Newsletter from the Thomas Family at Woodstock School - Northern India
September 2007
There has not been a downpour in three days. Today we had a sun shower. The tree ferns are beginning to turn brown. Green parakeets have returned en masse, chattering in the treetops. Monsoon is coming to an end.
At times this place seems so normal -- kids on the playground, high school students putting up decorations for the Junior-Senior Banquet, sounds of music lessons wafting into the school courtyard. Jeff goes to the Mussoorie Rotary Club to speak about social networking on the internet. Chris prepares for the upcoming PSAT college entrance exam. Cole plays on the middle school soccer team. Barb leads the elementary school’s craft night.
And then other things tell us we are in a place apart. Billows of mist move up the mountain until they have enveloped the school in a cloud. We were awakened at night last week by the sound of hyenas howling – we are told it was because of a leopard in the vicinity. Students and staff hold a Prayer Week to "pray in" new school administrators and other positions still unfilled. The school places a weeklong moratorium on tests and homework so that a visiting expert on healthy communities can work with the entire school on eradicating bullying. The Middle School celebrates monsoon’s end with a variety of hikes into the hills. Students sign up for Activity Week trips that range from week-long treks into the Himalayas to doing service projects in neighboring villages.
If this sounds like a place where you would like to use your God-given talents working with children and youth, please consider either volunteering for a season or joining us in teaching or dorm-parenting at this residential school. The location is incredible, the needs are immense, and the job soul-satisfying.
Joys!
Thank you to Pleasantville, Scarborough, Ossining, Irvington, Hitchcock and Rye Presbyterian Churches for allowing us to share news of our work at Woodstock School and the community of Mussoorie when we visited New York this summer. Our reports have had some direct effect: We are thrilled to learn of two people who have expressed interest in coming to Woodstock School – one as a volunteer and the other as a student. Your interest, support and prayers keep us going!
Requests for Prayer
We continue to receive disappointing news from the mission division of the PCUSA church denomination, as more reorganizations . We worry about our ability to get the resources we need to be able to stay in the mission field for the long-term. Until our mission worker support gets worked out on the national level in the fullness of time, please continue to send support via the Mission Committee at Pleasantville Presbyterian Church at the address below. Please pray that we discern what God would have us do in this process.
Continue to pray for healing for Rakhi Maher, a neighbor whose husband Rajiv is a janitor for the school. She will need reconstructive leg surgery following a car accident caused by an underinsured drunk driver. Through the Thomas India Mission Fund, we have been able to help with hospital bills and loan repayments for this hillside family. Please keep them and their two young children in your prayers as they struggle during the lengthy healing period.
Thank you for your continued interest, prayers and support.
Jeff, Barb, Chris and Coleman Thomas
Woodstock School
Mussoorie UA
248179 India
Thomas India Mission Fund
Doris Kersten, Coordinator
Pleasantville Presbyterian Church
400 Bedford Rd
Pleasantville, NY 10570