A Future and a Hope

That will be a familiar phrase to many of you, and it sums up what Bethesda Life Centre is giving the wonderful children we are serving.  To return and meet again those who Martin and Beena have been caring for for many years gives great joy and cause for praise.  We cannot know how these young lives may have turned out without this great work, but to see them safe and secure, loved and cared for is moving indeed.  To see the older ones now moving in to the world of work is incredible, the cycle of poverty which traps so many being broken in a powerful way.  To see how well those I first met in the junior boys home are now growing up and becoming confident young men in the senior boys home is cause for much celebration.  To see how the older girls care for the younger ones a privilege and again cause for much praise.
The team are a joy to lead and their hard work and dedication an inspiration to all they meet.
They stand head and shoulders above so many of their peers, and their growing understanding of God's heart for justice will see them doing great Kingdom work in the Years ahead.  They have achieved so much it would seem they have been here for so much longer than 10 days.
I thank you all for praying for me and thank God for my good health and the joy and laughter that have characterised my time here.  I also give thanks that my patience has endured all things Indian - we have a God of the truly miraculous!

Love

Ian

Day maybe 10...

Hello again worried parents and co, we hope you are continuing to enjoy your peaceful homes. Today has been a hot and sunny one, with only two torrential downpours...as monsoon goes that's fairly mild. All of us on the SMGoa team wish you a great start to the week, and we would like to update you on how our own has panned out.



Considering the sabbath day to be the beginning, we should start there. So Yesterday our own, very talented re:route worship band had the privilege of serving the church alongside some members of their own team. From the point of view of the re:route worship team members, it was a significantly liberating session as the spirit of The Lord completely washed over that room on the 5th floor of a mighty fancy Goan hotel! From the point of view of the congregation, it was such a joy to see our friends indulging in the gifts God has given them and using those to help others engage on such a deep level. So if I haven't emphasised this point quite enough, that service stood out to all of us on the team to the extent that it made it to the highlight short list of every one of us. We all stated afterwards how amazing it was for two completely different cultures to come together so intimately in the presence of The Lord who is constant.



On a slightly more shallow level, we have enjoyed some silly and joy-filled moments among us these past two days. Some of these are as follows:
- the BLC bus taking us from church back to our accommodation broke down on its way up the dreaded hill...

For a split second after the event, we all questioned whether or not it could be recovered. It couldn't. So persuaded by the sight of smoke and the smell of burning oil, we all got off the bus and proceeded on the journey up, alongside the giggling girls with the sun shining. It was a good moment.
- yesterday evening we went to a hotspot tourist beach with Martin and Beena including their children. As fun as it was ordering mock-tails and chicken nuggets, it was also very eye-opening to see the contrast between real joy and seeking contentment with God next to others who try and fill this gap with alcohol and attention from others. So as we pondered on this point, we were 'serenaded' by drunk men partaking in the karaoke. We've never heard a cat being strangled but for some reason we're all sure it was a similar noise.
- today we started painting the girls home. Let us describe the colour for you. Imagine the pink marshmallows you have surely tasted at some point in your life and enjoyed hugely, well let's melt them and put them in a pot. The paint resembled this in colour and consistency. It was almost cruel. We had a slow start,waiting for the paint to be delivered, which in the meantime allowed us to sort through clothes and their library whilst they were out at school. However, we're well on our way now and excited to get fully stuck in tomorrow!

As for the rest, it has continued much the same. Ukele being played, curry being eaten, water being drunk, paint being splattered, naps being taken, horns being honked, mosquitoes biting, fans spinning and dogs barking. But most of all, people being loved!

Ten Teenagers in a house

I thought I would let you have a little leaders scoop on the mission trip.
I have found that living with 10 teenagers is pretty wonderful and yet challenging all at once, imagine it.... There you go.
They are so great, serving and giving out, relying on Gods strength. Encouraging and challenging one another in love. They are growing in character and washing their clothes by hand so much!

One thing that I've been reflecting on is the tough stuff, the niggles and irritations, the small abrasive communication moments (my 'firing' them when they woke me up by their dancing feet sounding like a herd of baby elephants above my room, turning out to be them posing for photos in togas made from their bed sheets at half eleven at night).
The challenge of helping them grow in faith and facilitating their emotional responses to the poverty and brokenness they see around them, the culture shock, and an array of things that are exaggerated by the fact they are also dealing with a change of food, climate, environment and hormones!
These things that whilst you are in community, can be magnified and appear worse than they may sound (togas aside) have caused me to reflect on the incredible work Martin, Beena and the BLC team have done. At one point they were helping around 40 teenagers from broken & horrific backgrounds grow into grounded, compassionate, selfless young men and women. That too, with a faith in a God that can move mountains and has done many times in their lives.  They have done all this by focusing wholeheartedly on Jesus. I firmly believe there is no other way.

I've had the privilege of walking a chunk of this journey with them, their own children, Dan & Becky were just 8 & 3 years old when I first met them, now at 13 & 18 (almost) they are young people with massive hearts for the lost and the least.
This journey has taken its twists and turns in dramatic ways over that decade and if you could meet some of the young people who are now out working and making their way in the world you would feel as overwhelmed and excited as I am. Overwhelmed and proud of their perseverance, their hope, their faith, their compassion, and excited to see the bright futures the kids will have. Life and life in all it's fullness indeed.

So I may be living with 10 of the youth for a couple of weeks and finding it a little challenging, but if my heart is set on Jesus, and I take encouragement from the work of BLC, it's not really a tough task.  It is instead a beautiful journey of which I am privileged to be a part.

See you in a week or so with 10 courageous, servant hearted, adaptable, compassionate young people right behind.

Day 8

Namaste,

In the last two days it has pretty much rained the whole time, this is the joy of the monsoon season! The last couple of days have been interesting as the team have got over the high of arriving in Goa and are relying on God's strength to get them through the day.

At 8:45 we get picked up in a bright yellow bus by a guy called Lucky - what an awesome name - and we travel the short but memorable journey to the small boys home. As you drive down the hill supposedly on the left side of the road you are fixated on the colourful houses surrounded by cows, stray dogs and litter all over the floor.

Yesterday was the day that we finished painting a room in the small boys home. We also realised that the consequences of getting paint all over the floor was that we had to get down on our hands and knees and scrub the worst of it off!

In the evening we went and joined the worship team as we rehearsed for the service on Sunday morning. As we walked through the door of a small room cluttered with instruments and cables we were immediately struck by how hot it already was.

Then we plugged our instruments in and began to make some noise the stench of smelly boys (and maybe a few girls) became even more apparent. Though the smell was bad, it was incredible to join with worshippers from the other side of the world but yet still be united by one God.

Today we embarked on an adventure to a spice farm where we had a tour around 2 out of 150 acres of land and also had a bath on an elephant. This involved sitting on the elephant as it picked up water with its trunk, spraying it all over you.

As a team we would love you to pray for:
  - continued protection from sickness
  -  renewed energy
  - sleep
  - good quality time with the girls as we spend more time at their home.

We hope you are our well and we look forward to sharing with you again soon!

Love from the SMGoa team

Are men

Poetry

Hey, it's the #smgoa2014 team and we have a poem for you guys :)

India is great.
Food is great.
Kids are great.
Martin is great.
Beena is great.
Niall's memory of names is not so great.
Homes are great.
Hide and seek biscuits are great.
Chas is great.
Niall is great.
Pete is great.
Sam is great.
Dan is great.
Dani is great.
Sarah is great.
Cockroaches are not so great.
Anna is great.
Emily is great.
David is great.
Ian is great.
Sophie is great.
Wednesday was great.
Sunday was great.
Tuesday was great.
Driving is not so great.
Thursday was great.
Monday was great.
Tomorrow will be great.
Water is great.
Bus is great.
Ukulele playing is great.
Fans are great.
Rain is great.
Puppy is great.
Bucket showers are great.
Chas' bluefin tuna is not so great.
Mosquito repellent is smelly.

Second blog of the mission

As we write this we are in a nice hotel doing God's work by drinking mocktails and relaxing in the pool. We're not joking. We are taking a well-deserved break in a hotel on the beachfront for an evening. Watching the others swim in the pool as we eat our chips.

Everyone is doing well, however Pete fell down the stairs. He is fine now, no need to worry. However he has been feeling light-headed and a bit dizzy so we would be grateful for prayer. However we have discovered a cure. The more he eats, the less light-headed he feels, which is convenient. The past few days he's been feeling better though, so that's good. The ukulele has been the go-to activity at siesta time when there isn't much to do and boredom sets in. Everybody can now play it better than George Formby, thanks to Chas. Some of us have been suffering from lack of sleep, yet we only have ourselves to blame. And the howling dogs. And the rain. And the heat. And the sound of the fans that don't do much to cool the heat. And the midges. Mainly ourselves. We hope you are enjoying your respective homes without us. Now for a Hindi lesson. Bas means enough, pronounced buzz. Sukriya means thank you. That's bas for today. See what we did there.

We're sure you have excess food without us, and we hope you enjoyed New Wine for those who went. We have almost finished painting the boys dining room, just painting on Noah's ark and some other elaborations. Next we paint the girls home. We have been running fun clubs for the kids, which includes art and craft activities, puppet shows (given by Pete and Niall) and bible stories. The boys have been doing devotions in the boys home, and the girls in the girls home. Chas, Sam and Emily have all spoken and all had good feedback. Sam, Pete, David and Niall all played football in the pouring rain. They have never cared less about rain and mud. That day (Wednesday) we had a whole weeks worth of rain in one day, even in monsoon. It seemed fun to us, but the flooding has been

catastrophic in Mumbai, so again prayer is needed. We're going to go because Pete is desperate to buy  some cake. Have fun.

Yours sincerely, SMGoa team

P.S Gretchen, Chas is doing superb, he's taken a particular shine to some of the female volunteers working with us and is getting on well with them.

Why hello there people in rainy England (at least we're guessing so)... We hope you're all doing well. Now, how to summarise the past few days...

The flight was, in a word, tiring, but to add more words, the plane was plain swanky (see what I did there?) and for some, inflight entertainment was far more appealing than sleep, especially for those fuelled by Mountain Dew.

We arrived, piled into a bus (luggage balanced precariously on the roof) and got to the house. Yellow from the outside, yellow from the inside, basic but it's got everything we need: beds (with traditional rugs for sheets), showers/buckets plus jug, a kitchen and an eating/chilling room with lots of chairs.

On Sunday, post a much-needed night's rest, we went to church. The location was splendiferous: riverside, with a corrugated iron roof, equipped with fans. I was a definite fan (see what I did again? I promise I'll stop at some point....). Martin, who with his wife Beena set up BLC, spoke and his sermon was inspiring and relevant to both our stay and life in general. The worship, led by Dipak, was awesome, if a bit loud. Next we paid a visit to the girls' home, which was brief as they were cleaning, but it was our first taste of the kids' homes as they stand in 2014. Wonderful and humbling, these places are full of joy. Finally, we went to the beach, which was surprisingly British-like, despite the palm trees and slightly heavier rain than we're used to (so don't you be complaining).

A quick note about the food: it's good. Very tasty, sometimes spicy, and always colourful. Most evenings Beena cooks for us and we spend lunches at the small boys' home...which leads nicely into Monday.

So, we woke up, and got off to a flying start at the boys' home. A few people helped in the Rising Star school, which is part of the home and for the youngest kids, and those who struggle the most. This was rewarding, touching and constantly entertaining. The rest of the team prepped the dining room for painting on Tuesday, sanding and scrubbing all the walls, which was hot, sticky work but we're sure it'll be worth it. We came back to the house for a nap and then went back to the home to run an after-school kids group, where we sang songs and Pete and Niall did a great job with the puppets. The boys then introduced to a new game called 7up which shortly lost its appeal although they were adamant they'd teach us Hindi numbers. Finally the team split - guys and girls went to the older boys' home and the girls' home respectively. We had more worship, and shared devotion time with them, which was a great opportunity to bond with them.

Finally, today (which is Tuesday, for those who have lost their calendar), so far we have gone to the little boys' home again and the team this time was split in two. We took it in turns to play with the kids, as they have no school today because of the public holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan. The other part of the team started to paint the dining room, before we shared lunch with the kids. Currently, we are sitting writing this at the house, while the sweet sound of the teams outstanding ukulele playing subscrobially wafts into our (somewhat grimy) ears.... You see, we're doing this instead of having a shower. Gross.

Yours sincerely,

The SMGoa team