Rajahmundry

Wow, it is wonderful to be in India. Many things have changed, but many things have also stayed exactly the same as they were in 1995. So far I have adjusted pretty smoothly to the sights, sounds, smells, etc. that are so uniquely Indian (which comes as a big relief).

The Bethania Kids home here in Rajahmundry also goes by the name “Angel Home,” and it is home to 45 boys. Forty-five very energetic boys. Solomon Mungamuri is the leader of the home, and it’s an understatement to say that he does a wonderful job with these kids. We visited the home with Dr. Gnankan (BK India President), Godfrey (BK India administrator), Todd Heidelberger (BK USA President) his daughter, Ingrid. Our car pulled up to the field, and immediately the boys were at our doors to greet us, very eagerly telling us their names. I was impressed by the amount of English that they speak, which Solomon tells me is due to the English-speaking visitors they often receive. I quickly learned that the boys love to play games and tricks. First, they insisted that I play cricket, which was hilarious given my poor hand-eye coordination. (Emily, you would have been a star at this.) Later on, we played a rousing, very long game of “drip-drip-drop,” which is “duck-duck-grey duck” with water. This game evolved into multiple buckets of water being sloshed around and poured on our heads. There was no way I could avoid this; Dad somehow escaped. It was all in good fun, and fortunately I was wearing casual clothes. Later we had a time of Bible reading, singing, and prayer. It was very cool to sing “Sanctuary” and inspiring to see how fervently and sincerely the boys prayed.

Today Todd, Dad, and I participated in the meeting of the Indian Board of Trustees. I always enjoy the opportunity to attend Bethania meetings because it gets me pumped up about our work here. The Indian board consists of several wonderful, intelligent, kind-hearted people. I was encouraged to hear a lot of support for our Sponsor-a-Child program. Both the Indian and USA boards are working on a number of issues and it's great to see Bethania improving in the process.