Pamela's Misadventures: My First Visit to Kalapani and The Bread of Life Academy

Today Raysha and I had our first visit to the village of Kalapani and The Bread of Life Academy. The Bread of Life Academy is a school that was started when it was discovered that 80% of the children in Kalapani were not attending school. Currently there is one permanent building on the property and a second one is in the process of being constructed. Raysha, Autumn, Andrew and I will be going out to the Bread of Life Academy on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to teach the kids. I think that we will also be going out on Sundays to teach Sunday school. Also this is where the Alpha Bible College classes are going to be taught by Ray. They are scheduled to start next week.

Raysha and I spent the morning singing songs with the kids and trying to teach them new ones as well as some games. They don't speak much English so it was a challenge but it is amazing what repetition can do for you. Also they're good at imitating. As we taught them new action songs there was one moment when I scratched an itch on my knee and about half of them did the exact same thing. Too funny! This video is of them singing "Five Little Monkeys," that seemed to be a favorite along with "Father Abraham."

When we first arrived we got to help hand out their new uniform t-shirts. I don't think that they really knew what to think of us at first. Most of them warmed up to us after a while though.

Raysha helping one of the little boys with his new t-shirt.

Here they are singing to us.

Are these not the cutest kids ever?

It was pretty much love at first sight.

Something Ray mentioned when we first arrived at the school was that most, if not all of these children have never even heard of Jesus or the Bible before now. It is going to be like planting seeds in soil that has never been cultivated before. Tonight he talked about how we can only imagine what these little people are going to grow up to do and the impact that they might have on their families, their village, their country and their world. Since arriving in India I've had doubts about whether I can really make a difference in this place. There are so many people and such diverse beliefs and traditions that it feels rather overwhelming. Visiting the school today reminded me of something, God uses us to plant the seeds and where it goes from there is in his control. Jesus' time on earth was spent influencing those who were around him who in turn influenced more people who then in turn did the same. Like the ripples of a pebble thrown in a pond so is our witness for Christ, ever spreading further and further. My life is a ripple, the effect of seeds of faith planted by others.

I'm really excited to get to see and participate in a more rural part of India. At the same time I am thankful that we are living in Guwahati where we have running water and electricity etc. I feel like I am getting the best of both worlds. Kalapani really is a beautiful area. As we walked down from the Bread of Life Academy these were a few shots that I took.