The Parish Church Of St Luke, 30 Eardley Road, Sevenoaks, Kent. TN13 1XT  Tel 01732 743045  Charity Reg. No:- 1127331 CMS News from the Clouston family Dear friends,  Waking to the call of different birds  We have been here since January and done a lot of settling in. It is a sign of progress that,  rather than waking up at the dogs’ howl or the mosque’s call to prayer, we all now sleep  soundly through any noise that Bangalore has to throw at us! When we do awake, it is a  sign of still being new, that the birdsong is still unfamiliar. We are beginning to fit in and make friends here, but much is still a puzzle to us. (how do  you cross the road safely? And we can’t claim to understand the elections—but we thank  God that voting has happened peacefully, at least here in Karnataka.)  Just before Easter TAFTEE staff from all over India gathered here for their annual planning  meeting. It was a great opportunity for Eric to meet those in the ‘front line’ of training  people for Christian ministry, and hear how God is using the training to change people’s  lives and ministries. It was also reassuring to find that we aren’t the only ones having to  overcome barriers of communication—even people from different parts of India have to  speak to each other carefully, and may misinterpret each other’s hand gestures.  Handling changes at TAFTEE  TAFTEE registered thousands of new students last year. Just last month, it was exciting to  hear that the Indian Evangelical Team has eighty pastors who want to start TAFTEE  courses. These are pastors working amongst Christians in Orissa who were affected by  the persecution last year—some of them are still in refugee camps.  This encouraging level of demand leaves us with the challenge of supplying all the  resources—updating and reprinting course material and especially, recruiting and  managing even more volunteers (who do most of the teaching). Eric has been working in  the team at the office, sending out course books, preparing certificates and so on. We  expect to have to move offices within a couple of months. I wonder how we will keep up  with the work, but most of the others have been through moves before and seem very  calm about the idea.  We were sad to lose Daisy Early Star, who used to do our accounts. But she left for the  best of reasons—to get married to Mr David, our ‘executive’ in Delhi. Indian weddings are  very colourful.  Adjusting to life in Bangalore.  We are getting used to the heat (it was 35°C but it has cooled down now a little). Rhena is  getting the hang of Indian cooking, and finding out where and how to shop. People have  begun to drop in on us, which is great. A family happened to arrive when Kitty already had  a couple of friends here for her birthday sleepover, and we were also in the middle of a  power cut. Complete chaos, but a great way of getting to know people better!  Rhena has also been chatting with a neighbour; she used to go regularly to Hindu  temples, but last month she tried going to a Tamil church. Kitty says she is grateful for her  class at school, especially her classmate Meagan, and for the street-pups that were born  outside our apartment. She finds it hard, however, that there is so much schoolwork to  do—more than she used to have in the UK. Sam is grateful for his friends at school and  for mango jam. He finds it hard that several friends from his class are leaving  (international schools often have families moving), which makes him long for his friends  back in the UK. Both Kitty and Sam enjoy a website called ‘Club Penguin’, where they can  play games and interact with friends who are also logged on—a good way of getting to  know classmates a bit better. Prayer and praise points:  Thank God for:  • The thousands of Christians all around India who are training through TAFTEE groups.  • Eric’s opportunities to contribute—in administration and, recently, helping to teach at a‘  residential’ on Salvation, and research methods.  • The support we have had in settling in (visits from Adrian, our CMS boss; by friends from  Chatham; by family including Rhena’s brother from Cambridge)  • Finding a local Bible study group (which is happy for Kitty and Sam to come too, though  they don’t have to join in).  Please pray for • A peaceful conclusion to the elections here—and for Christians despite being a small  minority, to be able to play a constructive public role in India.  • TAFTEE to get its training through to the areas, and to the leaders, who most need it.  • Wisdom as we work out which church to belong to (one in the city, where English works  well; or one further out, where English works less well, but with a clear sense of its task.  • God to guide us, as we make friends and build relationships here (we are finding that we  do have to take initiative, and it is quite hard work.  Thank you for your support, encouragement and prayers.  Yours in his service, Eric, Rhena, Kitty and Samuel