Volunteers: We have been working on getting more volunteers to work for TFT. Recently a small group of young people from church have been visiting and spending time in the office to help out. Some of them were able to help us in the children camp. See pictures here
Adventure camping: We had the privilege of organising first ever children camp for Banaswadi Bible Church (my home church). We had forty children and thirteen volunteers.
From the teen’s group we had eight young people join us for this camp. Since most of these children come from a Christian background our theme of the camp was called ‘Live your Faith’. Special guests from an organisation called 'Child Focus' were invited to facilitate the sessions for the kids.
Prior to the camp we had to set up the tents one day before the camp, the camp was held for two-night three-days. This was the first time the children got to stay in tents and they loved it!!
Nandu was in charge of all the outdoor activities. He led the main sessions in abseiling & also took part in the skit. I must say he is very talented in acting and popular with the kids!
Almost all the kids abseiled, some also did it twice, this was their first ever experience of abseiling. At first they were scared but with lots of encouragement they did it. This was a great boost to their self-esteem and to put their faith in action.
The abseiling sessions were done in a thirty-five feet deep well. The well had no water it had dried up and it was big well for us to do abseiling. Dinesh, Santosh and Rajesh were a great blessing they were our volunteers who helped us in this camp. One of the highlights of the camp was to see these children bond together and have great time in worshiping God and growing in faith.
For me this was a dream come true, I was wanting to do a children’s camp for my church from a long time. Each time we tried, we were faced with lots of challenges, even for this camp we faced many challenge, prior to the camp it was raining cats and dogs even to last day before the camp, we all got together and prayed and we saw God do great and marvellous things, at the camp there was not even a drop of rain. Praise God!I was also a speaker for the children camp and youth convention for the Marthoma church in Mysore organised by J team Ministries Chennai. I just loved being with the children and young people. For me it was a new opening ground in Mysore I loved it.
Relationships with others: It has been good to start to work with an organisation called 'Child Focus' who work with urban children. A new contact to work with and has potential for the future.
Anglo Benn (above) has been an old-time friend he now lives in Australia with his wife Pearl (below). Both of them have dedicated their lives to serve God through outdoor pursuit. Anglo is currently undergoing training in extreme adventure sports which will give him qualification in being instructor in various adventure sports.
Anglo and Pearl are great asset and they have opened new links with us and Australia. Anglo and I had great talks about Christian outdoor pursuits in India and the need to build relationships and to take adventuring camping forward. We have had talks about accredited training in adventure sports although things are at an early stage.We had the opportunities to work with other organisations in providing training in First Aid led by Anglo. Staff came from Breakthrough Trust, J team, and Kerygma. This also strengthened our relationships and shared resources.
See more pictures of the training here
We are also establishing contacts though Anglo with RLSS (Rashtriya Life Saving Society) based in Pune they are the certifying body and recognised by the government of India. We are hoping to do some more training in the near future.
This month we were also able to make new contact with the Marthoma church in Mysore through J team from Chennai. I was invited to be the speaker for their youth convention and also gave the main message in their church service.Training: Anglo facilitated the training in First Aid for us. There were eleven of us representing four different organisations working with children and young people. The training was intense and exciting! Anglo taught us from the Australian St John Ambulance modules. Because Anglo has a thorough knowledge of both cultures he was able to present the course sensitively and skillfully. The training was approved by RLSS (India).
This is the first time to the best of my knowledge we have had a certified in-depth training in First Aid in Christian circles. This has opened new doors for future training too.We also had a two-day training program in Aquatic Life Saving
Skills based on the Bronze Medallion program. This was a mixture of theory and practice. I had invited two swimming instructors for this course. In total we were five of us in this programme. At the course we were able to learn some good risk management procedures and accrue skills in rescuing people in a worse case scenario.
At the end of the training we felt that we were not competent for the assessment to gain the Bronze Medallion but realised the need to swim more on a regular basis. However we feel more competent now to handle scenarios that come to us now.
This was a good opportunity for TFT to organize these events and shows people that we are setting high standards in health and safety and are serious about setting these examples for others to follow. My special thanks goes to Anglo for taking time to visit Bangalore and facilitating all the training in First Aid and Life Saving Skills. I also look forward in working with him to conduct more training programs in the near future.Other projects: We continue to look for land for our first Adventure Camping site. Recently we visited South Coorg with two of our trustees and two of their children. We meet up with some real-estate guys who took us to various sites. We visited more than 4 sites in all. The land we viewed was well cultivated with coffee plantation, pepper plants and timber.
The first site visited was 26acres, with small lake filled stagnant water. The land was situated near the reserve forest and with small well and filled with coffee plantation, pepper and other jungle trees. Second site visited had a total of 30 acres, there was no water body, and this land was just jungle filled with bushes and leeches. Third site visited had a total of 22 acres, a small stream runs beside the land, the land is filled with coffee plantation and pepper plant. Fourth site visited had a total of 22 acres, two streams that connect near the land and rich soil and flat land with coffee plantation, pepper and some fruits tree. No water for water activities.
This was a great experience to get to see more land options. Unfortunately prices for this land are extortionate. I came out of the trip more convinced that God is very soon going to give us the land and we have to keep looking for it.
Development: We are in the process of applying for what is called 'Prior permission' from the Government to be able to then receive international and national funding for our developments. Our documents are currently being looked at by our chartered accountant.
We also have re applied for our 80G (Charitable funding) status. has been reapplied to the government.
Finance: There is a big need for raising funds for the Trust. As we start to look at land the New Year will bring fresh challenges in the area of finance. We must push ('pray until some thing happens') and continue to work on securing regular Indian giving via the '100 club'.
