Swirly day

Dad is in the intensive care unit of Bethany Hospital.  And life continues to swirl around.

When was that operation now... last week?  last year?  It all seems so long ago - and yet we are not even 100 hours past the major and what we hope and trust to be life-extending operation that Dad went through on Monday.

Since we are not allowed to 'stay' in the ICU (not even hide under his bed) - and Dad is quite stable in every way - Mum, Sheba, Stefan and myself take turns popping in for a few minutes during the day to see how Dad is doing... and are also taking part in the normal swirl of activities.

Stefan flies back to Delhi tomorrow - his stay much appreciated - as is Neeru's constant 'long-distance' support from Delhi.   One of our other brothers - Narendra Kumar just emailed to say he is coming in from Varanasi for 2 days over the weekend to help with Dad...  perfect timing as I need to be away for 36 hours over the weekend (God has his own wonderful ways of working things out!).

Sheba and I were back at JSK today.  We had our weekly staff meeting.  Good things to hear - about testing camps and different families who are going through very tough times.   Also much to pray about - how to effectively use our beautiful set up here... what directions JSK should take this year.  What do you want of us Lord?  We prayed together.  And need to keep hearing what God wants.

Then Sheba and I drove off in the heat of the day to the Child Welfare Committee in Bhiwandi.  We started off in a simmering haze, and then to our horror were trapped in bumper to bumper (and many of them big dumpers) traffic.  Massive, massive jam.  We saw a side road and skimmed along in the dust... till we got bottle necked there too.  2 hours being baked.  We tried to sing songs of praise.

And when we finally got to the office - we were told that we were (a) too late and (b) there was only one committee member there - out of the three who make up the committee.  One was sick.  One had another emergency.  The remaining one was not empowered to make decisions.  A quorum of 2 is needed for an order to be past.  4 PM in dusty Bhiwandi.  Hot.  Turn around.  Back to Thane.

And so instead of getting the order that we were hoping to get regarding our custody of Yohan, we will have to figure out another day.  A precious afternoon gone up in the hot haze... Asha and Enoch's final exams tomorrow.

But God is still in control.  I got back to Jeevan Sahara Kendra to catch the very end of our monthly Positive Friends meeting.  People were still talking.  Amazing to see people living with HIV and smiling and sharing and linking up with others.  God has been so good.  I saw a teenage girl who 8 years ago was on her death-bed in a govt. hospital with terrible TB meningitis.  She and her parents are positive but living their lives with gusto.  Met new people.  Saw old friends.  What an honour to be among these saints.

Now we are off to see Dad in the ICU.  As I write this the church women have a 1 hour prayer meeting (every Wednesday) with Sheba at our place.  Some of the men will come over tonight at 9.30 PM.  In the midst of all of this we will have supper and prayer and sleep a bit.

Thanks for being along for the journey!