Willow Park Church

What a beautiful day today in India! James let us sleep in an hour so the drive to the children's home was a little later than usual and it was brighter so we could enjoy the majesty of this incredible hilly/moutainous country. We are wrapping up our last day at the home. The basketball court concrete is finished, and we had the very fun pleasure of putting our hands in the wet concrete around the perimeter with all the kids and placing our signature with it. The kids were so creative with their names, sayings, and prints that it looks like the outer edge of the court is blessed and decorated. We laid 5000 square feet of concrete, using 350 bags of cement. Brad and Ray did the majority of the screeting (spelling?) and Wally and Ray did trowelling and finishing on all the squares. The rest of the team carried BUCKETS! of sand, concrete, water, small and big gravel to the mixer and then wheelbarrowed it to the proper place.What a cheer when it was finished! We then pick-axed a trench around the entire perimeter to do a concrete ramp up to the pad so the kids don't trip as they are playing cricket in the same area. We placed the poles for the hoops yesterday, and today they are welding the backboard into place and hoping to play a "gentle" game of basketball with the kids this afternoon, as not to disturb the poles that the hoops are attached to. Hmuni also has called us all to meet on the court @ 5:30 to pray over it and dedicate it to the Lord.
 
The impact of this trip on the team and the home has been huge. We have had some very meaningful devotional times and the testimonies shared at the children's home by our team members and the staff at the home have shown God's glory through changed lives and new beginnings. James has been incredbily blessed with our team and has communicated how well the team has worked together, pitched in, and meshed together as a team in all ways - both in work and spiritually.
 
Breif interlude to be a mom! Danae had gum in her hair. God has used all of our supplies - peanut butter in this case - for all purposes!
 
The paving stone driveway looks fantastic. One side of the bottom was too steep for the pavers some team members formed and poured concrete for the stairs yesterday. Today they are finishing up the mortar around the bottom edge and that will be done!
 
Yesterday they sank the last five posts for the fence around the water resevoir and the hired team is making good headway on the barbed wire for the various fences.
 
Rob has used his construction and metal working talents to fix the roof on the guest house to limp it through another year. They are hoping to replace it with concrete with the construction team for next year.
 
James was able to appropriate funds to buy three computers today for the kids computer room. This room had been built by one of our past teams, and last year WPC raised money for the desks. The present computers were not working well, and needed to be replaced to be used effectively. Thank you all for your support to allow enough to provide for this much needed teaching aid. This will be an ongoing need, as they could use another 10 computers for the room.
 
The team has just finished painting the trim in the main hall, so everything is wrapping up on our last day at the home so we can enjoy the afternoon with the kids! A lot of them are here as it is Saturday, but some of them go to school for six days and will be home a lttle later.
 
The kids are very excited about the celebration tonight. We will be having dinner at the home today, followed by a program put on by the children and a dance. Did we ever have fun the first day dancing with them, and it is shaping up to be another great evening.
 
Your prayers would be appreciated as we finish our trip here in India. Tomorrow morning we leave really early to catch the train back to Delhi and then have an afternoon to do some sightseeing or shopping. We meet with the children's home alumni that live in Delhi for dinner and then will hopefully have an early night as the next day to Agra is very early again. Our day in Agra will include sights and the Taj Mahal, but it is a 2.5 hour train ride each way. I am hoping to ride a camel - but we'll see if that works out! After a few hours (really, a few) of rest we will start our plane journey home.
 
Thank you again for all your support and prayers and we look forward to finishing well, and seeing you at home!
 
Blessings,

Shelley and James