Outreach Team

We just got this letter from Aggu, our DTS leader, who is also leading an outreach to South India. Their team just left this last Saturday and have reached safely to their destination. Please remember them.

Dear housers,
Greetings from Vijayawada!
First of all thanks you so much for your constant prayer.We reach Vijaywada 4 hrs late than the said time but our journey was awesome. The weather was very pleasant and suitable for my team,HE knows what is best for us! Our journey starts with blessings from one of our students parents from Guwahati,they prepared breakfast,lunch and dinner for our journey which means we save our money for some other purpose to bless poeple as well as a team.
My team members are all very good and supportive and i feel honour to be thier leader. Gogo slept most of the team,meno can't speak hindi so he was hungry through out his journey cos he cannot communicate to buy food in the train/station, james hardly speak a word,Aphoa was fuss for too much in need to help poeple, Toshi was very much challenge by his Ao tune accent,sheli was not able to use the tiolet, annie was scared by the hijaras, hanari don't have time to talk to her friends cos she was very much excited to cross long river bridge, rosey was too naga to travel in the train and last but not the least Aggu was so much concern about his wife.
Anyway, the place itself was hot and humid and most of us hate to go to toilet cos we sweat alot and meno is planing to fixed a ceiling fan in our toilet. The ministry was too long for gogo that he don't want to be a team recorder cos he find it hard to translate telegu into english,toshi try to help him but his Ao accent makes him more confuss. The host were so humble and understanding that we can even cook birds,we are not far away from home when comes to kitchen. the girls need more sugar for idli and sambar.
well,all is well with our soul. so far we do house visiting and prayer fellowship and by the next week we will be moving to villages doing open air. We believe in our self to be used by God and He will. Continue to pray for us always,we need so much prayer support as we step out to reach and be reached.We were very excited and we believe that our excitement we have will not last from this outreach but will continue in each one of us.
We need your words of encouragement as well.
Always a friend,
Vithomezo(aggu).

Growing

I never knew how entertaining it was to be a parent. Every day is full of new things learned and new expressions or experiences. These days she can touch her toes and so she is often pulling at her socks and trying to take them off. Her little toes barely touch the floor in her walker and she can push off on them sometimes and move across the floor a bit. Our friend Sunny has been teaching her a couple of things and now she puts her hands in ours when we ask her to. She has a really loud and deep laugh now and we love to try and make her laugh as we tickle her and make faces. She recently became fascinated with my cell phone and sometimes I let her hold it and play with it and she has called our friend Vibu a couple of times. I think that one of my favorite parts of the day is when she first wakes up in the morning. She coos and makes some noises in her room and when I go to get her, she gives me the biggest smile and her bright blue eyes are very big with joy. No matter how tired I am, I'm always happy to see her little face with the big smile.

Dave recently had a Leadership meeting in a big city not far from here and so he found a high chair in one of the stores there. It's the perfect size as it lines up exactly with our table so she can sit with us now when we eat and someday we'll be able to eat together.

5 Months

Today is Katriel's 5 month birthday! I found this picture of me when I was about her same age and I can't believe how much more hair she has than me. It keeps growing and growing. My Mom and Grandma sent her some clips and bows for her hair and it's fun to try to arrange her little curls. It's funny because even if I have her dressed in pink and have a little bow in her hair, people come up to me and ask if she is a girl or a boy. Here babies wear all colors and so you can't easily distinguish if one is a boy or girl depending on what they wear. I always get a little surprised when they ask me, because she really looks like a little girl to me.

The DTS left this last week to go on outreach and so things have quieted down a bit as they were a pretty big group. The SOFM has started this week and we have a neat group of people from different countries and tribes. I'll post some pictures soon. Dave is teaching this week about Mission Perspectives and has been quite busy as he just returned from a Leadership Meeting in a different city.

Solid Food

This last Sunday we decided it was time to try and give our little Kate some solid food. I thought that since I always feed her, it would be fun for Dave to feed her her first solid food. Here the rice cereal is called Cerelac and you just add some hot water to the mixture and stir it for a while. He was a real cute Dad and carefully prepared the food and since we knew that this should be a well-documented event, our friend Sunny was there to take pictures. So I held her and Dave fed her. We were really looking forward to it as a great and momentous milestone, but she didn't really seem too excited about the whole thing. Dave put the watery cereal in her mouth, and she made some adorably funny faces and spit most of it out. Sunny said that she looked really surprised.

It is exciting that she will soon start to regularly eat more solid foods and yet I'm longing for the day when I can let her try some delicious cake. I bet she'll be pretty excited about that. However that day is a long way off and she'll need to eat a tremendous amount of vegetables, fruits, and rice cereal before then.

I believe that our taste buds are a true gift from God. He didn't have to give them to us, but He did. We look forward to our baby trying and discovering different flavors and tastes in the days to come.

The Golden Age

We read in a book that between the age of 4 to 7 months, babies are in the "Golden Age." They are growing and becoming more expressive, but they are not yet moving around much. These days Kate has been greatly entertaining to us and developing in personality and in so many ways. A couple of days ago I went into the next room to get something and when I came back Kate had rolled over on her stomach and was lifting her head up high in the sky. I was so surprised because it was the first time that she had done that by herself. We need to be more aware of where we keep her now that she can roll on her own. She laughs a lot more now and is so much more aware of people and all of her surroundings.

Dave and I were watching a few videos that we made of her even a few weeks ago and it's amazing to see how much she has grown and how much more expressive she is now. Our friend Sunny said that her facial expressions change every day.

We bought her a walker in the bazaar and she loves to play in it. Her feet are still several inches off of the ground, but she likes to sit up and look around. There are little toys connected to it and she plays with them and laughs. One thing that has dramatically changed is that until a few weeks ago she was very content to just be quiet and play with herself a lot of the time. We would put her on a blanket with a few toys and she would coo and be very happy, but these days she always wants us to hold her and pay attention to her. She loves to be the center of attention and can sit quite happily in our arms for an extended period of time. Our friend told us to enjoy this time because he has a 9 month old daughter who is very mobile and he misses the days when his daughter would just let him hold her. So we are enjoying these days and marveling at how she grows and changes day by day.