Christmas Celebrations - 1

These are the snaps from the Christmas program we arranged for villages neighbouring NJH. 

The stage . . .  all set.

Initially the crowd was quite low . . .  and we had quite an anxious time.

Welcoming the guests

The dancing starts . . . 

Skit performed by staff . . . 

Rev. Joseph Lakra sharing from the Word about Christmas . . .

Santa Claus giving gift to the Chief Guest . . . All guests got a Bible as gift

The Nativity Scene enacted by students from Nursing School

The Chief Guest cutting the Christmas cake

The dignitaries on the dias . . . 

Before we see further snaps from the program, a glimpse on the preparations . . .

Packing the cakes . . . Had to protect from rats that rampage overnight . . . 

And this is how we kept the cakes overnight . . . This totalled about 2600 pieces of cake. 

Baking cakes going on . . .  Many of our staff learnt to bake cakes . . . 

The pooris and the vegetable curry being prepared.
We used about 150 kgs of flour, about 100 kgs of potato, 50 kilograms of cauliflower.
We estimated that we prepared about 12,000 pooris.  

The preparations early morning

We distributed about 1000 bibles and tracts about the Christmas story.

The final arrangements in progress

Close up of the cake which was cut by the Chief Guest

Waiting to serve . . . 

The crowds pour in . . . 

Our neighbours . . . but we do not see them often. They are too poor to come to us.
Almost all of them were eating cake for the first time in their lives.

The villagers continued to stream in even after the initial rush for food.

At the end, I could only thank the Lord. It was amazing . . . None of us had any sort of experience arranging such a program. All the calculations for the food was made on faith. The total population of the villages we had invited was about 2200. We expected 1500. We made food for 1500. We made 2500 pieces of cake as we were sure that the demand would be high. 

At the end, the 1500 disposable plates were all used up. There were about 100 pieces of cake left. 

At around 4 pm, we had an entourage comprising of the local Block Development Officer and the Police Station in-charge dropping in. It was good that we had those pieces of cake remaining. 

No food was wasted . . . and no stomach in our neighbourhood went hungry today afternoon.

The best part of the whole afternoon was the sharing of the Christmas message and distribution of tracts about the Christ birth and of course, the Bibles . . . 

A day which would be remembered by most of our staff all their lives . . . 

We praise God and thank all of those who prayed. 

The next program for Christmas . . . the official staff dinner on the 22nd December . . .