Tuesday, March 11, 2008

What A Great Weekend Pt2

Yes Saturday was fun, and hard work, but what about Sunday? While Nancy and Anna went to Ashraya I took a different path. I rode trains for two hours to meet up with four servants to support over 300 in a proclamation.
{This is an aside} I am not comfortable doing new things, or talking to strangers. My trip required me to get onto a new train at Chennai Central Station where I have never been before, the issue is the station has 4 tracks, and the trains go both north and west. I needed to go west to Tiruvallur, to say it properly you need to keep the Ti very short, roll that R, the mash the rest together until you get to the a oor on the end. I can't say or understand that, it does not help that there are many other towns on the line with names very similar. I wrote Tiruvallur on a piece of paper to show the ticket agent rather than try to say it. I got my ticket fine. But which of the four trains??? After wandering around for a little bit in a lost sort of way I let a soft prayer under my breath, 'Lord help me find the right train' ... not long after that the speaker system overhead announces "the next train to Tir-ru-va-loor (just the way I say it) will be leaving from track 12." This was repeated several times. I got on the train, found a seat, shortly later gave it up to sit on the floor by the doorway and so a lady with two small kids could move away from the door to a seat. I love trains, this trip was great. 40km later when I got to Tiruvallur I was one of about 10 people to get off the 9 car train. Using the magic of cell phone technology I connected with Jack, Ron, Rob and Raj. These four men are servants I am not worthy to be around, go over to Rob's website and scroll down to read more about what they are doing for India.
The event was awesome. To see the joy on the faces, even to the point of tears. I was so humbled to be there on that day we were walking on holy ground. I tried to capture the joy with my heart and with my camera. Some of the pictures are below, others, and some video are on Rob's site. Three hundred Indians have taken the stand to say they are going to walk together with God.

Monday, March 10, 2008

What A Great Weekend Pt1

Wow what a weekend. First on Saturday GO held a celebration event in honor of Women's Day. It was hard work for our 137 staff. And I learned a very important lesson. DO NOT HAND OUT BALLOONS. The plan was to give out balloons to the papas (kids) and since I like interacting with kids I thought I would try too. NOOOoooo..... a balloon from a white guy is very valuable, everybody had to have one. 20 balloons gone in 2 seconds... I did not do that again. The main thing Nancy and I did was stand by the entrance greeting the clients. But Nancy did disappear for a while.... I decided to go search for her...

I found her in the sales booth area buying jewelry. The gypsies bead necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. Nancy bought about 200 rupees of new jewelry. Each piece averaged 5 to 20 rs... Read more about the gypsies at the GO website, it is an awesome story. Then go to the HOME PAGE and read all about transforming lives from the ground up.

Sunday was just as cool, maybe more so, I will post about that tomorrow.