We have so many pictures this week, we are unsure of where to begin, what to include, and what to exclude. Our work week began early Monday morning with a phone call from Brother Raju Joseph from Semmedu asking us to pick up Brother Gill from the airport at 9:45. Brother Gill was the first mission president for the India Bangalore Mission. He served from 1993 - 1995. We had to put ourselves into high gear to get ready in time. We also had to call our driver to see if he was available to take us to the airport. Luckily, he was available. Well, we went to the airport, but we were late because Brother Raju Joseph decided to ride his motorcycle into Coimbatore from Semmedu to go to the airport with us. Brother Gill was not sure anyone was coming to pick him up, so he hired a taxi. We went to his hotel and met him there. We enjoyed our short visit with him. Later that evening, he went to the church to meet with any members that wanted to drop by to visit with him. We stayed until 7:00, and then we had to leave for an appointment. His Grandson, Elder Westwood, who recently returned home from his mission here in India, accompanied him.
We visited six families this week. One family was the Raju Joseph family in Semmedu. We left at 10:00 a.m. and returned about 4:00 p.m. Travel time is about one hour one way. The Raju Joseph family had just completed some renovations to their home. They increased the height of the house, put on a small addition, and painted their house. They now have an indoor toilet. This is the outside of their home. Notice the double doors. Most of the houses that we have been in have this type of door. Also, notice that the windows have no glass in them. This, also is common in this type of house.
This picture is of Sister Kalyani in her new kitchen. As we mentioned earlier, the roof, including that of the kitchen was raised. Originally, the roof on the left side was not much higher than Sister Tiefenbach. This kitchen is typical of many of the kitchens we have seen in India. We have seen two kitchens that would be comparable to western style kitchens and several others kitchen that fall between what we see here and the western style. This family has a refrigerator, but it is not in the kitchen; it is in the hall (or living room), which is typical in India. In an earlier blog, we mentioned that the floor space of a particular kitchen was filled with water jugs and cooking vessels, etc. You can see an example of this here. Also, the shelves behind Sister Kalyani are tyical of many of the kitchens we have seen.
The floors of this house are cement without any tiles. Many houses we have been in have not tiles, while others have beautiful marble tiles. Brother Raju Joseph and Sister Kalyani have added beauty to the cement floors by making an impression of a flower in the wet cement and then painting it. The hall (living room) is about 8 feet by 8 feet. They feel highly blessed to have been able to make these renovations to their home.
Brother Raju Joseph and Sister Kalyani had some of their family visiting. On the left side is Brother Raju Joseph's brother, Brother Joseph, and his wife, Sister Mary (who happens to be Sister Kalyani's sister). Brother Joseph and Sister Mary live in Dehli. Their sons have very good English. The older woman is brothers' mother. Both Brothers have two sons. In this picture you can see that the roof is tiled. This is typical of many houses in India. Notice that the roof simply sits on top of the walls, and their is a space between the wall and the roofs. Many people choose to have cement roofs to avoid rats entering into their homes. Brother Raju Joseph (blue shirt) was one of the first missionaries from India to serve in India.
While we were visiting this family, we also visited a Hindu meditation place, Isha Yoga. This cement block has a Christian symbol, a Muslim symbol, and a Hindu. The presence of all three symbols suggests to them that we all worship the same God.
Opposite to this is a statue of a cow, which is one of the gods that the Hindus worship. Beside us is our driver, Brother Augustine. He is such a good help to us. We appreciate all he does for us.
We visited with Sister Ronna again this week, which we do every week. Her sister, Jean, and her two children were visiting. They will be staying for ten days. They will all sleep in the same room, which is about 8 ft. x 9ft. Sister Ronna has only a kitchen and one other room in her house. But, this doesn't seem to influence whether or not family can stay. This makes us wonder why in North America we think that we can't have extra company over because we don't have enough bedrooms.
Sister Tiefenbach made banana cake for our Zone Meeting. Actually, she made two attempts at the cake. The first ones did NOT turn out. They fell drastically in the centre just before they were finished cooking. That is the third time for this recipe. The first time, the cake turned out exceptionally well, but each time after that the results went further downhill. So, Sister Tiefenbach used a different recipe (the one she got from her daughter, Sheri). It was a hit with the missionairies. The toilet seat that Elder McDonald is holding has nothing to do with the cake.
That looks much better. Having scriptural references on the board and holding the scriptures and the Preach My Gospel manual is a great touch! In truth, they give very good presentations.
The Christmas program, Picture a Christmas, was fabulous. The choir sang wonderfully. Everyone was impressed with the program and the singing. This is the first program they have had of this type. We asked one of the branch presidents if the program met his expectations, and he told us that it surpassed his expectations. The attendance was over 300, and many people not of our church were there. Many of our visitors commented that they felt peace and that they felt good when the songs were sung. Our goal was accomplished. We wanted the spirit of Christmas to be felt by all those who attended. 
The evening started with the primary children performing a dance and singing a song. The song was directed by Sister Tiefenbach. 
The choir was thrilled with the opportunity to participate in a program like this. Sister Tiefenbach has been asked to lead a choir for the District Conference that will be held on January 20th. Their experience with this choir has made all of the choir members eager to sing for that, as well. We had a small choir, numbering only 14 members, but they sang like a much larger choir. We still can't get over the number of fantastic male singers we have here. We had a difficult time getting women to sing in the choir, so those numbers were quite low, but they were wonderful. We had several who had never sung in choir before. They made great progress from the time we started practicing to the time we performed. The men looked handsome in their suits and red ties. The sisters had special sarees made for the occassion. The one sister not in her saree changed before we could find her for this picture. Everyone looked very professional. Maybe, we looked just as good as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Unfortunately, our pianist left before the picture was taken. Elder Tiefenbach is in the picture because he operated the computer for many of our practices. Our pianist could not practice with us until December. Until then, we used the music on the church website to learn the parts. Elder Tiefenbach was very patient while Sister Tiefenbach had him stop and start parts of the songs over and over again. He deserves a special award for his work.
In one part of the program, Sister Tiefenbach sang "Mary's Lullaby" with Sister Sujithra (left) and Sister Punita (centre). Sister Punita is one of the sisters that had never sung in a choir before. She has a sweet, pleasant voice, and when Sister Tiefenbach heard her sing, she knew that she wanted her to be in the group to sing this song. Sister Punita learns the things Sister Tiefenbach taught during the choir practices very quickly.
The program, written by Sister Tiefenbach, was inspired by the primary children's song, "Picture a Christmas." The audience was asked to picture several scenes in their minds. Of course, we had actors to help them picture the scenes.
Following the program, a cake was cut, and food was served. Of course, the main attraction was chicken biryanni. Notice that the food was served outdoors. This is the common pratice when large numbers of people are served at the church. This isn't a problem because the weather is warm in the evening, and Coimbatore gets very little rain.Christmas is two days away. We have a hard time believing that Christmas is here. We have enjoyed singing Christmas songs at church and thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas program, but Christmas is different this year. We will spend Christmas day with two different families. But, Christmas morning will be spent by ourselves. We have not woken up Christmas morning without others in our house since the first Christmas we spent after we were married. This will be very different for us.
We pray that your Christmas will be wonderful and that you will remember the birth of the Saviour as you gather with family and friends.
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