In this Month;
Comment
Christine's health
Comments from Kris
Tomatoes
Warm Aid 2016
Christmas
Visitors
Mundi
Comment.
Two new friends touring. Roshni and Rish (at least that's how it sounds) sorry bro :)
MUNDI
One of the great benefits of living here is the good quality and abundance of cheap (by our standards) fresh fruit. Mundi means market in Hindi, it's pronounced Monday. So you can go to Monday on Tuesday......
Comment
Christine's health
Comments from Kris
Tomatoes
Warm Aid 2016
Christmas
Visitors
Mundi
Comment.
Well, another year. 12 more months gone since we first arrived here.
This Christmas we have been reflecting on why we came, are we doing all we were sent here for?
Well honestly we know why we came, He told us to come here and be a tool for good for Him. But just what does that really mean to us?
Proverbs 3: 5 - 6. Says it best for us.
Proverbs 3:5-6English Standard Version (ESV)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
What we do here is his will, we acknowledge Him in every part of our lives, every day.
Sometimes we don’t understand what He wants of us but that is rare. If there is one thing we have learnt about God since following His will to come here it is this;
Let yourself listen.
Many of us are just so busy that we don’t take time out with God to quietly listen to what he has to say. Our lives are so full that it can feel hard to just stop, pause, take a breath and listen.
Prayer should not be a one-way conversation. A list of needs, desires or even good wishes for others. It should be two-way. Yet how many of us truly listen for His word?
I didn’t used to. In church with my brothers and sisters it is easier but once alone I found it hard to listen and pray. I got so into praying that I had forgotten it was a two-way experience.
Since we began to listen and act on His word we have changed our lives, moved a quarter around the world to work for Him. It hasn’t been easy at times, sometimes it’s been very hard. But it’s all worth it for the joy we both feel every day being here with Him.
If you haven't got God in your life, maybe its time you let Him in, you will never regret it. Make up your own mind. It isn't easy to say 'I believe' when all about you atheism tries to tear you down. Just look at the evidence then decide. Many atheists have come to Christ after actually looking at the evidence in a futile effort to disprove His existence. What have you got to lose?
So, 2017, make it the year of listening to God, the year of acting in complete faith, it can change your life. We know it changed ours.
Christine’s Health.
As some of you are aware Christine (Kris) has been unwell for some weeks.
Last winter she contracted a lung infection from the damp in our current home. This was caused by the poor condition of the roof which leaked badly in the monsoon making one of the upstairs bedrooms unusable. Our landlord had the roof repaired.
This year, although the roof didn’t leak as badly the rain still seeped in through the walls and some of the roof. The house even now months later remains damp.
Kris’s condition was diagnosed as being caused by ‘black damp’ spores she was inhaling. The hospital took mucus samples and analysed them because her problem was not responding as it should to anti biotics. She cannot exert herself and wakes in the night panicking because she feels she is suffocating.We asked our church in the UK and friends here to pray for her recovery.
That was two weeks ago.
She is now responding to treatment but is still having to use a nebuliser to help her breathe.
All Indian houses suffer from damp problems during the monsoon, walls go damp, and water runs in during the heavy monsoon storms anywhere it can find a gap. However, within a few weeks after the monsoon the sunshine has dried out most houses again.
This hasn’t been the case here. It is now nearly Christmas and the house is still damp with some walls actually feeling wet to the touch.
Having the new wood burner has definitely helped but the house is certainly not dry even after several weeks of indoor heat.
At this point I can admit that I was very worried about her when she didn’t respond to the anti-biotics. It became very serious and she was going to be hospitalised, it was that serious.
We have made the decision to move to a better house and have been looking for a while now without success. Our criteria include a garden, room for the chickens and a nice area. Not easy to find on our limited budget.
We have prayed as we always do and as He always does help came.
Last week Vinay a really good friend who lives at the back of us and we have known since we first came here came to see us with a big smile! In his street (the street we first lived in) a house was coming up for rental. It has everything we want and as a bonus the landlord has no use for it other than as an income so is seeking long term lessees only. It turns out that he knows us from when we used to rent in the street and is very keen for us to take it as he knows we are good tenants and will not abuse his house as often happens with short-term tenants here.
We have been to see it and have decided to take it on a three-year renewable lease. There are some jobs that need doing before we move in including redecorating as the walls have been drawn on by the current tenant’s children. He will get this and a few other jobs done.
So, this will be our last Christmas here, we move in February (1st) to our new home. Oh and yes, it is bone dry!
Comments from Kris.
Well as Chris has said my health has not been good for weeks. I thought when I moved to India my asthma was pretty much well controlled and I was taking significantly less medication than I had when living in the UK, but that changed a year ago after moving into our current home. This year the dampness in the house has significantly affected my health and it is concerning, everything my old consultant told me to avoid to help my asthma is here and there isn’t one dry room in the house. I have had to take nebulisers, steroids, numerous antibiotics and theophylline based medication to ease my breathing not something I like to do unless absolutely necessary.
Whilst it is a huge upheaval to move home again, I feel we are making the right decision for both of us in regards to our health, as Chris has also suffered from breathing problems and chest infections over the last year.
So our Christmas present to ourselves is the promise of a new home and improved health for both of us, yippee I can’t wait. The other advantage is that we know our neighbours and it’s a street where we felt very at home before so no anxieties there. We will take things easier in the new house with less home projects in the immediate future, so long as we have somewhere for my chickens and bleu to be safe it really fits the bill. We both feel we have to take time out for us to recover our health and recharge the batteries.
The house itself has a lot more storage space and I am looking forward to getting back to painting in my studio. There is an outside building which Chris can utilise for his tools and the garden equipment which will make life easier too.
The layout of the house is almost the same as our first home here, other than it’s a mirror image as it’s on the other side of the road. It sits above the monsoon flood levels so hopefully rivers in the sitting room will be a thing of the past. It’s terrible having to lift everything up off the floor when we get flooding. We will do a proper feature on the house when we move.
A few details: The house is fully air conditioned throughout with a central air conditioning plant. There is mosquito netting on every door and window which we lack here so that’s good too.
Kitchen has lots of cupboard space floor to ceiling which is great but I will have to invest in some kitchen steps as I won’t be able to reach without them hee hee.
This leads out into a small back yard which will be ideal for the chickens and is walled for security. We back onto the flats on the colony so you would expect that the house would be overlooked, however since this is the back yard we don’t really care.
There is also in the back what is referred to in India as servant’s quarters, a small room and separate Indian style toilet. Which as I have said Chris is going to use as a workshop and the washing machine will go nicely in the toilet, so I will have a washing room after we put a cover over the toilet. Chris says I can do the ironing out there, my answer not on your life mate, not unless you’re doing it.
There is ample parking down the side of the house for our bikes and the jeep so we don’t have to have them parked in the front drive as they are now.
We have one large master bedroom and two smaller bedrooms one downstairs all en suite with built in wardrobes. We plan to use the downstairs bedroom as my art studio which will be excellent as Chris won’t be having his tools in there as we have at present. I expect us both to do more painting and be creative as this will become a designated art space.
The front garden is lawned with one edge as a border and is very sparsely planted at the moment the other side of the drive is a narrow strip retained by a low wall where I plan to put all my pots. Beyond the front garden in the road as we had in our other house there is an area which we shall fence and use as our kitchen garden.
We really feel God has answered our prayers and those of our friends by providing all we hoped for and in many instances exceeded our hopes; we wish to thank all those who have prayed for us and thank God for his provision.
Tomatoes
Currently we have had a wonderful crop of cherry tomatoes and our trial of how to grow them this year has proved very successful and we will do the same in the new house. We simply supported the plants and allowed them to grow three main branches to about five feet before pinching them out and letting them bush side wards, results have been spectacular with a crop far exceeding last years. There is no taste like home grown organic tomatoes, so yummy.
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| Ripening on the vine |
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| The extra height and restricting the number of shoots to three has made a huge difference to the crop size. |
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| Showing tomatoes and capsicum using our plastic sheet method the locals have it confirmed officially.....we are weird! |
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| Lovely and sweet, this is one picking, friends are all very happy that we have a surplus. |
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| These are capsicum growing through the plastic sheet we use to conserve moisture and reduce weeding. |
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| Hot chilli pepper plants now in. |
Warm Aid 2016
We have successfully distributed many clothes to those in need especially to children over the last few weeks, several hundred have benefited from this initiative. UR Creator one of our partner NGO’s has fully committed to this initiative and distributed many clothes, they are doing wonderful work they had a large supply of clothing they did not know what to do with when they heard about what we were doing they came on board big style, they now distribute clothing on a regular basis. Others who wanted to help initially have done little or nothing but that is life and in the future we will only work with those who actually do want to make a difference, not just want the publicity. We have used cash donations we have been given to buy 200 all wool blankets to distribute to the very poor. They are good quality, warm and hard wearing. The wholesaler when he heard the intended use cut his price from 180 each to his cost 120 so we could afford to help more people.The plan is…load up the jeep and drive around the city on Christmas Eve about 11pm onwards giving out blankets to anyone in need sleeping on the streets. If we have any left we know several very poor villages that will get a visit and a boys hostel (Panavar) that will benefit.
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| Blankets packed in ready to go |
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| Good quality wool blankets |
Update
This is a copy of the post we put on Facebook on the 26th Dec.
Well, Christmas Eve in Udaipur was fantastic.
The four of us; Harshit, Ronak, Kris and Chris left home at 11pm in two vehicles with the final total of 204 blankets.
Stats:
Drove 80Kms around the city (measured by Ronak)
Returned 4am
Handed out to people sleeping on the streets without blankets, 139 blankets, distributed to men, women and families.
The four of us; Harshit, Ronak, Kris and Chris left home at 11pm in two vehicles with the final total of 204 blankets.
Stats:
Drove 80Kms around the city (measured by Ronak)
Returned 4am
Handed out to people sleeping on the streets without blankets, 139 blankets, distributed to men, women and families.
Those are the bare statistics.
What we cannot fully convey to you is the humility and love shown to us by the people we helped. Everywhere we went and gave blankets we were met with amazement and gratitude for what we were doing. There were many individual people we would like to mention but to give you a flavour of the night, Christine saw a young woman in need. She was sleeping rough on marble steps in the Chetak area she was wearing a thin sari and thin cardigan, she was not sleeping on anything to keep the cold out or to keep her warm, she did not appear to have any possessions nearby. When she approached the woman who was in her early twenties she was sleeping, Christine placed a blanket over her and she immediately woke up startled, but was reassured she was safe. She reached out her hand to touch Christine and say thank you her hand was amazingly cold. They wished each other happy Christmas and we moved on.
There was a great joy in all of us to be helping our brothers and sisters in this way on this day.
To you all, those that gave Rs100 to the group that gave Rs10,000, to the people that gave clothes and the other groups that joined us in Warm Aid 2016 to distribute them words are not enough to express our thanks to you. May God bless you all this Christmas for your love and generosity to ALL His children.
What we cannot fully convey to you is the humility and love shown to us by the people we helped. Everywhere we went and gave blankets we were met with amazement and gratitude for what we were doing. There were many individual people we would like to mention but to give you a flavour of the night, Christine saw a young woman in need. She was sleeping rough on marble steps in the Chetak area she was wearing a thin sari and thin cardigan, she was not sleeping on anything to keep the cold out or to keep her warm, she did not appear to have any possessions nearby. When she approached the woman who was in her early twenties she was sleeping, Christine placed a blanket over her and she immediately woke up startled, but was reassured she was safe. She reached out her hand to touch Christine and say thank you her hand was amazingly cold. They wished each other happy Christmas and we moved on.
There was a great joy in all of us to be helping our brothers and sisters in this way on this day.
To you all, those that gave Rs100 to the group that gave Rs10,000, to the people that gave clothes and the other groups that joined us in Warm Aid 2016 to distribute them words are not enough to express our thanks to you. May God bless you all this Christmas for your love and generosity to ALL His children.
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| Locals living on the streets receiving blankets with grateful thanks its a cold night and winter is only just beginning, it will get colder. |
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| Full, just before we left. |
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| In town. We got checked out by the police, as soon as they understood what was happening they were really helpful directing us to places where they knew people were sleeping. |
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| Ronak, Chris and Kris getting into the Christmas spirit |
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| Harshit, Chris and a shattered Kris, well it is 4am |
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| Harshit and Ronak still raring to go at 4am |
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| A very humbling experience helping those in need |
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| Blankets to keep these ladies warm |
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| Halfway through a cold night..........food time. This was at a night rickshaw stand. The same idea as in the west where there are cabbi stands selling tea and food to the night workers of the city. Tea was great and really good hot food very cheaply. Rs10 for tea, Rs 40 for food. |
Since this post, the total of blankets distributed has risen to 189.
Christmas
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| All you need at Christmas a tree and open fire |
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| Kris's birthday cake, she's like the queen has 2 birthdays |
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| My adopted son Shanti lal, his mother, neice and nephew |
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| Indian custom being fed birthday cake |
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| Proud grandmother and granddaughter |
Dinner
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| In the jar, homemade mint sauce. |
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| Home made yorkshire puddings with roast lamb |
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| Roast tatties in chicken fat, the chicken is for later. |
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| Lovely piece of Lamb Kris got for dinner |
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| Please note the chateau CK........Mango wine home brewed......very nice too. Wine here in India comes local brew red or white, or hugely expensive imported. A bottle of average wine can cost over £10. A good imported wine can be £40. |
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| Oh yummy, super Christmas dinner. Homemade gravy, no stock cubes or instant granules here. Christine's really good Yorkshire puddings, mash, peas and cauliflower with roasted lamb and our own mint sauce. Sponge and ice cream to follow, and Christmas cake. The best Christmas dinner we have had since coming here. |
Visitors to our home
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| Mother brought her piglets to where she knew there would be food out for them, all nine! We tend to throw the fallen fruit against the wall where they forage. |
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| Mother, waiting for a treat |
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| Food all gone. |
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| Local monkies eating fruit from the trees outside our house |
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| They have got used to us watching them and don't run away now. |
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| His |
Two new friends touring. Roshni and Rish (at least that's how it sounds) sorry bro :)
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| Hers |
MUNDI
One of the great benefits of living here is the good quality and abundance of cheap (by our standards) fresh fruit. Mundi means market in Hindi, it's pronounced Monday. So you can go to Monday on Tuesday......
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| lovely fresh cauli |
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| Fantastic choice of fresh veg |
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| Mutter Pods (Pea Pods) for sale yummy |
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| Stall holders arrange veg to attract customers |
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| This market is huge this is just one small area |
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| This was taken at the edge of the market, locals carrying their produce home Indian style. |
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| Fresh ginger and garlic |
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| Various variety of potatoes and onions and garlic at this wholesale stall, this is where Kris buys in bulk |
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| Packed on cart to be taken to the car then home |
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| These guys charge Rs20 approx 25p to load, unload and transport your vegetables to your car in the car park. Hard work for not a lot of cash |
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| Results of a visit ......Mango, apple, orange, Tangerines, plums, banana and last but not least pomegranate. |
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| Best eggs you can get, free range, no chemicals, happy chickens. Christine's flock. |
Well, that's all for this month, hope you enjoyed it.
We hope you had a joyful Christmas and wishing to you all a very happy new year and may 2017 bring you all you desire.
God Bless
Chris and Kris in Udaipur 2016
