Today was Indian National Day - and the 14th wedding anniversary of our hosts for the visit, Vijay and Sunita Anand (from A Rocha India). Visits to Asian friends are always a delight - the agenda for the day develops as it goes and you go with the flow.
So today started with a visit with Vijay and Prem Mitra (the chairman of AR India and minister of a local church) to a school on the edge of the slums sponsored by Prem's church and where Vijay and his team help with environmental education. Vijay had been asked to raise the national flag whilst they sang the national anthem. Hundreds of children greeted us in blue and white uniforms and we chatted with some and Jean taught them 'I love the sun....'. The unfurling of the flag caused some excitement as the wrong rope was pulled and tightened instead but one of the students climbed onto the roof to do the necessary and when the flag opened rose petals floated down onto the students.
We were back to Vijay's and Sunita's for lunch and to wish them well for their anniversary. The past couple of years have been challenging for them. They lived on Sunita's income for a while and with Vijay's dad's help as Vijay worked without salary - but the A Rocha UK appeal last year raised enough to pay for Vijay's salary for 18 months or so - and the problems with currency transfer have been circumvented by AR visitors taking money with them. So Jean and I were relieved to hand over the last £7000 or so from the appeal to the local moneychangers who came to the house with that amount in rupees in a black plastic bag....and Vijay and Sunita were very happy. Sunita is taking a two year career break until both children are fully in school.
Jean played games and read to the children who were calling her granny by the time we left and we talked about the growth of the church in India over lunch - and the threats and the joys which came from that - up to 4-5% of the population are now Christian.
So today started with a visit with Vijay and Prem Mitra (the chairman of AR India and minister of a local church) to a school on the edge of the slums sponsored by Prem's church and where Vijay and his team help with environmental education. Vijay had been asked to raise the national flag whilst they sang the national anthem. Hundreds of children greeted us in blue and white uniforms and we chatted with some and Jean taught them 'I love the sun....'. The unfurling of the flag caused some excitement as the wrong rope was pulled and tightened instead but one of the students climbed onto the roof to do the necessary and when the flag opened rose petals floated down onto the students.
We were back to Vijay's and Sunita's for lunch and to wish them well for their anniversary. The past couple of years have been challenging for them. They lived on Sunita's income for a while and with Vijay's dad's help as Vijay worked without salary - but the A Rocha UK appeal last year raised enough to pay for Vijay's salary for 18 months or so - and the problems with currency transfer have been circumvented by AR visitors taking money with them. So Jean and I were relieved to hand over the last £7000 or so from the appeal to the local moneychangers who came to the house with that amount in rupees in a black plastic bag....and Vijay and Sunita were very happy. Sunita is taking a two year career break until both children are fully in school.
Jean played games and read to the children who were calling her granny by the time we left and we talked about the growth of the church in India over lunch - and the threats and the joys which came from that - up to 4-5% of the population are now Christian.
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