We woke in the early hours, about 3am, as Pastor Paul was collecting us at 4am to take us to Bengaluru airport. He was early, and we hit the road at 4am. This was the quietest traffic we had ever seen! After saying our goodbye to Paul we made it through check-in to Passport Control where, once again, I had to wait whilst the officer checked every detail of my passport and evisa before finally letting me through to Departures. I must have a certain look because it seems that I have more [Read more...]

I just couldn't believe how quick this week had gone. This morning, I had the privilege of preaching at the church again. I preached on Psalm 23 on how Father God is our Good Shepherd, how he provides, protects and directs our lives. Lee shared some prophetic words, and we prayed for many people afterwards. I felt particularly drawn to talk to a young lady and felt the Lord had given me a word for her. I shared it with her and Pastor Paul and prayed that the Lord would confirm or otherwise [Read more...]

Today's plan was to take the children to the local KFC for lunch so Paul planned to pick us up at 12:00 noon to be there for 12:30pm. As it does in India, the plan changed to being collected at 1pm for 1:30 at the KFC. Stanley arrived a few minutes after 1pm, and took us to the KFC. I don't think they knew what was coming! In the end there were 30+ children from the orphanage plus 10 others (staff and children) taking over the first floor of the KFC. I was expecting the place to be rather [Read more...]

Today we went to Mysore to see Mysore Palace. Pastor Paul, Stanley and a hired drive picked us up at the hotel after having breakfast and we left about 8am. It took us over an hour to get out of Bengaluru and onto the highway to Mysore. After a few hours, we stopped off at a Sugar Cane farm, and the farmer allowed us to look around. Here they harvest the cane by hand and have ox-pulled carts to collect the cane from the field and deliver to the farm next to the highway. Pastor Paul and [Read more...]

A short day planned for today. Pastor Paul and Stanley took us to the Botanical Gardens this morning to see the beautiful plants and flowers. We managed to climb a small rocky hill and took some photos of Bengaluru from the top. Afterwards, we headed to the shopping mall where Lee bought a pair of jeans, shorts and a top for about £50. Joanne managed to get some Indian jewellery, pretty earings and a necklace which was made of silver but painted with temple gold. We bought some [Read more...]

Today we started the first of our three days exploring the sites and sounds of Bengaluru by taking a trip to Kolar Gold Fields. This a place where the English exploited the locals by stripping the land of gold and leaving them with unsafe land to live on. Bungalow in Kolar Gold Fields This photo is the place where Pastor Paul and Anu set up their first orphanage in the Kolar Gold Fields with 100 children. Pastor Paul had to build the wall around the garden to keep the snakes out!We also [Read more...]

Today has shown us how God's love, as demonstrated through His faithful servants, can transform lives and communities. Our first stop was to the English Faith School set up by Pastor Paul's wife, Anu. She felt God's calling to provide education to the children in the orphanage and others around the area, so she went to college to train to be a teacher. When she qualified she started teaching children. Now the school has 83 pupils, from 3 years to 7 years old and they leave with a certificate [Read more...]

We have had an exciting few days here in Bengaluru already. We arrived in the early hours of Saturday morning and had time to rest before visiting the orphanage. The children are delightful and are cared for with love and grace on a shoestring. I am amazed how God provides for this wonderful work and how happy the children are. We have taken loads of photos, but for safeguarding reasons I will not be sharing on this blog, but I will treasure the memories the photos will bring as each child [Read more...]