Of scooters, elephants and men...

Today we finished the conference. It went well but today was the hottest day so far so many of the pastors left after lunch and didn't continue on to the afternoon session. We were a bit discouraged, as well as exhausted from teaching and the heat when we returned to the hotel room. We had to go back to the institute at 5pm for a wrap up meeting and our host, Emerson Scott, met us with a suprise. He didn't want us to walk back to the institute because it was so hot so he had hired a three wheeled taxi that seated 3 passengers plus the driver. So after the 5 of us got settled in, we were off. It was an exciting ride back to the institute. Kevin says he likes to think that driving on the street like that isn't real, sort of like a video game. I must admit that helps....a bit.
The meeting at the institute started off rocky but ended well. It seems that there were some conficting opinions on the what a successful conference would look like. The leadership team, who brought us out, thought we would only feel successful with large numbers of participants. After we explained we would much rather work with a small group of committed pastors who were willing to embrace the Purpose Driven model for growth, they became excited about the possiblities of affecting real change in Jaipur.
After that meeting, Emerson Scott, his wife Tankm and his two daughters met us at the hotel with a 8 passenger vehicle to take us to the Rajastan Cultural Center. So after the 10 of us got settled in the van, we were off. The ride to the institute is indescribable, but was a lot of fun and we all laughed a good deal. To be honest, we all feel better knowing we successfully completed the training and look forward to a day off tomorrow. We had a wonderful dinner and walked around the center and saw many examples of Rajastan culture. All of us had a turn riding the elephant. Kevin, Beth, Shawna and Shelley were especially adventurous and rode a camel as well.
Tomorrow we are off for some more sightseeing and shopping, typical tourist type stuff. It should be great fun, especially since we will be riding in more vehicles.
I'll post again tomorrow, Lord willing.
Brett
PS-Henry is feeling better since Emerson took us to a chemist shop and we purchased some packaged Gatorade.