8/11/2019 Roland William Jean 1996 India

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Madras, Ind ia

November

28,

1996

Dear Fr i end s ,

Today is

Thanksgiving day and what

better way

to spend part of

i t

than to give

thanks

I Of

course

our p rimary thanks

is

to

God

for

a ll

he

has

done and

has

promised to do and

continues

to do for

us .

do have so

much

to be

thankful

for , physi ca ll y,

materially and especially

spiritually.

And

we

acknowledge

that every good and

perfect

gift

comes

from Him are thankful

that

Christ

was willing to take the punishment

we deserve

and die to give us l ife

everlasting.

see so many around us who have neither the phys ical , mate rial or spir i tual

blessings we enjoy. So

our

grati tude increases.

We are th ank ful to

God

fo r our family. Although

we

a re s ep ar at ed

from

them

by Hiaay

miles,

we remember the happy

times

we have had together with them.

are thankful for the i r love. We are thankful for the happy

t imes we

have had and

the memories.

We look forward

to

more happy t imes

with

them in the future .

Besides

giving

thanks

to

God

and

Chris t , we

also

want

to

thank our

many

fr iends,

you who give us encouragement, uphold us in prayer and

support

us and the work

we are

doing with

your f inancia l help.

We

also have many happy

memories

of you

and t he k in dn es se s and sac r i f i c ia l

giving of

each one. We thank you

from

our

hea r t s

Thanksgiving Day

is

usually

spent with

family and fr iends.

We were

invi ted,

the l a s t minute, to jo in

some

American f r iends fo r d in ne r, but

when we rea l ized

that Emrys and Usha are s t i l l in the USA and

the i r

s on, Robert

and daughter,

Katherine,

are stay in g with

Hindu re la t ives

who

would not

be celebrat ing

the

day,

we decided to adopt them for

the

afternoon and take them

out

for lunch.

We

were

not

suf f ic ien t ly over our j e t lag to be se t t led and

ready

to cook a t rad i t iona l

Thanksgiving

meal

(even

i f

we

subst i tuted

chicken

for tu rkey ,

and

other

such

changes

in

menu

which are

often necessary here) . Ins tead, we

asked them where

they would l ike to

go.

They

chose a reasonably priced

but

f av o ri te r es ta u ra n t

that v;e also enjoy. They e ac h cho se a

beef

menu and seemed

to

enjoy not only the

food, bu t the v i s i t .

In

October

we

learned

of a special

offer

Brit ish Air was giving. For each t icket

at full

price

a

second

t icket would be discounted up to 70 according to the age

of t he pas senger . Since we

are over

70 ,

that

meant we cou ld both go for 1 fare

and 1/3.

both

needed to have

our glasses

changed and we both use

t r ifocals ,

which a re u n av a il ab le h e re .

We both

needed

to renew

our d ri ve r l ic e ns es .

William was anxious to attend the 50-year reunion of his

Cincinnati

Bible College

graduation class . And

there

was

th e

National

Missionary Convention. Jean

had

planned

not to

go,

but

William

was

hoping

to

go .

When

this

offer came we

decided to both

go.

Recently we

have-been

less involved with the Leprosy

Hospital

work and have

been more involved

in

the Madras College

of

Evangelism William has been teaching

th e Pastoral Epistles. This next semester he l l be teaching New

Testament

World

This year s group o f students seem

to

be applying themselves to

their

studies.

Some students in the past have

caused some problems,

but this year

they

all

seem

to be behaving

and

get t ing along

wil l . We

are so thankful. The semester end

was near,

followed

by a week

of

exams and a week of

vacation. By

leaving an

assignment for the last

class

and the

final exam

to be administered by another

s taff

member the college teaching responsibili ty was taken

care of,

and we

could

be

back

by

th e

time

th e

new

session

began.

Flight

schedules were changed a couple

of

times and

everything was somewhat

uncertain, but we packed and prepared to be ready i f our seats were

confirmed.

fel t

i f i t

was God s will , we

could

go . Our reservations

were

not confirmed

ui^til

about a day before we lef t . Elden Weesner took us to

the airport

in our

van,

and en route home he

ran

too close under a large

tree

branch and

th e

top of

t h e v an was d e n t e d .

8/11/2019 Roland William Jean 1996 India

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notified

family in

I l l inois

about our arrival time, and Grandson,

Jonathan,

in his final semester at

Lincoln

CC, met us at the Chicago airport and took us

to the home o f Gordon Smith

h is

o the r Grandfa ther who l i v e s in P i t t s f i e l d .

Jonathan rode

with

us

to

Lexington

fo r

the NMC where

we

a l l stayed

with

William s older brother,

Clyde,

during

the

convention. I t was a blessing to

at tend and hear some f ine

messages and meet many

f r iends and

make

new ones .

From

there we

went

to

CBC

for

th e re un io n

and

again

were

blessed

by

messages

and reports and meet ing many

f r iends

of more

than

50 years .

We were able

to

get

our

d ri ve r l ic en se s

ren ewed and

our

eyes

t es t ed and new

lenses. Will iam s hea ri ng has been deter iorat ing and he

had

his ears checked

but

there was not

time

to get aids ordered and

f i t t ed so

tha t wi l l have

to

wait for

another

t ime. We were able

to

get some more computer

software

and

our

repai red

l ap tops .

And

Will iam got more

m ate ria l to

use in h is

c l ass

t h i s

semester

Weather

had

been mos tly v ery p leasan t

but

by the t ime

we

had

to

f ly back

to

Madras,

it had turned bad with much r a i n thunder and l i gh t en ing . There

was

snow in the Chicago area and more predic ted . Grandson, John

Mark,

had

agreed

to take us to

Chicago. With

the predicted

bad weather

in

tha t

area we

hated

for John

to

be driving back alone, and then

Gordon s

Chevy that we were to go

in

conked ou t .

Sowe

ren ted a

car

an d drove

it The weather

turned

out

be t te r than predicted,

for

which we were thankful.

We

reached Chicago a i rpor t

in

good time

and

had a good f l ight .

Jean s

birthday, Nov. 23 , was spent in a

very

nice lounge in London s Heathrow AirportI

Our

residentia l permit

to

be

in

India

expires on

Feb. 2,

so we have to apply for

a new one. are

required

to

provide

proof that we have

already

resided in India

for

20 or more years. We had submitted such proof

with

our l a s t appl icat ion and

had hoped

they

had

that

on

f i le bu t they

said

we had

to

provide i t again.

(Their

f i l ing

system is often just stacks

on

the floor,

and

i t is

a

job tounstack and

find

the

bottom f i l e so

they

o fte n re qu ire

people

to

keep

the i r

own

f i l es .

This

is

also

t rue o f d octo rs and hospi ta ls . Patients have

to

keep thei r own X-rays

and la b

reports,

etc.

and

bring

them when they

consult the

doctors.)

have been busy

gathering

old

passports

and proof of being in India, photocopying them

to

submit

to

the au thor i t i es along with our

appl icat ions. As

one v i s i t o r sa id about

driving

in

India , i t takes inf in i te

pat ience ,

and so i t

does

with

so much

of

l i fe

here.

The

telephone

system,

th e postal

system, and so many things jus t are

not

what

they

are in

US

and we tend

to

get impatient. Oh, for the patience of JobI

There

are

s t i l l more

things to

be

thankful

for . Word

from daughter ,

Mary Esther,

is that her voice

has great ly

improved and

sh e

is

much encouraged. She was

able

to

sing

with a

choir

group

for

a ser ies

of revival meetings, which seemed

to

be

jus t

th e t her apy

she

needed.

Grandson,

Chad,

i n Bal timore ,

made

th e

honor

ro l l

in

h is HS

s t ud i e s

and

h is

Mom, who has

been

a chain smoker s ince her t eens

has

qu i t

smoking. Gordon Smith and his son have some heal th problems. I guess a l l of us

do from time to t ime. People sometimes ask about our heal th . William s

back

trouble seems to be comple te ly cured . As long as he is careful how he

l i f t s and

bends,

he

i s f i ne .

But

none of the doctors seem to

be

able

to

s top h is

eyes

from

watering excessively. He also has a b it of a cough. J ean s d is lo ca te d vertebra,

and

a r t h r i t i s c on tin ue to

bother her some, but

not

as

badly

as

in the

pas t .

And

for the most par t

a l l

the other family members are doing qui te wel l . So more

reason

fo r

our

Thanksgiving.

Now as we

look

forward to th e season when the

world remembers

th e

b i r t h

of Chr i s t

our

Lord and Savior we

pray tha t

each of you may

remember

the s igni f icance of

tii34 bi r th

and

express

your

gra t i t ude

and

thaiiks

i n approp ri at e-way s .-

-May

41i3

peace on earth and goodwill to men abound

in

each

heart and l i f e .

Thank

you

fo r being you and being

our

f r iends

meet again .

With much love

God

bless and keep you t i l l

we

W i l li a m a n d Jean

R o l a n d

W i l li a m

J e a n Roland

Pos t Bag No. 1207

M a d r a s TN 6 0 0

0 4 0

ndia

Roland

I n d i a M i s s i o n

P 0 BOX 503

L a

C r o s s e

KS 6 7 5 4 8 - 0 5 0 3