Vineyard

This weekend I spent some time getting to know the Vineyard church here. It's about a half an hour ride from my place by rickshaw. (A native would pay 60 rupees here, but I ended up paying 80 rupees...which wasn't too bad...hopefully week by week I can knock that down a bit-once I learn enough Tamil to negotiate with the drivers! :) ) They run a separate facility called the Unwind Center, which is used to host live bands. (see www.unwindcenter.com) Every Friday night they have live music...this past Friday it was a couple of local rock bands. A few of the other trainers and I went up to see it. It was very good...we had a great time. They also have a cafe, which has some of the best fresh juice cocktails that I've had here. (They are promoting a clean atmosphere for the young people in the area-the musicians are required to sing clean lyrics and there is no alcohol allowed.) Afterwards, they pack up food packages to hand out to the poor in the streets-2 jam sandwiches (hence the "jamming session") & 2 eggs each.

On Sunday I went back for church in the morning. It was great to be back! The worship was wonderful-not that I'm surprised :) and the message was good. After church they have lunch together as well. (See, all good Vineyard functions involve food-no matter where you are!) This week I'm going to try to check out some of their work with the tsunami victims. They have been working to rehab an entire village-I think this week is the launch of some new fishing boats for the villagers. I'm so happy to have found a church home!