A new life together

Five years ago a young boy lived on the platform of a railway station.

As we write this on Saturday the 6th of October this boy is being married to a young lady from his church.

The story of the change is an amazing one - and tells how God uses people today to invest in others.

While living on the platform, Chandu was befriended by people from OASIS India Trust and Gateway Ministries - and now works with OASIS and is a vital member of his local GMI church.

We salute this new couple and pray that they in turn will bring about tremendous changes in others!

God sets the lonely in families - Psalm 68.6a

59 days to go!

The count-down has started!

59 short 24-hour periods, 59 sun-ups and sun-downs, 59 spins of the planetary ball ... and we have showtime!

Astravidh sing about women trapped in prostitution at the inaugural YAA Festival 06

Youth Against AIDS Fest 2007 - Lead the Change takes off on World AIDS Day - Dec. 1st.

This year's World AIDS Campaign continues the basic slogan of Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise with a theme of Leadership. As people who are committed to seeing change happen - and that too the long-term fruit-that-lasts kind of change - we want to see young people at the forefront - hence Lead the Change - go against the flow - make a difference, for real!

We are planning what we hope to be a really stand-out time for young people to take the lead and make a difference - to get the word out that it pays to live life like God wants us to.

The YAA Fest 07 is planned as a 1/2 day event where young people will show their talents and learn - be challenged - and model the kind of Christian counter-culture that our Lord demands from his radical followers.

We have a huge amount of work to be done till then - and need all the inputs we can get. Please get the word out. The website will be refreshed soon - http://www.youthagainstaids.com/ and the publicity stuff is just around the corner.

We have zeroed in on St. John's school, Thane as the venue - and need a real prayer-breakthough to see this materialise.

There are tons of details - the seminars - the booths - the mini-AIDS-film-fest - the open stage - the T-shirts.... any volunteers are deeply and totally requested to come in the flesh to the JSK centre on Wed. Oct 24th from 6-9 PM for our first major volunteer meeting. Commonunion - a feature band this year - is scheduled to play a short set that evening - and we will be laying out the details for volunteers.

Those unable to come - please pray - and suggest - and communicate. There are a lot of things that we need to hammer out - and the more inputs we get the better!

Living Positively

Christopher Yuan

Chinese American

Male

Ex-homosexual

HIV Positive

Delighted in God.

Read his story - which is the story of so many and can be the story of so many more - by clicking: here

Oh, that more and more people who have HIV will be liberated to bless the larger body through their stories, through their experiences.

You can down-load a powerful 1/2 hour film where Christopher and 3 other HIV positive believers tell their stories by clicking: here

Excellence vs. Obedience

Book Excerpt Time!

An excellent meditation on sexual purity is found in Every Man's Battle by Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoeker.

Here is a bit that relates not only to keeping our inner man pure sexually, but really to all areas of our lives.

Join me please, Gentle Reader:

Why do we find it so easy to mix our standards of sexual sin and so difficult to firmly commit to true purity?

Because we are used to it. We easily tolerate mixed standards of sexual purity because we tolerate mixed standards in most other areas of life.

EXCELLENCE or OBEDIENCE?

Question: What's your aim in life - excellence or obedience?

What's the difference?

To aim for obedience is to aim for perfection, not for 'excellence,' which is actually something less.

"Wait a minute!" you reply. "I thought excellence and perfection were the same thing."

Sometimes they appear to be. But mere excellence allows room for a mixture. In most arenas, excellence is not a fixed standard at all. It's a mixed standard.

Let us show you what we mean. American businesses are in search of excellence. They could be in search of perfection, of course - perfect products, perfect service - but perfection is too costly and eats into profits. Rather than be perfect, businesses know it's enough to seem perfect to their customers. By stopping short of perfection, they find a profitable balance between quality and costs.

To find this balance, they often look to their peers to discover the 'best practices' of their industry: How far can we go and still seem perfect? By how far can we stop short? Businesses find it profitable to stop short at the middle ground of excellence because perfection costs too much.

But is it profitable for Christians to stop short at the middle ground of excellence where costs are low, balanced somewhere between paganism and obedience? Not at all! While in business it's profitable to seem perfect, in the spiritual realm it's merely comfortable to seem perfect. It is never profitable.

Clearly, excellence isn't the same as obedience or perfection. The search for excellence leaves us overwhelmingly vulnerable to snare after snare since it allows room for mixture. The search for obedience or perfection does not.

Excellence is a mixed standard, while obedience is a fixed standard. We want to shoot for the fixed standard.

- Every Man's Battle p. 49-50

The same sad story?

He came in the door yesterday morning.

"I was sent to you by the pastor."

A small plastic bag held some medical papers, an x-ray and a small slip of paper - his HIV report.

'Reactive' for HIV-1.

Diarrheoa on and off for the past few months. Cough and fever. Loss of weight. 30 kgs now (though he is a small man).

His name - a common one - an allusion to the gods.

His face - one of many. The current face of AIDS.

His family. A young wife and 3 children. The youngest just 3 months old.

We have made contact. Now comes the hard part.

Talking through what the disease means. Working to see if his wife has HIV as well. If so, testing the children as well.

Looking at the progression in this dear man's body. Talking hope in the midst of decay. Looking for steps that can me taken forward.

Each life is so precious.

We have just gotten to know this man. We are about to get to know his family. How long will our relationship last? Will we be able to stabilise him? Will he suddenly move away - shift back to his village in distant UP? Will he plunge into alcohol?

Or will he make steps that last for eternity?

His life may not be much longer - a few months perhaps - or it may stretch into years...

We are humbled to be part of this dear man's story.

Forever.

Gandhi Jayanti

In the midst of a season of festivals - today the nation remembers Mahatma Gandhi.

Perhaps the term remember is a bit strong. Other than a few advertisements from government departments in the newspaper claiming to be following 'Gandhian' principles - and a few desultory activities here and there there is not much to show.

I did pass a small group of well-fed people wearing white base-ball caps were weilding the odd broom - a 'clean-up' campaign which seemed to be cosmetic at best - esp. since I had seen the paid sweeper cleaning the same area earlier in the morning.

The closest most people come to Gandhi today is touching his iconographic image which has been placed on all our currency notes.

Gandhi is basically a non-entity today - other than for a few wizened souls. He remains a distant saint-figure - like Mother Theresa has been turned into - rather than the lively, intelligent (cunning?) leader he was.

Love him or loathe him - the man stood for a complex and vibrant set of ideas. Today the toadies we see strutting around have long since left any shred of igeniuty - and integrity - behind. Heaven help our dear country.

Half Century + Trees!

Gentle Readers!

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Just a small note that we are 50 postings old. Thanks be being along with us on our journey.

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Its been a joy to share some of our life with you. We trust that you are blessed by taking a peek into the happenings - small and big - in the lives of the Eichers.

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We sometimes feel like the monkeys in the trees of the photo above (taken outside Shanti Kunj - Mum and Dad's place in Mussoorie). Where will we swing next? Which way does the forest stretch? What do we do about those strange creatures who live in boxes? The worlds we inhabit are at times strange - but we know where our future is taking us. The good news about eternity trumps all the sadness and strangeness around!

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Speaking of forests - here is Asha's speech for her elocution contest (to take place on Wed.). The topic was given to us parents - who have been transformed into resident speech writers.

Trees are our Best Friends.

Trees are our best friends! Why do I say this? Let me tell you the reasons!

A good friend shares everything she has.

Trees share with us.

They share their wood so that we can make buildings and beds and chairs and sheds!

They share their twigs for birds to make nests and their branches for hockey sticks and cricket bats.

They share themselves even through the odd pieces of their bodies - these are ground up into paper pulp - which we use to make books and newspapers!

A good friend looks after others.

Trees look after us. They stand tall and strong - their roots keeping the soil from washing away. Their leaves falling down and making the soil fertile. The forests working like sponges to keep the water from flowing too quickly to the sea.

Did you know that trees help us breathe? Their leaves breath in carbon dioxide - a poison for us - and then breathe out oxygen - which we need to live!

How well our friends the trees look after us!

A good friend gives joy to her friends.

Trees give us much joy!

Their cool shady branches help us live through our hot summers.

Their tasty fruits make many small children smile. Even poor children in the villages can climb up and pluck small sweet mangoes from the wild mango trees in the jungle!

The beautiful green of their leaves helps soothe our eyes.

Their branches and stems and roots are home for many animals - small and big.

But most of all - trees are beautiful - when we look at one of them - or a hundred thousand in great forests of the Deccan plain- we see that God loves the world - because he gave us such beautiful friends. When we look at them - we remember the beauty of the one who made them!

Trees are our best friends!

I wish we had more of them here...