Purpose

(c) Eric Gran 2005 - www.granphoto.com

We cannot do everything. And there is a sense of liberation in realising that this enables us to do something and to do it very well. It may be incomplete but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are the workers not the master builders, we are the ministers not messiahs, we are the prophets of a future not our own.

- Bishop Oscar Romero quoted by Philip Clarke in "A Heart of Compassion"

Church Training: Loving your Neighbour... with AIDS

We start another set of training in HIV care for church partners tomorrow.

Since Jeevan Sahara Kendra was started half a decade ago - we have always been convinced that the local church offers perhaps the most potent chance to change people affected by HIV.

Consider.

HIV affects the whole person. Body, soul, mind, spirit.

HIV affects the whole family. Relationships, money, trust, hope, dreams.

HIV affects our whole society. Kids without education. Parents not at work. The hidden costs continue to mount as the silent epidemic digs deep.

The trauma of HIV demands a response that is bigger than it

Strangely enough - the answer may be as small as a mustard-seed.

One way of looking at the local church is to see a group of sinful people, each broken in their own way, but in the process of healing and renewal - who are joined together in a common fellowship in worshipping Jesus and living out His life in theirs.

The beauty of the church is that it does not have all the answers.

How can it?

Each person in the church has so many limitations. But we are joined together to be something bigger than what we are alone. God wants to use the church to show the world the fullness of His wisdom (Eph. 3.10) - and He delights to see us stretch to meet the challenge - and enables us to do it.

Which is why we conduct the Church Partner Trainings.

To equip small groups of ordinary people to love their neighbours - in word, prayer and deed.

Our course is simple - but we try to put into it what we learned over these 5 years.

Over the 4 sessions (held on alternate Saturdays) we will explore the basics of HIV, TB detection and treatment, counselling, staying healthy, treating opportunistic infections, behaviour change, care for children with HIV, HIV in pregnancy, Anti Retroviral Therapy, preparing for dying, and planning church-based responses.


Nothing magical. Just sharing simple lessons learned. Along with testimonies by people with HIV. And discussion. And prayer. Sort of what church is supposed to be in the first place.

We need to be viral in order to defeat the virus. Simple thoughts and actions - replicated across a large expanse - making impacts in individuals and their families - triggering off further blessings.

The good news is that God has always favoured the weak. His huge plans are put into action by some of the most flawed folks. Its our turn now.

Dad

Dad turns 66 today.

66 years after he was born at Wanless Hospital in Miraj, southern Maharasthra.

.

From a fatherless child to the father of many.
.

What a journey it has been.

.

That September his mother gave him up for adoption - and Alice Eicher took him from Miraj to the Bible College at Bodwad where her husband Elmore Eicher and she were serving.

.

They slept through the short early-morning stop at Nargaon leaving a puzzled Elmore waiting at the platform for his wife and new child.

.

A few hours later - and short trip back on the next train - Dad was home. He was given the name Raymond Elmore Eicher - shortened to Raymee Baba on the compound - and Ray Eicher later in life.

.

It is my privilege to write a few words about Dad.

.

I talked with the JSK team this morning about Eph. 5.1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children. The person who kept coming to my mind was my own father.

I have experienced what it is like to be a dearly loved child because of the unconditional father-love I received from Dad.

.

How do I count the ways he loved us? Here are a few (I have used the past tense - he continues to do these things even today of course):

.

1. Dad was very affectionate. He spoke out his love to us - and hugged and kissed us tons. Dad's arms were often around me. We wrestled (at least till I beat him!) and I continue to cherish his warm embrace.

.

2. Dad respected us. I remember the joy of being taken along on trips with him as a boy - including a memorable one to Sweden. He included me in his work, explaining things to me and taking me into confidence at an appropriate level. Dad was open about his thoughts - both as to family and work and faith.

.

3. Dad took time out for us. Though we always had guests at our table, we knew that we were special. Every evening we had a special time of reading from different storybooks and from the Bible. Every Sunday afternoon there were games. Every year at least one holiday together as a family. It is only now that I realise how difficult this was for Mum and Dad. And then the adventures - by bicycle to Alibaug, hiking up to Khandala in Summer - the forts of Shivaji...

.

4. Dad modeled kindness. To every person he met - Dad would show some kindness - a cheerful word, a loving touch, a tract in their language telling them about Jesus - and this was to strangers. We saw close up what a compassionate heart looks like - on the outside - Dad's deeds were an outworking of a heart moved with compassion. Dad was willing to be taken for a ride at times - rather than miss out on an opportunity to be generous.

.

5. Dad opened up his heart to us. He explained things. He took time to discipline us - but always with an explanation. I usually felt the talk was more painful than the spank. On one memorable occasion - when I was about 5 years old - he disciplined me in anger - and I still remember him asking me forgiveness.

.

6. Dad encouraged us. Optimistic to a fault - Dad's hope was always grounded in his faith in God. There never was heard, a discouraging word like the old cowboy song says - Dad lived it out in our lives. Dad's enthusiasm borders at times on a caricature. But looking back over the years I can say it is the genuine article. In a world of the luke-warm and mundane, Dad's optimism shines.

.

7. Dad lived out a love for Jesus. Jesus was number one for Dad. Out of his love for Jesus streamed his love for Mum and for us. We had the security of knowing that Dad was totally sold out to his Lord. He has not stopped growing - even if it means humbling himself time and time again as a learner and a seeker. His latest twist in this relationship is tied into healing and deliverance - his enthusiasm and joy at discovering a fresh side of Jesus knows no bounds.

.

I could go on - and hope that our lives will be the testimony to the father-love we received from Dad. Dad was not perfect - and still is not - but he shows the way.

.

Thanks Dad, I want to be more like you - and your Lord.

Mob violence

We seem as a country - as a culture - to be increasingly veering towards overt violence to settle issues.

With the legal system placing the burden of evidence on the accuser (helpful in eras where the police round up people on their whims) there is a low prosecution rate. Instead 'justice' is meted out through beatings. Today's paper had a story about a mob that lynched a man suspected with murdering a girl in his neighbourhood. It seems he had served time in jail on child abuse charges already. By the time he was taken to the police station he had been so badly beaten that he died.

.

I don't want to be grim, but there are clear patterns emerging beneath the gloss of 'India Shining'. Even as our comerades get into air-conditioned Volvo busses to gather in Vizag to protest against the US navy participating in a 5 nation naval exercise - we see that for many, many local communities violence is the only way to be heard.

.

A person is run over? Burn tires, block the road, set a police van on fire. Someone elopes with a person from a different community/jati/religion (choose your favorite here)? Blacken their face, parade them naked, while your at it, give them a few juicy hits. Someone has done something wrong - and is in a position of authority? Get together a group, call the local journalists, go into their office and ransack it - and give a good thrashing to the chap in question while you are at it.

.

While parts of India are shopping in air-conditioned comfort - helped by smiling - odour-free shop assistants - the vast not-so-invisible majority is itching for a fight. The trigger can be something small or big.

.

Its a miracle - an absolute miracle - that we are still able to conduct our lives with a modicum of normality.

... but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. Deut 5.10

In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.

- Last stanza of In Memory of WB Yeats by WH Auden

Silent hunger

We met her for the first time yesterday. We have met her so many times before - and though she had different names the story was the same.

Her husband is poisoning himself to death. The slow and heady poison purchased at the local liquor shop.

He beats her. When drunk and when not drunk.

Work? A memory.

He has told her that if there is any night without food she will pay for it.

And so there are nights when the kids look at their mother. No words are exchanged - just a look.

She has no words to answer and they understand. They pull the covers over their heads and try to sleep.

- o - o - o - o - o - o - o -

.

She has come because he is sick. Sick for months now. Can we help. Maybe if he gets better things will get better.

.

Some have said - it would be better for her that he not get better.

.

Sheba talks with her about repenting and forgiveness. The ladies eyes latch on. A small light has opened. Maybe he will get a bit better - to understand his real situation. To repent and set things right.

- o - o - o - o - o - o - o -

Meanwhile the air is full of the dull bass thumping of massive loudspeakers. The current festival is underway. Huge hoardings of the local political party dot every intersection. Massive sheds have been constructed to house the local worthies as liquor fuels the groups of revellers - teams of enthusiasts who make human pyramids recreating a mythic deed - and get the ever bloating sums of money given as prizes.

.

Where does that money come from? Not from the heavens. From the pockets of local people who are forced to fork up or else.

.

The children under the blankets at night are no where in sight.

Rest

Where is your haven? Where is your hide-away?

Three years ago we found one.

A lovely prayer and retreat centre run by the Sisters at Prayer House in Khandala. We have had two memorable weekends there.

The challenge is to actually make the trip up there - how to remain faithful to the different responsibilities and at the same time to 'take time to be away'?

And what about our colleagues who are not able to 'retreat'?

May we learn to rest in the day to day - as well as to plan out times when we as a family are able to immerse in God's goodness. And may you find this balance too!

Confessions of a puzzle addict

I have to be honest. I have a secret vice. Something that draws me like a magnet. Something that I find it hard to do without.

Its that maddening and exhilarating puzzle - sudoku - 9 boxes of 9 squares - the numbers 1 to 9 found in each box and in each row - only one solution to the whole puzzle.

I have spent hours, literally hours, on getting the little boxes filled.

A true addict - I don't get my fix at 'low' levels - the dose has to keep getting higher - currently nothing less than medium will be touched by yours truly.

Before you start praying for deliverance let me state that I have more or less curbed most of my time-wasting on this particular vice.

But, here is what drives me and gives me pleasure in solving it.

You start knowing so little - but then you find a number that 'has to be there' - a small but absolute truth.

Then you use that truth to find out the next one.

It gets better.

Sometimes you know may not know that a number is in only one box - but that it is in a particular area of the puzzle - and you can use that knowledge to solve a different part of the puzzle - which may in turn lead you to solve the exact location of the first number.

Kind of like life in general.

How do we make sense of the many, many things that come our way?

So often it seems just a blank blur. But here and there we know, we know, that something has to be, totally and absolutely.

Treasure those truths - they are your anchors to move forward.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sudoku is infectious in the Eicher household. As I write this, Asha is working on a 'very easy' puzzle from the Indian Express. She has only 12 squares left to fill. There would be no way that I could do that when I was 6 years old...