We need a shelter .

What do you do when you have rain?

It was time for me to get ready to visit the slum. I looked out my room and I could see the gentle drops of rain falling and the question came into my mind, ‘will the kids come?’
Then thought it will slow down in a few minutes so I got on my bike with Vijay. He said the same thing, “bhiya barish ho ri hai vo ni aayenge” (it’s raining, they will not come).
But I knew I had to go and find out.
So we got there in 15 minutes and looked around, there was no one in the ground hun what to do? I beeped my horn 2-4 times and I heard a voice saying, “bhiya aagey”.
Then I knew some kids were still coming out in the rain so I waited and asked one of the kids to call every one. It was cold and I saw most of them were barefooted and I felt sad for them. Then I asked them to go back and wear sleeper or shoes. I had a gathering of around 30 kids.
After all this I knew it was time to do some fun activities.
1. rub your hands faster
2. jump –jump
3. run around
4. this one was fun, shark and the fishes (getting in the groups as I said, other wise I will eat you ) after this the rain got heavier. I handed out worksheet as home work and they have to bring it back next week.

Prayer request : I am asking God to provide us one or two rooms shelter in the slum or near by so we run our programme properly. I did go to ask few people but I don’t have money to pay the rent they are wanting. Please keep us in your prayers. Thankyou.

Story time (Christmas)

Story time
Wrote Christmas on our white board and then explained C is for CHRISTMAS.
(I was worried if I will get into any kind of trouble as every one in this area is non believer but I had to do what I had to do).
I asked if any body knows why we celebrate Christmas (wrong question to ask because no one celebrates Christmas here).
So I told them we are going to celebrate Christmas today but before that let me tell you a story.
Story of Jesus,

‘ tho fir sub k sub bolo Chritmas ka yeh pyara tyohaar jeevan mein laye khushiyan apaar’.

I read the story and explained it to them very carefully, every one in sight was staring at the beautiful pictures. I kept going on with the story. Ended up saying, ‘ may God bless you all’.

Then I told them this story that it’s real and it’s taken from the Bible. I read few verses from the Bible and prayed for all the kids.
Fun time (wish we had more help.)
I had made a list of kids who were coming regularly. They were the first ones to get  their gift packets in which we had one biscuit.2 candies, one strawberry cream wafer and some imported items which were only for young ones, given to me by Amanda didi.
They all lined up and we were giving out packets like we were Santa but it was not easy!  It was so hard to control so many kids and we were only 3, I was wondering how Santa might have felt when he was distributing gifts…over all it was a fun time but busy evening.

Please pray that God will pour his blessings in this place.

The things I observed : there were some older people who were listening to the story too.
The kids paid more attention when I was explaining.
When I was distributing gifts some of the parents were helping kids to be in line and helped with control.  I am thankful to god that he has given me this opportunity.

The people who have been helping me in this work.
Mr & Mrs Julia Reynolds,  Mr & Mrs Crider,  Mr Dick Wechter ,  didi Amanda Lehman…thank you very much.

(.Thanks for praying  ..wish u all very happy Christmas )

C for Christmas

How interesting it is that I am getting to celebrate this festival with so many kids.
“Love, Peace and Joy came down on earth on Christmas day to make you happy and cheerful. May Christmas spread cheer in your lives!” Happy Christmas to you all.
On Wednesday we started learning a new alphabet letter, ‘C’.
I questioned the kids and asked which festival are we going to celebrate?
No one had any idea what I was talking about so I made them sing one Hindi Christmas song which was fun. It seemed like I was leading carol singing!
Then as usual I started C for Christmas. I was so happy to hear them shout out loud CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS.

After this I distributed worksheet made about Christmas day ( Thanks to Amanda didi, the worksheet was with a message of a new born king, our Jesus).
As now we have more supplies, we got them all in groups of five and gave them crayons to colour the work sheet. All were working very nicely in the group and this time they didn’t have to shout “bhiya mujh ko color ni meela’ (bhiya I didn’t get colours yet).
We took more time this evening. After colouring we collected the worksheets and asked them all to sit down because I revised with them, ‘which alphabet letter did we do today, yes C for CHRITMAS…so tomorrow I want every body here right by 4 o clock I will tell you a story about the birth of Jesus and celebrate Christmas’.

Test and Hindi alphabets.

Yesterday was a day of tests on phonics which went quite well and it was interesting  working with the children. Some of the kids came up and said “bhiya, I don’t know how to draw a snake’. One boy said,’ bhiya how many legs should I draw in a spider?’
One young boy was crying, I took him in my arms and asked him what the problem was ?
He said that his eye was hurting. I looked in his eyes, his right eye is infected and is   all red with a white spot in his eye. Then I went to see his mom to get more details to see if he had seen a doctor or not. His mom said they had taken him to a doctor and he is using an eye drip which I think is not helping him. It was a good evening I had some old clothes with me in which I gave to the kids who were coming regularly but I felt bad that I didn’t have enough for others.
Today I went with Hindi planning. I was so happy to see that more kids are good in Hindi alphabets.
Playing games is always great with the kids.
So it was a time to play cricket with them which was also fun. I wish we had more space.
Today I went to meet Jeterders father who is still in bed. He made an interesting comment when I told him that Jetender is doing good these days, he has not been eating tobacco etc. His father said take him with you and get him some kind of job. I am praying to improve his habits please pray for him.

A different timing...

This week I’m teaching in the slum on Wednesday and Thursday and have also changed the timings. We’re teaching from 4-5 pm.
We started with a fun activity, played games and then got the kids in the circle, took their attendance and passed out the worksheets on phonics( letter S) to the kids who had not finished their work last week .
The things I observed: there are so many kids who go to school and afterwards they work as rag picker’s. Some kids were absent today, they come back around 5 pm or even later than this.
There was a family I visited but they were having a hard time, the husband was drunk and scolding his wife, using abusive language in front off the kids.
Big trucks were parked in the area which was dangerous for the young kids who play there.
Please pray for the kids and their families..

Being on time

Being on time “Sunder’s punctuality “
I had planned to tell all the kids a moral based story so they would learn to come on time as we always have been there on time.
All the students were sitting in a big group and I started with an activity, ‘copy my actions.’ They all were having fun.Then I got them quiet and asked them about the time and gave them some examples like what would happen if the sun was late to rise in the morning?
 I told them the story of being on time and said that I will be very happy to see all of them here on time when we come. Then I collected some of the ‘S’ sound work sheets which were given to most of the kids for homework on Tuesday.
After this I sent them back to their homes. We went to visit Jetender's father who has fractured his leg while working in a factory last week. Jetender is the only son with him at this slum to look after him and they don’t have any income at the moment . He was so worried because he will be in bed for one and a half months at home. Please pray for him.
I also talked with the deaf and dumb kid’s father. He told me his son is 7 years old. They came to know about his condition when he was 4 years old. Please pray for this kid also.

S-ssssss phonics

S-ssssss phonics
Thanks to Amanda didi for phonic based work sheet which is so helpful for the kids.
We had all the kids in two different age groups. I had all the younger ones below 5 years. It was a good idea for me to not to use the work sheet and I asked them to say the sound sssssssssssssss with actions of a snake . Then I made up a snake game! We all lined up and went around making ssssssssssssss sound they all had fun.
Shanker was busier with around 45 kids above 5 years of age. They had the real fun of phonic worksheets with sound sssssssssss and actions. He took attendance and it seems there are more kids regularly coming. They had enough colours to use on their worksheets this time. They all are doing great work. Vikas the talented boy has gone to one of the boarding schools in Dehradun .
One thing which I observed -I know this young kid who can’t even speak, he’s around 7 years old, but when I am around he asks me for things with his own actions which I don’t understand. I felt very bad that he can’t talk to me. He kept pointing toward my bag and I showed him things. I asked him what he needed? Then Shanker gave me a candy and said give this to him, and he was so happy. Well I am thinking for a different plan for him please pray for this young kid..