Page 4 - Moravian Messenger March 2019

Ockbrook School Trip to India
In July this year we went to India on an expedition with Wilderness Expertise. Our first week was called the 'Project phase' and we spent it in Dehradun at the Moravian Institute there. Everyone was very friendly, and we had a wonderful time. Our main task was to turn an old boys' dormitory into a library and move all of the furniture up into the new renovated dormitory. The store room where the books were being kept also needed cleaning out, and we spent our afternoons tutoring the children in English and Maths and playing games, so there was plenty to do!
When we first arrived, we were welcomed by the school in a special assembly, where we explained what we were going to be doing during the week. We were lucky enough to meet the head teacher in England before flying out, so we had a good idea of the jobs that needed doing. We were also invited to join the school's evening
devotion, which was a lovely short meeting where the students would lead themselves in worship and then an alumnus of the school would come and talk about their journey in faith. We were hosted in the parsonage of the church, and both were separate from the school, so we travelled to and from the site on the school bus.
The following morning, we got started on the task in hand. We began moving steel bunk beds from the old dorm into the new and setting them out in rows. The new dormitory was across a basketball court and up two flights of stairs from the old, so this was a pretty challenging job! There were also lockers and large cases to move, which left the room ready to turn into a library.
The bookcases in the store room were emptied, cleaned and moved up to the empty room, and their contents were put into large rice bags. These books then had to be sorted by genre and dusted when they got to the new library and returned to the bookcases. Each morning was more and more rewarding as we watched the transformation.
Every afternoon was spent with the younger children at the school, and each member of our team had one student to tutor. We taught English or Maths depending on what the students most needed help with, and then we introduced the whole class to some of our favourite games! All of the children were lovely, and their passion for learning was inspiring.
On Sunday morning at the end of our fun week at the school, we had the opportunity to join in the service at the church next to where we were staying. One of the members of our team even got to play the drums with the band! The service was very similar to one that we would recognise in the UK, and it was interesting to learn the Hindi versions of songs we already knew.
We would like to thank everyone at the Moravian Institute and the church in Dehradun for making us feel so at home and comfortable while we were staying there. We went on to have an amazing time trekking in the Himalayas for our second week and enjoying the wonders of India including the Taj Mahal in our third and final phase. Our entire experience was phenomenal, and the school project was no exception.
Unity Prayer Day
continues from the front page
Abigail Evans
Ockbrook School
main station for the work in Assam is Binnakandi with outstations in Latingkhal and Haflong. Haflong has a growing congregation. It is a hill station situated five hours drive north of Binnakandi. A bamboo church has been used for some years but is now in danger of sliding down the hill side. A new plot of land situated lower down on a more even piece of land has been purchased through the help of the Moravian Church in Binnakandi. The vision is to build a more permanent church. For this purpose the Unity Offering is taken this year and all provinces around the Unity are asked to collect funds for this purpose.
It is the hope that we as the Worldwide Moravian Church will
be mindful of the
importance of prayer
and let this responsibility be visible on Sunday March 3rd, the Sunday closest to the 1st of March 2019.
Br Jørgen Bøytler
Unity Board Administrator
It was decided that the Unity Board should set up a schedule of the Provinces responsible for preparing the material for the 'Unity Prayer Day'. On the Unity Prayer Day, a so-called Unity Offering should be collected in all Congregations of the Unity. The purpose for which the money would be collected was to be fixed by the Unity Board annually. The first offering, which was taken in 1968, was for the Tibetan refugees in North India. The collected funds were to be spent on constructing a Hostel for 100 children.
The first Unity Offering to North India
Actually, at the Unity Synod 1967, it was decided that the work in North India, including both Ladakh and Rajpur should be named an undertaking of the whole Unity. It was also decided that the British Province should administer the work in North India and collect funds from the Provinces. The status of North India being a Unity Undertaking has now changed. It is a Mission Area of the Worldwide Moravian Church, still under the supervision
of the British Province. The name was by decision of the Unity Synod 2002 changed from The Moravian Church in North India to the Moravian Church in South Asia, which not only includes Ladakh and Rajpur, but also Assam and the Moravian Church in Nepal. Currently, a process, which was directed by the Unity Synod 2002, is going on for the Moravian Church in South Asia. The goal is ultimately to see a Unity Province of South Asia develop.
The Unity Prayer Day Offering 2019
The Unity Prayer Day and the Unity Offering continues to be part of the work of the Worldwide Moravian Unity. It is now the task of the Unity Mission and Development Board to decide which part of the Unity is to benefit from the Unity Offering. The 2019 Unity Offering, 51 years after the first one was dedicated to the Hostel for Tibetan refugees' children in Ladakh, is once again to the benefit of a project in North India. This time the Unity Offering will be spent on a new church building in Haflong in Assam, India. The
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© Ockbrook School
© Ockbrook School