Pilgrim posts: Madhepura Musings

In which Sheba and I dip into another wonderful intentional community, book-ended by hair-raising travels. 

All good things come to an end, and after 4 lovely days with the Kachhwa saints it was time to head off into the heat and track across northern Bihar to the good folks at Madhepura Christian Hospital.

We left bright and early as we wanted to get into our Jan Shatabadi to Patna.   Due to last minute purchasing we got second seater tickets and knew the train would fill up so wanted to put up all our luggage in place.  Our goal was to reach Patna by 11 AM and then get on the Rajya Rani express to Saharsa which leaves Patna at 12.30 PM.   The Kachhwa Christian Hospital vehicle drove us through  an almost empty Varanasi, the early morning showing a largely-shuttered city that was bordered on the tranquil.

Tranquillity was in short supply on our train journey to Patna.  The train was a “Jan Shatabadi” which is a superfast express, but run at a cheaper rate so the ordinary bloke can get a crack at a very quick train.  So far so good.  Except that in this case the ordinary blokes decided to take charge.  The train stopped over and over again.  At tiny stations.  Never in the countryside.  Always at some forgotten wayside spot.  All very good to foster the all-for-one-and-one-for-all spirit, but not if we have a 1.5 hour cushion between trains, and not when we are running almost 2 hours late thanks to incessant stops.  At least one person’s blood-pressure was going up in proportion (or in log?) with the delay.  Prayers were said – silently and together – SMSes traded with our friends at source and destination.

By the time we hit Buxar I was already thinking about alternatives.  Taking a bus?  Asking the hospital to send a vehicle to pick us up from Patna?  And then we had a glimmer of hope, our almost 2 hour delay shrank to 30 odd minutes as we stopped halting at each small railway station.  But as we got closer to Patna the minutes started adding up.  At one point I tried to calculate how long it would  take to get a taxi….

Our train rolled into Patna station at 12.20 PM.  Mercifully the next train was only one platform away.  But we had to go up the foot overbridge.  Again mercifully there was a ramp just near our coach.  We rolled up and over, huffing and puffing.  Train there, but our coach right in front next to the engine. Roll, roll roll.  Sweat pouring.  Into the cool AC coach.  Deep, deep breath of relief.  It’s 12.27 PM.  The train moves 3 minutes later.  Happy prayers and a cool, cool ride all the way to Saharsa.  

At Saharsa we were picked up by one of our old Sunday School students.  Just after our marriage, Sheba and I served at Nav Jivan Hospital in Jharkhand.  We taught Sunday school, and Simon Bengra was a pre-schooler at time, his father working as an orderly at the hospital.  Fast forward almost two decades, and Simon is now working with the Madhepura Christian Hospital handling various roles in the office.

Dr. Arpit Mathew was in surgery, so Simon brought Arpit’s car over and took us over a true Bihari road to Madhepura.  It’s been a long time since we crawled over a road with less asphalt than pot holes.  Our future lunar explorers can spend some happy hours honing their moon-rover-driving skills on this strip of road.  Wasn’t there an election recently? 

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Madhepura Christian Hospital.  An amazing institution.  Tucked on the outskirts of Madhepura town, with nothing flashy to draw people to it, we saw a steady stream of patients over the 4 days we spent with the remarkable people who are serving at MCH.

These few words will of course not do justice to the amazing folks, but are offered as a small snap-shot testimony of God’s grace operating at Madhepura Christian Hospital.

The MCH campus is a small version of Eden.  The Brethren In Christ missionaries who bought the land from the railways in days gone by did their job in planting fruit trees.  We saw so many mango trees and heavily burdened jackfruit trees.  But the real king of Madhepura is the royal litchee.  Sweet, succulent fruit it is – a perfect gift.  And we were gifted a box of these beauties as we left!

But the hospital was not built to be a garden.  It serves in a place of truly horrifying health conditions – and has chosen to focus its services on helping the Maha-Dalits – those at the receiving end of thousands of years of cumulative caste-oppression.  Needless to say, these broken communities themselves have absorbed much of the hatred they have received, and perpetuate much of their own miseries.

I took a series of morning devotions with the staff – looking at the three pronouncements from heaven about our Lord Jesus.  On my way back from chapel on one of the mornings I passed a woman lying flat on the road just outside the OPD door, surrounded by a few others who were crying.  I went inside and asked a staff to go out and help this lady.  They told me that she was the relative of a woman who had been brought dead to the hospital.

A few steps inside the OPD and I saw a stretcher with a white sheet covering a body.  Coming closer I saw the woman’s foot and then saw that the sheet was not covering only one body, but two.  The large bulge told me that a child had also died in the mother’s womb.  I was told that the woman was from a poor family and had had birth complications while giving birth at home.  She had suffered a ruptured uterus and had died of bleeding before she was brought to the hospital.  This is the state of our beloved country.  This is the tragedy that continues where parts of our country build huge statues using government ‘corporate social responsibility’ funds – and other parts have completely avoidable maternal deaths like this.

Thankfully, the hard-working staff of the Madhepura Christian Hospital are able to save many lives too.  I went for rounds with Dr. Arpit Mathew and was struck by the variety of cases that are admitted at MCH. Besides the opportunity of birthing life and caring for mothers, the whole gamut of medical and surgical cases come into the doors of MCH – and many in a critical state.  I watched and listened as Dr. Arpit broke the news to a husband that his wife’s condition was critical and that there was not much chance of recovery.  I followed him into the ICU and saw him care for a snake bite victim.  We then went into the NICU – every bed with a small child in it – and other children in the ward waiting for a chance.  Some of these little fighters had been given up for dead, but are still alive thanks to God’s grace coursing through the wonderful souls who serve at MCH.

Sheba and I were again invited to spend time with the nurses – which we did.   We were able to meet about half of the 40 strong nursing team – many were still on duty – and explore God’s good plan for them.  We are all learning what it means to care for the whole person – and are so grateful for each one who is putting their skills to use and investing their lives in others.

Sheba spent some time with Dr. Timothy who is a radiologist, using her newly acquired ultra-sound skills under his guidance.  She was also able to spend time with the wonderful Dr. Bina who had worked with us back at Nav Jivan Hospital when she was fresh from her MBBS studies.

I had the privilege of meeting up with the community health and development team, led by our wonderful Johnson Digal for a morning as part of their weekly reporting meeting.  We looked at what changes had been seen in the last month of the work and put together an appreciative inquiry chart which showed so many areas where the team was thankful to the Lord for what He has done through them.  We know that the team is made up of ordinary, simple people.  But we also know that God empowers the ordinary to do amazing things!

Since Sheba and I had received some rest at Kachhwa, we arrived at Madhepur with slightly higher energy levels and were ready to do some field visits.

On the morning of our penultimate day, Johnson took Dr. Amy Mathew and me to their planned meetings with the new communities that they were reaching out to.   The hospital has intentionally focussed on seeing transformation among the Maha-dalits and in particular with a community that has been derogatorily called the ‘Musahar’ (rat-eaters).  As part of its strategic plan, the MCH is now reaching out to new communities which have significant populations from this very needy group.  Some initial contacts have been made in 15 new sites and the team was meeting with community leaders and villagers to discuss some of the ways forward.

We drove out through lush greenery which only served to further accentuate the poverty of these communities.  They live in a place where three crops a year are possible – and yet are largely labourers or crop very small pieces of land.  Most of their houses are of bamboo, crop residues and mud.  Many of their children still do not go to school – though we now have a national law that mandates that all children under 16 must attend school.  The gap between what is on paper and ground reality is of course large in many parts of our beloved land.

And so here we were, breaking new ground.  Making contact with communities who have had generations of oppression.  Folks whose poverty and brokenness have been used by a parade of others for various local power agendas. 

In the midst of all of this, we can find beauty in unexpected places.  The faces of each precious person – both the freshness of children and the weathering of the old radiate in different ways the love of their Maker – even if so much sorrow has been walked through.  

I was drawn to some art.  An image of a maize plant made in the mud plaster on the side of a cooking shed open from two sides.  Who made that picture?  

What drew him or her to make the image?  Did others appreciate it when it was made?  Does it have meaning beyond the image itself?  I wish I had time to meet the creator and see what was in her or his heart.  

Below you can see the humble shed where this artwork was found.

Would that more beauty be seen.  Each person has so much capacity to mirror our Creator in making things lovely - even in small ways like this...

The MCH team held a simple meeting in this hamlet.  A small group of women and children, with one man present as well.  He was the local contact for the MCH team.  All were members of the Maha-Dalit community that the team is working with.  The issues were basic.  Understanding education and seeing children have access to what the state government has provided.  Looking at food security.  It is summer and a number of the men are away on migration.  The team has no magic solutions for everything.  They do not have a pot of gold which they can dip in and throw around to try and ameliorate the challenging lives these dear ones face. 

But the MCH team has years of experience.  Years of working with broken people and seeing small incremental changes result.  And lots of patience.  So our conversation was basic.  Baby steps, building trust, starting from where people are, seeking the big picture of flourishing.  No easy solutions, but much which love and prayer can change.

For our next meeting we drove further into the countryside, past identi-kit villages.  The choice of where to work, who to reach out to?  Based on understanding the population distribution of the Maha-Dalit communities and contacts made to their leaders.

Entering into a maze of houses we were greeted by our local ‘man of peace’ – a member of the community who was a ward-representative of their hamlet in the village assembly.  He took us through the village towards our meeting place – a beautiful bamboo grove by the banks of a local stream.  It was the height of summer, we were there just after noon, and yet the place was deliciously cool with a lazy breeze.  And there were people.  Lots of people there.

Men and women.  Young and old.  Here to hear what these new people have in store.  What possible benefits are at hand.  It’s the age-old challenge.  People will gather for a hand-out.  You know that people will stand on their heads if you tell them to, as long as you hand out crisp Rs. 500 notes afterwards.  Crowds from where hand-outs are given (or where people think such may be at hand).

But talk about change and see change happen from within?  A different matter.  There were lots of children present.  But it was not a school holiday.  Why were they not in school?  No school near-by? There is one.  Government teachers not coming to teach?  They seem to be coming.   Clearly more than meet the eye.

And the MCH community engagement team knows that changes are possible.  Because they have worked with similar communities in other parts of the district and seen transformations take place.  

And they know that change does not happen with the waving of a magic wand.

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After returning to Madhepura Christian Hospital for a late lunch, Johnson took Sheba and myself out for another set field visits.  This time to villages where the MCH team has been working for a number of years.

What an amazing afternoon was in store for us.

Another longish jeep ride took us past the home village of  Justice BP Mandal.  This man was Chief  Minister of Bihar for a day.  But his real fame is that he was the lead author of the Mandal Commission Report which encouraged reservations for backward castes in government jobs and educational institutions.

But we were not there to eulogize a man long dead.  We wanted to taste the future.  And we saw it on the eager faces of group of young teen-age mingled with early-twenties women.   The fresh eager

faces of these dear youngrr women will stay with us for a long time.  A few years ago they living the normal life of adolescents in North Bihar.  Household work, and gearing for marriage.  Many of them would be married well before they got to the legal marriage age of 18.

The MCH team started a small discussion group for girls.  As first very few came, but then trust blossomed.  The girls eyes were opened to a broader world around them.  They began to study instead of dropping out.  One girl had tried 2 times to clear her 10th standdard exams, and had failed both times and so had dropped out of school.  But coming into the group, the members encouraged her to try again - and she passed with distinction.   Others helped prevent a child-marriage from taking place.  Almost all were doing higher studies of some sort.

"Before we were afraid to move around the village" they told us eagerly.  "Our parents would not send us for further studies."  Now these young women  can see a bigger world and are in turn helping others.  We were introduced to two quiet girls, clearly the youngest m embers, who had just joined the group.

Shanti and Asha (Peace and Hope) were the MCH community engagements staff who had facilitated this and other adolescent groups in the villages.  We also met a young woman who now serves as a volunteer - and who got on her cycle and went back to her village after our discussion was over.

In a place where so many women have so little hope it is beautiful to see these young ones start to live out the God-given potential they have been blessed with.

Our next stop was a remarkable one.  We met a group of women farmers who work together and have been growing been growing vegetables for sale.  So far so good.  There will be x number of vegetable cooperatives across our dear land of Bharat.  But in how many do you have a woman from a  'Brahmin' community hold hands and hug a woman from a 'Maha-Dalit' community?  We saw it before our eyes.  The stuff of dreams.

The women shared how at the time of a big flood in 2008 they had lost much and were reduced to living in a makeshift camp set up and eating from a common relief kitchen.  The Madhepura Christian Hospital had taken the lead in helping them at that time - and their eyes were opened about the humanity of their neighbours.  In subsequent years, as the MCH team helped them, and worked together to grow vegetables and cash crops like sunflower.

Life is not perfect.  Sheba was taken into some of the houses and they were pretty miserable.  But some signs of change are present.  The woman who had identified herself as Brahmin and her husband told us that some of their own 'caste brothers' now did not associate with them these days. But this couple said they didn't care and that they were happy to be with their Maha-Dalit neighbours.

Our next stop was to meet a group of men who had formed a milk producers cooperative with the facilitation of the MCH community engagement team.  The secretary of the cooperative introduced us to a venerable grey-beard (literally - see photo below) who was among the first of the cow owners to bring his daily milk quota to them.  They now have over 100 milk producers giving them milk which they test and give monthly payments directly to their bank accounts.  The milk goes to a government dairy where it is processed and repackaged in plastic packets for retail distribution.  The main drivers of this group have now helped set up 4 other such cooperatives.  So much is possible.  We met in a humble shed, but were talking to nation-builders.  Men whose actions are shaping their families and those far away from them who are consuming the milk they produced.

But there was more.  

As we drove to our next meeting the dusk turned to night.  Johnson told us his story of grace of how he and his family had escaped the terror meted on them by their fellow villagers in the dark days of the Khandamal terrors.  And yet, instead of being bitter, we had this remarkable young man telling us how God helped him and the family through their sufferings.

Our next meeting was with an agricultural group.  They were patiently waiting for us in the night.  Our previous meetings clearly being longer than expected. But we were finally with them.  What an honour to be with these men.   They told us about how the MCH team had come in contact with them at the time of flood relief.  The break-through happened when the MCH community staff suggested that they plant their rice in a different way.

Using the SRI techniques (System of Rice Intensification) the farmers transplant their rice seedlings at what seem to be foolishly large intervals from each other.  The amount of rice sown seems ridiculously low as compared to what is done in standard rice planting.  At the beginning only a single farmer agreed to plant this way on his land.  The results were amazing.  More yield from less seed!  Each seedling leading to a cluster of many, many stems - and many, many grains of rice!  

Farmers were actually over-sowing using the common practice - and the high number of seeds were reducing yields rather than enhancing them.  Just sowing double the number of seeds does not mean you will get double the harvest.

This is text-book stuff when it comes to the diffusion of agricultural innovation.  The man who had started first in that village is the 'progressive farmer.'  Willing to take risks.  Interested trying new things.  A bit thick-skinned.  When his land yielded more than expected, a group of  4 other farmers tried it out in their fields.  Their results were superb.  More joined.  The group told us that now all the farmers in the village use SRI for their crops. What was considered crazy is now mainstream.

And that wasn't our last meeting of the night.  Another awaite us a few minutes away.  Under summer night sky we had a Santhali worship meeting.  The last thing expected was for me to be translated from Hindi into the tribal language of Santhali.  It seems that some generations ago a group of Santhals came from what was then South Bihar and settled in this area.  So there we were  worshipping together with the stars above us.

Wonders never cease.

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And then the wonderful families we were able to get to know a bit better.  The family of Dr. Arpit and Dr. Amy Mathew is a gem  Three lovely children in Ethan, Ezra and Esther.  And a dog - an amiable tan Labrador called Simba - and a trim vaguely Siamese-looking tom-cat named Billy (if my memory serves me right).  But what kids.  Ethan with his sharp, mischievous ways - perhaps a mini-me of Arpit?  Will have to ask Drs. MC and Anna on that.  Ezra with his dreamy smile.  Such a delight in that child.  How much love he receives too.  And then bubbly Esther (who reminded us of our own Asha many moons ago).  What a privilege to have the Mathews open their home to us.

How will our children make sense of what will come their way in the future?  Well, one way is by imbibing the lessons of faith that their parents taught them through word and deed.  What joy to be part of the family's devotions, and to see how Arpit and Amy serve many, many both when 'on duty' as well as when 'off' (which almost seems like an 'on').

What a legacy to give to your children: demonstrated commitment to the Lord and the on-going example of loving people along the way!

Another remarkable family are Drs. Timothy and Bina. Timothy is from Tamil Nadu and Bina is from Odisha.  They have poured themselves into the MCH family.  Sheba and I got to know Bina shortly fter we were married.  We were all serving at Nav Jivan Hospital in Jharkhand.  It is so good that the Lord gave us this opportunity to link up with these precious saints again.  Their love for Jesus and willingness to serve is so necessary for running a challenging hospital like MCH.

Timothy's father is with them at this time as his mother passed away last year.  A thorough Tamil gentleman, with restrained old-school dignity.  It was a privilege to have a meal with this precious family and get to know them a bit better.  Their older daugther is away at boarding school, but their younger daughter  Arlene is very much with them.  What a delightful little sprite, full of ideas and words. A great pleasure to converse with!


And there is so much more to the MCH family.  The amazing group of young doctors who are there to serve and study and grow.  The various families who live on the campus - we participated in a Bible study in the home of Shobha - a nurse who had been born in Lalitpur of all places!  The many nurses who are from all over.  A short visit is never enough to capture the whole essence of a place, but we came away so challenged and blessed.  God is at work and the evidences of this are seen at so many levels.  The challenges are also clear!

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And so for our journey to our next destination, one of our desires was to have less of a hair-raiser (or hair-loser).  We got back to Saharsa well in time.  We were told cheerily by a staff member that the  night train to Patna we were booked on was late often.  We wanted to be on-time as we had a flight to Kolkota and then on to Vishakapatnam to catch the next morning.

The train left Saharsa on time, and then stopped somewhere in the darkness for over an hour.  Not a good sign.  But we were too tired to stay up and worry.  We woke the next morning before our alarm went off.  Our train was in a station.  We had arrived at our destination station of Patliputra over an hour before time!  Does that happen in Bharat?  Wonders never cease.  How the train had made up for lost time and got us in so early was not something we questioned.  It was a happy two-some which was whisked through crack-of-dawn Patna to the JP Narayan international airport....

alls well that ends well.