INDIA |
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INDIA
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All photos may be enlarged by clicking on them!!
| Looking at the newly patched roof, we all think the mason taught us well. |  |
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"All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth." (Col. 1:6 NIV) |
| Ian skillfully puts the finishing touches of green paint on a door. |  |
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Holy freakin' cow! All of the green doors and windows are covered in whitewash!! |
| But, no worries! The whitewash really brightened up the rooms well, and we went back and cleaned the white spots off of the green paint easily enough. |  |
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Who wants some power? Once the main work was complete on the building, we hired an electrician to restore power to each one of the rooms. |
| We also provided the necessary resources to whitewash the entire outside surface of the building, giving it a bright, new look. |  |
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Samuel and Sam work on breaking up the concrete from the old front gate post. |
| The seminary was located across the street from the Andhra Pradesh Paper Mill. The paper making process created quite the odour for everyone's smelly experience. |  |
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We got a little help from the locals in cleaning the whitewash off of our green paint job! |
| With the front gate now standing and in working order, Jocelyn and Roberta work hard on the last day to paint it nice and red. |  |
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Whoohoo!! After two full weeks of hard work, the building was finished!! FINISHED!! Imagine that!! We were able to rededicate and reopen the building to the Bible Women during our last evening in Rajahmundry. Praise God!! |
| Here's one of the Bible Women with her small boy. The crew was able to socialise with some of them before the rededication ceremony. |  |
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These are the Bible Women. Each one of them visits thirty women from Hindu villages every month for three years. During their visits, they share the Gospel to these women until they eventually are led to Christ. |
| After the rededication cermony, we were able to share in worship with the Bible Women. Pastor Peter blessed the Eucharist so that we could share at Christ's table with one another. |  |
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During our stay in Rajahmundry, our crew was housed at the First Baptist Church centre, here and in the next few photographs. |
| This was the building in which we stayed. There is a church upstairs, school classrooms downstairs, and missionary guest rooms to the left. |  |
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The establishment and growth of Christianity in India is founded on discipline, especially in education. |
| In return for the marvellous accomodations provided by our gracious hosts--Pastor Kumar and his wife--we sang for the kids at the Baptist Centre school. We even made it on Indian television! We were filmed for the local news and for Pastor Kumar's television show, the "Bible Hour." |  |
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From Rajahmundry, the crew departed for an all day trip by train and van to the small town of Bapatla, where we visited an orphanage run by Victor Paul's (our host's) wife, Kusuma. |
| After sharing some song and dance with the children at the Reach orphanage, we were able to spend some free time with them. We started out by shaking hands, but soon we were dancing around, playing games, and having lots of fun, too!! |  |
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Everybody loves Casey. |
| Later in the afternoon, the group presented Richard with a gift--a picture book about America. Richard was with us for every part of our stay in India, and he provided us with invaluable help and support. |  |
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Before returning to Hyderabad, everyone went to the beach. Some folks, like Erica and Casey, decided to take a refreshing swim in the Bay of Bengal. |
| Other, more land loving folks, like Roberta and Roy, decided to take a nice, dry stroll on the beach instead. Either way, our trip to the beach provided some much needed recreation time! |  |
