The Winner

A man dying of AIDS. Or rising?

Three days ago one of our men died.

He lives only 10 min walk from my house. He lives 100 years away from my house. I never went to his room. Now he is 'no more'.

Eknath (a pseudonym) drowned in alcohol. His sister tried to pull him out. She attended a local church. Some times. Eknath's small son tried his part. Eknath's wife had left long ago - unable to handle the drunkeness and destruction any more. His father was disgusted with his son - but even in the last days - the family supplied the booze. It was easier dealing with Eknath that way.

Eknath came to our centre for admission last year. He was almost dead - we prayed and took the risk of admitting him. Amazingly he responded to TB treatment. He regained his health and weight. When Eknath came to visit a few weeks later we could barely recognise him as the same person who had been admitted in a semi-conscious state earlier.

Sadly the bottle did not respond to medications. Eknath worked for a company that set up decorations for weddings, parties, religious festivals, political meetings. Late nights, long hours, liquor. We saw less and less of him - and when the JSK men met him it was more often than not that Eknath was enebriated.

In the last weeks we made it a point to visit him frequently - with daily visits for palliative care in the last days. He hardly spoke, and alternated between deep anger and frustration - and a kind of helpless acceptance of his fate. The family refused to take him to any other hospital - they had come to their end. And Eknath came to his.

On one of the last visits, Rahul shared again about Jesus with Eknath. We had shared the love of God with Eknath before, but he had not been very interested. On this day Eknath could hardly move. His mouth was full of sores from his oral candidiasis. He had not been eating and so was emaciated. Rahul asked if he wanted to pray - and Eknath moved his head slightly and closed his eyes. He did not have the strength to speak. What went on in his mind only the Lord knows.

We have no easy answers to much of the brokeness around us. But we do know that a murderer looked across to another cross and asked the Lord of Glory - who was dying - naked and stripped of flesh - "Remember me, when you come into your Kingdom." Our Lord Jesus - in the agony of his own death - looked across to the dying bandit and with love told him "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise"

Farewell our dear Eknath.

Our prayer is that Jesus was able to say to you. "I love you and accept your repentence - join me in my joy!"

A man dying of AIDS. Or rising?

The Winner.

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The Winner is part of a tryptich painted by Stefan Eicher

- the artist can be reached at seicher@fhi.net

- other work by Stefan and artists who love Jesus can be seen at: http://www.limnersociety.com/

Guidance

How do we decide what to do?

At the beginning of each day we have a feast of hours, minutes and seconds ahead of us.

At the end of the day these seem to have all but evaporated.

Daniel is my hero in this matter.

An administrator (possbily a eunuch) who one of the three officials was placed incharge of 120 satraps (no light-weights themselves) Daniel is the "able administrator." The emporer planned to set him over the entire kingdom because he 'so distinguished himself... by his exceptional qualities."

And yet this is a man who prays three times a day.

A man whom the king later says: "has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?"

A person in whom his enemies were unable to find any charges against him beacuse he was neither corrupt nor negligent - and these were not school-yard bullies but very powerful and evil men.

The secret of Daniel's success? Integrity and placing God first. Always.

What a challenge for us.

We constantly need guidance - in things big and small.

Daniel shows the way.

• A man who scheduled the affairs of the empire around his personal prayer time (and the affairs did not suffer - but rather prospered!).


• A man who made consistent stands for what he believed in from the days of his training (sparking perhaps the first recorded dietary case-control study).


• A man who talked to God - and received answers - and acted on them.

Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to stand alone, Dare to have a purpose grand, Dare to make it known...

Birthdays

Mum and Dad Eicher showed their love to us in many ways.

One of them was the Eicher birthday party.


An afternoon (later evening) of games and food, with a specially shaped cake fashioned by Dad (now called Opa Eicher).

We are privileged to see some of this continue in our kids.

One addition that we have made is to choose a Bible verse for the birthday girl / boy and make a poster.


ASHA ESTHER ALICE EICHER (b. 16 Jan 2001)

Asha turned a ripe 6 earlier this year.

It seems hardly possible that the earth has circled the sun 6 times already since those dramatic days in Tumbagarah village in Jharkand state (where we were serving at the Nav Jivan Hospital).

Asha's due date was the end of January - and we felt it would be possible for him to go to Delhi to attend an EHA conference. He had hardly got there when an announcement was made - phone call for Andi. On the line was Dad Eicher - there was decreased foetal movement - they were going to go ahead with a caesarian section latest the next morning.

How to get back? The train to Delhi had been delayed for 11 hours because of fog. To get a flight? To reach? Prayers went up - and it was possible. That night a flight to Patna, Bihar. Being picked up after mid-night by faithful Elias Bara. Driving through the night through sleeping towns and along the darkened highway. Finally, coming to Nav Jivan at 7.30. Walking into the hospital room and giving the bouquet from the flight to the beaming (and very large) mother-to-be Sheba.

Six years since we heard Asha's first cry - another miracle as Asha had been a 'placenta previa' (the placenta covering the birth exit) and was born with the umbilical chord twisted around her.

And so we celebrate each year. This time with a heart-shaped cake and a small party where Asha's best friends Nikita and Jasper came to from Borivali. Joined by Urvashi and Hrishav from church, Guddu from school and Suhani and Suvarna from next door, a splendid time was had by all!


ENOCH ANAND GRACESON EICHER (b. 19 Feb 2003)
All our kids have mouthfulls of names, but we love them so much that we couldn't help but give them multiple names!

This year we were blessed to have both sets of grandparents with us for Enoch's birthday!

The original cake-meister himself, Opa, worked hard and we had another master-piece - the Doulos shaped cake!

Last May we were privileged to spend a night on board the OM ship Doulos when it was visiting Vishakapatnam. Sleeping in bunk beds and eating 'strange' food (read non-Hindusthani khana) was an unforgettable experience for us all.
We were blessed to be share about the HIV work with the staff in a night of prayer as well and were so encouraged to see how much OM is working to equip the church to reach out to people with HIV.

This Amma and Appa were also with us. Enoch was blessed with an absolute cracker of an outfit (see pic) which he has worn to great effect since!

More than gifts, what our parents bring is their love and prayers. We realise as we work through the challenges of parenting how much they have loved us (and how little we have been able to express our appreciation).

Our children (and us) receive a daily gift of prayer from both Mum and Dad and Amma and Appa - numerous times!
Its something money cannot buy.

Oh, that we would keep this living 'tradition' alive with our children too.

The evenings festivities for Enoch were enlivened by a small by sprightly group of friends. Alistair and Freya Black were present and added their own charms to a room that was already bursting with beauty.

Its amazing to realise that we have now been in Thane for well over 4 years!

When we arrived, Enoch was very much present, but very much inside Sheba. Even today people are still telling Sheba that she has 'lost weight' since the only Sheba most know are immediately pre- and post-Enoch!

Enoch was a second C-section. He decided that he would put himself feet first just before his due date and so Dr. Ashalatha decided to use the scalpel.

Andi was one of the few fathers who has been able to be present at a birth at Lok Hospital, where Enoch was born. That makes it 2 out of 2 births for Andi!

Our hearts are really filled with gratitude at the many, many different ways that God has heard prayers and answered them.

Birthdays are great ways to remember this.

We are so grateful to our families for all that they have done for us - and for our parents for being with us during this special day!


ASHISH CHRISTOPHER ION EICHER (b. 25 June 2006)

Giving plenty of names is not just a Thane Eicher phenomenon!

Our wonderful Stefan and Neeru were in Mumbai for 2 months, and we had the joy of celebrating Ashish's first birthday together!

We so appreciate Stefan and Neeru for making the choice to let Neeru train lawyers from the International Justice Mission in Mumbai - because it allowed us to meet a number of memorable times together.

One of the hardest part of our lives is being so far away from people with love.

Their decision to come here and spend these days was such a gift to us - and has left us with a wealth of happy memories.

Ashish is an absolute charmer. He loves doing things - an active crawler and expert thrower (future cricketer?) the lad cannot sit still.

Following his multi-talented father's footsteps, Ashish gets tremendously excited whenever he sees a guitar!

There was no question about what shape the cake was going to be!

"We're glad God made you, we're glad God made you, we're sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo glad God made you, Happy Birthday to you!"

A year has gone by since the Lord brought Asha and Enoch's wonderful cousin into this world.

We look back and thank God for helping out in multiple ways. He is doing a great work in and through Stefan and Neeru, and to see the little one was such a blessing to us.

Asha and Enoch just could not get enough of Ashish - and are already hoping and praying for their next visit with him.

As parents we are grateful to see such life and joy. In the middle of so much suffering and cruelty, our kids do give us hope. They remind us that God has a better tomorrow - and a great today!

Thanks for coming along with us on this journey!

His renown

How do we remain focussed on God in a world that sweeps us into the sheer flux of see-hear-feel reality?

As I write the rain is pouring, just pouring, outside. I have receieved an SMS that father of a dear friend of ours has been put on a ventilator at Lok Hospital. Asha and Enoch are sleeping (I hope). The flat is silent but for the sound of the fridge and the rain outside. Sheba has crashed. My left upper arm has been paining due to a mild case of spondilitis (nerves being pressed on my part of my neck vertebrae). Its night and the day is soon around the corner.

A challenging thought is to consider "God's renown" in the middle of the blender of life that we find ourselves in.

Isaiah 26:8 Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.

May my whole self hold true to what Isaiah says. Would that every fibre of me would seek to honour God and see that His glory is understood. Not in some pie-in-the-sky abstract sense - but in the real life business of seeing God in what He does. In living life according to a deeper truth than what is on the surface (even when it seems foolish to do so). In 'cherishing each God-given day'. In 'knowing God and making Him known.' In living out a covenant life in the community of other sinners like us who are being changed into being like God.

Amazing stuff.

p.s. I was put on the Isaiah passage by the group that runs the Passion conferences: http://www.268generation.com

A Century of Planting?

In early March we met up with Mum and Dad at the Maharashtra Bible College - in Bodwad village - about an hour from Bhusaval, in our great state of Maharashtra.

This is where our great-grandfather Christian Eicher (appropriate name) helped start a training institute for village evangelists in 1907.

A 100 years later this training centre is now the Maharasthra Bible College - a co-ed Marathi medium college that prepares men and women for ministry - and has traditionally taken students from village back-grounds who would otherwise not be able to get Bible training.

Being the centenary year we were invited to be part of the graduation for the Bible students - it was humbling to see the eager students get their degrees. One of them was a member of a tribal community - and his the lady members of his family came dressed in striking bright clothes - with mirrors sewn in liberally. It was a real affirmation of what God can - and will do.

On the evening before the graduation ceremony Dad gave a chapel message - Andi got to share about God's heart for people with HIV - and Asha and Enoch sang a song. Generations 3, 4 and 5 were able to share God's love - in the very church where Mum and Dad got married 40 years ago this year!

What will our descendants be like 100 years in the future? What legacy are you and I creating for ourselves?

Looking at the small campus - with its one old style mission bungalow (behind us in the pic above) - and its small class room building (no chairs seemed to be in them), little library and the chapel - and the humble row of barracks where the students lived... I could not help but wonder.

The college has had its hard knocks for sure - there were leaders who up-and-left in the middle of the night. It is easy to see the failures - and make a quick judgment - but God has also allowed this place to survive - and to keep being a service to the Church.

Eternity will tell.

Mumbai Darshan with the Delhi Eichers

Family history anyone?

Here we are. A ripe 2 decades after we left our home at Nana Chowk, standing in front of it. For some reason "Elim" seems to have shrunk from the huge size it was when I was a lad. Maybe the 20 successive monsoons had something to do with it...

Maybe it had to do with the 45 story appartment building that was built on the other side of the road. What will happen when the under construction 65 story building (so we are told) comes us we don't know. The little fire station next to it still has its training tower and single fire truck though.

Stefan, Neeru and the delightful little Ashish gave us so much joy over the 2 months they were in Mumbai from late May to mid July!

On the last weekend our 'Delhi Eichers' were with us we borrowed a car from bro Jolly - our house church elder - and headed into town. Up and down and all around!

After seeing the 'Ancestral Home' at Nana Chowk, we walked over the Mani Bhavan, the house where Mahatma Gandhi lived in when he was in Bombay. It still has the recreation of his room and the room full of doll-sized dioramas picturing his life - the same as we saw when we used to trot over as boys in our short-pants.

Then on to the top of Malabar hill. We parked the car next to our first school and the charming little CNI church - and had to include a visit to the 'boot house' at Kamala Nehru park (Asha and Kim - the lady helping Stefan and Neeru - are on the balcony while Enoch mans the ground floor) - before downing a picnic lunch at the 'Hanging Gardens' (a large municipal park built on a water tank that supplies much of down-town Mumbai.

Next stop for us 'out-of-towners' was Marine Drive and a quick peek at the Taroparvala Aquarium. As we were piling back into the car we saw some foreigners coming towards us. Among the 16 million people plus in Mumbai - we run into Neeru's colleagues from the International Justice Mission who were in town for a conference Neeru and Stefan had just participated in.

Final stop was the Gateway of India. Couldn't help but get in the motor launches for a 30 min harbour cruise. Except this time we were doing it in the monsoon. No rain, no white-caps, but the sea was just the tiniest bit choppy. As a result, our huge boat went up and down like a cork. Good way to image what it must have been like for the hardened fishermen to wake up the sleeping Jesus and plead with him to save them.

A sampling of Mumbai evening traffic and a short stop at the famous Samosa wallah in Sion and we were back at Stefan and Neeru's appartment by 8 PM.

An Eicher day

So how does the Eicher day go by?

Pretty quickly it seems.

The elder Eichers get up fairly early (not saying when because it doesn't happen each day).

But after a cup of tea and time with God with His word and prayer... its time to get Enoch ready! From 6.50 to 7.30 is a rapid-fire set of activities - toilet, brushing teeth (sometimes a quick bath too).

Then on to the multi-tasking bit: breakfast, dressing up, shining shoes, not forgetting the ID card, reading a bible story - all more or less at the same time. The result - a spick and span lad who Daddy takes down to meet his bus at about 7.30 AM.

Junior KG for Enoch. His class is called 'Hummingbird' and he lives up to the name. By local standards, Enoch's pre-school is pretty laid-back and progressive. No tests. No school bag. A play area in the school hall. School from 8 - 11 AM. An instruction "do not send your child for coaching classes" (ignored by many parents).

With Enoch on the bus - Andi heads over to the JSK centre while Sheba wakes up Asha and feeds her and then supervises her homework.

In the meantime - Mary - the elderly lady who has started helping us in the home arrives. A meal is cooked and the house is cleaned up.

Andi puts in an hour or so of office work and then starts off the official JSK day at 9 AM with a time of devotions. After a few songs, we all take turns to prepare a short meditation on scripture. A prayer later and the JSK field visiting staff are out meeting people with HIV in their homes.

Sheba joins work at 11 AM and generally sees patients at the centre. Each person who comes has so many different needs:

- A young man who has just found out that he is HIV positive - when his expecting wife had her routine HIV test as part of her ante-natal care

- A middle-aged widow who has come for advice on how to deal with her rebellious adolescent son. Her major concern not so much her own HIV, but what is happening to her boy.

- A young widow who has come to have her young son checked up as he has been falling sick regularly.

Each person someone who Jesus loves very much. Someone whom Jesus has asked us as His followers to touch and love in His name.

In the mean time Andi has headed over to supervise Mary. She has gone down to pick up Enoch from the school bus and now Asha is eating an early lunch. At 12.30 Asha is down at the school bus wearing her white and blue uniform and carrying an very heavy school bag.

Asha just loves school.

Everything about it. The reading and writing. The songs and poems. The physical excercises and the occasional special event.

A proud student of standard 1, Asha is in her element.

Her teacher feels the same and seems to have asked her to become a 'monitor' for the class.

Her classes are from 1 PM to 6 PM, getting her back as a tired by happy girl just before 6.30.

Each evening we are regaled with a steady chatter of stories of what went on 'at school.' What the teacher asked her to do. Who said what. How this boy needed to be helped. We have no lack of entertainment or information - our lack of a TV is more than compensated for by Asha Channel and Enoch Channel.

Before Asha left, Andi had a quick lunch and then put Enoch to bed for his afternoon nap. Armed with Sheba's lunch in a tiffin it is off back to JSK.

1-2 PM is more office work (the computer seems to be Andi's best friend at the moment). Then from 2-3 we meet with the JSK team to discuss the previous day's home-visits.

The accounts are often depressing. We are dealing with over 150 contacts in Thane who are sick with HIV - and most of the time our staff concentrate on those who are most sick and have the most messed-up lives. It is hard not to feel at times that we are swimming helplessly against an overwhelming incoming tide.

But then there are stories like Mr. Babulnath. A man who has been very depressed and sad, Mr. B was visited recently by 2 of our male staff. As they went to his house they passed a man selling roses. Remembering what our brother Stefan had said during a recent workshop with staff on seeing beauty in their work (see pic below) the staff decided to buy Mr. Babulnath a rose.

But not just a cut rose. An actual small flowering rose plant. Rs. 15 instead of Rs. 5. The effect was amazing. When they went into the house it was dark with depression. As they gave the rose plant to Mr. Babulnath, it was as if a light had been turned on. There was such a beautiful sense of hope that came into that small room.

There is hope - despite the often seemingly all-pervading gloom.

After a prayer, our team leaves for the afternoon home-visits to people with HIV. Sheba then heads back home (our 2 min walk between the flat and the centre is such a God-send). Andi continues to do odds and ends till 6 before calling it a day. One of the current tasks Andi does at JSK is helping support the YAA clubs (adolescent groups run by churches to help young people make wise choices in their lives) and prepare for the YAA Festival on the 1st of Dec.

The day doesn't end there though for the Eichers. Enoch gets up around 5 PM and has 'special time with Mummy' - sometimes with a small walk in the park of the housing complex ("Happy Valley" is the name!). Asha gets off the school bus at 6.30, met by Sheba and Enoch and then we decide what we will do for the evening.

Our house church has started meeting in 3 different homes on Sundays - but we still meet up fairly often during the week. Wed nights are a time for some of the men to pray together (9.30-10.30 PM!). Friday nights are reserved for an on-going Bible study which rotates between different homes (8.30-10.30 PM) and we host the youth group from all the three fellowships on Saturday evenings at our home.

If we decide not to go out and meet someone, but to 'stay at home', then it is usually Lego time for Andi and Enoch, which Asha tells all that went on.

Supper is flexible - anytime from 7 to 10 PM. Then getting kids ready for bed. A short family devotion and prayer and Asha and Enoch are in bed. Their tired parents are usually in bed too.

Till the early the next morning that is...

Sweet dreams