Merry Christmas!
November 15, 2006
By the time you read this letter, the Thomas family at Woodstock School in Mussoorie, India will have already celebrated Christmas and left for Winter Break. Much of what we do here is forced by the weather – staying inside during the monsoon months, enjoying outdoor sporting events during the sunny days and moving to warmer climes as the unheated school closes during the snowy midwinter months. Boarding students need a long period to reconnect with family; staff need time to rejuvenate and get ready for the busy semester ahead. We have already attended the united carol service with beautiful Hindi and English carols from churches and schools all over the hillside. We will have had the all-school Christmas Chapel and Barb’s first and second grade class will have a presented a nativity play. Members of our local church St. Paul’s will have done outreach ministry to the residents of the leper colony. The youth group of the Hindustani church will have come singing Hindi carols at our home. All this Christmas celebration before December 6th when the students leave on holiday. Clearly the specific date is not as important as the reason for the celebration – the birth of Jesus. We wish you a blessed Christmas season in your own time and place.
Joys!
This time last year, Barb was concerned about the plight of the ragpickers living under tarps near the school. We’re happy to report that a local NGO is helping this itinerant group, and students from Woodstock have organized play and tutoring for the children who only a year ago had nothing but begging to occupy their time.
Only a month ago, we received word about a young woman who needed help with nursing school expenses. God spoke to the heart of a new supporter, and the money came – just before the school deadline.
Two special gifts were made to purchase study bibles for the youth at our Friday Morning Bible Study.
Boxes of school supplies were received, much to the joy of the children in Friendship Club and in Barb’s elementary school class.
We have been blessed by those responding to our requests for family videos and games. And the CARE packages of favorite foods and candy mean more than you know. Cards, letters, newsletters and email have kept us connected over the miles and for that we are truly grateful.
An Update on Woodstock School
In the fall of this year, we individually participated in Woodstock School’s Activity Week – out of the classroom and into the real world. Each of us reflected on our own trips around India.
Barb: As I was still recuperating from surgery, my Activity Week was confined to the Woodstock School area. Studying the concept of communities, we did team-building exercises in our own class while exploring the various departments which make up the school community. The highlight of the week was visiting the nearby community of Dhobi Ghat, where the laundrymen wash the clothes for most of the town. Trying our hands at scrubbing, beating and rinsing our clothes in cold spring water made us appreciate the hard work people do on our behalf. This was a particular revelation for some of the more privileged of my students whose servants take care of all household chores. It was a wonderful community-building time for all involved.
Jeff: I repeated last year’s trip to New Delhi, this time with a larger group of eleventh-graders. We visited historical sites. We marveled at the hustle and bustle in this capital city of the largest democracy on earth! The highlight was our private tour of the President’s Residence Rashtrapati Bhavan. We visited two real-world businesses run by Woodstock graduates. We also attended a lecture at Delhi University, and a book-launch of a historical work about the British East India Company. We stayed at the headquarters of the Church of North India, that has guest rooms for visiting clergy and school group. We enjoyed some religious education – directly comparing muslim, sikh, baha’i, hindu, roman catholic, and protestant houses of worship (f.y.i., the most welcoming place was the sikh temple). Students asked pointed questions about the differences between catholicism and protestantism, and about my own beliefs. I greatly appreciated the maturity and politeness of my students, as well as their ability to fall asleep even in a cramped bus seat! The dangerous ride on the narrow inter-city roads brings to mind the old term foxhole Christian, as we all prayed for a safe journey through the potholes and the oxcarts and tractors and overloaded lorries and honking buses. We made it back, without incident, tired but better educated.
Chris: On my Activity Week, I joined nine other high schoolers and two teachers on an 80+Km hike through the Himalayas. On the first day, we took an 8-hour bus ride to the small town of Barsu at around 10,000 feet, where we stayed at a new, government run hostel for the night. This would be the last time we got to use running water, showers and toilets for a week! After hiking for two more days, we finally made it to Dayara Bhugyal, rolling meadows right in front of one of the tallest mountain ranges in India, the Banderpunch Range. We then took a day hike up to the top of one of the nearest peaks. A few friends and I quickly got ahead of the rest of the group in our eagerness to reach the snows. We were nearly up the mountain when we realized that the rest of the group was hiking around the mountain! We decided to climb along the ridge at the top to the next one, where the rest of the group was going. However, we were surprised to see the rest of the group turning back towards our campsite. A snowstorm was coming fast, and if we didn’t get down soon, we might be unable to see the way down! We quickly took our pictures at the summit of the highest peak in the range, at around 14,000 feet. The next day, we hiked a kilometer down the khud, or cliff to the bottom of a valley where we had to cross a waist-deep river. Several people fell in, and we had lots of fun pulling them back out. On the last day, we hiked to a small village where our buses were waiting to take us back to Mussoorie. My Activity Week was a great experience, full of challenges and fun.
Coleman: My Activity Week was great! The seventh grade went to Gangotri, a river town about 11,000 feet up in the Himalayas, where the Ganges River begins. The bus ride took about 13 hours. After a day of travel, and a night of rest, we hiked to the village of Bhojbasa at 12,500 feet, and boy was it cold! It even snowed while we were hiking. At the village, we interviewed some of the villagers about their livelihood and living conditions. We found that most of the families had three children, with an older relative also in the house. Because of the weather, they farmed for only six months of the year. The whole village was Hindu – all vegetarians, and the Brahmins lived in a special part of town. We also noticed that one of the houses had a TV dish on the roof! From the village, there was an amazing view of the Shivling and Bhagirathi peaks, covered in snow, which reached to heights of over 20,000 feet. My activity week taught me to prepare for nature’s extremes, to get along well with other people, and to accept other cultures.
Requests
· We ask your prayers for safe travels, rest and good family times during the school vacation time.
· We solicit prayers that God would continue to provide as we deal with the lack of mission funding from our denomination.
· We pray for confidence and trust as Barb has more medical procedures and tests, and as we seek ways to pay for them.
· We ask you to pray for our sons’ continuing adjustment to the rigors of a challenging school and new cultures, and for our adjustment to them as teens.
· We continue to need books and cassette tapes for young readers, and games, videos or DVD’s for youth.
· We ask that you communicate with us, so we know how best to pray and work for you. Let us know if you would like to be on our newsletter list and/or receive a CD of photos and narration about our work here in India.
Christmas Blessings and Namaste,
Barb, Jeff, Chris, and Cole Thomas
Woodstock School
Mussoorie, U.A.
248179 India
Thomas India Mission Fund
c/o Doris Kersten
Pleasantville Presbyterian Church
Pleasantville, NY 10570