Work Day Monday!

HI FRIENDS! Today the girls are off to school and we are off to work! The group was split into three groups: Mary and Andrea worked on coding the books in the library. Brad, Alex, Jean-luc, Jen, Felisha, and Kat, worked in the fields, picking weeds and digging around coconut trees. Sarah, Alana, and Bethany helped out at the pre-school. We are all working very hard, and are trying not to think about leaving in a couple of days. The rest of the day we will be preparing for tonight's devotions and spending time with the girls when they come home from school, and playing in the rain! God is so awesome. We love and miss you! Pictures will be posted soon!

Sorry everyone about the delay in this post, yesterday was very busy. Our team woke up EXTRA early today and attended one of the traditional India church services. After the church service we decided to take a trip to town to see elephants and go to the beach, since most of the girls would be attending church back at the orphanage. The elephants were amazing, we have never seen so many in our life, and the beach was very cool. (Pictures are coming!) After our adventure in town we came back to the orphanage and spent the rest of the night with the girls. Jen, Alex, Chrissy, Felisha and Alana led devotion by re-enacting Jonah and the Whale, the kids loved it. We closed in prayer and went off to bed. Thank you all for your prayers and comments, we love them! See you in two days!

HI EVERYONE!
Today has been incredible! The girls didn't have school today so we have had ALL day with them! We picked rubber nuts in the fields then it started to pour, so we went inside and have been playing games and singing songs. There is so much energy here, God is doing amazing things with our team...and we can't wait to see what the next few days hold for us. We hope all is well back in the States! We love and miss you guys! More pictures will be up tonight! Again...thanks for the comments, we all really love to hear from you!

Tonight was another amazing night with the girls. A group of us were able to perfrom a skit portraying the power of prayer in christianity. We split the girls into two groups and were able to do arts and crafts and puzzles with the kids. The kids are impacting the team so much and we cannot wait to see what God has in store for us.

Work at the Orphanage!

Hello families!!!
It's friday and we have been very busy. Between digging holes for coconut trees, cataloging library books, teaching computers and teaching the kids new songs, there has been lots to do. It's crazy to think that our week here is half way over (for some of us)! Tonight (for Brad's b-day) we are going to set of fireworks!!! I think the girls here are going to love that. Tonight Mary, Sarah, Bethany, and Jean-Luc will be leading the Bible study for the girls. Here are a few pictures from today...more to come!! F.Y.I. although our schedules are very busy, if you NEED to contact your son/daughter call 011919746407387. This is Mr. Mathew's cell phone.

Another day in India!

Today was our first official day of work at the orphanage. Most of our team started the day by setting up a new library at the Bible College at the orphanage. Thanks to generous donations by several families our team was able to provide hundreds of books and a brand new computer for the college. The second half of the day our team helped out the several schools at the orphanages and we were able to take our first trip to town! Our day ended with a traditional India church service and dinner. Thanks for your prayers!

INDIA!

We finally made it. After over 24 hours of travel, we arrived at Rehoboth Orphanage at 1:30 a.m. There we were greeted by the familiar faces of the girls, they were so excited to see us and we were equally excited to see them. This morning while the girls were at school we were able to rest a little bit and got to experience some Indian RAIN! It was awesome. Today's adventures consisted of, playing with some of the kids, visiting the elderly, and catching up on sleep. Tomorrow starts our work at the library. We love and miss you all!

Arrival in Singapore

So after another 4 hour flight we arrived in Singapore. After landing we decided to spend our 8-hour lay over on Sentosa Island. It only took us about 2 hours to get there, but we finally arrived! We visited an attraction called Water World, which was pretty exciting, and spent the rest of the time at the beach. The day was full of excitement, but what was really on all of our minds was the showers back at the Singapore Airport. It's now about 7:30 p.m Singapore time on June 23rd. Our plane leaves for Cochin, India at 8:50 and we all cannot wait for another 6 hour plane flight! Talk to you guys soon!

We're in Taiwan!

After a long 14 hour flight, we are finally at our first destination, Taiwan!!! After the 52,200 grueling seconds on flight 109, which included six hours of oxygen mass use, severe turbulence, and our first use of the "lifevests", (hahah just kidding!!) we finally reached Taiwan. Due to our American addiction to caffeine, we are now sitting at the oh-so-popular Starbucks! In about 40 minutes we will begin our journey back to the plane where we will have a six hour flight to Singapore. We love you guys! Thanks for your prayers

Updates!

Just a couple reminders before tomorrow's meeting!

• Make sure you have your visas and that they are checked for any mistakes.

• Please bring a copy of your passport to the meeting tomorrow, June 19th at the Trahan's house. This will enable us to select the seats in flight so that we can be closer to one another.
  

• We will also be collecting our love offering for Rehoboth at our meeting.

Also give some thoughts on our travel to the airport.

1) Could we car pool;
2) Do we have an alternate arrangement;
3) Do we travel on our own

Thank you all for your time and prayer. We will see you tomorrow at the meeting!

Parent Student Prayer Meeting

The time is coming for departure! We are sure that your are all praying that God will bring all things together as we prepare to serve at Rehoboth.

With all of the excitement with senior trip, graduation and grad night we decided to move the parent-student prayer meeting from the original June 14th date, to Thursday June 19th. The meeting will be located at the Trahan's house and begin at 7:30 p.m.

Directions:

• From Christian School of the Desert head north toward the freeway

• Make a left turn on Country Club Drive

• Head straight past Washington until Tamarisk Row Drive
  

• Turn right on Tamarisk Row Drive
  

• Make the first left into Regency Estates
  

• The gate code is 5002

• Make your first left on Cricket Cove, and they are located at the end of the culvasac on the left

Address:

39954 Cricket Cove
Palm Desert, CA 92211

Remember to visit your doctor and get malaria medication. Most medicines have you start a week before your departure. Also remember to have your passport stamped with the proper India Visa with all of the details correct. And the most important thing is to continue to pray for our mission team!

Ephesians 2:10
"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advanced for us to do."

First Meeting!

Wednesday May 28th was our first official India Mission trip meeting. We had it at Christian School of the Desert where we discussed several details of our next India Mission trip! We have an awesome team consisting of 13 missionaries with Mr. and Mrs. Matthews leading the trip. Like before our team will be staying at the Rehoboth orphanage in Cochin, India. Our team will be working at the orphanage doing tasks anywhere from chores assigned by the staff at Rehoboth to leading evening worship and devotions. God is doing amazing work already for our team and we are very excited to see what is to come! Although our itinerary may be subject to change here is what we have so far:

• Meet at LAX on June 22nd (Sunday) at 9:00 pm
  
• Departure is on June 23rd at 12:55 am by Singapore Airlines
• Lay over in Singapore is 8.5 hours
• Arrive in Cochin at 10:15pm (India time!) on June 24th

*Reminder that luggage should not exceed 50lbs (this has changed since our last meeting) and you are allowed one carry on for change of clothes in Singapore. You can visit: http://csod-india.blogspot.com/2008/03/final-departure-reminders.html for reminders on what not to pack and what to pack.

There is a parent meeting on June 3rd at 7:00 pm in Room 11 at Christian School of the Desert. This meeting is set up to answer any questions or concerns parents may have about the trip. Our next group meeting will take place on June 13th at 3:30 pm at Natalee Gaddini's house, directions will be sent out soon. We want to plan some sort of hiking day trip before we leave for India, so be thinking of somewhere before the meeting! See you soon!