Time for Tim

Great couple of days over the weekend. Sorry not to have blogged but we have been enjoying some time with Tim and have begun to feel a little normal for a change - whatever that is!! Something that is not too common living out here.

Had a great day Saturday with Tim. In one sense no big deal – just spent some time having breakfast together, shopping with him and generally chilling as Saturday is one of our family days off.

Saturday night Tim was feeling a bit icky (a technical/medical term) so we left him at home as our good friends Praveen and Miriam (see previous blog entries) were having their house move in ‘party’ – well more just a bit of grub with the guys that had been helping them shift stuff in all day. They have moved to a lovely apartment about half hour away from where they were before. It did feel a bit weird as their apartment is lush but they are the only flat in all the 26 in the block that is finished and occupied now. All the other 25 are only half finished as the build has run out of money for now!! Very surreal!

It was great to spend time with the 10 or so people who see as closest to us out here and, for the first time for the 6 weeks (tomorrow) we have been out here, they seemed totally relaxed with us there – not waiting on us hand and foot as usual which we find really hard.

Yesterday was Sunday so Church is the order of the day. The Pastor at Raj’s Church (Banaswadi Bible Church) asked Tim to speak as his daughter had been ill all week so Tim spoke and it was very well received – lots of very positive comments etc

In the evening Tim was booked to speak again – well we only have him for a week after all!!! He spoke at the Revival Church just over the road from where we live where a good friend of ours is the assistant Pastor. Very different to the morning in style but a good response again. Met a guy after the service that works for Tata (see previous blog entry) and heads up their operation in Israel, Greece and Cyprus (!). He is in a senior position for Tata and also has some significant influence with the Charity that Tata has set up. Raj and I had a good chat with him and again I was reminded by this guy that India has to wealth to sort many of it’s problems out – Tata give to their Charitable arm around £13million!!! We began to discuss how the Fishermen Trust might be able to access this fund and need to keep in touch with this guy…..!!!

Last night we had a great night (for us anyway) where we had a babysitter and just Sarah and I met with Tim for a bit of an offload/chat/support. We really appreciated this and the fact that Tim has found the time to come out to be with us. Getting to India can be hard work so to do all that just for a week has spoken a lot to us. We gassed for ages, (even after returning from a evening at the coffee bar in town) staying up into the small hours for some good chat about life, Church, us, him and anything else that cropped up too…It’s been great to have Tim here. Good timing too.

Today we start with 3 days of various meetings with various people to start to explore with Tim more about the Trust and where it is going and how we might be able to support it in the future – or not! It will be a packed 3 days as Tim will then leave early Thursday am.