Job interview

Its taken a long time - a very long time to put together the Jeevan Sahara Team.

We are by no stretch of the imagination perfect (plenty of brokeness all around). But what a great set of co-workers to have. As with any family we have certain tensions - some which are resolved - others which continue to bubble up every now and then.

How do you join this crew?

Last week we had a potential staff member come for an interview. He had requested to be met by us about 'a possible vacancy' with JSK.

We don't have any 'vacancies' with us - everyone is full (we hope) - and there is always a mountain of things that need to be done.

But we sat and talked to this young man. He has done a Master's of Social work in his home state down south. He worked for a year as a medical social worker doing public relations in a charitable hospital.

Why do you want to work here? To serve humanity. (long pause).... And also to earn an income.

Who is your influence? Mother Theresa.

We shared about the issue of a call. About the challenge of working with people who have HIV. About visiting people in their homes. About sharing God's love and the hope of Jesus with the poor and broken. About the toll on each of us - and how important it is to know that God has been calling us to this work in the first place.

I told him to come on Monday and we he can visit with the team to get a first hand picture about what it is like to work at JSK. We parted ways. Later Sheba told me that he had wanted to go abroad.

He didn't show up on Monday. Or on Tuesday.

Another "vacancy" unfilled?

The harvest is plenty but the labourers are few...

Mobile

Mrs Oomen has made a decision to live with a man. Its not surprising - the lot of young widows is not high in our society. The amount that she was earning was clearly not enough to support her and her two children. Mrs Oomen had a mobile phone. She talked on it a lot. It was clearly given to her by someone. She is now living with someone else.

We have been talking to Mrs. Oomen. For a number of years now.

She recently brought up the issue of marriage. Till now she had been denying any relationships. Tightly. The matter of her mobile was something that we could not get around with her.

Truth telling has always been an issue with Mrs. Oomen. It also makes it hard to trust and work with her. The losers are her two lovely children - and herself of course. Lies are corrosive.

Being HIV positive she said that the 'boy' had been told that she had a 'big disease'. She claimed that he was fine with that and that he had told her that 'he loved her and not her body.'

Being a parent of 2 kids - she said that her man will look after them well.

When the young man was asked to come for counselling - she said he would definitely come. He didn't. Said he couldn't be bothered.

End of story for now? We want to reach out to our friends with HIV. But many times the virus is not the only thing - or even close to the most important thing - that is holding them back.

Many, many unhelpful and harming decisions are made. Every day. The mobile in the hand of Mrs. Oomen was always a sign of what has happened. Men don't give phones just to chat. They want more. They want bodies. Women do not just say sweet things on the phone. They want stability. And security. And both men and women want mixtures of the two.

As we strive to help our Positive Friends make a new life - with choices that are based not on the conventional wisdom - but on a radical change of heart and mind - we still find so many falling back on the old. Our Lord went out of his way to meet a woman at a well. A Samaritan woman - an outcaste and infidel for the religious Jews of the day - and a woman who had had 5 husbands in a row and was living-in with another man.

There is hope for Mrs. Oomen. There is hope for each one of us in the various broken situations we find ourselves in. But hope delivered needs lives that make decisions to change - and ones that open themselves up for God to do just that which they cannot do on their own.

Coconuts

Sheba's parents told us on the phone - they have over 200 coconuts outside their house in the small village of Tungalam, outside Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

To think of so many of this king of fruit hanging in clusters from just two trees - and those too one in the front of the house and one in the tiny space at the back.

So many that Amma and Appa just do not know what to do with them. How many coconuts can they eat? I personally love coconut chicken curry - but how many times can that be eaten - esp. by our parents who need to keep an eye on their cholesterol.

The coconut can be used in so many ways: the flesh is used for cakes and curries, chutneys and all manner of food down south. The oil is used in cooking and hair. The husk and the bark for making coir. The wood has it uses too.

But what about drinking tender coconuts? As something for sick people and something for quenching a thirst on a hot day, what can beat a freshly opened tender coconut?

Day of prayer and fasting

Union Church, Muniguda, Orissa

September 7th is a day when churches across India will be praying and fasting on behalf of those who are being hounded out of their homes, burnt alive and forced into unspeakable acts in Orissa.

A summary list of some of the many acts of violence over the past 2 weeks can be found at the EFI news site or by clicking here

Lets keep praying.

A burnt doll is seen outside a Christian home at Suleswar village in Orissa August 31, 2008. (Picture: Reuters)

Re-integration

Mrs. Maninder is coming home. But to what?

Two years ago, Mrs. Maninder was living in a lean-to next to a garbage dump. She was at the end of herself - HIV positive - with a newborn baby - her husband having squandered his money and been sacked from a govt job (if that is even possible) - her older child with a huge cleft-palate... It looked totally hopeless.

Today, thanks to many prayers, Mrs. Maninder has been looked after by a rehabilitation home during which time her daughter (who is HIV negative - thanks to the cleft palate preventing breast-feeds) having had most of the basic reconstructive surgeries done. Mrs. Maninder has put on weight and wants to start working as a seamstress again.

But where is home?

And at what level is she going to live? She has been blessed with a beautiful stay at a home where all the amenities were modern, good nutritious food given free of cost, many social workers and volunteers who loved her and cared for her every need.

Now she is to be 're-integrated'. She wasn't even integrated when she left.

In the process of trying to find solutions, we explored having Mrs. Maninder staying with a nearby organisation for some time. The accommodation was a single large room that serves as a dormitory for the ladies being helped. Mrs. Maninder was shocked to see that there were no cupboards and minimal fans. Our colleagues at the place where she currently is, spent today trying to help her get ready for what is most likely to be a drastic change of lifestyle from the last 2 years.

Tomorrow we are going to make a pitch in our local church. To see whether our fellowships are ready to take the plunge. Not just to say "we will pray for you" but to really put our time / money / effort into this small family. Finding a place to stay. Supporting nutritionally. Visiting and encouraging. Helping Mrs. Maninder with her child-care and child-raising. Welcoming her into a home fellowship. Being there. Love in action. Love in practice.

The costs are huge. The immediate outcomes uncertain. Mrs. Maninder is not the most pleasant person to be with. But she is a child of God. She is a person we have been given a divine appointment with. She and her two children are those to whom we must, we absolutely must look after. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world (James 1.27).

It is not only this widow and her two orphans that need re-integration. Each one of us does. To get out of our 'comfort' zone and to be really stretched - and blessed. God help us (even if it be by a mighty kick in the seat of our pants).

Toothy issues

We've had some pretty grim posts recently (nothing strange about that - we live in some pretty grim times after all), but here is something on the lighter note.

Enoch discovered something while brushing his teeth tonight.

"I think one of my teeth is loose" he said.

No way I thought. Exaggeration.

But there it is - a lower front incisor - wiggling away to glory.

Enoch is 5 now. The picture above was taken when he was 3 and Asha 5. We are so blessed with these wonderful little ones (who are growing at a healthy clip).

The other day they enjoyed a day with Kea, the daughter of Nathan and Dr. Marise who helps at JSK. As Asha and Enoch grow, pray that they will continue to develop wonderful friendships and experience the joy of growing up knowing they are loved.

I could describe something I saw today, but I won't - its too painful. Suffice it to say, that we are very, very blessed. Looking back over the pictures that we have of the family over these years all we can say is that there is a lot of joy on our faces over the years.

Wiggling teeth or not - we have much to smile about!

River of sorrow

Sorry things are a bit glum on this on-line diary these days.

But that's the way the world we live in is.

Up North, in the fabled state of Bihar (or at least the rump that is left after Jharkhand got its own statehood a few years ago) we have the yearly tragedy of the floods.

The Kosi river is known as a river of sorrow as it floods almost every year. But this year is different. It has flooded in a totally new set of places, and the misery is immense.

EHA runs a brave hospital in the town of Madhepura where some of the worst flooding has taken place. The hospital has had to stop functioning for some time because everything is under water.

Who to help? How to help?

The politics of flood-relief is huge.

There is a whole vulture-class of contractors and politicians who divide up the spoils - huge funds sent from the centre end up lining the pockets of the rich patrons.

The human spirit makes can make mockery of the beauty of this earth.

Bihar - with its thousands of years of culture and learning - has little to show that dazzles today. Known as the basket-case state of our country - we find hard-working Biharis all over the land - looking for a better future than what is available in their native soil.

While not everyone has the privilege of being airlifted out by helicopter like the man on the right - we do pray that the various efforts - by the government, armed forces, parts of civil society will save the many who are on the brink of death.

As many others return to their sodden homes, our prayers go out for them.

Would that we would hear good news from Bihar, that the wonderful folks would be able to live up to their rich heritage and their spunk and joy of life.

Our flamboyant railway minister - Sri Lalu Prasad Yadav - was ironically elected from the Madhepura constituency (as well as another one) to current Parliament. He remains charismatic in his appeal - carefully keeping a rustic sheen to all his actions - while at the same time being a shrewd operator and holding on to the railway ministry.

We look forward to a new Bihar. One with rivers of joy rather than sorrow. Can you hear the mountains tremble...