Meeting with a Student group

Megan  sent  a newsletter  to  her  friends  last  week. Here are  excerpts  from  it.


Greetings from India!

I write to you from a church compound (plot of land with a church and homes on it) in Allahabad, India. My first two weeks have gone by quickly but have also been so full of new experiences, sights, sounds, smells and tastes.

I spend the mornings here in the garden, soaking up as much literature as I can about the early missionaries and testimonies of Christians in India.

Yesterday evening we went to the Evangelical Union (student ministry) at Allahabad Agriculture College. We arrived at a small chapel to a small group of smiling students. We introduced ourselves and got to know this little group as more and more students filtered in. By the time we were ready to start, 35-40 students sat in a circle, girls on one side, boys on the other. Ashu led them in a game of charades, which they took to very well! Then he introduced me and I had the opportunity to address the students and shared my own testimony as well as a story from Mark 2. In the middle of my talk, the lights went out (power failure is common in India) little flickers of green and blue lights came on as students propped up their cell phones to give light, and so i continued speaking in the dark. In due time the light returned and just in time because I was about to ask someone to read Mark 2:1-12 aloud. (God provides in all ways :) )

On the way home after the meeting, we drove over an old British bridge, crossing over the Ganges. Not far down this river is a shore where Hindu's bathe at a certain time of the year, believing their sins are washed away as they do. It is a huge festival, drawing crowds of pilgrims numbering millions.

I return to Canada next Tuesday, there is more to see and learn from here, so if you are inclined to pray, please pray for India, please pray that my heart and Ashish's heart remain open to what God is teaching us, as well as what He is doing through us.

We have invited the students over to the house for tea and fellowship, we dearly hope they are able to make it (exams are coming up, so it might be difficult).


Thank you for your prayers so far, God has protected us in profound ways (I have been leaning on Psalm 121) and has brought about great opportunities for both of us (I spoke at church on Sunday through a translator-- Ashu's aunt, and it went really well!)


Ashish's aunt, who we are staying with in Allahabad, keeps a blog. On it you can see a few pictures of our train ride to Allahabad (a 26 hr journey) and Ashish and I on a rickshaw: Yesu Garden Blog

God is good,

megan

Mornings  in the  garden reading   and  praying

Meeting  with students at  the  Allahabad  Agricultural

Institute now called SHIATS

Ashish  leading  in  a  game  of  Charades

In  student  gatherings and  churches  with  a  sizable

attendance  of  young  people

it is  customary  for  girls to  sit  on  one  side  and 

boys on the  other.

Our  city  is  quite  conservative.

At  the  back  you  can  see  a  new   bridge (Below) on  the  Ganges

This  bridge  was  also  constructed  recently

Down  the  river  you  can  see  the  old  British  Bridge  over  the  Yamuna  river.