Monday 13 August 2012

Jimmy

The wonders of cyberspace.

A few weeks ago a man fed in the name of 'John V. Rao' into his computer.

Up popped our Chai Chats blog.

And so Jimmy came into our lives - again for Sheba and the first time for me.

Jimmy, Julie and Jessie David grew up with Daisy, Sheba, Sarah and Peter in Rourkela. They were part of the same church fellowship. They went to the same schools. Their lives were intertwined at many many different levels.

The younger generation of Davids went on to higher studies and moved to the US - and after the tragic death of their father in 1995 - so did Auntie David.

And that was where the story ended.  Sheba had told me about her friends a number of times - and we always wished that we could somehow get in touch again.

Well we did - with Jimmy walking in our door on Saturday!  What a joy to see him.  It was the first time for me - and for Sheba it was after 20+ years.

Jimmy is no stranger to Thane - he has passed by our town a number of times in recent years.  Each time his company sent him to their project in Pune his taxi from the airport whizzed past Thane.

But what got us connected again was the name of the senior elder of the Bethany Fellowship in Rourkela - the church that Jimmy and Sheba grew up in.  John V. Rao had married Amma and Appa - and he married Sheba and myself.  He is still alive and still soldiers away (appropriately since he is an ex-army-man) in the assembly in Rourkela - over 50 years since he helped start it as a young man.  JVR has his rough edges - some which have been on display for years - but we are grateful for his endurance and passion.

For me to see Jimmy was to see a bit more of Sheba's world.  And also to see the grace of God who has fashioned such a winsome man - happily married to Ayako from Japan - and with two lovely kids who are growing up speaking Japanese and English where the family lives in Michigan.

We are so grateful that Jimmy took the pains to follow up the emails with actually being with us.  We hope that this starts a new chapter in the wonderful story of our families long walk together.


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