Home, Sweet Home

Mission: Complete

As of Tuesday morning, we were back in Adelaide, feet planted firmly on the ground. After a stop over in Malaysia, we'd had a long flight and what felt like an even longer stop in customs. It was fantastic to be home again, even though we'd all had a fantastic trip.

In our last week we'd left Ikkadu, pleased with our success as painters. We'd completed the dining room, study hall, courtyard and kitchen in the boys hostel. A tearful good-bye with the boys running after the bus led to a bittersweet farewell. Our time there had been amazing; leaving, we really felt like we'd made a difference, if only a small one. Other than the painting, we'd made the kids so happy, just by spending time with them.

Once we'd made it back into Chennai we re-settled into the guest house. For the rest of the week we visited schools and hostels around Chennai, playing and singing with the kids and being treated as honoured guests. We saw a women's university and a number of kindergardens. Overall, the work that was being done was fantastic, especially with the limited funds and support available from the Dioscese.

Friday night was the wedding. It was less Indian that we had thought it would be; being a christian wedding meant that it was more wedding. For example, there was no dancing because it was seen as too frivolous. The bride still looked beautiful in her saree though and all of us girls were dressed up nicely too. Oh, and we mustn't forget josh and his wedding suit. Very suave.

Saturday was shopping day - yay! The day was spend in Spencer Plaza getting gifts for everyone back home, plys lots of little things for ourselves. Sunday morning we all split up and went to three different churches. Josh, Brad, Sarah and i went to the same service and saw it twice; once in english and then again in tamil. It was exactly the same! The best part was after the service. There was a family service and then a youth service, which was fnatastic. The guys started singing english songs which we knew! Hillsong and the like. It was so much fun just to sit and sing with these guys, despite the language barrier. Then they spoke about the ways they'd seen God that week and the things they said were not the cliques that some of us hear, but rather things that were actually meaningful.

Coming home was a relief in some ways as we could relac and we weren't constantly on show. However, in many more ways we wished we were staying. No matter how long we were there, there would always be something more that we could achieve. So it was with mixed feelings that we made it home.

On the whole, the trip was amazing. It was an experience that i'll never forget and i know that we all learnt more than we realise. Thanks to everyone back home that kept us in their thoughts and prayers. We'll see you at church on Sunday and tell you more then!

Annie