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December 2000
May Christmas be a joyful celebration of the birth of Christ!
Dear Friends,
This is our second letter from our new home in India. We have
been here in Mussoorie, a small town at about 8000 feet in the
Himalayas, for four months. We have finished the 30 chapters in
our language study book at the Landour Language School, a school
started by a Presbyterian missionary a hundred years ago. It has
helped us not only learn Hindi but also make wider relationships.
We have found a more permanent house to move into called "The
Sisters." It is the original house of Sisters Bazaar and
was built over 150 years ago for the nursing Sisters of the hospital
close by. It is being remodeled, but hopefully will be ready by
February, at least that’s the schedule. The house is on a
ridge and one side opens onto the street while the other side
has a five-foot wide back porch overhanging a 30-foot drop down
the side of the ridge. Great view, and it is closer than our present
house to the school, the kids’ friends, and local shops.
Uttra Pradesh has split, and now we live in the new state of
Uttra Anchal! There were big celebrations, as this has been in
parliament for many, many years. Mussoorie had a parade of about
10,000 people led by the newly famous Woodstock Marching Band.
It took nearly three hours to march through the narrow, crowded
streets. Tim was carrying his baritone for the whole three hours!
I could hear them in the bazaar from our house, about 1000 feet
above the bazaar.
On Sunday we usually worship in a study hall in the basement
of Ridgewood dorm. This service was started for the Woodstock
boarding kids because it is so far to walk to church and the services
there are rather, well, boring. There are usually about 30 people
there, and it is very simple and participatory. More
like Sunday school than church, with lots of choruses and dialog
in small groups. The chaplain is the Reverend Sharon Sauer, another
Presbyterian mission worker.
You may wonder why I talk about the school so much. I think
when one lives so close to a large institution with half your
family there all day and most of your friends working there, it
is bound to dominate your life. But there is life outside Woodstock.
Scott has started giving workshops for Emmanuel Hospital Association
(EHA) staff. His first was with 21 staff at a project very close
to us. He called it "Basic Community Development Skills Workshop"
and it dealt with personal values clarification, theories of development
and change, communication skills, team-building, and group discussion
skills. All the staff of the project were involved, many of whom
have had very little training in these skills, although they may
have been working for EHA for ten years or more in health clinics.
After the nine-day workshop, we finished off with a quote from
Margaret Mead that really encourages me in what we are doing.
It says: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
people can change the world, indeed, it is the only thing that
ever has."
Scott feels very good about working with the Emmanuel Hospital
Association. After attending a workshop with the project directors
of the EHA community health projects, he came back very impressed
with the commitment and professional quality of those individuals,
not to mention their spiritual maturity. After working for over
20 years within, and on the fringes of, Christian development
efforts, we may have been getting a bit jaded. EHA has changed
that. We are happy to be a part of this ministry to the whole
person and their community. I am sure most of our long-time supporters
would also be happy that they are, through us, associated with
the EHA as well.
Christmas greetings,
Scott and Melanie
The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 146
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