Thursday, November 4, 2010

HOME AGAIN


There is a big smile on the face of this little girl as her Daddy and Grampa arrived home safe and sound on Tuesday evening. They arrived happy but very tired after over 30 hours of travel from the village of Sabathu India, in the foothills of the Himalyan Mountains by jeep, train and airplane. I chose just a few of Wally's photos to tell some of their story of the past 2 1/2 weeks. It was exciting for me to listen to all the details as I was there 4 years ago and remembered so many of the precious children at the home ... and many remembered me.

These are the littlest children who have come to the home in the last few years and they love to perform.

Beautiful girls.

Preparing the playing field and pouring 50, 10x10 slabs of concrete. The days were HOT and long but when the workday was over the team still had energy to play with the children.

N0 ready-mix here.

The teenagers at the home were eager to do their part in the projects.

Wally Uncle putting on the final touches to the court. Then the children all put in their hand prints.

The finished basketball court. Wally Uncle troweled all 5000 square feet by hand. Needless to say his knees are sore.

As part of the team worked on the BB court others were laying an interlocking brick driveway to the girls dormitory to keep the dirt from flooding into their doorway during the monsoons. Others of the team of 18 cemented 60 steel poles to create a security fence around the girls dorm and then local workers strung up eight feet of barbed wire. There was also a painting crew to brighten up the school hall and some repairs to leaking roofs. An amazing feat of team work to accomplish so much in a short time.

The court was surrounded hand in hand as this amazing family offered their prayers of thanks to God.

Hmuni, a tiny, humble, sweet servant of God is the director of Shanti Niketan. Their prayers have been answered over the last 6 years as God has raised up many Canadian team members to sacrifice their time and money to serve this beautiful community in India with improvements that make life just a little sweeter for them.

2 comments:

Shelley said...

I'm full of praise that Dad and Ray could be part of this work ... and wow they must be tired, but feeling so grateful that they could do it! I'm excited to see more photos and hear their stories when we come home!

Bonnie Heather said...

Thanks for the report Trudy. The amount they accomplished is amazing.