Sorry about the Delay!

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while, this past week has been so busy! We have been having a missions conference here and yesterday the seminary conducted the graduation ceremony. Four Americans came from Virginia to help lead the conference. I knew they were coming, but when they got here I realized that one of them was Jim Baucom, the Pastor of Columbia Baptist Church just 30 minutes away! There are several people we know in common. It’s been nice having them here for the past few days. I was sad to see them leave this morning.

Last weekend, I went out and bought some things for the children with some money that several friends and people from the church donated. I ended up getting almost every child a new outfit (all of the children that were most needy were covered first). I also got them some new sports equipment, like cricket bats and tennis balls. Several of the kids needed sandals, so I was able to get a few pairs of those also. The children were so excited when we handed everything out on Monday. Every child got at least one new thing, even if it was something small. I got some cute pictures and I attached a few at the bottom of this post.

Thursday, I performed a choreographed dance with some of the seminary girls. It was just something fun we did for the conference. It turned out pretty good and the girls and I had a lot of fun practicing it in the days leading up to it. On Friday the seminary held a special farewell ceremony for me. I’m not leaving until April 13th, but the seminary students left today, so that was the last time they saw me. I gave a pretty funny reply speech and everyone said they enjoyed it a lot. Yesterday was the graduation service and it turned out really nice, even though it was around 95 degrees outside. One of the seminary girls gave me one of her tribal outfits from Nagaland, so I wore it to the ceremony. Everyone wanted to take pictures with me since most of them are from the North (Nagaland). I’m sure I looked pretty funny to them! I also attached a few pictures from the service at the bottom of this post.

All the seminary students left today. I took them to the train station and waited with them until their train came at 4pm. It was really sad to see them all go. The seminary is really lonely now. There are about 6 of us left here and a few of them are leaving later this week. The cooks leave tomorrow, so we’re going to have to start walking to the Children’s Home 3 times a day for food. I’m not excited about it because the Children’s Home is about a mile away. But on Tuesday I am leaving for a short trip to Kovalam, a beach in Southern India. I’ll be at a hotel there for 3 days just for a little vacation. I’ll meet my parents in Delhi on March 14th. The rest of my time here should be pretty busy and hopefully a lot of fun. I’ll make sure to post as often as I can!