A Church's Grand Opening

Weather Report: HOT but in the evening it turned to rain.

Days of rain: 11 of 17

The first church's pastor and his family.

Today was spent at base till about 4:30 or so.  I spent most of the day in my room writing my message for Wednesday.  But shortly after 4 it was time to get ready to leave.  It had not started to rain yet but you could tell it was coming.  When we left we first went to pick up Princy (I think that is how you spell her name), Prakash's youngest daughter, from school.  This is when it started to rain.

The plaque for the church.

From there we went on and made a quick stop at a church.  This church has a foundation, a floor, and a roof but no walls.  They do not yet have the funds to build the walls but the church still meets here.  After a quick prayer went went on our true destination, a church that has been newly completed with the help of Collision Church (aka the church I belong to).

The pastor and wife putting the shawl on me.

 The church is located in a primarily Hindu village and I am told that this village is also filled with the poor.  When we got close to the destination we had to walk in due to the fact that some tree branches fell on the road.  It was still raining but very hard.

The street that you have to go down to get to the church ended up having a big mud puddle in it.

Light on group picture.

 So they helped me across which made me feel silly.  They way they act when I have to cross a little water or in this case mud makes me think that they think I am going to break.  With growing up in the desert and the outdoors in general means I am not afraid to get dirty.  Water is just water and mud well that washes off.  It is no big deal and if I fall, then I fall and I can bet you that I will be laughing the whole time. I know they do it because they do not want me to get dirty or hurt and I appreciate the effort.  But any way, it was still raining so we kind of rushed the ribbon cutting so everyone could get into the church.  Because of the rain the power was but that was okay.  Everything was kind of disorganized because of the rain.  I still unveiled the plaque that stated it was dedicated by by and was sponsored by Collision Church.  We ended up getting a group picture in front of the church at one point but it was still raining so everyone gathered under the eves. The pastor of the church and his wife honored me with a shawl.  I still have the saw I got when I came to India the last time.  This was so very unexpected that I was completely shocked and I am very grateful.  Just after the pastor and his wife put the shawl around me the power came on for a little bit.  With the lights back on we gathered to take another group picture.  After the picture, I spoke to the church.  Before we left several people prayed and a Indian sweet was passed out to everyone.  Just as they started to pass out the sweet the power went out again.

On the way back we had another lighting show.  We were later than we normally are so we stopped for dinner.  Well I had dinner when we got back because everything at the restaurant was way too spicy for me.  They felt bad but it was no big deal for me.  We finally got back to the house around 9pm.  I did not seem to do much but it sure tired me out.  The plan for tomorrow will be found out tomorrow though I am hopping that I will be able to sleep in a little bit.