At the back of the room sat an emaciated lady.
We will call her Kamala. She is in her mid thirties. A widow. With kids.
She was admitted at our JSK centre earlier this week. On weighing her she was found to be only 19 kgs.
That is less than a 5 year old should weigh.
With all the advances we have in our great country of India- we still come across people totally wasted by HIV.
But perhaps I should rephrase that. We did not come across her. A group of people who are part of a church community in a neigbouring part of Mumbai did.
They not only found Kamala. They took her in. And seeing her total emaciation, they brought her to us. Along with her beautiful children.
There seemed hardly anything we could do. Kamala's lungs are ravaged by TB. She had no appetite. She was a barely living skeleton.
But she had people who loved her. A new family had adopted her. The church people who brought her became her attendants. They gathered resources. They took turns to be with her. They prayed with her. They had her kids stay with their pastor (where they still are).
Four days later, Kamala is still with us. She is still painfully thin. But since she was admitted, she has started eating. She came to the gospel meeting this evening. Sitting in the back row, wearing her TB mask. She has started taking her medications.
"I had lost my hope" she told me when I visited her bed side a bit later, "but now I have hope that I can walk out healthy."
Kamala has advocates. People who are stepping in for her. The folks from this church are no super-humans. They are simple people who love Jesus. The couple who was here this evening were a shining example of this. Husband and wife with matching smiles. Beautiful, genuine smiles that shimmered with joy from within.
What a privilege to serve along people like this. Both the broken who are being mended - and those who are moving forward in faith and reaching out to people around them.
We lost two people the week before. Sunday night. Monday night. And then we had almost a week of no admissions at the Jeevan Sahara Kendra. With our costs being so high - you wonder whether you should keep going.
We prayed that God would send us the people He wanted us to minister to. He answered. On Tuesday one man was brought. On Wednesday Kamala was admitted. On Friday two more very, very sick men came. Our hope is that each one of them will not only survive, but that they will be able to tell of what God has done for them. It seems so impossible. One man has been in top hospitals for 1.5 months and is in a semi-coma. Another was gasping and is currently on oxygen.
But then we have Kamala. Will she pull through? We hope. We pray. We serve.
Total respect for our sacrificial nursing team of Agnes and Yerusha and their support staff in Dipali and Sunita. Total awe for Sheba as she takes the calls and is helped by Dr. Mokshaa. Tears come to my eyes when I see the love and support these church members are giving Kamala Total thanksgiving for our Lord who allows us to serve in these desperate / impossible situations.
We will call her Kamala. She is in her mid thirties. A widow. With kids.
She was admitted at our JSK centre earlier this week. On weighing her she was found to be only 19 kgs.
That is less than a 5 year old should weigh.
With all the advances we have in our great country of India- we still come across people totally wasted by HIV.
But perhaps I should rephrase that. We did not come across her. A group of people who are part of a church community in a neigbouring part of Mumbai did.
They not only found Kamala. They took her in. And seeing her total emaciation, they brought her to us. Along with her beautiful children.
There seemed hardly anything we could do. Kamala's lungs are ravaged by TB. She had no appetite. She was a barely living skeleton.
But she had people who loved her. A new family had adopted her. The church people who brought her became her attendants. They gathered resources. They took turns to be with her. They prayed with her. They had her kids stay with their pastor (where they still are).
Four days later, Kamala is still with us. She is still painfully thin. But since she was admitted, she has started eating. She came to the gospel meeting this evening. Sitting in the back row, wearing her TB mask. She has started taking her medications.
"I had lost my hope" she told me when I visited her bed side a bit later, "but now I have hope that I can walk out healthy."
Kamala has advocates. People who are stepping in for her. The folks from this church are no super-humans. They are simple people who love Jesus. The couple who was here this evening were a shining example of this. Husband and wife with matching smiles. Beautiful, genuine smiles that shimmered with joy from within.
What a privilege to serve along people like this. Both the broken who are being mended - and those who are moving forward in faith and reaching out to people around them.
We lost two people the week before. Sunday night. Monday night. And then we had almost a week of no admissions at the Jeevan Sahara Kendra. With our costs being so high - you wonder whether you should keep going.
We prayed that God would send us the people He wanted us to minister to. He answered. On Tuesday one man was brought. On Wednesday Kamala was admitted. On Friday two more very, very sick men came. Our hope is that each one of them will not only survive, but that they will be able to tell of what God has done for them. It seems so impossible. One man has been in top hospitals for 1.5 months and is in a semi-coma. Another was gasping and is currently on oxygen.
But then we have Kamala. Will she pull through? We hope. We pray. We serve.
Total respect for our sacrificial nursing team of Agnes and Yerusha and their support staff in Dipali and Sunita. Total awe for Sheba as she takes the calls and is helped by Dr. Mokshaa. Tears come to my eyes when I see the love and support these church members are giving Kamala Total thanksgiving for our Lord who allows us to serve in these desperate / impossible situations.
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