India Trip (part 4)

Thursday and Friday (June 7 & 8) were a couple more days of meeting more Hebron friends. Friday night we had supper at Tom & Valsa’s home. Saturday (June 9) was “graduation day” or as they call it at Hebron (and other British-system schools), the Leavers Ceremony. As one might expect at a school operating on a British education system, it was a very formal service and it was also quite God-honoring. After the ceremony, the majority of the staff and teachers, along with the leavers and their parents attended the banquet. Sarah and I went over to Selborne, mostly to “hang out” with the other couple on-duty for the evening (for those girls who were not at the banquet). Sarah also began preparations for the next day’s cooking spree. Rachel got back around 10:00 pm – apparently quite an early ending compared to most years – and so we visited for a little while before heading back to Farley.

Sunday (June 10) morning I had the privilege of bringing the morning message at St Stephen’s Church and again, the Lord seemed to used it to challenge and encourage people (which is really what matters!). The one rather humorous part of the morning and sermon was the pouring rain just as I began speaking – and the message was on Jonah! – and then a few loud thunder crashes throughout my talking, one well-timed one just when I went to emphasize a sentence that everyone had a good laugh at! From St Stephens we headed over to Selborne where Sarah and Rachel cooked up a storm in preparation for the official “Selborne Staff Party” (for us!) that evening as well as the rest of the staff coming over for dessert. They cooked up three soups, Sarah’s fluffy buns (like Pillsbury rolls but much better!), a couple good Indian dishes, and then four dessert options. It was another great chance to meet people, visit, and of course, the staff chipped in and spoiled us with a money gift that we used to go purchase some genuine Indian gifts later in the week! Oh yeah, and then at 8:15 pm we went into one of the Selborne lounge’s where Dez had set up the projection unit and we showed the staff and a group of Standard 9 girls our wedding pictures. There’s nothing quite like viewing wedding pictures with a group of 14-15 year old girls!!! Its so sweet, so sappy, and every once in a while I threw in one of my cheesy/romantic comments… and they loved it! (The only small down side of the day was that Sarah tripped coming out of church and scratched her left foot fairly badly. It is healing now but its taken a while.)

More to come…