In Patient

It has been a long time since we have had an in-patient admission at the Jeevan Sahara Kendra.

That changed today.

Mr. Babulnath has been admitted. He has been suffering from fevers and loss of appetite for a number of months. He is on ART, but does not have the strength to work. His wife has come from the village to look after him. She is negative and has been working hard to look after him and their younger son who is with them.

Last year Mr. Babulnath had started on TB medications - but was depressed and kept vomitting and so stopped taking them and went back to his village. He took the TB meds irregularly there and then came back after some months feeling somewhat better.

His aging father has just come back from the village to help out in looking after Babulnath. The day after arriving from the village the old man already went to find work. He will be working as a night watchman.

So we have Mr. Babulnath back at the centre. Our hope is that he will start TB medications and will be able to tolerate them. We will also have to change his ART medication to one that does not interfere with the TB meds. Its one of the few things that we think we can do medically for Mr. Babulnath now.

This disease is a horrible disease. It just eats people away. What this family have already gone through - and what steps will they take from here on?

The kind, sad and tired face of Mrs. Babulnath this evening when we had ward prayers. The sweet song that our staff shared with Mr. Babulnath. The simple words of encouragement and prayer. How will it end up for Mr. Babulnath?

Your prayers are vital. For Mr. Babulnath - and also for our future in-patient work as we are severely short on space - especially as we want to start voluntary counselling and testing too at Jeeevan Sahara Kendra. Pray for wisdom and guidance as we seek out local alternatives - and that they will materialise soon!

Testing Times

Asha had her first 'exam' today.

It was entirely as we had hoped. She was well prepared and low stressed. Before she went to school she played and we read a story during lunch.

When she came back she was bouncing up and down. "It was easy."

Its a long way for a little girl. As she comes to the end of her first semester in 'big school' we are so pleased at the desire she has to read and to learn. She loves to study and her handwriting is something to be seen (your humble blogger was given an unheard of 'E' grade for his handwriting in standard 5 by a generous teacher).

Our prayer is that as Asha grows more and experiences more of the educational system, that she will continue to develop in body, mind and in her relationship with God and others.

The Heart of God and HIV

Our dear friend, Dr. Santhosh Matthew has been asked to speak at a conference in the US on "The Heart of God and HIV".

What a challenging subject! He has sent us a draft of his thoughts which delve deeply into the years of service he and Dr. Saira and others in the Emmanuel Hospital Association have given to the Lord through their love for people affected by HIV. We will not comment more on what the good Doctor is preparing - and hope he will post his thoughts for public consumption soon.

But think about the topic - the heart of God - the things that stir the very core of the Almighty, the All-loving, the Great I AM! What an amazing thing to even consider. And then to use that set of thoughts to consider the situations that people with HIV face.

One of the clearest expressions of the heart of God is the person of Jesus Christ. Christ is God made visible. God enfleshed. God in a way that we humans can relate to - if we choose to. When we see Father Heart expressed in Jesus we must join the crowds described by the gospel writer Mark who were 'exeedingly amazed'.

Did you see the opening photo to this piece? Its a shot of the ceiling of the Jeevan Sahara Kendra. Shiny metallic foil stars with names written on them. The names of our friends with HIV who we have gotten to know in the last 5 years here - and who have died. One star for each known death among our positive friends.

How many of them are in the Heart of God at this point? How many could have extended the lives a bit longer, if only...

Each person's life is a unique pilgrimmage. One thing we know. These lives have run their course. They have been lived out with various levels of awareness of the Heart of God. For many - the JSK team and local church members have made this heart visible. Some have responded. Others we do not know. All, however, have now stepped into eternity.

We know that one of the greatest lies that our world tells us is that we will live forever. Though it sounds to stupid to say so - that is actually what most of us believe - and spend most of our lives living as such. HIV forces us to put that in check. Our mortality - and the mortality of each person - with or without HIV - becomes so very clear as we work among the dying.

The Heart of God is seen in His dying Son Jesus. Who tasted the bitterness of death so that death could be no more. Who bore our shame so that we would not need to be ashamed. Who took our punishment so that we could walk free - into the Heart of God.

Some questions

Sheba visited a family yesterday - if you can call it a family.

It was 12 PM. Hot as we get in mid October. The woman of the house - we will call her Vanita - was sitting, trying to coax some fire out a small handful of wood.

The house - a small shed of rusting corrougated iron sheeting. A tiny shack that they have to pay a monthly 'rent' of Rs. 600 for!

Vanita looks like a skeleton. Her 6 children are partly in the village - and the youngest 4 are here. She has HIV as does her husband. Last week we found out the youngest 2 girls have HIV as well.

Vanita is on TB medication - but has not been gaining weight. She sat trying to make the morning meal - at 12 PM. Sheba tried to sit down beside her - but jumped up because of the many black lizards. Vanita laughed: "you should see the rats we have here"

Their shack is at the edge of a 'new' slum. It is only a stone's throw away from our house. Two stones throws from the JSK centre. It is near some scrub brush. Somewhat pleasing to the eyes since there is a bit of green - but not to the nose: the entire area serves as the toilet for the slum. There is a constant stench of decaying faeces.

Our nurses have been visiting this broken home every other day to give Vanita her TB meds. Her husband Harish is sodden with alcohol. He is angry at Vanita and the world. The children...

What are the options for this family? We meet and pray with them. We talk with them. We have members of local churches who are praying for them and have donated food from their tables so that this family can be helped through this current crisis (see: A handful of rice).

Will Vanita pull through? Will the kids grow up with hope? What about those who we now know have HIV. Who is going to look after them?

And her husband Harish. What life for him? Will a heart change take place in his life? Though he is not as skeletal as Vanita he also is sick with HIV disease.

So many questions - so few answers. But we have to press on.

How many more Vanitas are there? How many more Harishs?

Upendra and Narendra

What potential exists in each person!

Over 20 years ago a terrible accident took the lives of the man and woman in the above picture. Their two sons were left as orphans in Central India. Relatives did not want to take care of two extra mouths so the boys were brought to a Christian activist who was living with his wife and two small daugthers in that area.

Twenty years on:

Upendra Kumar (the older boy on the right above) is today studying towards an MBA at Taylor University in teh USA. He has served with various ministries including OM, IMA and EMi.

Narendra Kumar (the younger boy on the left above) is married to Pramila and they have a beautiful daughter Tamana. They are serving in Varanasi, working among children in destitution and abandonned women.

We are so proud to have these brothers as part of the extended Eicher clan. Our years with them have brought much richness to all our lives. As they move forward we pray that God will continue to help them overcome!

Pramila, Tamana, Narendra and Upendra - Mussoorie 2007

Healing

We all hurt - and each one of us yearns for healing and wholeness.

Today a woman came in the door. An absolute skeleton. She has 6 children. 4 are here. The youngest 2 have just been found to be HIV positive as well. Her husband is a moody drunkard. She is terrified of him - last week he took the two children away somewhere. They were returned, but the incident haunts her. So she came with her husband today. As Sheba was talking to them she noticed that both had their heads down. They had fallen asleep.

Who doesn't want to be healed?

But what are we praying for when we ask for healing?

Reading about Jesus as told through the eyes of Mark we see a whirlwind of healing taking place. Hansen's disease (a.k.a. leprosy) is cured, deformities are righted, the lame walk, the blind see. People crowd in from all around hoping that Jesus' shadow will fall on the sick and heal them. And yet in this maelstorm of wellness their is a shadow - the hostile and outraged reception Jesus got when he came home to Nazareth. Almost no one was healed and he was amazed at their lack of faith.

Do we see people healed at JSK?

Sure.

We have Mr. Tamarind who was admitted at the centre in a semi-concious state. His family had given him up for dead and turned to us as a last resort. While with us he started to lose movement on one half of his body.

Today Mr. Tamarind is so well that we hardly see him other than his regular monthly visit to pick up his ART medications. He is so busy with his fabrication business that we cannot imagine that he would have died but for God's answer to our prayers - one of which was His gracious hand upon our work.

There are others of course. The list goes on.

But then we have those for whom we have prayed - and are not with us any more. Did God not hear?

And till now we know of no known person who was well-documented as being infected with HIV and then being completely and totally cured of the virus after prayer. We would so love to be proved wrong on this, but have not had the privilege so far.

Most people with HIV in the world are Christian. At least to some cultural extent. Many are dearly loved followers of Jesus Christ. All have prayed for healing at some time, in some way. That is millions of prayers for healing. Seemingly unanswered.

What is going on?

I think two perspectives are helpful.

One is that every believer with HIV/AIDS who prays for healing will be totally, completely, outrageously healed.

When the Lord Jesus returns in glory - there will be no sorrow, no sickness, no death, no HIV, no AIDS. The Bible is crystal clear on this - in some amazing way, the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God includes total healing. Across the board. For every conceivable malady and deformity and infirmity. Its all going to be gone. AIDS will be total history. Finished.

The prayers said now will be fulfilled at that time completely.

But what about now?

We do see glimpses of glory even now. There are recoveries which beggar the imagination. People have come back from the brink of death and are walking and talking.

Sadly, physical healing does not always translate into whole-person wellness. A number who were at the doorstep of death, and who fervently prayed and are now well physically - are anything but well emotionally, relationally, mentally and spiritually. More than one family has been heard to bitterly say that it would have been better if their family member would have died then...

We do see what we can term as 'works of God' (the Bible uses the word 'miracle' sparingly) - and of course we yearn to see and experience more.

But what is God's view?

A poignant prayer was said by a man called Nick Vujicic - "Lord, if you help me by growing arms and legs - I will go and tell the whole world about you." The answer: silence. For a 15 year old boy who was born without arms and legs and who was starting to trust in a good God that must have been hard. The long-term answer was this: "I want you to go around the world and tell people about Me - as you are - without arms and legs."

I think that is what we have to see in each of our mixed up lives. Healing is possible - and experienced in different ways in each one of us - but one thing God desires even more than our 100% wellness is for us to understand His glory - even if it means we don't get fully well - for now at least.

Not easy by any stretch. One of my neighbours has been vomitting and having diarrhoea for the last 3 months. Continuously. Its hard to see God in all of that.

At the same time we know that Jesus himself was familiar with this suffering - a man of sorrows, acquainted with griefs, by His stripes we are healed.

Who is this Man?

We met to break bread this morning.

A few families meeting in the home of Jolly and Suma at Samata Nagar, Thane. A small visible expression of the invisible church.

Jolly had sent us an SMS earlier in the week asking us to read the Gospel of Mark, chapters 4-6, and be ready to share what had touched us.

There are times when even in our small group we have had a funeral silence at the time for sharing.

Not today.

"Who is this man? " the terrified disciples asked when Jesus comanded the waves and wind to be silent - and they obeyed.

Who is He?

A man who demonstrates the very power of God. A man who does things that only almighty God can.

He spoke and the raging waves and wind stopped. Twice.

When He chose to, Jesus walked across the raging waves - prompting his followers to think that an apparition was crossing the lake.

Jesus commanded unclean spirits to leave - and they did. A legion of them left one man. The man who was cutting himself and breaking chains and living naked among the tombs was changed into a man who was in his right mind.

Jesus showed his power over sickness. He cured a woman with a gynaecological problem that had persisted for 12 years. The social stigma of an uncured reproductive problem. The physical suffering and weakness for the constant issue of blood. The poverty she was in from having spent all she had on the various physicians of her time. The deep loneliness of this woman whom no one could touch because she was considered unclean. The spiritual isolation from not being able to appear in the temple due to her ritual pollution. Jesus understood all this suffering and allowed her to be healed when she touched his robe. And called her back - not to condemn her for polluting the entire crowd with her presence - but in order to let her tell her story, to affirm her and to send her on her way in peace.

Jesus demonstrated his power over death. A young girl of 12 was raised back to life by his word. Professional mourners laughed at him - but Jesus showed that he was no ordinary man when the girl was given back to her shocked parents - alive.

Jesus was compassionate to a fault. After the death of his cousin John, and after his own disciples were exhausted and hungry he took them across the lake to be alone with them. Upon seeing the crowds who had run to that desolate place he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He loved them and taught them and looked after them when the evening came and they did not have food.

Jesus was willing to stop for one person in a crowd. He marched to the beat of a different drummer. He confounded the expectations of all around Him. Jesus loved and loved fully. He was misunderstood even by his mother and brothers - and rejected in his own home synagogue - yet he continued to do what Father God wanted Him to do. An obedient and loving son to the end.

Jesus had a unique relationship with each person. The healings recorded all take different hues. There is no cookie-cutter approach here. Jesus knows and loves those who come to him. He speaks truth into their lives and brings change - the Kingdom of God which all were waiting for. One person at a time.

Jesus was humble, but yet he retained his authority. He accepted a child's dinner and shared it with 5000 men (plus women and children too). Yet after the meal He packs off his disciples and then dismisses the entire throng alone.

Jesus spent time with His Father. In all of the excitement of what we hear about in Mark we also see that Jesus went up on the mountain - alone - to pray.

Who is this man?

The Word made flesh.

God fully us - and yet not bent and twisted like we are.

Mark writes the following: "...the Son of Man did not come to serve, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10.45)

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What a privilege to spend a morning on the first day of the week with God's people. Praising Him and meditating together on who He is. What a joy to hear what God is doing in each others lives. How amazing it is to come together and to sing praises and pray to the one who spoke stars and galaxies and universes into being.

This is our God, the Servant King,
He calls us now to follow Him,
To give our lives, as a daily offering,
Of worship to, the Servant King
- Graham Kendrick