Transformations......

Today has been long..... we were picked up by bus at 8.10ish (same as yesterday so should be used to it....) by the Good News Mission School's bus which this time contained two extra adults so was full to overflowing. We let the children off at the school we visited yesterday and then stayed on with the babies and toddlers to head to the Good News creche. I was handing a crying girl for the journey, who later fell asleep as she settled on me. How she did that I don't know as the journey was to the outskirts of Kolkata down some of the most pot holed and narrow places I've seen a bus go down (encountering the normal Kolkata traffic).


We arrived at the creche and the children were undressed, washed, dried and dressed again in different clothes while their own clothes were put in the wash. They then settled down to some singing, praying and the story of Jonah (a story I've been thinking about a lot lately....!). These are street children who would, if they weren't at the creche would be spending the day on the streets. The Good News Mission gives them hope of getting off the street. Sounds simple, but is life transforming, and quite amazing. Those who are marginalised are given opportunity. 

We left the children with their breakfast and went first to the Good News School, which is about 17km out of Kolkata. The children there are from the local community where they are given space to learn in a free school. They are hoping to build a bakery beside the school so that they can provide bread for all of the Good News Mission Schools rather than buy it in. 

After that very organised school we then went to visit the Boys and Girls Hostels (separate Hostels). These hostels take in street children who live and learn as part of the community - girls on the site of the hostel and boys in the original mission school. The students are encouraged to value education and are being taught that there is life beyond the streets. Alongside they are taught about the hope that Jesus brings and how they can depend on God. The prayer times in both of these places was amazing - the children all prayed at once, loudly, and you could feel the faith and hope in their prayers. I have been part of prayer sessions like that, but these ones were particularly powerful. We were asked to bless the children as the prayed, which was a huge privilege. 

What we encountered today was a huge living opportunity for transformation. The vision for these children is much bigger than what we saw yesterday - it goes right from toddlers to hoping that people will end up going to university - in which the mission continues to support them. The impact on their lives is massive. The sad thing is that there are children who start on the programme but end up leaving to earn badly needed money for their family. How can those children's lives continue to be transformed?

I've taken loads of photos today, particularly of the children who kept on asking for photos. I look like an explosion (my hair has done that crazy humid air thing), am very tired (the bus driver got lost in a bus with no windscreen wipers in the rain on the way home..!) and am ready for bed as I prepare for tomorrow....... I'll probably add some photos to this post tomorrow, but for now it will be just words! 

In writing this I have realised how huge today has been. God is doing big things....

A bus ride and a little bit of maths

So I caught up on sleep and am very grateful for air conditioning. I have learned the value of earplugs as a necessity, eaten good food and moved bedrooms so I don't have to share a double bed. There are the luxuries....

Before tea last night we had a briefing on what we are going to do in the next couple of weeks, alongside some really nice cake..... We met with a group of enthusiastic pastors and leaders of projects who told us about the things we will be doing.

It' just gone lunchtime here (the same as last night, veg curry, potato curry, rice, ice cream with the addition of dahl - but as Richard said, that kind of repetition is the kind of repetition we like..) and we are resting before we go shopping for suitable local clothes for some of the places we are going to be visiting in the next few days. 

This morning we had our first experience of one of the projects the BMS supports, and our first experience of having to get up and do stuff with a two second warning. 

We visited the Good News Mission School and I got to teach some maths (which took me back...). Children are picked up by bus (along with us for today and tomorrow) and taken to the school - a small hut which, when you thought about it, was not big enough for 50 students! It was about half as big as my classroom last year, which was not big enough for 35....! It was good fun and they clearly loved it, even the girl who didn't want to do hard take-aways was very happy to be there and even happier when I marked her book.... (she got them right).

It made me remember when I talked to my class at school about how they hated school and had to go and it wasn't fair. These children loved being picked up, being fed and being looked after, but not only that, clearly loved the learning and the opportunity they have been given.