It’s a Sunday morning and we have breaking of bread with twelve children who have recently passed through the waters of baptism. It is simple and spontaneous. As Nathaniel speaks of the sacrifice he has tears in his eyes. The bread and juice is passed, then they sing “There is a fountain filled with blood.” I weep then, such a very special moment.

It’s early, very dark and I leave our room, pass through the church into the inner hall. Dark is very dark here so I am going very carefully. A voice calls quietly “Sister” and it is Beulah. I follow the voice. She is in dark clothes and obviously a dark face. Then she holds out her hand, lighter so I can see and we grasp hands. Somehow I feel there is a message here!

Pastors and wives – Eighteen in all – have come from Orissa and stay over to be here for an early start. The scene is surreal. In the church, bodies wrapped completely in cloth and lying all over, necessitating carefully stepping over bodies. Later the testimonies of those men are very moving. They really put their lives on the line for the Gospel. One was abducted but finally freed yet he goes on in faith.

First Pastors conference – Six hours of the Word with short breaks. We finish late afternoon. A Pastor asks if they can have an evening meeting. For once Tony was speechless, and had to decline. Such hunger for the Word.

In Visak the day begins at 3am in order to pump enough water for 35 children and 30 or so guests to bathe. Bathing is simply throwing rather brown water over yourself! Washing clothes results in a rather grey product. Power goes off at 6am and we have a daily battle to get a kettle boiled. It seems as we switch on, power goes off. No-one murmurs and we too learn to live with the uncertainty.

Two fun days in each home. Those who played indoors raised the decibel count to dangerous. Lyn’s games were great. After many years new games were welcome. The older children stand and watch pretending to be grown up but soon all are joining in including the Pastors and workers. All games are home made. The swing is two posts, two logs, rope and two cycle tyres, I’m allowed a cushion.

Every evening 7pm Bible Study for the children. It’s lovely to see them taking notes, rustling the leaves, following every Scripture. I was teaching on Ruth and Esther and Raja asked questions after and their attentions was obvious in their answers.

We had a very large catchment area from Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, over 200 Pastors came. The tribal areas were tricky so I was not allowed. This gave me lots of time with the children. I was sitting on the floor helping prepare the fresh vegetables which come each morning, Samuel (1yr) is being bathed too. That is water being poured over him so we all get wet sitting in it. I go to the door to dry off and see a snake. I shout but no-one comes. Later it seems they thought I was joking. I caught hold of Ratnakumari and took her to see. She screamed and hid behind me – the other four and baby Samuel all got behind me, not very encouraging. The snake made it’s way to the pump where we wash our feet before going in. Then our hero, Raja arrived and flooded it out of it’s hiding place and killed it. It was a Naja Naja, an Indian Cobra it seems.

The slum village is dusty and quiet. We have a simple meeting, no-one can read. As Tony preaches chickens peck at my toe nails and babies crawl around. Older children stare. One small girl named after me is too shy to touch, but others want to feel my hair.

The homes run like clockwork. Children get on with duties, homework, all without being told. I love to sit with them but always have a child following with a plastic chair on their head in case I should sit on the floor. A lady arrives with a huge pot on here head. Tony can only lift it a few inches. She is selling salt and, an interesting bargaining takes place. Vegetables too are a matter for hard bargaining.

At prayer time every sponsor is prayed for by name and it is not unusual for a child to pray for half an hour. Often all pray together, quite a volume of sound. When the power allows we hired a projector to show videos of England, also the other homes as the children in each home never meet. They were horrified at conditions in Philippine prisons. Indian prisons we have been to are clean, guards smart, quite different.

Every day I walk the younger children to school, singing all the way. There are usually women waiting to greet me and the number grows. The school bus driver is Samson and he likes to display his English. Schools have slates and all pupils sit on the floor.

We always give money when we arrive to cover food, travel and other expenses. Tony was ill at ease and gave Raja extra. He was very reluctant to take it and later said he planned to return it. In the tribal area 25 were expected so  catering was for 30. In fact 80 Pastors and church members came. Of course the extra money was used to buy more vegetables. God is good. We later heard Raja slept across Tony’s door all night as it was a difficult area. He even woke snorers, chased off chickens and frogs. Tony’s cot, just a wooden frame with webbing was 5 feet long – he is 6 feet so he didn’t get much sleep.

I thought there were two universal words, Hallelujah and Coca-Cola but there is one more – Cheat! As we played this cry goes up often and the culprit always looks very innocent. The worst part is leaving. So many tears all round. Six years ago, my first trip I left my heart there and now only feel it is whole when I return to “My Family”. My gratitude to God is deep and real, He has blessed me with health to go. The hard bit is reporting to our supporters. Only the Lord knows what is done, seeing is believing – Folks are saved, healed, restored. The poor, rich in faith.

Pigs do fly – I’ve seen it. Going on to the roof in the early dawn is a blessing. All around are trees and fields. The small village is quite hidden. There are deep man-made craters to catch water. Every day the pig man lets his animals out of the crude cage. One boar, two huge sows and many piglets. The sows head for the craters which are now black mud and wallow in apparent delight. The piglets slither down to join in. Mother deftly puts her nose under their belly and up they go, looking back in total surprise, though it happens every day.

I don’t know if it is a general Indian thing but in our homes they deal with puberty in a rather special way. The girl is taken apart for a week to be taught how to behave around the opposite sex. It is quite a change to see a boisterous child become a serene and gracefull young lady. I must say, girls together still can have fun and shed years! I can only say it works. We have to be aware with games, etc as it is not usual for older girls and boys to be on the same team.

The End

Written by Sheila Daly

Typed by Joseph Head