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PL832
22nd March 2020
Over the last few weeks we have had a lovely old friend here named Elisabeth. Elisabeth grew up in Germany but traveled out to India in 1982 on a 'journey of spiritual discovery'. It was on this journey that Elisabeth found herself at the gates of the Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission. Like so many before and after her, she quickly fell in love with the incredible children within. Fast forward 40 years, and Elisabeth is back in India, back at the gates and falling in love all over again.
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Elisabeth and some of our beloved staff.
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Elisabeth and Aunty Josie have a special relationship.
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One of the unique things about Elisabeth is that she is the woman behind the lens of so many of our old photos. As an aspiring young photographer, her time here on the mission was well documented in print and she was gracious enough to bring an album of photos with her when she returned to the mission in the 1990's.
But those albums have since seen a few decades of time, dozens of monsoons, dust, silverfish and children's fingers, which means they had really deteriorated. In an effort to preserve our history, and as a beautiful gift to all of us, Elisabeth worked tirelessly scanning and labeling/captioning a large portion of our old photos so that we now have a permanent digital copy.
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Looking back over the album that she had made.
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For many of our children who have moved on from here, Elisabeth's photos are the only photos they have of their childhood.
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The new digital copies will last forever.
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In the coming weeks, we will be displaying many of Elisabeth's photos on a special "archive" section of our website. It will be a place where we can look back for many years to come, where our old children can go to show their children and grandchildren where they grew up. A chance to relive moments past.
Here are just a few random photos we pulled out from Elisabeth's work:
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Maxton & Shirley Strong, our founders, before embarking on their incredible journey from the USA to India. Also in the picture is Maxine (Rick's wife) and her older brother Jacky.
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Maxton and Shirley at home in the Himalayas many years later.
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Elisabeth with the children.
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Esther and Glenda.
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The Dining Room.
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Martha, Pansy, Lucy and Katie.
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Violet with her boys.
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Benny.
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Malcolm with some game.
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Back in those days, hunting was a part of daily life.
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Some hunting was done out of necessity to protect lives.
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The traveling medical dispensary.
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Maxine's foster children welcome her home.
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Rick and Maxine's wedding.
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If you are interested in learning more about our history, or seeing more photos like this, make sure to keep an eye on our History page on our website.
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Although there have been so many other wonderful things happening this week, we are actually going to end this newsletter here. We have so many fun photos to share, but Clifton has just have not had a chance to go through them.
We thank you all for your prayers - Clifton is back up on his feet but unfortunately the viral sickness he had (not Corona Virus) has knocked around a dozen people off their feet. This is the way things happen in a place like this, but we will pull through together.
We always do.
Blessing on you,
Rick, Clifton, Eugene & Priscilla
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For Those Who Pray:
- Please pray for those in our body who are struggling with this sickness (again, not Corona). Please especially pray for Rick, Priscilla, Malik, Dylan, Jackie, Saru and Lucy.
- We thank God that Corona has not yet entered our gates. Our Prime Minister has called for a curfew on Sunday as a bit of a litmus test to see how the nation is able to handle this type of thing should it become a necessity.
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