Review

Its been a weekend of reviews.

Friday afternoon we looked over the past month with Jeevan Sahara Kendra. A good month - though challenging since our field staff running at 1/3 with 3 of our staff leaving in the past 3 months - and another one on leave as her father was quite ill.

Then yesterday we reviewed the past quarter. We spent time quietly thinking and praying. Then shared what the positives had been and what barriers we faced, mapping them out on a board before bringing them back to God in prayer. As the white-board kept filling up with facts - both triumphs as well as challenges - we experienced waves of thanksgiving - and deep jabs of regret at areas that we were not able to deliver in.

The second half of the day saw us sharing a meal at the 'nature interpretation centre' just inside the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, a 15 minute stroll from our office. To be out in the trees, and hear birds sing, and be surrounded by green - so close to the death and destruction we deal with day-in-and-day-out is such a blessing.

The hard fact is this: despite all the progress in HIV, we are still dealing with people dying.

I was so happy that our Friday meeting reported no deaths among any of our families all of September.

But late last night Sunita, one of our nurses called. A man, whose name would translate as "Great-God" had died. His wife - also HIV positive - was not able to go to the government centre for her monthly Anti-Retroviral drugs. Sunita went over this morning with three days worth of drugs to tide over this new widow's need for medication. How much more this young woman will now face as she starts living with HIV without her husband.

This morning we met as a combined group of churches. Attendance was on the sparser side - with exam season seeing many parents staying at home for some last minute cramming instead of spending time enjoying God.

Their loss: God spoke powerfully this morning.

One of the insights came from the life of Elijah. In one of the flash-points of his often painful career as prophet - Elijah rebuilt the altar on Mount Carmel that had fallen into disrepair.

How many things in our own lives are in disrepair. We reviewed our work at JSK - and saw plenty that needed fixing. A good look at my own life sees much that is run-down too. But the hope is not in throwing out the old and starting from scratch. That's not God's way of doing things. He is totally into redemption, reforming, reshaping, reusing, rebuilding.

We have seen miracles - big and small - in our lives and the lives of others. The mountain-tops of victory - a life saved here - a relationship reconciled there - will always be challenged by the gut-punch of hearing that one of our friends has died - or that someone has made another spectacularly bad choice in life. Our institutions may be shabby, and our relationships may be frayed - but we are not to give up. God didn't do that with us.

Review. Restore. Rebuild.