January 23, 2007
Hello from India,

Dennis here....just to let you all know we have safely arrived here at Kodaikanal International School, after 3 weeks
in Canada for Christmas and 2 wonderful weeks of touring around SE Asia. Our CBM friends Gregg & Sylvia Faddegon
welcomed us to their apt. after our long train/taxi trip from Chennai (the last 49 kms winds straight up the mountain!).
Kodai is a beautiful resort town, built around a clear mountain lake, 7000' altitude, with clear, sunny weather predicted
for the next two months...really nice after the smoke of Indonesia!!

We're getting the campus tour and our first assignments as volunteers today. I'm supposed to help 1st-5th graders
learn North American football every afternoon for a few weeks, then get into softball....rough life, eh? But also
substituting for a "Theory of Knowledge" IB class this week, just to keep the balance! Janet is helping with voice
lessons for females (only one full-time voice/choir teacher here, a guy from Toronto). She's already been recruited
to go to Mumbai in a month on a choir tour! So, there is no lack of things to do for volunteers....there are 450
resident students and stuff happening all week long....we won't be bored!

On the way to India, we first had a great time in Taiwan visiting our White Rock homestay friend Reta. We stayed
withher pastor and got a feel of the church work there and a pretty good look at the city of Taipei too. Then we were
off to Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, meeting many young families at a Christian retreat called Juniper Tree. They
are churchplanters and ESL teachers - flung throughout SE Asia and China (some near Mongolia, Tibet, and Nepal -
in pretty tough conditions). They are energetic and dedicated Christians, with a bunch of young kids, so we were
reminded of our 5-family CBM team in Indonesia, years ago!

Although we heard many great stories from those people, there was nothing seemingly tailored for us, so we
continued our journey southward towards the Thai coast, 2 hrs below Bangkok. God led us to a Baptist Camp where
we stayed and met some interesting local church people. After that short break, we flew to Singapore for a day with
missionary friends before flying on to Chennai, India last Saturday. There we visited the cathedral of St. Thomas,
who is buried near the spot where he arrived in India to bring the Gospel...Indians are quite proud of his coming!
Also worshipped at St. Andrews Methodist Church and visited St. Mary's Anglican Church and the first British fort in
south India. Chennai is a very historic place, and also has a beautiful wide beach for locals and tourists.

Up here at Kodai International, Gregg & Sylvia are the backbone of the Christian staff and teachers who strive to
keep the school's original biblical foundations in place. They are also going through an every-10-years accredidation,
so life is very busy for the two of them and all the staff. So, it's a good time for about 8 volunteers like us to be
here to assist wherever possible.

We'll keep you posted on the progress here, and hope to hear from many of you on how God is working in your
lives this year. Thanks for your prayers and know that we are reminded to pray for you, especially as you let us
know your praises and requests. By the way, I had a really good trip down to NC for my Mom's Homegoing in late
December....thanks to many of you who prayed for that time....isn't God amazing to allow me to attend her life
celebration...we weren't even planning to be in North America for 9 months, but He had it all worked out, Praise His
Name!

All God's blessings as you grow in Him this year!

Love in Christ,
Dennis & Janet