Finals Days in India

Sorry it has been awhile since our last posting.  The network here has been down for the last three days.  By the time you read this Bill, Mickey and Rob will be home.  The weather here has been beautiful, it gets down to mid 40's at night and around 72 in the day.  On our second day the teaching the students did a great job.  We had given them some homework to do to see if they were understanding everything that we were teaching.  They all had it done and were doing great.  They are on fire for the Lord.  Later in the week we gave a personality test to help them with knowing why they do things the way they do.  After finishing the tests they all agreed about the personality that the test said they were.  Upon completion of the training we held a small graduation ceremony where each student was presented a certificate of completion for the course.  They have all agreed to take this material back to their church or krima and teach their leaders.  They have also made a commitment to teach and train at least 2 new leaders with this training.  They are desiring to multiply and disciple their people.  They have a passion for Christ, that we have not seen before.    A little info about our students.  Some of them had to travel a great distance to get here.  Some as far as a 8 hour bus ride.  Some of them had to wait 2 days after the training was over to catch the next bus home.  Many of them live with in a couple hours of our driving, but do to the limited transportation it would take them 4 or 5 hours by bus.    We again have tried new foods that are new to us.  Some of them we still don't know what they are and may never see again.  Pori is a fried flat bread that we all liked and had with each meal.  At a wedding reception we had mutton with rice, and deep fried egg plant.  That was different.  While we were going through the line to get our food, the grooms mother showed us the proper way to put our food on our plate.  They handed us our rice wrapped in banana leaves.  Mickey and Rob had left them closed and were putting there food next to it.  The lady took here hands and opened the rice and then picked up the food we had and put it on top of the rice.  Bill just laughed because he saw her coming and opened his rice wrap up and moved his food himself.  We also had fruit salad with some fruit that was orange in color and the size of a cherry tomato.  Taste was very different.  While at the wedding reception we got the opportunity to talk with the grooms father.  He was an avid hunter in his day and said that the "bunny huggers" got all of that changed.  He still loves to talk about the days of hunting and fishing.  He ask us to bring him a long bow on a next trip to India.    It is now Wednesday night and we are starting to pack.  Throughout the evening several of the students and other people we met came to see us and say goodbye.  We were given several gifts and that was very humbling.  We were each given a hand made vest that was done in there traditional colors, a beautiful scarf, wooden flute, and other items.    Beginning to Travel Home.   On Thursday morning we began our journey home at 7:00 am.  It would take 4 1/2 hours to travel from West Garo Hills to get to Gauwhati to catch our first flight.  When we arrived in Gauwhati we had a little extra time and we wanted to go to the CBCNEI center.  This is the Counsel of Baptist Church's for North East India.  This is there equivalent to our Parchment Valley Center in Ripley.  There they have a place called the Priscilla Centre.  This place was founded in 1997 and is for women that have been recused from prostitution and HIV infected areas.  There they are trained in cutting, tailoring, weaving and food processing for one year along with leadership development.  All items made here are sold to help keep the center running.  They make beautiful handbags, clothing, and scarfs.  After leaving the Priscilla Centre we saw a truck setting on the side of the road that read "Truck carrying Dead People", we had to stop and take of picture of that.  We arrived at the Gauwhati Airport and was waiting for our flight and saw a headline in the paper about Imphal, Manipur.  This was the area that we had visited the first week there.  In Imphal there are over 20 known militant groups that are working underground to try and take control.  The article stated that on the 18th the entire city was shut down by the military.  All stores, and roads were closed by the military due to a militant group trying to take control on that day.  There was no movement on that day as the military looked for this group of people.  Our first flight arrived on time and we were off, about mid way through the flight Bill and Mickey noticed some snow covered mountains sticking up through the clouds.  They asked some of the passengers on the plane and was told that it was Mount Everest.  Bill took some video of it.  It was an awesome sight to see.  We landed in Delhi with no problems and was waiting for our luggage, Rob and Mickey were standing together and they saw Mickeys comming our first.  Bill grabbed the duffle bag and wouldn't let it come to us and the airport security came over and talked to him and asked him if he had a problem.  They didn't see the humor in it that we did. Rob and Mickey couldn't contain the laughter as they talked to him.  We had a couple of hours before our next flight and had to be taken to the International Delhi airport, we ask our driver to take us to the nearest McDonalds.  We couldn't wait to taste some McD's fries.  No Big Macs here - Only Fish, Chicken, or a Veggie Burger.  On the way we saw 2 different wedding parades.  Here they will only get married on Wednesdays or Fridays.  They do a parade to show off the bride and groom with a band and a horse drawn carriage.  We we arrived at the McDonalds there were thousands of people linning the street with police everywhere.  We asked what was going on and they told us that it was the world premire of the movie Dehli 6 and that all of the stars of the movie were there for the red carpet premire of the movie.  Our next 2 flights were on time and very long.  We have now completed 9 flights and have all of our lougage.  We arrive in Charleston at 3:30 pm on Friday and our waiting for our lougage.  When it is unloaded we are missing 1 of Robs bag.  We knew it made it to Detriot because we had to check it through customs.  We had flown just over 20,000 miles with no problems until now.  After checking they said it should arrive some time later that night.  In all it took 45 hours to make it home from the time we began our journey.   We would like to thank everyone for the prayer for us and our families as we were away.  We could tell and feel your prayers.  God was at work all around us and everything worked out for his glory.   We would like to invite everyone out to this Sundays service, Bill and Mickey will share their stories and pictures at the 7:00 pm evening service.   Thanks for all that you have done for us.   In Chirsts Love,   Mickey and Bill