A joining of lives

Tomorrow we leave at an ungodly hour - to take part in a God-drenched event: the wedding of Jeremey Richards with Mary Jacob. Jeremary - as uncle Geoff has already called the couple - have been brought together across the seven seas. Though Father God knew them and was preparing them for this great day - they did not know of each other until they found themselves serving on the OM ship Logos II.

Mary is from Tamil Nadu. Jeremy is from the world. His passport says Australian, but he has lived in Kenya, Cyprus, India and various other points. Both are open to where God wants them next - but know that God wants them to be living out their lives together now.

The wedding is in Pune - where Mary has been serving with the Good Shepherd ministries for many years. We as a family are planning to go - to celebrate with the new couple and various family members. From Australia Uncle Geoff - his brother and sister - and Jeremy's sister Fiona and her new baby Tabitha. From Mumbai and Pune - many others. More than the ceremony - where I get to be best man and Asha flower girl - and all of us witnesses and pray-ers - more than the solemn and joyous vows - we look forward to growing as a family with Jeremary!

Caring for the dying - and the should-not-be-dying

Update on the two men admitted on Monday. We were able to get one of them - Mr. 'Nandi' - admitted at the main government hospital at Sion - and after much advocacy he was posted for emergency surgery to drain the pus from his knee at 4 AM this morning.

Whether Mr. Nandi will survive we do not know.

The other man - Mr. Mark is still with us and very sick. He has not passed urine for a day and is very weak. We are waiting for some test results before starting on treatment - but it doesn't look good.

The fact is that both these men were admitted at government hospitals - where they should have been getting treatment for their infections. Mr. Nandi for his infected leg - Mr. Mark for what looks very much like Tuberculosis. Both were discharged after spending many days and getting minimal treatment - mainly because they are HIV positive.

Today we are ministering to the dying - when they shouldn't be. It is one thing to try everything and still have the person slip away. It is quite another to have been in a place where treatment should have happened, but be sent away with anti-retroviral therapy as if that will magically solve all the problems the person is going through.

Three Flowers

Here are three flowers:












The first is our dear Asha, who has made a bed for her newest teddy: "Gloria"

The second is the lily that bloomed on our balcony this morning. After a year of spending a fairly mediocre existence - it bursts forth in such amazing colours that you just have to say 'wow'!

The third is our dear Enoch - who went to school this morning for his last day of 'juniour kindergarten'. The holidays now stretch ahead till mid June - when he joins the ranks of 'senior kindergartners'!

We have many more flowers in our lives - but here are a few to brighten your day - they certainly have done so for us.

History

Time flies. Pretty literally. The trusty BBC website had this image today - which brought back some of my recent conversations with Enoch.

Having finished 5 years of his life - Enoch is interested in many a thing. Recently it is all about firsts. The other day the question was - what was the first car like. Was it small? As small as a toy car? When was the first scooter made?

This evening I was asked: what was the first shop? When I confessed I didn't know what the first shop was, the second question followed: what was the second shop? A simple economic history followed - but as Enoch's dad, I really have to wonder at how quickly things change - and also how certain things don't - or at least not as quickly.

Take the picture above - from the first mechanised flight to the rise of the jet airliner took about 50 years or so. But since then, we basically have had the same technology. Enoch saw a clip of a 'space plane' which may offer 'space tourists' a few minutes of weightlessness before gliding back to earth - but that is really not pushing the limits much more. We are not really talking about flights that take us around the world in 5 - 6 hours - for instance - something that rocket propelled aircraft may be able to do. Then again - the road to the airport (or space-port) is quite likely to be blocked with traffic of a more humble kind - so the huge extra amount of money that any of these technologies would probably entail (at least in the first part) would hardly be adding much utility.

When was the first airplane?

In-Patient Care

The paint is hardly dry - having successfully dedicated our (re)new(ed) JSK centre - we moved our work back into it today - with the strong smell of paint still upon us.

The new cabins are tiny - and will take adjusting to for our doctors and as we start the counselling and testing process we will have to develop new ways of using space cooperatively.

But one thing is sure - we continue to walk by faith - and not by sight. On the very first day back in business as a centre we have already admitted 2 patients.

Both men are in pathetic condition. We had wanted to admit one of them earlier - we will call him Mr. Nandi - as he had terrible pain in his leg which suggested a severe infection. After a lot or persuasion, our staff helped to admit him at the Municipal Hospital in town. Very sadly, he was there for almost 2 weeks - and nothing - literally nothing was done for him.

The main reason is that he has HIV.

The orthopaedic surgeon was called repeatedly, but clearly did not want to touch him. When he finally was 'discharged' he came to our centre - emaciated, in great pain - and with a huge amoung of pus in his knee. We were stunned to see that he was sent off without even a diagnosis written on his discharge card. We really do not have the capacity to do what is clearly a major orthopaedic procedure - but his mother is at her wits end and so at least for now - as I type this in at 9.45 PM - Sheba is over at the centre doing her night rounds with the patients. We will try what we can - and pray.

The other patient - lets call him Mr. Mark - was met while he was also admitted at the same government hospital - by Mr. Raju - one of our long term Positive Friends - who has himself moved away from Thane - but who comes every month for his medications. Mr. Raju saw that the mother of Mr. Mark was deeply distressed - and Raju told her that she should come to Jeevan Sahara. She came last week full of hope, and was so grateful to be talked to and to have people who cared for her. Today she brought her son. He is painfully thin, but has come in hope that something can be done.

Miracles - big and small - are very needed tonight.

The all-seeing eye of the Internet

We had a colleague at the mission hospital that we worked at in Jharkhand whose wife did not want her name on any document that would be put out over the internet. I thought that rather quaint.

Last week I came across this picture:

An unknown person, lying in a bed eating dominos pizza. The bizarre thing is this - it was taken on the 14th of Sept. 2006 but a group of motorcyclists who stopped in at Mum and Dad's place in Mussoorie - while they were not there. The picture is of the lower bedroom in the house - what used to be called "Andi's flat" and is the bed I slept in for a good year or so after University. The shot is one of 15 odd photos showing almost every nook and cranny of the lower flat at Shanti Kunj. You can take a complete guided tour courtesy of the unkown persons from the biker site by clicking: here

Big brother may not be here - but lots of small brothers seem to be. We may not be seeing a total overhaul of privacy by some all-knowing hidden power - but the huge amount of info about bits and bobs of our lives continues to flow - and laps up in unexpected places!

A walk in the woods

Being in urban Thane - we tend to get overwhelmed by the grittiness of life in the city. All the more so since we work with so many who live in such horrible situations - the filth and refuse of their shanty-town surroundings mirrors that miseries of broken relationships and sordid bondages.
It is important to come away for a while. We did that as a team yesterday - spending the day with our dear friend John Forbes in the Borivali National Park. The amazing part of it all is how spatially close we are to nature - just a 10 minute walk from our centre brings us into the national park.Once inside, it is a 1/2 hour walk up the hill and there we are on the ridge. With trees and a few small fields and no one else in sight. We worshipped God in the sheer beauty of his creation. Heard John encourage us about allowing God to do new things in us - and discovering the on-going work He is doing. We then listened as each person shared what they had learned in the last 3 months. The reports ranged from the personal - new things learned, small but important frontiers crossed - to our work where people have seen spiritual break-throughs in people's lives and where one of our staff said that instead of just loving others with HIV - they had received so much love from the people who have HIV that he was serving. We had time for team-building games - a crab-relay got the pulses racing- and brought lots of laughs and cheers from all. Another game with animal names and rythmic clapping made sure everyone had ample opportunities to laugh. We also reviewed the past 3 months and spent time praying for the next 3. Then there was the business of lunch....
A sumptious spread showed the culinary skills of all and sundry. This amazing spread had been brought up the hill and was eagerly devoured. Almost like something out of Enid Blighton. We only needed the Famous Five to show up.

Post lunch we spent time alone. Time to be quiet and listen. To the rustle of the wind in the leaves. To see the bamboo flowers - which only bloom something like every 18 years or so. To watch hawks and listen to birds. To be enveloped by the buzz of the cicadeas. God speaks through His creation.
From the ridge we could look down the eastern slopes to the urban sprawl of Thane - ever populated with more buildings rearing themselves up. A glance over to the Western side shows the forest opening up to the ridges of the National park. We could be looking at anywhere in central India. The hills and scrub forests - the occasional house or two of a long-standing village settlement.

And so we came back for a final feed-back and prayer. The time up away - and together - had been a deep blessing for us all. Nature does that to you. We return to seeing people with HIV and their needs on Monday. God has been looking after them in our absence. But we return with a bit of the hill-side peace in our hearts. Be still and know that I am God - it says in the good book. We did. We know.