How sweet is this, Zoe, who is 20 years old has taken our eldest daughter ( 13 years old) away to her grandmothers for the week. The thing that is so special about this is that Zoe grew up in India and she has become an important part of our family. She has taken Daya under her wing and is encouraging her and helping her towards our move to India. It is good for Daya to have someone other than her Mum to talk about how she is feeling. I know that all my children still have mixed emotions about going. They are going to find it really hard leaving family and friends and yet they are looking forward to the adventure and what God has in store for them.
I am just so grateful that Zoe has been such a huge part of our journey, she is a very special young lady.
There was a tsunami warning today and Daya sent a message from Zoe's Nana's place to tell me about it. They ended up moving to higher ground but it never eventuated.
Zoe is heading back to India in a couple of months. We are going to really miss her.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Mulch mulch and more mulch
We spent a good part of today trying to get our section tidied up so we are ready when it comes time to sell. We have an area out the back of our house that seems to grow weeds luxuriously. At one stage they were up to my shoulders and I almost needed a machete to get to my clothesline (ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but very close to it.) We have ended up putting down weed mat and then covering it with mulch to try and keep the weed growth down and to make it look respectable to buyers. I look now and wonder why we didn't do this before.
These couple of pictures do not show it fully complete but gives an idea of the amount of mulch that was wheel barrowed and flung about our property. The first shot is around the base of the kids tree hut and obviously the other shot is of our clothesline that I no longer need a GPS to find.
These couple of pictures do not show it fully complete but gives an idea of the amount of mulch that was wheel barrowed and flung about our property. The first shot is around the base of the kids tree hut and obviously the other shot is of our clothesline that I no longer need a GPS to find.
A hug with such meaning
On Sunday I received the most heart felt and wonderful hug from a dear Indian lady at our church. She is the mother of our friends Ben and Vinu and such sweet sweet lady. She hugged me and whispered in my ear, " Thank you so much for going to my country, I am praying for God to guide you, Thank you for going." She was so sincere and I thought she would never let me go. It meant so much to me to have her blessing for us to go to her country of origin. I will cherish that moment in time.
Delhi friends and dove tails
We were speaking last night with a friend of ours who is based in Delhi. He was offering us some good advice, both spiritual and practical. A couple of things I really took to heart was his advice about making sure we have a good team around us, people who will really back and support us and who are fully behind the calling we have from God. We have great support already from our elder ship at church. Our extended family are also fully behind us, even if deep down they would rather we were closer to home. They understand and can also hear the call of God is clear for us to go to India. We also have some great friends who are so encouraging and who I know will always be there for us even when distance comes between us. We also have our friends who want to come with us to Bangalore but we are not sure when they will come yet.
The thing we don't yet have is solid contacts, friends, support in Bangalore. We have met a few people in Bangalore and have stayed with our friends family but we do not yet have a depth of relationship. His advice was to perhaps spend some time in Delhi where we can just settle and hang around with them and some others we know. We can then begin to form some relationships with others who may then become people we can work alongside with and have accountability to. We don't want to be lone rangers.
Although the idea of Delhi is not my ideal place to be, the more I have thought about it the more it has grown on me. Even if it was just for a few weeks. We have friends there and our kids have all met them. It would be something familiar amongst the newness of everything else. It is definitely something to consider. The other draw card is that our friends in Delhi have a wealth of experience and wisdom we can draw from and they already have established relationships around India that could be helpful. We do not need to invent the wheel again.
The other thing that he said was that as the time got closer to going we would know it was the right timing because all areas begin falling into place and in his words " you see things dove tailing". This is something we have seen happening. The business things in N.Z have just fallen into place without us doing anything, house plans are falling into place and even yesterday, a friend took our van for a mechanical check because they want to buy it from us but not until we are ready to pass it on. We had not even started to think about selling the vans yet but God has already started sorting that for us. Things have been happening so easily and I think the word dove tailing explains it well.
Tony left us with this to ponder on all our decisions: Acts 15:28 It seemed good to us and the Holy Spirit. Does what we are doing seem good to us and the Holy spirit?
The thing we don't yet have is solid contacts, friends, support in Bangalore. We have met a few people in Bangalore and have stayed with our friends family but we do not yet have a depth of relationship. His advice was to perhaps spend some time in Delhi where we can just settle and hang around with them and some others we know. We can then begin to form some relationships with others who may then become people we can work alongside with and have accountability to. We don't want to be lone rangers.
Although the idea of Delhi is not my ideal place to be, the more I have thought about it the more it has grown on me. Even if it was just for a few weeks. We have friends there and our kids have all met them. It would be something familiar amongst the newness of everything else. It is definitely something to consider. The other draw card is that our friends in Delhi have a wealth of experience and wisdom we can draw from and they already have established relationships around India that could be helpful. We do not need to invent the wheel again.
The other thing that he said was that as the time got closer to going we would know it was the right timing because all areas begin falling into place and in his words " you see things dove tailing". This is something we have seen happening. The business things in N.Z have just fallen into place without us doing anything, house plans are falling into place and even yesterday, a friend took our van for a mechanical check because they want to buy it from us but not until we are ready to pass it on. We had not even started to think about selling the vans yet but God has already started sorting that for us. Things have been happening so easily and I think the word dove tailing explains it well.
Tony left us with this to ponder on all our decisions: Acts 15:28 It seemed good to us and the Holy Spirit. Does what we are doing seem good to us and the Holy spirit?
Sunday, September 27, 2009
My heart's desire
I desire to help, love, care for and provide a family environment for orphans in India, perhaps start an orphanage or take kids into our home. These children are so precious and often very hopeless. The reason I have not wanted to blog about this is because I don't want to sound like I am trying to be the next Mother Teresa. I am just little old me with a desire to help. I have a genuine love for the kids of India and especially those who have no parents and who get exploited because of it. I was deeply moved by the kids we met at the Agra train station whom I assume had no parents.
It is a biblical command to look after the orphans and I believe God has placed in me a desire to do this. At this stage I do not know in what capacity this would look like. I am only in the infant stages of brainstorming and seeing what God shows us. It may not happen straight away and perhaps it will be better when our youngest is a wee bit older, I don't know yet. What I do know is that something is stirring within me in regards to this.
Even as a young kid, I had vivid dreams of finding abandoned babies and bringing them home and looking after them. I even used to look in the bushes on the way to school to see if anyone had placed a baby in there for me to find.
Have a look at these gorgeous children we met in India. Who wouldn't want to take them home and give them a loving home to grow up in?
It is a biblical command to look after the orphans and I believe God has placed in me a desire to do this. At this stage I do not know in what capacity this would look like. I am only in the infant stages of brainstorming and seeing what God shows us. It may not happen straight away and perhaps it will be better when our youngest is a wee bit older, I don't know yet. What I do know is that something is stirring within me in regards to this.
Even as a young kid, I had vivid dreams of finding abandoned babies and bringing them home and looking after them. I even used to look in the bushes on the way to school to see if anyone had placed a baby in there for me to find.
Have a look at these gorgeous children we met in India. Who wouldn't want to take them home and give them a loving home to grow up in?
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Signing off
Our accountant has now finished our 08/09 records and is ready for us to sign them. They should arrive in the next day or two. Yay!!!
David had contact with the accounting guy in India yesterday. He is happy to help out where he and his firm can. He is currently out of India and not back until 28/09/09. We look forward to his help in deciding branch office or subsidiary company. The latter is starting to feel like the way we may be headed as it will give us tax relief and frees up what we can do as a company. Branch office comes with more restrictions.
Oh God, show us clearly what to do, Pleeeease.
David had contact with the accounting guy in India yesterday. He is happy to help out where he and his firm can. He is currently out of India and not back until 28/09/09. We look forward to his help in deciding branch office or subsidiary company. The latter is starting to feel like the way we may be headed as it will give us tax relief and frees up what we can do as a company. Branch office comes with more restrictions.
Oh God, show us clearly what to do, Pleeeease.
Monday, September 21, 2009
New contact in Bangalore
Our good friends who are going to be heading over to India with us and also happen to be nationals of Bangalore (huge bonus) have given us a contact of someone who is willing to give us some business advice. We have actually canceled the auditor at the moment until we can make sure we are doing everything properly and not paying $2500 for something we may not need. We are trying to sort out if it is better for us to open a subsidiary company as opposed to a branch office. We do not need to be audited for a subsidiary company but there are other processes we will need to go through. My mind is all a bit bamboozled by it all at the moment. Just when I thought I had it all sussed. I am going to let David do the direct contacting to India as I think it is better for the man to be in contact in the business world of India. Over to you now Hun, love you.
Down sizing
It is finally happening, I feel like a pregnant woman "nesting" before her new born arrives. The urge has now hit me to start getting things sorted around the house .
Today I cleared out our dining cabinet. I have kept a few things in the way of cooking dishes and cups but the majority of stuff I have packed up ready to take to a car boot sale down at our church in a few weeks. You can book a spot and take any proceeds you make for yourself. Of course, anything we make will go into our India fund. It is community outreach car boot sale and you pay about $20 for a spot to set up and that money will go towards some sort of community support like the local school near us etc. The last one we had was very successful and loads of fun. The proceeds from that one went toward a project a friend of mine has for getting some medical supplies to Zimbabwe. She is still needing funds so if you are interested in helping in this area, please go to her web site: Make a plan
(I can verify this is a legitimate cause. I have seen her garage and know she has compassion and a great heart to make a difference.)
Back to getting sorted: I plan to do a cupboard a day. My linen cupboard is the next on the list and I plan to keep two towels for everyone and a change of sheets. I can't wait to see it looking bare.
The other project I have started is outside. I need to break the property up into small areas to tackle, otherwise, it feels overwhelming. We have an area by our clothesline that could have passed as a jungle. I am surprised we have never needed to call search and rescue to find our children. Our lawn mower guy was mowing our lawns today so I asked if he could do a little extra and just weed eat everything flat in that area. I have ordered weed mat so once that arrives we will cover everything up and get some bark? stones? shells? mulch? something to neaten it up and stop the return of the jungle. I have also ordered three big paving stones off trade me ( New Zealand equivalent to eBay.) I plan to make a path to the clothes line with them. David is on holiday next week so hopefully we can get stuck into a few things and knock one or two things off our list.
As I type, we have a guy washing our house. A guy came to our door the other day offering a roof treatment. We needed to get the roof sorted before we could paint so said yes. He said he would throw in a house wash also for just NZ$100. When the guy arrived today to wash the place he thought we must only be getting the front done because the quote was so cheap. I told him that as far as I was aware a house wash meant the whole house. He was fine about it and said that we are getting a really good deal. I can't wait to see how it looks once he is finished. We would have done it ourselves usually but I couldn't turn down an offer like that.
It feels good to be getting things sorted now rather than suddenly having a mad rush before selling.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Accounting
So the low down on the business side of things is that our accountant has only just starting our accounts this week. She hopes to be finished by 28/09/09. I have booked an auditor myself as it seems a lot of accounting firms are no longer doing audits due to a new government regulation or something like that.
While phoning around and trying to find an auditor, I came across a firm that is part of Nexia International which is a worldwide known accounting firm that
independent firms can align with. The company going to do our audit is a part of this and I found a company in Bangalore who is also aligned with them. I sent off an e-mail to them to say hi and introduce ourselves and ask if they take on foreign owned companies. I got a response within a few hours to say they can help us with the start up of our branch office. I loved the closing statement in the e-mail. It said, "Looking forward for fruitful and long term association with you." It is such an Indian way of speaking, I LOVE IT.
While phoning around and trying to find an auditor, I came across a firm that is part of Nexia International which is a worldwide known accounting firm that
independent firms can align with. The company going to do our audit is a part of this and I found a company in Bangalore who is also aligned with them. I sent off an e-mail to them to say hi and introduce ourselves and ask if they take on foreign owned companies. I got a response within a few hours to say they can help us with the start up of our branch office. I loved the closing statement in the e-mail. It said, "Looking forward for fruitful and long term association with you." It is such an Indian way of speaking, I LOVE IT.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Finishing up work
We are at the stage where we are having to say "God, it's over to you"
At the end of this year which is only 3.5 months away, we will be handing over our contract work to our subcontractors. Essentially this means we will have no income from January, haha, I just have to laugh. It seems so huge but at the same stage I am not worried at all. I am finding it all very exciting because we are seeing more and more of God in our lives as we have to completely rely on him. I am actually getting a huge buzz from all of this. What an amazing journey we are on.
After our friend Stu asked the other day if we had work for him we had a second friend also asking. He is another guy who knows his stuff so will need no training. He is currently trying to get his own business up and going but needs something to tie him over until things really take off for him. The great thing about this is that he wants to keep training our other friend who we were originally training. This may mean that by the time his business is going strong our original friend may be at a place where he is ready to take over some more work for us if he wants to. I love how this is all falling into place without us even having to do much. David has a meeting today with Stu to go over some of the finer details.
At the end of this year which is only 3.5 months away, we will be handing over our contract work to our subcontractors. Essentially this means we will have no income from January, haha, I just have to laugh. It seems so huge but at the same stage I am not worried at all. I am finding it all very exciting because we are seeing more and more of God in our lives as we have to completely rely on him. I am actually getting a huge buzz from all of this. What an amazing journey we are on.
After our friend Stu asked the other day if we had work for him we had a second friend also asking. He is another guy who knows his stuff so will need no training. He is currently trying to get his own business up and going but needs something to tie him over until things really take off for him. The great thing about this is that he wants to keep training our other friend who we were originally training. This may mean that by the time his business is going strong our original friend may be at a place where he is ready to take over some more work for us if he wants to. I love how this is all falling into place without us even having to do much. David has a meeting today with Stu to go over some of the finer details.
House update
After having our house appraised and then after having a look on trade-me at prices for a 2 bedroom brick and tile flat, it seems like it could be a very good option for us. We could probably buy the flat freehold if we could get the amount for our current house that they have appraised. This would mean that any rent we get from it will be profit, minus tax and rates. We would probably come out with about $148 per week in our hand. This converts to about Rs. 5041 per week,Rs 20,962 per month which goes a long way in India. This equates to about Rs. 262,115 per year passive income to help us out financially. Our God is a God who provides!!!
We are not at the selling stage yet but it's good to have the thinking caps on.
My parents have said we can park our caravan up their drive if we need to live somewhere before we go. It would probably be nice to spend some time with them but being a portable home we could also give them a break from time to time and go park by a beach. This would be Davids dream come true. He has always loved the idea of living in a mobile home.
We are not at the selling stage yet but it's good to have the thinking caps on.
My parents have said we can park our caravan up their drive if we need to live somewhere before we go. It would probably be nice to spend some time with them but being a portable home we could also give them a break from time to time and go park by a beach. This would be Davids dream come true. He has always loved the idea of living in a mobile home.
Business time again
I have sent an e-mail off to our accountant today because I want to see if she can give us an estimate of how long we will be waiting until our records are completed and audited.
They have been with our accountant for over a month now and I am not sure when we can expect them to be done. I just thought I may as well ask her rather than sit around waiting and
wondering.
Until we have the above completed we cannot do any other applications in India.
I am not feeling impatient but I think it's going to be exciting when we make our first official application to the Reserve Bank of India to give us permission to start a branch office of our company. I think things will really become a reality then and I will feel like we are on our way.
They have been with our accountant for over a month now and I am not sure when we can expect them to be done. I just thought I may as well ask her rather than sit around waiting and
wondering.
Until we have the above completed we cannot do any other applications in India.
I am not feeling impatient but I think it's going to be exciting when we make our first official application to the Reserve Bank of India to give us permission to start a branch office of our company. I think things will really become a reality then and I will feel like we are on our way.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Not all of India is pretty
India is a place that can overwhelm you with great riches and can break your heart with desperate poverty. It is a place that can put your emotions in conflict. It is hard to know if you should marvel at the wonders you see around you or weep at the suffering of people you come in contact with.
When I first went to India I had no idea what to do with beggars. I wanted to save everyone, give to everyone. I was in an inner turmoil as to know what to do. As with all things, I learnt that we need to let God show us what to do. To some we gave money, to others we gave food or soap and to some we made paper planes and drew cartoons. To some we did not give. It is not something you can turn your back on because it is "in your face". It is not like back here in N.Z where it is easy to be out of sight, out of mind. It will always be something that we need to seek Gods guidance on. The other side of it is that God has told us to pray for the sick. I may need to be relying on God to up my faith levels.
If only we could grasp the importance of being grateful for what we have. It is not that we need to go live a life of poverty ourselves because God has blessed us and he provides for us but if we are not grateful for what he gives us then it is meaningless provision, we are basically spitting in Gods face when we complain about what HE has provided us with. Let's take a reality check and really look at how amazingly well off we are. We have a roof over our heads (even if it is a bit leaky or needs a paint) We have three meals a day (even if it might not be what we feel like that day) I really feel very strongly on this. As a whole, we as a nation are complainers. As my husband would say SUMO ( shut up and move on) Enough said.
On an entirely different note: I feel like God has been injecting me with a deeper compassion lately but with that compassion it seems the tears are flowing a bit more freely. I have always been a reasonably compassionate person but now I feel tears welling when I don't really want them to. I have never been a "crier" and I guess I have always liked the fact that I can control my tears but something in me is stirring and I actually don't mind if tears begin to fall. India is getting deep under my skin and is beginning to drain out of my eyes. Oh, how I long for India!!! (big sigh)
Monday, September 7, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Business stuff
We are still waiting to hear back from our accountant so there is no further development in that area.
Things have been falling into place for us in regards to our own business.
We have a friend that has been doing some work for David and we have been chatting over the possibilities of him taking over from David and keeping our business going here in N.Z for us. He was keen but we also realised that he would need training to get him up to speed. It has been hard because we cannot guarantee which schools will stay on with us next year and can't really pay him to train him. It means he is kind of hanging on for all our plans to fall in place and he has a family of 3 kids and one on the way. With this all in mind and things happening quicker than we expected we realise that getting him up to speed in time and making sure he can provide for his family was not looking like such a go. He would be able to do some of the work but maybe not as much as first anticipated. His lovely wife may even be reading my blog so "hi" if you are. You are a great friend and we love your family.
The other morning I woke up thinking about an old friend of mine. We have not seen him for years. He took over doing one of our schools about 6 years ago and I suddenly thought,"what about Stu?" I woke David up to tell him and ask him what he thought. David said he had been thinking about him for the past couple of weeks and would give him a ring that day. Before David got around to ringing him, Stu sent us an e-mail asking if we had any work for him. How amazing is that!!!! We had to tell him that we sure did but we would not be able to give him any yet or until next year. His response blew us away. He is being paid by his old job until January!!!!! He will be able to come out with David and put some face time in without needing to be paid. He is already computer savvy so will not need too much training either. He only wants a few schools so we can still offer our other friend some work if he wants it. Nothing is set in stone yet but it is all looking very positive. God is good!
Things have been falling into place for us in regards to our own business.
We have a friend that has been doing some work for David and we have been chatting over the possibilities of him taking over from David and keeping our business going here in N.Z for us. He was keen but we also realised that he would need training to get him up to speed. It has been hard because we cannot guarantee which schools will stay on with us next year and can't really pay him to train him. It means he is kind of hanging on for all our plans to fall in place and he has a family of 3 kids and one on the way. With this all in mind and things happening quicker than we expected we realise that getting him up to speed in time and making sure he can provide for his family was not looking like such a go. He would be able to do some of the work but maybe not as much as first anticipated. His lovely wife may even be reading my blog so "hi" if you are. You are a great friend and we love your family.
The other morning I woke up thinking about an old friend of mine. We have not seen him for years. He took over doing one of our schools about 6 years ago and I suddenly thought,"what about Stu?" I woke David up to tell him and ask him what he thought. David said he had been thinking about him for the past couple of weeks and would give him a ring that day. Before David got around to ringing him, Stu sent us an e-mail asking if we had any work for him. How amazing is that!!!! We had to tell him that we sure did but we would not be able to give him any yet or until next year. His response blew us away. He is being paid by his old job until January!!!!! He will be able to come out with David and put some face time in without needing to be paid. He is already computer savvy so will not need too much training either. He only wants a few schools so we can still offer our other friend some work if he wants it. Nothing is set in stone yet but it is all looking very positive. God is good!
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