Parents, please check our flight status and be on time to pick up your child tomorrow afternoon. I have seen it before and it is a very sad scene when one kid is left standing alone watching everyone else being greeted.
We are on Emirates flight 215 coming from Dubai and scheduled to land at 12:50pm, Sunday February 26. See you all soon!
We are on the van again for our five hour drive back to the Shanti Home. The long drive will be worth it because a proper Indian feast awaits us.
Our flight is scheduled to depart at 4:15am so I will update again when we are on the first flight to Dubai.
We made our final goodbyes to our boys. There were tears, pictures, requests for us to return, smiles, and hugs. I can assure you, the faces of those boys have been engraved on our hearts.
Sorry this is short. We are boarding. I will update tomorrow from the Taj Mahal.
Today we spent time at the school Varughese started in 1993. Our girls really enjoyed interacting with the little girls at the school. The greetings were tentative at first, but the children soon warmed up to our group and so began the games, pictures, smiles, and hand shakes. After an hour at the school we left for lunch and a little shopping.
The drive home was interesting, to say the least, because our team of 12 'fit' in a comfy 7 passenger car!! Pastor Varughese had to leave us to return home and begin preparations for our dinner this evening at his home. It was a memorable part of the trip indeed! Not to worry, we have a video of that as well.
Tonight is our last night at the boys home because we fly back to Delhi tomorrow afternoon. Pastor Varughese is hosting us for dinner at his home tonight. This is a special night because he will share some of his story of how God directed him in his current ministry. It is quite inspiring and humbling to hear of his journey.
This is one of the healthiest teams I have ever led. All stomachs are handling the food well so health is good! Thank you for your prayers!
Tomorrow we will visit the school, have lunch in town and do some shopping before returning for more games and smiles. It is difficult to believe we have only two more days with our boys. I can assure you it will be a heartbreaking day when we have to drive away.
We are quite tired from such a full day of playing out in the sun all day. Parents, yes we distributed sunscreen twice during the day. :-). I think it will be an early night for us all.
The younger boys are at school so the team is outside playing frisbee, cricket, and taking pictures with the older boys. It is a beautiful sunny day and a perfect start to the next four days here with the boys. Everyone is healthy and sleeping well.
Pastor Varughese said the boys are so excited and are all allowed to stay up until our arrival! I think it will be a rather tired first greeting, but the real fun will begin tomorrow. As I mentioned before, the roads are bumpy and the driving is crazy, and so to not risk car sickness I will finish today's entry. Good night and thank you for the prayers.
I will send more messages in a few minutes when we are with the rest of the team.
Everyone is healthy and enjoying the journey. Please pray for us when you can. It makes a difference! Thank you!!
Before dinner we met to debrief the day. Here are some of the comments during this time. "I felt truly alive today.". "I felt really welcomed at all the churches and it wasn't for show, they were genuinely happy I was there.". "Traffic is crazy.". "I was reminded to appreciate how I have been blessed in my life.".
Overall, we are so impressed with his team of students. They are fully engaged in the process and experience here. Often students start off clinging to the one friend they joined the trip with and miss out on connecting with new friends. This team has already stepped out of their comfort zones and p
We have just finished a filling lunch of spicy curries, naan, and rice. Everyone is tired but we are fighting the sleep monsters with a shopping trip then some team binding and relaxing back at the YMCA.
