A Treasure Trove from India!

Today I opened up my mailbox and saw FOUR cream colored envelopes in there! Each of these envelopes contained a letter from one of my sweet children in India. It was wonderful to read them and I want to share that joy with you. I will post all four letters here, in one post, youngest to oldest.

First up, an All About Me form letter from Solomon. It's interesting to learn his height and weight. He's certainly a tiny little guy!

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1. My nickname is: Solomon

2. I am 112 centimeters tall and weight 16 kilograms. 

3. I am the third child in my family.

4. The colors of my eye is black. 

5. One thing I really like to do is play carrom board along with my sister. 

Dear Kayla,

Greetings to you in Jesus name. Since Solomon is a small boy, I am project staff Susan writing this letter on behalf of him. He is asking you how are you? Solomon and his family are doing well by God's grace. He is very happy to receive your letter and he was very happy to hear about the story of Daniel in it, how God protected him from the lion's den and the Christmas and New Year's celebrations along with your family and friends. By God's grace, he passed 1st grade and now he is going to 2nd grade. He attended VBS in our church from April 2nd to 7th regularly. The theme was "Be strong and courageous" from Joshua 1:9. He learned new songs, memory verses and he did craftwork. He enjoyed it very much and his friends. He is praying for you and for your family. Thinking of you. 

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The next letter is from Khushi. I've been semi dreading a letter from her. For the past few months, there are been tragic floods in the area where she lives. I was worried that I would get a letter from her telling me something sad about the flood. It turns out, I was right. There is definitely some sadness in this letter:

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Dear Sponsor,

Greetings to you in the name of the Lord. We hope you are well. Me and my family are doing well. Thank you very much for your letters and beautiful photos. I am very happy meeting you and learning from you. You have a beautiful family. Thank you very much for supporting me and having a heart for me. 

I go to project regularly. I get to learn songs that tell about Jesus, bible verses, and other important, interesting activities and stories. I go to school near my village. I am in 6th grade. We are going to celebrate our 66th independence day. We are excited about it. 

This is rainy season. People faced and are still facing lots of difficulties because of big flood that came here. Many people died and houses were washed away. Please pray for flood victims. We thank God that we can trust him in all situations. We lost one member from my family. My uncle passed away in this incident. We are sad for that. Thank you very much for supporting me. Please keep praying for me and all of us. 

Yours,

Khushi

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Next, a letter from my Sagar. In this letter, he is responding to the letter I wrote about attending my uncle and new aunt's wedding. I asked each of my children to share about wedding ceremonies and customs from their country. Sagar went through the whole process. I loved hearing about Indian weddings. Then, the 2nd paragraph was almost a word for word repeat of his last letter, but it's still cool to read about what his project has been able to provide for the children.

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Dear Sponsor, 

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am so happy to write this letter to you! How are you? Thank you very much for your letters. 

I am so happy about your uncle's marriage. I would like to tell you about my country's weddings. In my country weddings are very traditional. The groom wears a suit and and the bride wears a sari with a veil. At the beginning of the ceremony the groom stands up in the front, by the pastor. A song sung by group of church and bride walked between the guest to meet her groom at the front. The pastor gave a short sermon and talk about family life and commitment. Then bride and groom share vows with each other. They are telling about love and faithfulness with each other. In the wedding, groom and bride wear rings for each other. After wedding we have big party to the guests who are attending marriage. 

I am studying in 7th grade and everyday I am going to school to complete my daily homework. Everyday I am going to project center learning gospel songs and stories at my project center. They give me school bag, uniform, books, notebooks, and raincoat. It's very good. I have attended a medical camp at my project center and checked my blood group and did HIV test. They give me well balanced diet foods. It's very good diet. I am so happy to say about my project center. Today we learned about A, B, C, D vitamins at my project center. I am very fine! Please pray for my family and project center. May God bless you and your family!

Your Loving Child,

Sagar

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Last, but not least, I heard from Kalpesh. Man, I just love my Indian kiddos. This love all started when I was assigned to Kalpesh, almost two years ago. In this letter, Kalpesh is telling me about his school. I recently learned that his best friend's name is also Kalpesh. I asked him if that caused any confusion at school. This letter answers that question for me. 

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Dearest Sister Kayla,

My family greeting to you in the loving name of Jesus Christ. I am very glad to receive your letters, photographs, and to hear many more things about you and your family. Thank yo so much for everything. By the love and grace of our Lord, and through your prayers, I am doing well. How are you and your students doing? Say hello to them for me. 

Here, it is rainy season going on and my school restarted on June 17th and I am very happy to join school again. Now I am studying in the 6th class. All the 52 students are only in my class. In our class, there are 4 divisions and in that, more than 60 students in a class. My friend Kalpesh is studying in the 7th class, so there is no confusion in class. 

Before this, I heard the story about Daniel, but once again this story washed my brain about trust in God. Also thanks a lot for the encouraging wonderful example of caterpillar turning into butterfly. Please pray for me that I may know more about Jesus and strongly believe in Him. May God help you in your work. 

Your Younger Brother,

Kalpesh

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