A busy day

A deep breath is in order.

Today was packed.

Morning saw us up at 5 after a restless night.

Time with God. Time to get ready for the day. Time to put some breakfast together.

Dad is with us. His mouth is hurting from ulcers.

Kids are up. Its a Saturday - Dad (their Opa) will take them out to the park this morning.

I am dressed and out of the door at 8.15 This week a meeting has been called at the Church at Powai to see how independent churches can work together and reach out to people with HIV. I was asked to speak.

Will the scooter start? Eternal question. It does. I tank up and am off down the Eastern Express highway. Smooth. The battered 'Black Beauty' goes like a dream in the cool morning.

Arrive at CAP just before 9. Meet with Paulus who has come up from Madurai to lead the programme - Pastor Cecil of CAP and Dr. Alita of ACT-Chiraag. We talk and pray.

Meanwhile Sheba is preparing for the day too. We have a Church members training at JSK. She is taking two sessions in the morning - on preventing mother-to-child transmission and on helping people with HIV take Anti-Retroviral Medications. The kids are taken out by their Opa for a treat to the 'new park' near-by.

After Alita shared an HIV overview I talked about how HIV affects the whole person - and how the church is called to love and care for every broken part - and how Jesus helps us to do so.

Then it was off back to catch the 2nd half of our JSK training. One problem. The scooter didn't start. Off to the scooter-repair-walla. 12.30 departure became 1.15 PM. Back up the Eastern express highway. Smooth sailing. I rarely drive this far. Tried to keep the speed down.

Come back just after 2. Grab some channa-rice-dal. Into the afternoon sessions. One of our nurses was giving her testimony about how she was started on ART and now is doing so much better. Sheba prayed for her afterwards.

We hand over. Sheba goes back to the kids and Opa. I continue with the training. We discuss what the participants have experienced over the past 2 weeks. Amazing stuff done by many.

I then take a session that gave a positive Bible-based understanding of sexual love. Most in the room had never been exposed to this before. Much appreciated in the feed back session later. As was the whole day. We have an excellent group of trainees. This is the 3rd of 4 sessions which we hold fortnightly. Many are young people from a church in Bhayinder.

In the mean time, Sheba has admitted Mrs. Ulema, one of our long term patients. Mrs. Ulema has had severe pain in the abodomen. Strongly suggestive of an appendicitis. After the meeting is over I spend some time with Mr. and Mrs. Edwin, an HIV positive couple who are doing church planting and are in touch with a network of HIV positive people in a rural part of Maharashtra. They have faithfully been attending the trainings.

We then go and spend some time with Mrs. Ulema and her husband who has come to visit her. Mr. Edwin shares encouraging words from the Bible and from his own story. Mrs. Edwin prays for Mrs Ulema.

I return home to find that Opa has just returned from taking Asha to her violin class. He is taking a nap. Coffee with my beloved as we swap notes.

But the day is not over yet. At 7.30 our church young people are there. A time of worship and then they are sharing with each other what they have heard from God. Great group of young guns!

During this time Sheba has finished preparing the evening meal and has to go off to see Mrs. Ulema. Her condition has not improved - infact it has worsened. Sheba has no option but to refer to a government teaching hospital for acute care. We just do not have the nurses at this point to supervise a complicated case like this.

Sheba returns after the last young person has left. The last being Abhey Noor - a young man who has been a double orphan since he was 14 and who has manfully looked after his younger sister and brother. HIV has done so much damage - but we hardly notice because the dead do not tell tales.

We sit together for supper - at 10 PM. It is great to have Dad around. Much laughter. A short devotion reading. Prayer for all our family scattered around the world.

Now sleep. The rest of the family is in slumber. I find myself putting a few more words on the screen. Over and out.

Its been a busy day - and a Saturday at that!