Crashed out for a couple of days in Goa. We are just at the tail end of the Monsoon here in South India and we were speaking to friends who had spent 3 days there where it rained continually! However for us the weather was great! Very hot and sunny.
This is a picture of Colva beach from our hotel dining room.

India has been busier for us in terms of speaking engagements and other things than we expected and it was good to escape the noise and traffic of Bangalore for a couple of days. This is the off season in Goa and the place was pretty deserted which suited us perfectly! We just wanted to lie on the beach and play in the surf and recharge our batteries!

Got into a conversation with some Goan fishermen, (if you can have a conversation when neither of you understands the other's language!) Interesting to watch them clean the fish and wash them in the sea and then the women lay lots of them out to dry in the sun.
And old man and his grandson one evening were line fishing using pretty basic equipment, an empty beer bottle and a length of line with about a dozen hooks on it. It actually works very well. The line is wrapped round the beer bottle which he holds by the neck, swings the weighted line around his head like a slingshot and then releases it pointing the beer bottle in the direction he has just shot the line. The line then spools off the beer bottle like a spinning reel! Pretty clever!

Constant reminder that although Goa is mainly Roman Catholic, Hinduism is still strong here. One morning early on the beach as I was reading and praying a Hindu fisherman came down to the water's edge, lit an incense stick and prayed to the sea.

It got very hot, and although at this time of year the sea is rough, the water is lovely and warm.

We went out for a meal in a beach side restaurant called "Kentuckee". Lilian ordered a "Chicken Sizzler". Obviously there are no smoke alarms in this restaurant!

So as not to make this post too big, I'll continue it on "Lindsay and Lilian's Blog".

Just heard about the arson attach on Thriving Life Church in Newtownards. You can read about it on their Church Blog. I know Rick and Katie and Gareth and Melissa would value your prayers.

Not a charismatic meeting, it's "Teachers' Day" at Asha Kiran School and we are playing the "Steeplechase Game!" Once a year the parents come in and look after the children and the teachers have a party! It happens all over India, not just in Asha Kiran. In fact the "party" began with Rita making a PowerPoint presentation reinforcing the aims and vision of the school and then I had to give a short message on the lessons we learn from Jesus as a teacher!

But after that Lilian and I took the teachers for 2 hours of party games and after overcoming their initial inhibitions they got into it as you can see and had a really great time.

Afterwards we all went back to Prem and Rita's for a meal and all the teachers were presented with a single red rose. Lilian and I were given a bouquet of flowers for organising the games.

The next morning I went with Prem to get the milk. Being India of course, it's not straightforward. First of all you join a queue and pay the man who gives you tokens. You then join another queue and when it's your turn you put your tokens into this vending machine and milk runs out into your can. It isn't pasteurised, so you then bring it home and boil it up and then put it in the fridge to cool, and that's your milk.

When we came back, the vegetable man had arrived!

We're all off to Goa this afternoon (Wednesday) for a couple of days. It's a 1 hour flight. Our time in India has been good but very busy and I'm really looking forward to just "crashing out"! I'm not likely to have Internet access until we come back on Saturday night so this is it for a while!

Went to the 9.30am Service in Indiranagar Methodist Church. This is Prem and Rita's home church and the 9.30am service is the second one, the first one being at 7.30. Big church and full to overflowing, people sitting in chairs outside. The senior pastor was preaching on Ps 23:1 "The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want." That part of the service ended at about 10.45 and e moved immediately into a communion service which lasted another hour. A beautiful and very moving service which they hold once a month. Those taking Communion, (virtually the whole church) kneel at the rail at the front of the church and receive the bread and wine there.

Taking part in leading the service was a pastor who just last week had joined Ravi Zacharias' International Ministry. He was very good and the whole service was a very precious and beautiful time. After church we went for lunch in a Tamil Restaurant where I had my dinner served on a banana leaf!
That evening, Lilian and I had been invited to the home of a couple, Bill and Suma, who work with Feba. Suma is heading to the UK for some meetings and is hoping perhaps to be able to speak briefly in our own church. Talked about Feba and the challenges for the ministry in such a rapidly changing technology!
The following morning I was off to speak to students at the South Asia Bible College. Prem had told me it would be a few students and I would have about 10 minutes. I decided not to bring any notes as I envisaged a fairly informal gathering in a classroom. It turned out to be a couple of hundred students meeting in the college chapel and and I had 35 minutes! Furthermore the chap who appeared to be leading the service had just returned from Princeton University in the US where he had completed his PhD! The moral of the story is, never underestimate your audience. The card I had up my sleeve was that Lilian's maiden name is Carey and she is a 4th generation descendant of William Carey, the famous Missionary to India, and William Carey is almost worshipped here. My marriage to Lilian trumped his PhD!
Afterwards Prem and I went to Asha Kiran school where we had lunch and then back home. Lilian and I caught an autorickshaw and went down town to do some shopping.

Arrived in the city of Agra, in the State of Uttar Pradesh, India and home of the Taj Mahal and two other world heritage sites with the temperature somewhere in the 30's and very high humidity. Thousands of people, of course, in the railway station and we are looking for someone whom we have never met! He is looking for a white man and his wife so his task is easier than ours as we appear to be the only two white skinned people here!
Eventually we meet up with him, his name is Prabhat, and he is a friend of Prem James. (Prem seems to know everybody in India and that's over a billion people!) Prabhat is our guide and has organised a driver for us. First stop is a cup of coffee and so we arrive at the Agra Sheraton, no less and have three expensive cups of coffee in more luxurious surroundings. (See photo) Greeted by huge doorman in traditional dress and waited on hand in foot. Coffee was almost £1 a cup which is scandalous by Indian standards!

After coffee we go off to see the Taj Mahal. Words cannot describe this building. It truly is one of the 7 wonders of the world. Perfectly symmetrical and in glowing white marble it is breathtaking. Built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as the final resting place for his favourite Queen, Mumtaz who died in childbirth, (giving birth to her fourteenth!). It took 20,000 workers 22 years to complete.

Prabhat took our photo sitting on the bench where Lady Di had that famous picture taken alone outside the Taj Mahal.

With our entrance fee, (25 Rupees for Indians, 750 Rupees for foreigners!) we got a free guide, who was first class. The four minarets, although they look vertical, (they are a little distorted in the picture having been taken with a cheap camera!) do in fact incline outwards at 3 degrees. This is to ensure that should they collapse they will fall away from the building and not into it! (Fiendishly clever, these Persian architects!)

All the marble panels were, of course done by hand and if a mistake was made the whole huge panel had to be scrapped and another one done!

from the Taj can be seen the Red Fort. It was here that the Emperor was eventually imprisoned by his son, Aurangzeb, in a bid for power. (In an extreme example of sibling rivalry Aurangzeb also bumped off his brothers just to make sure they didn't stand in his way of becoming King.)

From his prison in the Red Fort the old King could look every day at the Taj Mahal.

After leaving the Taj Mahal, we headed for the Red Fort. (See Lindsay and Lilian's Blog)

Up at 4.45am to catch the train to Agra. Slipped out of the house as dawn was breaking into the heat of Delhi to meet our faithful driver waiting beside the car. People still sleeping on the streets as we make our way through the relatively light traffic to the railway station.
Our coach number and seat numbers are on the ticket and so we enter this luxurious air conditioned carriage. As it pulls smoothly out of the station we are presented with complimentary copies of the "Times of India" , a sealed bottle of cold water and tea and biscuits. The journey takes just under two hours on this express train.
As we rush smoothly in air conditioned luxury through rural India I can see through the double glazing, my fellow human beings living in mud huts, grass shelters and crumbling brick slums. Everyone is barefoot, many of the children are half naked, women are cooking breakfast on open fires and carrying water, people brushing their teeth, and an old man stripped to a loincloth is washing himself at a well. Everyone, both men and women are urinating and defecating among the bushes as we rush past, because there is simply no where else to go.

I feel guilty about my enormous wealth, status and privilege and ashamed of myself for not feeling outraged! A waiter brings me a complimentary cooked breakfast. It tastes like ashes in my mouth!

Have to tell you about this amazing school!
When I say it's a Christian School it is in every sense of the word. The children come from all sorts of backgrounds, including Muslim and Hindu but the school is openly Christian. All the "Houses" are named after the Fruit of the Spirit and they all have their own coloured T shirts which they wear to school on Friday. The walls are covered with Scripture texts and every house motto is a scripture verse. They make it clear that they do not promote religion but a life of discipleship to Jesus Christ.
I was asked to speak at assembly and then afterwards, Professor Williams interviewed me about Ireland and I gave my testimony. He then reinforced to the boys and girls the need to be "born again!" He is a very strict disciplinarian and rules the school, both pupils and staff, with a rod of iron!

Assembly includes hymns, prayers, a sermon, and physical exercise!

Lilian sang, "He was wounded for our transgressions" and was asked to distribute prizes.

The children (and the staff!) are the best behaved I have ever seen anywhere. "Good morning Sir, good morning Mam." everywhere you go. They all stand when any adult enters a room and don't sit down again until instructed to do so. But they are the most beautiful children and young people. As Lilian and I were being given a tour of the school we came across a Home Science class of girls who were preparing a meal as part of their assessment. They pleaded with us to test their food, all beautiful and wonderfully presented.

In the Junior School one young girl came up and offered us sweets which she had been given for her birthday. They were all delighted to sing for us. These children are being given a great start in life.

So much has happened since the last post it's going to take me a while to catch up so bear with me. I'll use this blog plus our regular blog (the link is below our picture on the left of this page) so as no to swamp you with too much information at once. On Thursday I was speaking at Campus Crusade for Christ to about 60 or 70 students who were training to share the gospel with their fellow students. Traffic was horrific. I can't convey how bad the driving is here. Saw another young woman knocked down by an auto rickshaw right in front of our car. That's 5 accidents I've witnessed as they actually happened, 3 of them involving pedestrians. They roll around on the road, jump up quickly before thy get run over again and go on their way with a dirty look at the driver!

After the meeting I was taken on the back of William's Motorcycle again to Asha Kiran School where the children were putting on a special display for some visiting guests. They love singing and performing. (The children not the guests!) After the rain I mentioned in the last post the roads were running with mud and I was on the back of a motorbike in a white shirt and light trousers!

This is Rita James at her desk, very much the School Principal! She is excellent with even the most difficult boys and girls, (and parents!)

Then at 3.00pm we left for the airport to travel to Delhi. Caught the Deccan Air flight OK and we're on our way to Delhi to visit Mount Carmel Christian School and the Taj Mahal.