but it was sponsored by the Christians so it was opposed. Also their main well has been giving them problems for some time and needs replaced.

Preacher's Workshop

Today we went to a village for the monthly Preacher's Workshop. They were expecting like 75-100 people and about 150 showed up. I (Crystal) got to sit next to the ladies and pass notes back and forth to the villagers that knew English. I got one girl to write the New Testament Books for me in Telegu. It was fun...I made some friends. The girl I was sitting next to said that we were best friends...she was really sweet. Another lady said that she wanted to go to America with us so I told her that I would have to fit her in my suitcase. They were really fun.

We got to listen to a lot of Preachers speak in Telegu, then Aaron spoke last about how the Bible is our toolbox full of different tools and how we have to use it and live it. It was nice to hear a sermon in English. Aaron and I both miss hearing sermons in English. One preacher was really excited and we could tell he was probably a good preacher, but we had no idea what he was saying. It was a really good experience. All the villagers and the preachers were really loving.

Water filters in the making

We've been working on a water filter for the children's home for the last couple of days. We have found that everything takes a little longer in India because of shopping. We were supposed to buy rock gravel, but they only have limestone gravel, so we bought some big rocks and we are working to break them up. The children from the children's home have been helping us a lot...they all want to do whatever you happen to be doing. Little Suresh has been my helper, bringing me more rock when I run out...he's so cute. His parents died in a car accident. His grandmother was taking care of him and his brother, but she died also.

Tomorrow we are going to a preacher's workshop in a village, so we'll have to get back to our project later.

Joseph's Well at the End of the Earth.

We spent the last four days in the mountain jungles of Andra Pradesh. We visited two villages. I preached in one village and four said they wanted to be baptized. Two of them were the parents of one of the cooks at the Gootam's house. She is Eighteen and her name is Chinni. She is the girl in the lavender between Ricky and me. She has become a good friend to us so we were happy to go visit her village and look at her old stomping grounds...I can just imagine a littler Chinni running around playing there. We are especially happy that her parents decided to become Christians. Next to Ricky is Joseph the super preacher. He was baptized 10 years ago and he has baptized about 25,750 people. He joyfully goes where most preachers think is too far, or unreachable. He used to walk to all these villages (about 150) but then Ricky's family bought him a bicycle. Then later they gave him an old motorcycle, which he takes everywhere. It is old and starts to shake when he gets to 45-50m/hr along with other problems, so we want to try and raise money for a newer motorcycle for him. He preaches to very poor people in the tribal villages who can only afford to give 1 rupee (10 rupees=25 cents). He gives so much of himself so we want to try and help him out. We got to hang out with him one night without an interpreter which was fun. We seemed to communicate even without knowing a common language. He calls us his brother and sister, and has taught us what real Christian brotherhood is.
took us to another village called Bakuluru where we started to dig a well. We stayed in a hotel in Narsiputnam while we worked on the well. It took 3 hours to get there each day and we worked for five hours or so and drove three hours back. We wanted to stay there overnight to work longer but Ricky said it was better to stay in the hotel. Our fearless translator Niranjan did stay in the village overnight. He was supposed to ride the bus to the hotel, but because of the rains the bus never came. So he had to walk 4km back to the village. The next morning he tried again, and again the bus didn't come so he had to walk to the next village to be picked up. It rained every day we were there. The last day we had to re-design one of the digging tools because it was not working very well. Our hole was too wide and we only dug 8 feet in two days. Had we dug a smaller diameter I think we could be at 30 ft instead. Please pray for this church that they don't get discouraged, because they say the water is 140 ft. down, also they are getting ridiculed by the other villagers. Starting to dig the well was like Nehemiah trying to rebuild the wall. We didn't get that discouraged because we couldn't understand what they were saying, but it must have been harder for the few that tried to help. We just understood that they were making fun of us, but we tried to stay light hearted about it. Two women decided to help us the last day, and a preacher from another village, which was encouraging. We sang some songs in English and they would sing some in Telegu. One of the women was laughing a lot and seemed to be a bit onery, which made it fun. Joseph guided the drill bit and bailer, but I think he was doing more than he had to, and took some of the weight on himself.

Sunday

Today we taught Sunday school as we do on Sunday mornings. We really miss having the other girls from our group and Christy to do this, as I am not good at thinking up crafts for them to do. But all was good, we just did a coloring sheet. Today we did the story of Paul and Silas in Prison, Jesus' baptism and temptation, and the story of how God provided food and water for the Israelites in the desert. It was fun. We are trying to do more unfamiliar stories for them, but we are running out of stories that they don't know that are in the children's bible. Last week we wrote the story of Deborah down in children's terms, so we might have to do more of those soon.

Then, after church, we came back and Aaron worked on his well drill. Please pray for him to find a way to do this, because he has been having trouble getting the weld to stick. I sung songs and played games with the children because I really don't know anything about welding. Then we went to the park and played duck duck goose around this garden of flowers with a lot of onlookers nearby. Some people asked if we could take pictures with their children...which was funny...and weird. Some of the children that were in the park joined our game. It was a really fun day.

hospital happenings and well drill making

Crystal- Well, a lot of times people don't have pleasant experiences in hospitals, either because their body is ailing them, or their loved ones are sick...but we had some pretty cool things happen in the hospital. Besides the fact that I had a MRI which is a pretty cool thing in itself, the doctor asked Ricky what he does, and then he offered to give free surgeries to the "genuinely needy." Also, a guy recognized Ricky from the tv program (if you didn't know, Ricky & his fam are kind of famous here.) Anyway this guy, Paul Raj, said he used to drink and beat his wife because she was a Christian and he was Hindu (which happens a lot here.) Now, he gave up his job as a Mechanical Engineer and he is preaching for the Lord. He was there for kidney stones, which he said are a result of his former life. He said that an American that he used to work with an his wife (because she never said anything back to him) were the ones that introduced him to Jesus. I could tell that he was probably in a lot of pain, but he was so joyful, which is strange to see because we've noticed a lot of people don't smile very often here, except for the people in the church. It was really crowded and he was the only other smiling face I saw.

Aaron- MY QUEST. I have searched for material a long time to make some well drilling tools. Slowly I have gathered the things I need to do this. Most of the things seem to have fallen from heaven when I least expect them. God has provided for me several times. There was really only two things keeping from making the tools. The first was some cutoff blades for an angle grinder. This was really no problem since I knew I had seen them in a tool shop earlier. The real challenge was that I need a special kind of welding rod to weld high strength steel. The first time I asked the store keep for it he said he didn't have it. Today I prayed before I went to the shop that this obstacle could be conquered. I asked this time with a print out from a web page that I had found. I thought they were going to order me a case and I would have to wait a week to get them, but they gave me a whole case. I think they had them all the time they just didn't understand what I was asking for. So I was able to start work on my drilling tools today. I am half done with one set. Of course I will need to test them before we use them. Please keep us in your prayers. Pray for water at the bottom of whatever hole we make.

Some minor distractions.

Sorry for the lag in updates. Crystal's shoulder has been paining her for the last week. We have been trying to figure out what is wrong with it since Sunday. She got an MRI today and we were told that she has fractured something. We get the official diagnoses tomorrow. We were unable to go to any villages this week so I have been getting up early to work on the welding shed. I have had some progress but it seems slow. Crystal has been visiting the kids at the children's home while she is unable to do anything strenuous. Please remember us in your prayers because Crystal is frustrated with her shoulder and I am worried for my wife. The kids have been keeping Crystal's and my spirits high. There is something about the love of the children that can help heal the soul. I am sorry this blog is short but I am tired and my bed is calling my name.