Small miracle

We are in the business of miracles

And we heard of a small one yesterday.

Mrs. Candy is very sick. She has drug-resistant TB. She lives in a tiny shack.

Among her many sorrows is her son Tarun. Tarun is a 10 year old who has grown up on the streets. Mrs. Candy has been begging or picking through garbage all of his growing up years. He is virtually uncontrollable. His hands never stop moving.

Last year we were able after a lot of prayer get him admitted at Jeevan Asha – a nearby preschool run by the Covenant Blessings Church. The first few months were especially rough. Tarun’s behaviour was so inconsistent that we had to make a choice. Should we withdraw him since he had been beating up other children? We asked our colleagues at Jeevan Asha for some time and prayed. A small but real change was seen – and Tarun has been blessed with a whole year of love from the caring teachers at Jeevan Asha.

At the same time his mother Mrs. Candy was driven out of her house – because the slum she was living in was demolished.

Over the summer holidays we saw him wandering around – shoeless and disheveled.

Mrs. Candy we have seen more often as she has faithfully come for her TB meds. The drugs do not seem to have had much effect till now. She is very weak and knows that death may be soon.

And so to yesterday.

Mrs Candy was sleeping in the morning – along with her older daughter. Suddenly she realized that her son Tarun was up. Mrs. Candy was tired and sick and so wasn’t sure what was happening, but it seemed that he was taking a bath, pouring the cold water over him. He then dressed himself and put oil on his head and combed his hair.

Surprised and still dazed Mrs. Candy asked Tarun what he was doing. I am going to my school he said and left.

Mrs. Candy fell back into her uneasy sleep. Waking later she found Tarun gone. In her confused state she remembered something about school – but she was not sure. Afraid that something may have happened to him, she told her daughter to go and look and see if she could find him.

The girl came back with the news that she had peeked into Jeevan Asha – and there was Tarun sitting quietly and staring intensely at the teacher.

In the midst of so much destruction we see small miracles take place. Knowing Tarun the thought of him taking these steps on his own is nothing short of divine intervention. Small miracles – but real.

Sowing

Two weeks ago she was thrown out of her home.

Her husband had taken the children and gone to the village - disgusted that she kept falling sick. His own HIV status did not seem to matter. She had then gone to stay with her mother and father.

The scene did not improve much. Her brother and sister-in-law were so upset with her and afraid that she would infect their small children that they moved out. Her father was enraged and kicked her and her mother out of the home. He is a notorious drunkard.

The mother and sick daughter spent the night with neighbours. The rains had just started pouring in buckets. She kept getting diarrhoea.

When they came the next day to us it all seemed so hopeless.

We pondered finding a shelter. Looking for a church to put her up. We talked with her and her mother about the options. They decided that her mother would look for a roomfor them both to stay in for some months and try to be reconciled with the family.

We prayed with them.

Flash forward to today.

She is still sick. Yesterday night we admitted her at the JSK centre for in-patient care.

But things have changed at home. Her father is looking after her with love - she says.

How is it possible for the human heart to change? How are forgiveness and reconcilliation still alive in such harsh times?

We will find a full and complete cure for HIV one of these days. It is just a matter of time. There will be a set of medications to fully and completely treat the virus.

But for the broken heart? The greatest miracle is when a crooked hateful heart is changed. When a person forgives. When a wrong is righted. Not possible alone, but oh-so-possible with help from our loving Father.

We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the ground,
But it is God who waters, by His almighty hand...

Loving your neighbour with AIDS....

We have just started another series of trainings for church members in HIV care. We call it Loving your Neighbour - with AIDS. The course is done in 4 sessions which we spread over 1.5 months, since we conduct the sessions on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays.

We prayed a lot for this batch. There was no electricity in the centre for a whole week before the first session on the 14th as the underground cable supplying the centre was burned out. Further, the monsoon had hit Thane in force - the wettest start in a decade. But on the 14th we had minimal rain - and the electricity had been restored the afternoon before. Looking at the 30 odd participants one thing was clear - that God had called each one of them - and that none were there by chance.

It was a delight to share what we have learned over the past 6 years of working with people with HIV - and a delight to see in the participants not only churcch people who wanted to serve people with HIV - but people with HIV themselves who are now part of the church themselves - and are exploring how to serve others!

Sheba did an excellent job teaching the basics of HIV and about how to treat people who are suffering from Tuberculosis. The discussions were good - the questions lively - the food great.

But the highlight for most of us was when James told us his story at the end of the day. I have heard it a number of times before in different occassions, but the power is still there - and each time there is a different twist. How vital it is for our hard hearts to be softened - and what power when a person gives his or her own story about what happened in their life with HIV - and what God has been able to do.

James told us that last month he had been visiting different pastors to encourage them to send young people to the YAA clubs training. One senior leader he met told him point-blank: "You people at JSK are wasting your time. Why work with people who are anyway going to die? Why not invest your time and money in people who will live - you will get far better returns from that."

James shared that he just listened to this man and did not reply immediately. Then finally James told him quietly: "I am grateful that a man spent 3 years encouraging me about Jesus - and that he did not give up. I am today who I am because this man did not consider it a waste of time to invest in me."

There were more than a few tears in our eyes. But the kicker is this - James went back to the same leader a few weeks later - and was warmly welcomed by him.

How much our hearts need to change. And what potential there is in each person. And how much God yearns to love the world more through his Church!

Church Youth

We are encouraged by some of the steps the young people at our churches are taking. As a church we are now meeting in 3 different homes on Sunday mornings for worship - but meet during the week for a Bible study on Friday nights (rotating in different homes) and the young guns meet up at our place on Saturday evenings.

The youth have decided to divide themselves up into 3 mini-teams. Each team will have 3-4 core people running it and will be doing a 3 month project.

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One team will be doing a Bible study in the home of a family of 3 young people whose parents have passed away and who are on-and-off participants in one of our Sunday worship times. The idea is to build up this family and reach out to friends in the neighbourhood.

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The second team is planning a 'Discipleship Training School' where they will be taking Saturday afternoon sessions with 4 pre-teen girls from our Thane fellowships. The young people see this as a way of developing the faith of these girls and also as serving as an entry for them into the Youth group.

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The third team is planning to meet regularly with one of the HIV positive families we are in touch with at JSK. It is going to be a real challenge for them, since the family they are planning to reach out to is one where father, mother and one child have the disease. They live close by to one of our fellowships and have even attended worship a few times - but their situation is grim as both are repeatedly ill and just do not seem to be getting much better despite being on medications. Excellent opportunities for our youngsters to come face-to-face with what it means to trust God.

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Our Saturday evening meetings are thus being retooled to being a support time for these teams - a time to reflect on what has happened and pray for each other - spurring each other on to love and good deeds (Heb. 10.24). To get things rolling the young people have started conducting our Saturday fellowship in Hindi - something that urban youngsters usually feel very shy about - but something absolutely vital to reach out to people for whom English is not a natural lingo (read: most of our dear country).

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Hats off to these youngsters! We have so wanted this generation to step forward and make bold moves - and go into opportunities to learn what it means to trust God. We need a blanket of prayer over every positive step we take forward for our loving Lord!

Youth Against AIDS Clubs

We are losing too many people to HIV/AIDS.

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At Jeevan Sahara Kendra we are committed to helping people with HIV and their families - at whatever stage of the disease they are in - just found out - or well into the sickness - or at the end of life. We are here to help and to see people living with HIV/AIDS and their families receive hope, health and eternal life.

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But after 6 years of working and over 130 of our friends passing away - we also want to see people not get HIV in the first place.

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One small set of steps we are taking towards this is youth-focussed and run HIV prevention programme that we have been trying to nurture called Youth Against AIDS.

At the end of last month we had an amazing training which Ken Mcrae from the Dehradun Youth Centre facilitated. We had gathered to learn how to run Youth Against AIDS clubs (YAA clubs for short). A small group of us gathered at the Bible Centre in Pune for an intense time of learning.

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And intense it was.

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Ken started out by telling us how he became involved with young people in Dehra Dun. In the space of a year, he found out that 4 young people had committed suicide in a small neighbourhood of 800 odd middle class families. Two of these were from families who attended church. Ken waited for some time and then met with the pastors to find out what they had done since the tragedy had taken place. One pastor said that everyone was sad and determined to do something - but what? The other pastor said that the boy in question was a ruffian anyway.

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Spurred on by a desire to see real change for young people, Ken and his team did a survey among local schools and found that young people overwhelmingly wanted to have a place where they could drop in and talk. They wanted people to come to their schools and speak straight with them about sex, relationships, drugs, changes. Ken and the DYC team took up the challenge. Today there is a network of relationships among the young people - with youth reaching out to youth and bringing hope.
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We were the blessed to have Ken walk us through a series of sessions aimed at helping us reach out to young people. Ken hammered home a simple message. We have to love each person - and let them know that they are loved and accepted - no matter how rotten and mixed up they may feel (and may be).

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Each person, each thought, each confidence is precious.

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We have to do a lot of listening - and put our judgements on hold - to build a level of trust where a young person is able to tell from the heart what he or she is going through. Clubs offer a unique opportunity to break out of the straight-jacket of fear that stops youth from speaking the truth of their lives to figures in authority. This silence can be deadly - as the 4 suicides that started Ken on this path show. Clubs are wonderful at building friendships - and affirming the value of each person - as well as that of the group. We learned again and again that even more than the content of what we talk / discuss / teach during the club sessions - it is how we do it that will shape the lives of our friends.

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The Barthe Kadam curriculum which we used as the basis for the YAA clubs is a powerful tool to this end. It is open-ended and user-friendly - specially designed to include everyone in meaningful and fun activities that lead to discussing things that matter. Dr. Jameela George and her colleagues at EHA have used this programme across north India with adolescent groups - especially in the rural areas they serve. The principles are the same for the urban setting - every young person has dreams - and yet so few attain even a fraction of them. The changes that take place during puberty and early adulthood are often so poorly understood that before the young person knows it, they have made choices that bring only sadness. Our experience with so many end-of-life experiences with people who are in their early thirties and dying of AIDS only serves as a sad back-drop to this.

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At the same time, Ken helped remind us that the process of change, of maturing and experimenting with life that young people go through is full of such wonderful potential as well. Parents find it threatening to see their children make decisions of their own - and of course some of these end up with harmful results - but the very fact that youth are choosing things points to their taking their destiny into their hands. What a tremendous set of ideas and energy young people bring to the table - and how sad that the older generation usually loses out on the many chances to channel the energy and potential of youth because they elders are too afraid to trust young people. What marvellous opportunities for new partnerships we see!

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As with all good things - this camp came to an end too. Ken had to go back to Dehra Dun (and then on to China where his daughter and her husband are working - in the very area the earthquake took place). We had to return to our colleagues in Thane and all the other work JSK is doing. The youth leaders and pastors who attended had congregations to return too as well. Our hope is that every participant would be able to start a YAA club through their local youth fellowships. Lets see what happens when we all get back 'home'!

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At a last evening bonfire we reflected on what we had experienced over the 3 days till then. Each person was deeply moved and changed by the experience. It was exhillerating to be with Ken and get deep insights from the people he and his colleagues have worked with. There was a deep bonding and fellowship among all the participants and we left the camp as friends. The exercises were engaging, the food was superb, the worship was great. Each one of us was deeply challenged to work with young people with a new urgency - and a new friendliness and respect. Each one of us was challenged to be more honest and transparent in how we work through tough issues ourselves - and to be a friend and helper to this upcoming generation. We are once again aware of the power of God to change lives and shape destinies!
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Please pray for the YAA clubs this year. Though each person who came was a blessing - we were sad that so many others missed out on such an amazing time. The YAA club concept, using the Barthe Kadam materials is moving forward though. Just this evening I heard from bro. Joshi that his team had recently used the materials among the girls at Mukti Mission - and met with a tremendous response from them!

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May we see many young lives changed - for the long term good! Its time we stopped AIDS - and the only way is through changed lives. Impossible in the eyes of the world - but with the help of the Holy Spirit?

Grey Rain

300 mm in 4 days. Welcome to the wettest start of the Mumbai monsoon in 7 years.

Its as if someone emptied a huge celestial bucket on us. Last week we were sweltering. This week drenched. No subtle transition. No lingering thunder in the horizon. Just a straight drench. The buildings already their monsoonal grey. All roads sprouting their muddy potholes - I saw a man suddently sink down to his calves in one - thinking it was just a shallow puddle.

Though we crib about our leaky walls - in our 7 year old appartment building - there is real unadulterated misery in the vast sprawl of shanties/substandard tentements where the bulk of our people live. The water just doesn't stop - there is no place to dry anything - all turns to damp - and mould. And then there is the matter of walking about outside. Liquid filth swirls. No way but through it - pants rolled up as much as possible...

The thing I noticed this year - in the very first week of our dear monsoon is the lack of light. We are so used to the sun - to not see it all day - to be overcast with grey brings a sombreness to everything. It makes me remember the grey days of school in 3rd standard - the weak tube-lights in the cavernous rooms and the vague menace of the school books.

And all of this for me who has an almost God-like freedom to go where I want - whenever. On Monday I was whizzing around on our scooter, doing some odd jobs, and passed a man in the rain. He was using an orthodpaedic walking frame to move forward, his leg was in some kind of a cast/bandage. It was sheathed in plastic. He had a black plastic bag he used as a hood. Where was he going? Why did he need to walk so far in such a pathetic state? Who looks after him? What was he doing out there - soaked?

And what of the man who can't even leave his bed. The steady drip and dampness his only companion. Or Mrs. Mimosa whose roof (if you can dignify it with that name) is riddled with holes? Her alcoholic son off to work for 12 hours a day. The little girl she has to help her showing up occasionally as she was beaten by the son. A small alarm clock tells her when she has to take her ART medications at 9 AM and 9 PM - but she rarely gets to eat food - let alone be cared for in comfort in her leaking shack.

There may be green on the hillsides. But it is looking pretty grey in the great city of ours.

Mangoes

A small tribute to the king of fruits. The amazing mango.




Where can you get such a combination of sweetness and tang - of the goodness of juice just running down your hands - and yet you want more?

Each mango is so totally different. You never know till the first bite - will it be tart? or sweet as all the gulab jamuns in the world?

I am a 1/4 though one as I write this in the middle of a mercifully quiet night. The slightly acid taste of the current mango puckers up my lips - and makes me want more.

Another few bites separated the last para and these lines. The cheeks are almost done. Now what all that is left the to suck and gnaw at the seed. The proverbial gutli. Please excuse me while my hands get gloriously yellow!