Warning: Mother rant below!

There is a common tendency among homeschoolers to bash public schools and all their shortcomings. I personally have never participated in this bashing since I believe that every family must pray about their school choice and follow God's leading for their family.

As our first year with Zac and public school progresses, we are continually encountering new experiences we haven't dealt with before. Earlier this week, I received a phone message that the "Growth and Development" videos would be shown for parent's approval tonight at 8pm. I attempted to keep an open mind all week, even though I questioned the timing of the showing. A Friday night at 8pm was suspect even before I found out that it was homecoming night for the school district! I was even more shocked when I arrived and discovered 4 other sets of parents there. In Zac's school alone there are 350 7th graders and there are 5 middle schools in our district. It is appalling to me that more parents were not either communicated effectively with or concerned with what their children were being taught.

I won't even get into my issues with the two videos which were on AIDS and "abstinence". Two of the middle schools had already shown the videos without the parents' knowledge. Fortunately, Zac's wasn't one of them. I went tonight with the intent of reporting the content as best as I could to Kevin, then making an informed decision. But, after finding out they would be watching these in mixed company and seeing the content, I will be calling the school first thing Monday morning to see what day Zac needs to have a family day at home.

Sorry for the rant, but I felt the need to vent and since Kevin's still not home, you were the victims!

Final update from India

Here is Kevin's final email from India. They will begin traveling home Thursday evening (our time). If all goes as scheduled, we'll pick him up on Sat. morning at 9.

It is Thursday morning about 7:00. Yesterday, we ministered to the Tanti people group. As you know, our church has officially adopted the Tanti as our unreached people group. We worshiped with the believers there and shared from God's word. We met on the roof of a house there in the village. I must admit, it really felt like we were in New Testament times as we were on the roof tops sharing God's word. The Tanti people were so thrilled we were there. They are weavers by trade and presented us with gifts they had made by hand. At the beginning of the worship service, they put flowers around our necks and then washed our feet. It was a very emotional time. We spent the entire day with them. Today will be our last day of ministry here. We will be going to Biju Thomas' church planting school. We have an opportunity today to teach the new church planters. I will be sharing with them how to tell a story from God's word. I will be using Luke 15 and the stories that Jesus told about the lost sheep, lost coin, and the prodigal son. We will have them build a drama acting out the story to cement it in their minds. Randy will be teaching them some discipleship principles from Masterlife. Joe will be telling them the story of Abraham and Issac. In the afternoon, we will be going to an orphanage where Steve will be doing balloon animals for the kids and sharing the gospel. It has been a long, but life changing week. Tomorrow, at 8:50am, we will start our long journey home. Thanks to everyone for all the love, prayers, and support.

India 10/9

The following report is from one of the other team members, Joe Pat. The last few sentences are a good reminder to continue praying without ceasing.

Hello, it is me again. It is Tues eve @ 9pm. We just got through eating supper. Randy & Steve got in a little while ago and we came down for supper. They had another long day of driving. Kevin and I got back here to the hotel about 3pm. We had an interesting day. Had a great meeting in a small vilage church this morning. Had a gathering of about 30-40 people. We had our meeting, worship and stories and then we had lunch. We had chicken and rice, the chicken in my bowl was a piece of the back, a heart and a liver in some gravy. The rice was good though. They also gave us some rice noodle with water buffalo milk. You should have seen Kevin trying to get that down and make it stay down. The meeting in the village after lunch was not so good. The leader of the group was not there and the church planter and our translator were very nervious about being there. Kevin was very concerned about the situation there, then, while I was doing my stories the church planter told Kevin that when I get through he should do only 1 story and then let's get out of there quick. Tomorrow we go to a Tanti village for the whole day, we leave at 8am.

News from India 10/8

It is Tuesday morning here about 7:15. We are seeing the Lord do a great work among the people of India. Sunday morning we worshiped at a hotel with Biju Thomas' church. Biju as you know is our contact/pastor here. We met with a group of about 75 people. As we expected, the worship was very lively and exciting. I preached a message of encouragement to the believers from Matthew 14. I took the story of Peter walking on the water and talked to them about keeping their eyes on Jesus in the good times and tough times. Even when Peter found trouble, Jesus was right there. We, as believers, are never alone. The Lord promised he would never leave us nor forsake us. It was a really fun and exciting time. On Sunday afternoon, we went out to a village and met with a group of 200 new believers. We spent four hours with them doing some discipleship and encouragement. Monday morning, we took a very long and "exciting" drive out to a village. The traffic here is unexplainable. This is the first time in my entire life that I would refuse to drive if they asked. I think we need prayer for safety in travel more than anything else. However, with the help of the Lord, we made it safely. We met under a grass roof pavilion and told our stories. Once again, God was working in a great way. Many people were saved. Even though a man came to the meeting and tried to create problems, nothing stopped the work of the Lord. That afternoon, we went to another village and met with a large group of new believers and storied and spent some more quality time in discipleship. With every encounter here I see the Lord at work. People are being saved and lives are being changed. Their is no doubt this is where I am supposed to be right now. Today, we are dividing again in groups of two to go to different villages to story. Please thank everyone for their prayers and support.

Congratulations Catherine and Jeremy!

I just had to post this picture of my friend Catherine's babies. Many of you have prayed for them over the years to blessed with children and God definitely answered in abundance. Anna was adopted in May and David was born on Sept. 24. Needless to say, they will be busy in the years to come. We rejoice with them in celebrating God's goodness!

India Update 10/6

I received another email from Kevin tonight, which is Sunday morning for him. Here is a portion of it....

We had a LONG HOT day yesterday. I went to a village in the morning that was very destitute. We met in a cinder block room that was jam packed with people. Steve and I storied and many people came to Christ. When we were done, they walked us across the street to the home of a former idol maker that has come to know Christ. When this man got saved, he gave up his idol making business and his family disowned him. He is trying to find a new trade. Anyway, they were so excited we were there and wanted to feed us lunch. I am not sure what I ate, nor do I EVER want to know, but the love of Jesus was in his eyes. Of course, we gave him a very generous financial gift for lunch.

In the afternoon it got a little more interesting. Steve and I went as far as we could go by car and then had to walk 25 minutes into the village. We had to walk right through a village that had a large Hindu temple. Right in the middle of an open field and all the yuck was this beautiful temple. We prayed as we walked by and finally made it to the village. It was so hot that I looked like I had just gotten out of the pool. When we arrived at the village, the people came out of the wood work. It was fun. People crowded around us and gave us those "what kind of man are you" looks. They put necklaces of flowers around our necks and then we began to story. When I finished my stories and tied the gospel all together, once again, many people were saved. It is hard to know if they are really giving up all of the other false gods, but that is what we were telling them they needed to do. The church planters seemed really pleased. The translator told me this is exactly what these people need to know and hear.

Update from the other side of the world

I received a short email from Kevin this afternoon. I've copied it below. After two days of traveling they've made it safely to Patna. Keep praying!!

We successfully made it to Patna today. We went directly from the plane to the hotel, dropped off our bags, and went to the first village to tell a couple of our stories. All went well. We are splitting up tomorrow and going out in teams of two with a translator in each group of course. At the village tonight, there were kids everywhere. It was a lot of fun.