God be w’ye

Three years have gone by. Only a moment. Only a lifetime.

Adam and Jo Black joined Jeevan Sahara Kendra in September 2005. A general practice physician from Scotland – Adam joined the JSK team whole-heartedly. This week we had a small time of thanksgiving to God for what He did through this family. A short retrospective through some of the lives of the patients that Adam touched directly (and Jo touched through her support for Adam) brought tears to the eyes.

Just one example: Sachin was a 10 year old boy who had HIV and was dying with a cancerous leg. Adam met with him when he was admitted at JSK, when he was at home in the shack his mother shared with her new husband. Adam carried Sachin in his arms and joked with him, talked and prayed with him, treated and played with him. In his final days Adam visited Sachin’s home. On asking what message Sachin had for the JSK team – the final words that Adam heard from Sachin was: “Praise the Lord.”

A few months before Sachin died his uncle brought a sapling to JSK. The tree that the municipality had planted in front of the centre had died and so we had Sachin plant this sapling in its place. It continues to grow and remind us of this brave little boy – it will also continue to remind us of Dr. Adam and his investment in the lives of many of our Positive Friends here in Thane.

Here is a picture from the tree that we gave to Adam and Jo as a small memento of their time here.

And so we have the bitter sweet task of saying good bye!

As Adam and Jo move we send them with all God’s blessings. Having come from Scotland, the family is now shifting to England where Adam will be starting up in a group practice. Jo is likely to take up more work with speech therapy. Alistair is due to start school and Freya – who was born here at Lok Hospital – will continue to grow from the cherubic child she is into what God has for her as a young lady.
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Though Adam will be returning to general practice we expect that he will continue to be involved with some of the issues that he worked with here. For one the area he will be serving has a large ethnic population from South Asia and so his Hindusthani will be much appreciated there. Furthermore, his practice partners are giving him the liberty of working two days of the week for charities, and it is quite likely that he will be involved with training different organisations in Eastern Europe and Africe (and we expect in South Asia as well), especially in issues of HIV care.
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There were many a moist eye during our small farewell for the Black family. We know that we will never forget them - and Adam told us that we will always be in their hearts too.

Only eternity knows the final value of what our lives are.

God be with ye dear friends! Go with joy and strength in the Lord – to new frontiers and ever more joy in Him!

Our JSK “mass choir” gave a rousing send off with their rendition of “Sambhal Prabhuji”