Copy

PL712

3rd December 2017

Well, there is no denying it any more: Christmas is nearly here. It's time to unbox the tree, dust off the decorations and start untangling last year's twinkling lights...at least it's almost time for that!

Here on the mission we have been way too busy to think about Santa, reindeer and presents; we've had playgrounds to build! With Christmas and New Years looking down on us like a double-barreled shotgun, we're working overtime to finish up the myriad of projects we already have on the go.

Anish welding up the igloo: a piece for our school playground.
The entire piece is made from off-cuts of reinforcing iron from our building projects.
Rick had a lot of sharp edges to smooth off.
The completed igloo in the ground.

If you somehow missed it, we've had a team from Australian non-profit Playground Ideas out here for the last 4 weeks helping to build 3 new playgrounds for us: one at our main school, one at our old kindergarten and one at our orphanage. All three projects were wrapped up this week, and after a solid 4-5 days to let the paint dry, they'll will be ready for the kids to play on. Something they are all most definitely looking forward to.

Working hard to bury the caterpillar.
Clifford painting the head of the dragon.
Jessica, Catherine and Roma painting the tail of the dragon.
Annie got into the belly of the dragon to finish the painting.
A new set of columns going up to hold a giant tire swing.
Floyd and William working hard on pieces of the Aztec.
The two elephants ready for a play.
Returning visitor Aaron, from Australia, helping paint the caterpillar's head.
Claus and Aaron finishing off the junior fort.
Patrick managed to break in the horse before it could bolt.

Playground Ideas supports anyone, anywhere to build a stimulating space for play using only local materials, tools, and skills. They provide detailed step-by-step instructions for the construction of over 180 different playground pieces, instruction videos and a fundraising platform -all completely free of cost on their website. Check it out by clicking the link below:

We want to say a huge thank you to Patrick, Claus and Socheata for all their hard work, planning and dedication. It's been such a pleasure to have you guys out here and, now inspired by Playground Idea's methods, we hope to see many more new pieces joining our playground and the playgrounds around our area in the coming years!

Thanks Patrick, Socheata and Claus!

Here is an interesting side story: while Rick was welding up some pieces for the playground, Patrick had his camera set up filming to help put together one of the Playground Ideas step-by-step videos. Rick felt the iron pipe he was welding jump from his hands, and noticed something bang into his foot. Upon inspection of the video later they found an Indian Civit Cat had been hiding out in the workshop and, perhaps blinded by the welder, smacked straight into Rick on its dash to freedom!

Check out the 15 second long Cat vs Welder video.
A clearer shot of a civit cat. Photo courtesy of Francis Yap.
Clifton also returned home from Australia on Saturday night. While he mostly went for a friends wedding he was also able to complete quite a lot of official and unofficial work for the mission (as well as bringing back a massive 15kg welder for our workshop). He stopped off in Singapore on his way home and visited Mathias and Ana Katsuya from Booklinks and Wei Kit and Hafiz who were part of a Singapore National University team that visited many years ago. We are happy to have him home in time for Christmas preparation.
Clifton and Mathias at the Singapore Botanical Gardens.
Clifton getting more than a few bites to eat with Hafiz and Wei Kit.

Sunday was 'Thanksgiving Sunday' here on the mission. Yes, we know that the traditional Thanksgiving is generally reserved for the 'Yanks', but our founder Maxton Strong, who was an American, introduced the holiday here, and it has become a part of our culture. Thanksgiving Sunday is a chance for us to reflect on the year and give thanks to God for the amazing blessings we have received. After a special church service young and old shared in a huge meal in our dining room.

Rick welcoming everyone to the Thanksgiving service.
Stella worked hard to create some beautiful decorations out of our produce.
Clifford lead the service with some songs.
We are so thankful for such an amazing year of blessings!
Cheeky Aaron is thankful for a mother who loves him.
After the Thanksgiving Service Rick took dozens of the kids on motorbike rides around the farm, sometimes 3 or even 4 at a time. After more than half an hour of riding the line of kids waiting for their turn (be it first, second or third turn) had not diminished much. In the background, a post-church hockey game was in full swing.
Rick taking Ayushi and Roshni on a bike ride.
Rina not giving in to Kamal's scare tactics.
Malika sweeping in to steal the ball away from Ankit and Patrick.
Move over Mighty Ducks... there are some new champions in town!
There was a special assembly in the school this week during which medals were handed out for the recent Sports Day program. Our kids performed extremely well and brought home dozens of medals and certificates. Gordon, at nearly 6'1" dominated above all others and won 7 medals and as many certificates. We are so proud of all our kids!
Just a few of our many medal and certificate winners.
(Gordon is towering over everyone in the back)
Raju was very proud of his two 2nd place medals!

Clifton and Priscilla's youngest son Aaron turned 3 this week. A big celebration was held with the Small Girls and many other members of the family. The Small Girls are a huge help in raising all of the Shipway boys, acting as much like big sisters as anyone could hope for.

Aaron celebrating his 3rd birthday!
The Small Girls helped to make the day super special for Aaron.
Malik, Aaron and Dylan sharing the candle blowing...

Elsewhere on the mission, construction of our Samartha Saxena Memorial Learning Resource Center...also known as 'our library' continues at a solid pace. The ceilings have now been completed and the walls are in the process of being puttied and painted.

The new library now painted with undercoat.
The plaster of paris work on the ceilings is looking amazing!

Our Big Girls Hostel bathroom which was funded as a part of our Bathroom of Terror fundraising campaign is now nearing completion. Our tiler has completed his work and now all the remains is the final plumbing fittings and the painting of the roof. We are so happy with the transformation and cannot wait for this project to be completed in the coming week!

The new bathroom is a complete transformation!
Installation of the granite bench tops underway.
The new aluminum doors look fantastic.
We were happy to receive a huge parcel of toothpaste from Australia this week...though half a dozen of the 100 or so tubes had burst! The whole package was a minty, sticky mess by the time in arrived! Priscilla was quickly able to figure out which tubes had burst and clean up the mess. Now we have more than enough toothpaste to give our kids some pearly white chompers!
Priscilla sorting through the minty mess of toothpaste.
While all of that was taking place, the race towards Christmas officially began. If you'd like to get involved, we've launched a small fund raiser to cover the cost of Christmas for our kids and staff and many visitors! Roughly 200! We're only looking for $2500 this year, to take some of the financial pressure off, and if you feel moved to pitch in, just click the link below and it will take you to a special projects page. Thanks for considering this.
View Christmas Campaign
Another way to get involved is to sponsor a child. In what is an extremely rare occurrence for us, we have two children unsponsored at the moment and are looking for a few motivated, compassionate individuals to join our sponsorship program. Two of our newest boys, Rohit and Vishwajeet, are brothers, full of fun and eager to meet whoever steps forward this holiday season. If that's you or you're interested to learn more, please first click the button below to learn more about being a sponsor and then reply to this email and let us know.
Learn About Being A Sponsor
We hope these relationships become the gifts that keep on giving, both to our kids and back to their sponsors, for many years to come.
Rohit and Vishwajeet looking forward to having sponsors of their own.

Well, we'll end this letter here. We ask for your prayers for Auntie Josie as she heads in for potential cataract surgery on Monday morning. Her eyes have been growing gradually worse over the last 12 months and we are finally able to send her in to get them seen to. After going through chemotherapy several years ago, her retinas received some damage and the doctors are unsure how much of her eyesight they will be able to restore. May God, who can heal all things, bring her the clarity she has been dreaming of for far too long. Thanks as always for your support.

Blessing on you,
Rick, Clifton, Eugene & Priscilla
Share
Tweet
Forward
Copyright © 2017 The Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission
 
The Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission is a registered non-profit and society in Uttarakhand, India that undertakes the care of around 75 orphan and destitute children. The Mission works to be as self-supporting as possible through income generated internally by it's farm and school. For more information see our website.

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp

unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences 

 
Our mailing address is:

The G.S.A.M
Strong Farm
PO Banbasa
Dist. Champawat
Uttarakhand, INDIA, 262310

Our email address is:
office@indianorphanage.com
Our Website
Our Facebook
Email Us
Instagram
View Previous Newsletters