Our adventure so far

We are 4 days into our India adventure.
It's been a great few days!

Our journey here to Lucknow took around 24 hours, and everyone was pretty exhausted by the time we arrived. However by now we have all started to feel quite rested and back to normal.

I have realised I won't have much time to blog on this trip, but will try to write a few short updates with photos to update anyone who wants to follow.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning. Straight afterwards we led a women's retreat at the church here at the campus, for 50 or so women from Indian and Nepali backgrounds. It was a great day of ministering to and spending time with them, and praying with them for some sad and difficult situations. There is quite a lot going on here at the campus, with a lot of visitors, and so I had the joy of unexpectedly reuniting with some very old friends who live in a completely different part of the world that just happened to be here at the same time!

The Nepali Choir

On Monday we visited the slum which I visited last year. It was so good to be back and see the wonderful couple who are working there.We visited the little school, then walked around the paths, visited a couple of the homes and prayed for people as we went along. Such desperate poverty and need. We are all incredibly impressed with the people working there. They have a deep compassion and love for the people in the slum and are completely committed to them. They both say there is nowhere else they would rather be. I think I have said this before, but these two are some of my greatest heroes. They work with love and faithfulness, in obscurity and humility, to serve the poor in this community. They have been there for several years and their hearts still break for the people around them. There is much pain and heartache in this slum and we were told that incest, rape and kidnappings of little girls happen frequently.  It was clear to see the trust our friends have gained from the community and also the improvements they have brought over the years, such as the little school and three wells which now provide clean water. 

The well

Pharaoh and Moses in slum school

Tuesday morning we headed off to one of the 107 Good Shepherd Schools. It was an hour out of Lucknow, set in a very beautiful, rural area. This is harvest time and so you see women in their colourful saris working in the fields gathering rice and wheat and carrying all kinds of heavy loads.

Children come to this school from a 10km radius and there are around 400 students. We took assembly (the Moses and Pharaoh drama again, written by our creative directors Heather&Sophie!), did some crafts and sport with the children, and then took a women's meeting in the school for women from the surrounding area.

 On the way back we spent some time visiting a village and praying with the people there. It felt like such an honour to visit their home and get a little bit of an insight into how they live. There is a little church gathering in this village on a regular basis and our friends are also supporting them with material needs.

Drying wheat on the roof

Today we went to visit another of the Good Shepherd Schools. This one was also in a rural area with a beautiful garden. We were treated to the most amazing singing by all the classes and had some nice time talking to the kids about Ireland and what they want to do when they grow up. They are amazing children. The teachers are so committed to them and very encouraging in their attitude.  We also visited the sewing room (part of the Lydia Project) where all the  uniforms are stitched for all the Good Shepherds Schools all over India. More correctly, some are stitched in this sewing room and some are stitched by women in the neighbouring villages (a microfinance project to help the women support themselves).

The School Gardener

On the way home we spent some time visiting another village and then we did what us girls do best... went shopping! Downtown Lucknow is crazier than you could ever believe with people everywhere and complete traffic chaos involving rickshaws, bicycles, cows, cars and scooters and a LOT of noise...but it is a fascinating place and we had so much fun shopping for beautiful Indian clothes. As Marilyn said, "I wouldn't have missed this for the world!"

Sari shopping

I feel so privileged to be here with this team of women. They have given 110% in every situation, shown such love for the people and embraced the food, the noise and every experience with incredible resilience. It feels kind of sad we only have another couple of days until most of the team leaves! Thank you for all who are praying for us, we really sense God's strength.

xx