We're Here at Sharon Gardens

Hello Everyone,

Martin arrived in Mumbai, had his appointments there and is now in Hyberadad for his last. Tomorrow Martin will fly to Bangalore where a driver will pick him up and bring him here.

Linda and I checked in at JFK and I asked if there were any exit row seats left for me...no. "Are there any empty rows?" He ticked the keys, took my boarding pass and tore it up without a word. Linda and I looked at each other and mumbled out a feeble, 'thank you.' I DID have a whole row to myself while Linda made friends in Business Class.

Linda and I arrived in Mumbai where we discovered that one of her two pieces of luggage decided to take a detour and go to Brazil. That's right, you heard correctly, BRAZIL! The piece that had my stuff for teaching and gifts made it, but the case with ALL her personal items did not.
PRAY: Her suitcase will arrive in Bangalore tomorrow where Martin will pick it up and bring it here to Linda.

Linda has been a real trooper! She wore a top and wrap skirt of mine to travel to Salem. I had the driver stop at my favorite clothing store where she purchased two Indian outfits. She looks BEAUTIFUL! I will post pictures when someone comes, hopefully tomorrow, to fix the other computer. Only one will load my pictures and the other will only log on to the Internet.

I could not stand to wait to visit my friends at the IGL Headquarters office, so we snuck into town with a driver to say 'hi' first thing yesterday. While we were leaving the Children's' Gospel Club office visiting Pastor Kennedy and his wife, Sheeli, Linda spotted Pastor's screen saver scrolling, "Phil. 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." That was Michael's life verse and is lovingly etched on his headstone and forever in our hearts. Linda asked why it was there? Was it some theme they were working on? "No Mrs. Linda. I have chosen it to encourage me only." I informed him he had greatly encouraged Linda and why. It was confirmation that Linda was right where she should be...."thank you Lord for the hug."

Today we distributed the Valentines to the students. Our dear friend, Jane, from out neighborhood Bible Study wrote each student's name and signed, 'From Aunty Karen and Aunty Linda'. I was so crazy busy that the Bible Study gals took over some projects. More on that later. The students were so excited you would have thought they never gotten one before...and that was just the case. The instructor, Gayathri, was so thrilled. She had made copies to give to her family and mother...."In our country only lovers give on this day. You have changed all that. The students now see we can give to anyone who is in our hearts. Thank you!" She couldn't wait to get home and give hers. I turned to the class and said, "Oh yes. You are all in our hearts. This is a small way to show that." They looked at their little paper valentines like they were lottery tickets.

Tomorrow Linda and I start observing at the community college. Sharon Gardens will fill up today with guests for the dedication of the new Community College that will take place on Saturday so I wanted to be sure to get this first post in. Please forgive any errors since it is 4:30am. (gotta get on the computer while I can!)

Love you all very much and please keep up the prayers.

Karen, Linda, and Martin