Living Legends - the Winklers

Germany has a new president today.  Joachim Gauck is a pastor from the former East Germany.  Himself the son of a pastor - he did not join the "Free German Youth" (the communist youth party that every young East German was supposed to join) and so theology was the only option for him to study at university.  My mother did not even have that option.  Having not joined the FDJ (as its initials are in German) she was shunted to trade-school and saw her FDJ member classmate go to grammar school and then on to university.  But my mother kept the freedom of her heart - which brought her out of the 'Workers Paradise' of the 'German Democratic Republic' and into a life that eventually led her to follow the Prince of Peace to India.  Her generation was hemmed in by the Berlin wall that came up a few years later to stop the heamorraghing of young people to the West. Joachim Gauck stayed on - and seems to have kept his integrity intact. Today he is president of a united Germany.  Not bad for a pastor.

Dr. Maria and Rev. Stefan Winkler

Speaking of pastors - one of the finest of the lot is the inimitable Stefan Winkler and his amazing wife Dr. Maria Winkler.  Living legends - no less.

It was our great privilege to have this amazing couple with us in January.  The Winklers were one of the only people on the planet to know both Sheba and I before we were married.  Their daughters Irene, Heike and Karuna had studied with us at Woodstock with Irene and I joining for our last 2 years of highschool.  They knew Sheba from a 1.5 month period where she volunteered at the Prem Sewa Hospital in Utraula.  They were thrilled when they found out we were marrying.

But we did not 'know' them well. We did not have access to the treasure trove of stories that they had to tell.  That all changed for us over the magical days Uncle Stefan and Auntie Maria spent with us here in Thane.

You just cannot get through a conversation with Stefan Winkler without laughter. If you don't laugh, he will. A barking, infectious laugh - usually brought on by a funny story.  Always lifting your spirits.  Maria Winkler has her own quiet humour - and to see these two saints - so beautifully in love over all these years - so intimate in their life together - so caring for others near and far - was a treasure for us.

Maria Winkler was born in what is today Poland.  After the Second World War her mother and siblings were refugees in what was then the Soviet Occupation Zone - which morphed into the 'German Democratic Republic.'  Maria's father was a pastor who was part of the confessing church - the small group of clerics who dared to stand up against Hitler.  We were told that at one point Maria's father stopped baptising infants as he became convinced that this was not in keeping with scripture.  A prominent member of the Confessing church was asked to correspond with him and help him out of this stance. That man was the famous Dietrich  Bonhoeffer - who died in a Nazi concentration camp just before the end of the war.  The correspondence between the two men has been published as part of the collected correspondence of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

In the course of the war Maria's father was captured by the allies and taken to Britain till 1948.  After he was released he was in the 'West' and the rest of the family was in the 'East.'  In 1953 Maria, her mother and her siblings ended up leaving the former Eastern Germany for the West - refugees again - but reunited with their loving Godly father. They held on to their faith amidst the chaos and blessed others.   Among those they blessed was a young Stefan Winkler who had come to know them shortly after deciding to follow Christ as a disciple.

Stefan Winkler comes from a prominent family of artists. As a young man he trained as a sculptor and was expected to take over his father's studio in Munich.  His grandfather was a famous orientalist painter - an exhibition in Salzburg of German Orientalist painters had a whole room of his paintings.  Stefan's mother grew up partly in Egypt - where Stefan's grandfather had first come to help document the discovery of the Tutankhamun trove.  Among the people Stefan's father grew up with were prominent Nazis.  Eventually he was adjutant to one of Hitler's inner circle.

For a man like this to marry the daughter of a pastor who had opposed Hitler is a miracle.  But that is what this life is made of.

As a young man Stefan Winkler was searching for peace.  At one point in time - while serving in the navy - he was out in a forest and cried out to God as he knew him.  This cry marked a turning point in Stefan's life - one where he took Jesus seriously.  As the search continued he walked around the churches in the northern city of Kiel. He wanted God to talk to him. To call him by name.

"One Sunday I was outside a church - wanting to go in but not knowing if I should.  I was hoping God would call me. Then I heard my name. 'Stefan, Stefan.'  I was so happy. God had heard my cry.  Then I saw a small boy come round the corner, and his name called again 'Stefan' by a lady from a window above me."

Cut to loud guffaws by Stefan Winkler - telling the story of his pilgrimage to grace.  "Eventually God found me and I gave myself fully to follow Jesus' said Stefan.  I was so sure that I wanted to follow him and serve him in anyway possible that I went to Britain to attend a Bible college."

"One day I was told by the Holy Spirit that I would find out which country I would be serving in. It was revealed to me that the man who would speak in church that morning would be from the country I would serve in.  I prayed that it would not be a German as I did not want to go back to Germany.  I was curious to know who was speaking.  And when the time came for the guest speaker to be announced... who should be there but a brother from Kerala!  So I knew that I would be serving in India!"

What followed were 38 years of service in India along with his amazing wife Dr. Maria.  They served at the Prem Sewa hospital in Utraula for many a year - and then handed over the work to the next generation while pioneering a work on the Indo-Nepal border in the border town of Rupaidia.   "After you leave the Indian checkpost, and just before you get into Nepal, you see a house.  That was where we lived. The last house in India!" said Stefan.

The years of service were many and had many hardships and disappointments - but through it all, we see so much joy in the faces of Uncle Stefan and Auntie Maria.  They have raised three amazing daughters - the elder two both doctors and the younger one serving with people with mental disabilities.  All love Jesus passionately and have provided the elder Winklers with 3 lovely 'sons' ('sons-in-grace' instead of 'sons-in-law') and a host of amazing grandchildren.

There are stories upon stories - which we would challenge Irene, Heike and Karuna to capture and document. There is at least one book to be written about their amazing parents!

The Winklers also have a flood of foster children - having run a home for boys - mainly ones whose parents were suffering from leprosy. During their recent visit to India (for which they took 3 months to travel too and fro meeting people) they repeatedly were hosted by some of the 'boys' who have now transitioned to men.  It was such a joy to the Winklers to see these men having families of their own and proudly sharing what God has done in their lives.

We shared this joy. The joy of seeing in the Winklers a life well lived.  They could have easily made a name for themselves in Germany. He with his artistic talents and pedigree - she with her medical skills. But instead they chose to live out their lives in a forgotten corner of India - with little outward success to mark their labours.  But as we heard the stories spill out - as we saw the joy that animates their loving faces - as we continued to see the evidence of a life of learning (Dr. Maria taking notes during our simple training session that she sat in on) - we came away with awe that such people actually walk the face of this earth.

Sheba and I always knew about the Winklers.  Earlier this year we had the privilege of knowing a bit about them.  They stand apart as role-models - people who have allowed the love of God to flow through them and touch so many.  Including the Thane Eichers!

Thank you Stefan and Maria for who you are! 

Full House

Ever since Sheba came back from Raxaul in early December, we have had a steady unbroken streak of patients admitted at Jeevan Sahara Kendra.

We are currently operating out of the 1st floor of the Lok Hospital building.  When we first moved in last June - the place seemed intimidatingly big. Over the past few months our activities have started to fill up the place.

Being able to admit sick people with HIV for intensive treatment has been a joy and a challenge. A joy because we are able to give love and care to people who have received so little of either.  Some of them were left to die in govt. hospitals - and just to have a clean bed, have their room cleaned without giving a bribe, have a nurse who touches them with love and talks to them, have a doctor who really cares and prays with them....

Some of our friends have come to us in a very very late stage.

Last week Basanti (name changed of course - as are all in this note) was brought to us by church members from Mumbai.  Basanti's parents had died of HIV.  Her brother was negative, but she was HIV positive. She had been under treatment for some time but had stopped repeatedly.  She was skin and bone when the church picked her up and brought her to us.  She was all of 24.

It was never looking positive for her recovery, but we tried.  Three days of loving care later, Basanti slipped away at 3.30 AM on Monday morning.  Sadly, the lady without any relatives had uncles and others coming to pick up her body for the last rites. Would that they had been with her before...

We are sad to lose Basanti - but know that she put her faith in the arms of Jesus.  The last days were hard, but they were in the care of people who loved her. We have a real hope that we will meet her on a glorious day in the future.

Then there is Tarun.  He was brought to us in such a sad state. He could hardly breathe. After being under our care for a few days his relatives gave up hope and wanted to take him home. Two of our staff pleaded for another chance. We thought he would die on the way home - he was in such a terrible state.

Well he didn't!  He survived and lives to tell the tale.

This morning while I was banging away at my computer in the office I looked up and saw Tarun walk up the steps with his wife.  He had come for a follow-up check-up.

We have 6 beds in 3 rooms.  The rooms are the old Lok Hospital's doctor's consulting rooms. We would like to do some renovation and make 2 wards of 5 beds each.  We would also like to construct a bathing space - since the toilets are really not meant for taking baths in.  And we also need some kind of an isolation room - since many of our friends have very active tuberculosis - and another set are distressingly psychiatrically unstable.

Our current highlight of the inpatient care was two weeks ago.  We had a full house.  All 6 beds had sick patients occupying them. Then came Hari - a dear man who is pretty healthy in body - but who suffers from deep fear.  He insisted on being admitted.  We told him we had no beds.  He said he would sleep on the floor. And he did.

We put out a mattress and accommodated him on the floor. The next day a patient was discharged so the 117% occupancy went down to 100%.

An image from the past

A photograph can serve as a slice of time. A voice from the past. A peg on which memories hang.

This picture is of the marriage of Sheba's third uncle, now deceased.  Their first daugther Agnesamma Karri (Sheba's first cousin) works with us now at Jeevan Sahara Kendra as a nurse.  Her mother still lives in the same village. When Agnes went home for her annual leave, she returned with this gem of a photo.

 The whole family was together in Andhra Pradesh for the wedding in the anscestral village of Lankalakoderu.  Sheba and her three siblings take the front row.  From left: Sheba (pig tails), Peter, Daisy (pigtails and clutching her Bible) and Sarah (short hair - but the pigtails will come later).  Another village girl makes up the fifth child in front.

Seated are - second from left - Mary (Sheba's aunt), the happy couple, then Sheba's maternal grandmother, Sheba's mother and a grand aunt.

Standing behind (from left) are Sheba's second uncle, her maternal grandfather (carrying another child) and her father.

Where is her third uncle?  Maybe he took the photo!

Exercise

I was talking to Stefan on the phone last night - he said that he recently played a game of football which taught him two things. 

One that all his male friends are mainly people he meets to work with / minister to in some capacity - and what joy there was in just playing a game with other guys.  The guys in question had worked together as volunteer coaches for a youth football league in which their children (including for Stefan the budding footballer Ashish) were playing.  Stefan said that over the space of an hour they became better friends than they had over the 4 months of helping out in the football league - coaching the same team!

Two - that the game revealed muscles he did not know he had any more. It took two weeks for him to get back to 'normal.'

I think I need to play some football....

Space Party

We are a month out from Enoch's birthday on the 19th of February.... but the warmth of our time together continues to seep into our lives.

The theme this year was space.

Somehow it all hit off perfectly.

Paper stars and moons and planets went up in a jiffy.  For the next week we lived in space.

Our nation is trying to put together a manned space programme.  Just making a spaceship cake was a challenge itself.  Hats off to the folks at ISRO  (Indian Space Research Organisation) who are actually trying to put Indians in space.  Yesterday's paper had an article about whether they should be making chappati's and sabji for the future space-farers - or idlis and dosas!  For some reason they seem to have forgotten our North-Eastern brothers and sisters.  Surely they could not go to space without some pork to keep them going?

But back to earth and the amazing 19th of Feb bash that we had for Enoch's birthday (on the 18th this year to set the record straight).

As in previous years - a cake was made.

This time it was a space-ship.  I don't think most countries would colour their space-craft sky blue and pink - but this one took those colours - and proved to be a tasty treat!

The trust commander of this fair ship had an unawaited destination.  Not the edges of outer space - where few have even hopes of going - given the current state of rocketry... but into the glad stomaches of all who came to celebrate with our Enoch on his special day!

My Dad thrilled us each year with a wonderful cake for our Birthday parties.  Its such a privilege to carry on the practice.

Like so many things - it took a long time to prepare - and then the actual moment flew by in what seemed a whiz and a bang!

The 9 candles represent 9 years of delight that Enoch brings us.

We are so grateful to God for this wonderful boy!

Enoch shares a birthday with the great hero of Maharashtra - the great Maratha Maharaja Shivaji.

What kind of a mark will Enoch make in life - should he graciously receive another 9 years - and then perhaps another 9 more ... what if we gets 10 sets of 9?  Our hope is that Enoch's life will make a difference.  We celebrate each passing year as a proof of God's grace to us.  And are so thankful to be living this life!

Enoch was born in the old Lok Hospital.  Every work I day I spend time in the room where he was born.  What was then the operating theatre which saw Enoch enter the world after a C-section at 2.30 PM - is now our training and staff meeting room.  Every morning we have our staff devotions in the room where our wonderful son was born!


Enoch's party was a time to rejoice with his little friends.

But not everyone at the party was small.

We are privileged to have so many people who love us.

People like Agnes Didi who works as a nurse at JSK and who is also Sheba's cousin.

And though neither of the grandparents were with us this year we had another honorary family member with us - the amazing Philip B!




Coming down from cold Delhi for a weekend stay with us - Phil arrived on one of our annual highlights - Enoch's long-awaited birthday!

Keeping with the Space Theme - Phil presented Enoch with a beautiful book on space exploration.

You really wish that we could actually break out from our gravity bound sphere and soar far away.  Barring some kind of drastically new technology, some radically different way understanding of harnessing our energy to send people into outer space, the most feasible thought would be for people to expect that their whole lives (and maybe even generations) would be spent on a single space mission.

But back to our party...

We had the usual bundle of silly games.

Lead 5 people in physical exercises!  Act like a monkey!  Tell us what you like about Enoch! .... whatever was written on the chit that  you 'drew' from the bag - was a command - and had to be obeyed.

Needless to say - much laughter rippled through the group.

Being  a birthday party with a space theme we tried something different this time.  We asked Enoch's friends to come in fancy dress on the space theme.  Enoch and Asha worked hard to make their contribution count!

The Eicher Space team was launched at the party, complete with what looks like a very recyclable space-craft!

We are particularly happy that neither Enoch nor Asha asked for help in the designing and 'building' their costume!

Our learned judges met each one of the particiapnts.  Some had only worn T-shirts that had a vague space theme on it.  But the hands-down winner was Enoch's friend Haniel!

According to his mother, Haniel single-handedly made the spaceman outfit.

And then he did a little demonstration - showing himself to be more than a little knowledge about how spacemen move around outside their craft.

Watching Haniel's graceful movements, we could imagine the joys and terrors of being outside with the black sky on all sides of you as you do the tasks set for you....

But remaining still firmly grounded on earth - the Eicher siblings then gave us a small concert - something that all Enoch's friends (and all the adults in the room too) enjoyed thoroughly.

I then shared the Bible passage that we had chosen for Enoch this year - about fanning the gift that we have been given into flame.

Some snacks later and soon our home was emptying itself as the excited boys start to move to their homes.

But one thing that did not empty or in anyway see a shortage of, was the vast treasure house of smiles that were plastered all over our faces.

We were tired - having been tired even when we started out the organising and then actually preparing for and running the party.  But God filled us with His joy!  Its so important to keep our focus on Him and live out our lives as families in ways that are really please Him.  Celebrations - like this one where we thank God for 9 years of life which Enoch has lived - are so important.

Computer joys...

Picture authentic - only exaggeration is the amount of hair

For most of the last 2 months, whenever I tried to post something on this blog - it would crash whatever browser I was using.  IE, Firefox, Chrome...  whatever had possessed the computer did it repeatedly.

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper.

Today it doesn't seem to be doing that any more.

Why not?  I am afraid I haven't the faintest clue.

But I do know that there is a huge backlog of things that I would love to write.

Life continues to move at a dizzying pace in the lives of the Thane Eichers.  We have seen some wonderful joys - and we have been through the valley too.  I shall try to put up some of them before they get replaced by the newest set of experiences that we are hurtling through.

Thank you gentle readers for bearing with us! 

The Lord of the Rings

It took a long time - but we have finally cracked it open.

Not for want of reading it again.  I still remember the first time Dad read it through with the three of us hanging on his every breath.

The question was whether we were ready for it.  Both in terms of being able to follow the story and being able to squeeze in the time.

Given the prodigious amounts of books that Asha and Enoch devour (Enid Blyton is a current favorite) we knew that the kids would be able to go with us to Middle Earth.  Our membership in a local library chain is barely 2 weeks old - and already Asha and Enoch are well known from our frequent visits.

Squeezing in time?  Well, day still only has 24 hours in it.  A generation ago Dad managed to squeeze reading the Lord of the Rings to us - and he was hardly less busy than we are today.

And so on a glorious day in February we started our journey.

Appropriately we managed to get a Saturday afternoon off as a family and hiked up to the ridge in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park.  It was like going to a different world in itself.  The entire time we only saw 3 people.  Out in the forest, we made some tea using sticks and stones for our stove - and then cracked it open.

Reading about hobbit holes and Bilbo's going away party under the blue sky and narry a concrete monstrosity in sight is a perfect way to spend a memorable afternoon.

But then again, the glory of a book is that it can take you with it.  We do not have too much choice - we live  in one of the concrete monstrosities we had escaped from that afternoon.  Our windows are situatied in a way where folks in the neighbouring high-rise can look into if they jolly-well-please.  Our kitchen overlooks a bank of flats and we can see that most of our neighbours on that side spend most of their time with huge TVs on 'round the clock.  The glory of the book - however - is that when we read we go into the world of imagination.

As the words are read aloud, we leave Thane and walk through the barren hills, hiding from the Black Riders and other unspeakable horrors, stepping forward with hope and fear through strange landscapes towards the home of Elrond the Elf Lord of Rivendell.

I have read the Lord of the Rings at least 4 times now - and it still captivates.  The sheer joy of the journey.  The sheer thrill of the clear and present danger.  The beauty and sorrow of recognising essential truths - which are so often drowned out in the static of our day-in-and-day-out-clutter-filled-lives.

Hooray for Tolkein!  Our last few weeks have seen small spurts of us Eichers following the journey.  We finally made it to Rivendell last week and are resting before the next steps in the epic.  Even though I have been there before I enjoy every minute of it.  And it is enhanced by being able to see expressions on the faces of the other 3 Eichers for whom this is all virgin territory!

Its such a joy to share our lives.