Leap Year & Gifts

Daddy finally had the chance to give some gifts from India to some of the kids.  The girls got all dressed up in some nice dresses and showed off the India look.  Wow!

Reeve got some T-shirts, but didn't quite make the picture. He was more excited with some of his beyblades that daddy found.

Seems like a fun enough way to celebrate leap year!

Grandpa's B'Day

What an absolute privilege to be able to celebrate Grandpa's birthday with him.  A day late, but we managed to find a time on the schedule when we could all be together for dinner.

Thanks to Tasha, Mark, Marta, Daniel, Eli, Micah and the rest of the Woodwards, we were able to give him a nice present - part of it from India - and the always trusty Starbucks gift cards.

Somehow, Reeve was also presented with a present - grandma put together a queen quilt for his bed in Ohio.  With some left over fabric and a whole lot of work, another beautiful quilt for the family! Thanks grandma, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!

Rania @ School

It is always so fun to get glimpses of how much fun Rania has with her friends, classmates and students at school.  It is truly a special place!

And she is having another super year with Ms. Ely.  What a treat that all three of our kids have been able to have the same teacher for Prep Senior (kindergarten).

Goodbye Mumbai!

It was time to return to Malaysia - and say goodbye to our short visit in Mumbai, and especially say goodbye to Andi and his family.

In our final hours, we made a pilgrimage to the post office, walked around a bit, and then got a special concert performance to see us off!

Reunion

After the conference, I had the opportunity, thanks to erratic flight schedules between Mumbai and KL to spend a little time with my good friend Andi Eicher.  His blog, unlike mine, is deep and life-impacting.  He and his family wrestle with life and death on a near daily basis as they have a clinic in Thane, outside of Mumbai, that ministers to the HIV-positive.  If you want to laugh and cry, be inspired and challenged beyond imagination, it would be worth a jump over to his blog to capture a snapshot of their lives. 

It was truly inspirational and amazing to hear all of Andi & Sheba's experiences, to worship with them in their house church, and to visit the clinic and see the work they are doing with those who are too often lacking hope. 


And it was quite sure that we definitely ended up seeing the "real India."  Wow.  Thanks, Andi & Sheba for letting us into your lives for a short period.

Best Church Experience!

How absolutely wonderful to join Andi & Sheba for their gospel hour at the clinic.  Open to the community and the patients in the clinic, Andi led the hour time of worship and encouragement almost entirely in Hindi.  It was so exciting to see Andi, barefoot, strumming his guitar with vigor as they jumped to a variety of praise songs in the Hindi praise song.

But what made the event so memorable, was me, the lone white guy, sitting in the corner, and right next to me was this guy with a most memorable shirt.  The motto was boldly pastered on both the front and back:  "F***ing Magic:  You can't be down When you are high."  To finish it off, there was a big marijuana leaf.

Never in all my years of church services do I think I've sat next to someone with swear words on their shirt!  What a great glimpse of what the church should be - much like Jeevan Sahara Kendra - open to all and giving hope to the hopeless.

Thanks, Andi and Sheba for the experience!

Delhi Belly

Unfortunately the trip wasn't absolutely perfect, as I got some sort of bug - or ate something disagreeable.  With about 20 hours of feeling mighty miserable too much time bowing to the porcelain toilet, it was good to get whatever it was out of my system!

Fortunately, I was feeling good enough to enjoy the final day of the conference - and ended up missing out mostly on the evening dinner extravaganza - plus a couple of afternoon workshops.

It was especially fun to re-unite with Leon Letkeman from ACS - Amman and Doug Irish from ISKL.  Lots of other connections from various conferences, and great chance to get some great data and info on our upcoming 1:1 program in middle school.

Mumbai - ASB Unplugged

Traveling with my colleague, Brian Inskeep, we attended the ASB Unplugged conference in Mumbai, India.  It was a rich educational experience with lots of great takeaways.  #asbunplugged on Twitter is rich with the educational takeaways.  And the conference website was full of incredible resources that we took back for ISKL. With professionals like Scott McLeod, Tim Rylands and Scott Klososky, there were some great workshops and presentations. 

We took our lone free evening to get a chance to head downtown.  Being swindled by the great balloon switch, buying old postcards, and seeing some of the historical sights (Gateway to India) were highlights.  But thanks to a recommendation, we also had the best Indian food ever at Kyber India. 

Healthy Choices - Video

Here are some small snippets from the wonderful performance.

Healthy Choices

What a treat to get to see Gabi's Healthy Choice's Performance along with the rest of the Grade 2 students.  She did a great job with her speaking lines, even got the chance to give flowers at the end, and was super during the performance. 

With the music, dancing, and information, it was quite the impressive performance!

It was especially fun to see her so happy after the performance!  Great to see her with some good friends and mommy and daddy even got pictures!

Super Bowl Party

We had our annual Super Bowl party - with Max  graciously hosting in his new house.  We had the two screens and fortunately, no one spoiled the results as we watched it a few hours later. 

And after the disastrous Colts season, it was a small relief to see that the "right" team won - in another close, exciting game!