Having A Wonderful Time In Shillong

Well, our time in Shillong is almost over :(. What a great time it has been. If the rest of the trip is anywhere close to as good as the last few days have been, we are in for an awesome, awesome time.

One of the best parts of being here in Shillong has been not only getting to spend time with the former ICC members, but also getting to know all of their friends. There are a lot of children here in the compound where we are staying, and we have made a lot of new friends. We are constantly surrounded by the kids. They wait for us to get up in the morning, and are here at our guesthouse until we go to bed at night. And I'm not talking just one or two kids around, but more like twenty! It's awesome. It will be a sad day here at the EFCI compound when we leave tomorrow.

The hospitality has been exceptional. Mary Jones, the 2008 ICC narrator, has done an outstanding job of making sure that our needs are more than met.

Yesterday was Sunday, and so we attended the morning church service at 11:00. After the service, we went and had lunch at Joyce's house. Joyce was one of the 2008 ICC school teachers. After the lunch was over, we played with the kids for a few hours, went back to the guest house to rest for a little bit, and then went to church for the 6:00 service.

Grace, Christina, and Jerry performed the song "Here I Am" during the service. It was one of the most beautiful renditions of the song I have ever heard. They chose it especially because they knew it was one of my favorites. The three of them were good singers during the time they were in the India Children's Choir, but they blew me away with how good they are now. They have improved tremendously.

I also had the opportunity to preach the sermon at the evening service, and I preached a message about not wasting your life, but making every moment count for God. A lot of the inspiration for the sermon came from a book called "Butterfly In Brazil", written by my friend, Glenn Packiam, who is a worship pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs. A great book... check it out.

After the service was over, we went to Grace's house for dinner and then came back up to the guest house where, surprise suprise, there were a bunch of kids waiting for us. We spent some time with them and then retired for the night.

This morning, we had breakfast at Mary Jones and Jerry's house and then went sightseeing to Cherrapunjee, an are about two hours from Shillong. Cherrapunjee is the rainiest spot on earth, but you wouldn't have known it today. It was quite hot and sunny.

We got back to the EFCI center around 4:30 and then went and had tea with the family of Uniky, the girl that my parents sponsor.

This evening, they had a special time of singing with the youth and children at the church, an event planned in honor of our visit. Following the service, we ate dinner at the home of Rev. J. Huoplien, the president of the Evangelical Free Church of India.

Tomorrow, it's off to Aizawl, where we will meet Paul Chonzik and his family. They were all a part of the 2006 ICC. We will miss Shillong... I wish we had a few more days here... but are also looking very much foreward to the next ten days or so, during which time we will get to travel to some extremely remote areas. We'll try to keep you posted as much as possible.