VBS

Last week was a whirl of activity around kids.

100+ kids.  In the heat.  And the joy of spending time with them.

Each child is somehow linked with our work.  Kids who have HIV.  Kids whose parents have HIV.  Kids who are neighbours / friends / relatives of kids whose parents have HIV.  Kids whose parents are volunteering at the Vacation Bible School.

We had an amazing set of teachers.  17 classes - 19 teachers.   We had a super group of volunteers.  An average of 17 per day.   We had 2 great speakers - Reuben Mathew for the 11-16 year olds - and Alankrita Singh for the 6-10 year olds.   There were games and stories and songs and small group Bible classes and food and endless cups of water and juice being brought by the volunteers.

A whirl of activity.  A swirl of faces.  A large amazing group of people gathered together for 5 days of continuous love.

Looking back its all a happy blur.

We sensed the very presence of God.

Amidst all the activity and the tiredness and the heat, there was this clarity that bound us together - God speaking to us the theme: "You are special, you are precious"....

So grateful that these kids, who receive so little love and have seen so many terrible things, have had this week of joy.

Many are already planning for the VBS next year...

Modern day thugees?

These last 30 days have seen us go through many deep issues as a family - some of which we will probably have to wait for some years before we write up on this blog... but here is one that deserves to be told.

On the 14 of April we got a series of emails from Dad saying that his dear friend David Masih was missing for 36 hours.  David lives in Dehra Dun and had gone to Delhi.  He was travelling back from Delhi by bus on the 12th of April and called his wife after having boarded the bus at 9 PM.

Then there was nothing.

He did not arrive the next day.  At the end of the day the family and friends started looking frantically for him.

The local police refused to register a First Information Report about his disappearance because he had not disappeared from Dehra Dun.

The search widened.  Bus drivers and conductors could give no information.  The police stations along the way did not.  The hospitals and morgues were visited.  Not a clue.  No sign of David.   His phone was ringing for some hours but was not being picked up.  Then it went dead.

The police finally contacted the phone company.  They showed that a series of calls had been made at around midnight to his wife, son and a friend.  None of them, however received the calls.

No further clues.

When Dad called up on our weekly call on Monday night he mainly talked about what was happening in the search.  He said that they were specifically praying that if David was still alive and wandering about somewhere that he would be given strength and grace to come to his senses and find help.  We prayed over the phone and I hung up.

The next morning this is what I found from Dad in our mailbox (unedited of course):


On 15-04-2014 06:47, Ray Eicher wrote:

PRAISE THE LORD FOR THE MIRACLE!

At 5:00 am this morning David turned up at his door.  He is very sick, almost unconscious, beaten, bruised….but ALIVE.

In the bus he was befriended by a family who poisoned him. At some point along the line he had tried to phone Usha, his son, brother, etc. and it seems that they then tried to cut off his tongue, as his mouth has bad wounds.

When he was totally unconscious, these people stripped him naked, beat him very badly and then threw his body in the garbage dump.  Somehow (AS AN ANSWER TO OUR PRAYER) he came to consciousness and found himself walking naked in the street.  All this has happened in two full days, he has no memory of details, time, nite or day, where he was, nothing !!!!!!!!!

Most people seeing him would think he was just another mad man walking around, as probably he could not talk properly.  At one point a kind Samaritan gave him some clothes and later another kind truck driver brought him all the way to Dehra Dun and dropped him at the ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminus).  He was able to persuade a vickram driver to take him home, promising that he would be paid there…..so he ended up at the door.

Rajesh is there now with the family and they have put David to bed. They might be admitting him to hospital as he is totally gone and in need of much care.

THIS IS ALL A MIRACLE OF GOD’S LOVE AND GRACE !!!!!!!!!!!

As we were praying last nite, the Lord gave Christa this word from Ps 4:1,3-5:

“Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!  You have relieved me in my distress;  Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

“But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself;  The Lord hears when I call to Him.

Tremble, and do not sin;  Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still.  Selah.

“Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and trust in the Lord.”

HOW CAN WE THANK HIM ENOUGH !

Christa last nite was recalling when our son Stefan came back from Uganda with cerebral malaria.  He was unconscious in the LCH hospital here.  Christa was lying on the floor in the chapel, crying out to the Lord.  Usha (David’s wife) came, put her arms around Christa and gave her the verses from Ps 41:1-3:

“How blessed is he who considers the helpless (the poor…as Stefan was doing in Uganda);  The Lord will deliver him in the day of trouble.

“The Lord will protect him and keep him alive, and he shall be called blessed upon the earth.

“The Lord will sustain him upon his sickbed;  In his illness, You restore him to health.”

So, Usha dear, we thank the Lord with you, and we also remember with deep gratitude your love and concern when Stefan was at the point of death.  WHAT A WONDERFUL SAVIOUS WE HAVE.  AMEN AND AMEN.

Thanks too for all of you who have prayed over the past days.  Truly we have a LIVING, LOVING, MERCIFUL LORD.  Amen.

Yours, with tears of joy,  Ray and Christa

-----------------------------------------------------

Please continue to pray for David and Usha as they recover from this ordeal.  The wounds are deep.

It is sickening to me that we cannot travel in public transport without fear.  Where the simple act of sharing food is now taboo.  How sad.  

Growing up one of the joys of train rides was the crossing of barriers and making of friends by sharing what we had brought.  It is so impolite to eat something in front of others without offering something.   

And yet today, when I was travelling to Delhi last with a male friend of mine, I cringed when he offered biscuits and chocolates to the kids who were travelling with us.  Cringed because now-days people think twice when they see a young man giving things to kids.

How have we come to such a point where the availability of drugs (like GHB?) which apparently do not taste different can be mixed in with food or drink and given to unsuspecting fellow travellers?  Our dear friend Benjamin suffered the same horrific experience 2 years ago - and it is still a miracle that he emerged alive.  

Do we have a new form of Thugees in our midst?

At the end of the day - as with our friends David and Benji - we are so glad for fervent prayers which were heard in such a miraculous way.  Our friends are literally back from the dead.   We pray that the horrors of what they have gone through will be also healed by our Lord.  

But what of all those who do not come back?  Over a decade ago, the chaplain of one of the EHA hospitals in central India went to Delhi and never returned.  His wife who is a nurse in the same hospital has never found out what happened.  One of the many who have disappeared.

And what a bleak set of 'safe-guards' we have to erect - to not accept anything from a stranger - even the friendliest kind.

Cry the beloved country.

Bleak house

He came to the hospital yesterday with his head bandaged with a hankerchief.

No, he did not have a toothache.

He had been drinking alchohol and did not want Sheba to know.

He was here to 'look after' his wife - who is admitted at JSK.

She is sick.  Very sick.  She has disseminated tuberculosis.

Both are HIV positive.  He has TB as well but has stopped his free medications.

The bottle is stronger for him.

We had told them to get an ultrasound for her 2 months ago.  We had offered it at a concessional rate at our parent hospital.  They did not take it.

Instead, she was admitted at two other hospitals.

She did not get better.

No - she does not have TB is what they said.

But now she is hardly alive.

She is here now.  She only weighs 30 kgs.  No appetite.  Vomits up the meds.

Her three children were all part of the Vacation Bible School that JSK organised this week.  3 among 100+ kids.  Almost all of the kids have at least one parent who is HIV positive.  The kids were like all the others - laughing, playing, enjoying the songs and food and personal attention from the teachers.

And yet their mother was at our hospital.  Very sick.  Their father was out and about.  Mainly drunk.

The grandmother - a sorrowful figure if there is ever one - was the one looking after them at night.

And so it goes.

We wish we had a magic button to press.  Where everything will turn right instantly.

We don't.

But we do what we can.  And trust that God will turn the most hope-lessly-mucked-up-situations and relationships - into something new.

Pray for Mrs. Tamam.  We want her to pull through.  We want things to change for her and for her husband.

And for her three precious children.

Though the situation is bleak - we are glad we are here.

Two coasts

As India is being nicely roasted this summer - we as a family are currently experiencing it in two different locations.   Asha and her dear friend Nikita tasted something close to 40 degrees celsius today in Behrampur, Odisha - while we had a still roasting 35 degrees here on the west coast in Thane.

So it is not surprising that the pictures we are getting from our two budding medical missionaries include shots like this:

  

But we know that they are not just there for the ice-cream!

Our two intrepid girls have now almost completed a week in Odisha along with Dr. Catherine Morris of Love the One - an amazing charity that works with the needs of children in Odisha.  

Dr. Mary Cusak - the other co-founder of Love the One is currently at the Christian Medical College hospital in Vellore where two of the boys that they are looking after have had reconstructive surgery for their club feet.

We understand that later this week Mary and the boys hope to come back - but in the mean time Asha and Nikita have jumped in to the work.

 

 Being a programme that works with children - there are always lots of kids around Love the One.  And plenty for volunteers like our dynamic two to do!

Yesterday they accompanied Dr. Catherine to a clinic in a slum area where most of the inhabitants were Muslims.  The previous evening they went out to a village and met a 14 year old boy who is dying with a brain tumour.   Growing up in our home we have talked of death many a time due to the folks we are working with here in Thane - so Asha is not a stranger to the limits of life.  But I certainly don't recall ever have that kind of an experience when I was 13!

 Of course, some culinary skills also have to be shown.

Doting mothers (and dads) on this side of the country regularly ask their two daughters the same question every time:  what have you eaten?  how much have you eaten?

Our young ladies show their prowess with the spatula by rustling up a batch of pancakes for their housemates.



The other question is likewise echoed regularly - did you sleep under a mosquito net - and sure enough - we have documentary evidence on this:

We know that our girls are throwing themselves into life at Love the One - including the 4 resident dogs - and the church fellowship that meets at their place on Sunday:



 It is with a deep sense of gratitude that we close off our first week of having Asha away from us on this adventure.  She has 1.5 weeks left till I take the train out to Behrampur on the 17th afternoon - and then the three of us scramble on board to head back on the 19th evening.

Till then - fare well our sweet Asha - and our darling Nikita too!  And special thanks to Dr. Catherine and Dr. Mary and all the Love the One team for hosting our girls for this special experience!

From our perch here at the Arabian sea, our prayers go over to you in the Bay of Bengal! 
1 Cor. 15.58!!

Ready to fly

We are at John and Nalini's home.  Enoch and Jasper are playing chess "I am trying to teach Jasper how to lose."   Sheba and Nalini are with Asha and Nikita in the room - giving last minute instructions and praying with them.  John is talking on the phone and I am tapping on his computer.

Our girls are leaving on a jet plane tomorrow.

Flying across the country to the eastern coast of India - in order to spend just under 3 weeks with Dr. Mary and Dr. Catherine and their work at Love the One in Behrampur, Odisha!  Mary and Cat are amazing paediatricians whom we have had the privilege of meeting at 2 yearly intervals at the EMFI national conferences (and look forward to seeing again in October at the next one in Ludhiana this October).  They were working in the Malkangiri district and doing a remarkable work there till the kidnapping of an Italian by the maoists caused the govt. authorities to order them to leave 'for their own safety.'   To their credit, Mary and Cat have adapted and are now working out of Behrampur where they are able to touch the lives of so many children and their caregivers.

Nikita and Asha have known each other since we met up in 2001 when they were not yet a year old.  They have celebrated their birthdays since - and each year brings them closer together.

Now they are about to step out on an adventure.  Nikita's mother Nalini is dropping them off tomorrow - and I take the train to Behrampur and will be picking them up for the train ride back on the 19th evening.

So our girls will be 'on their own' for a good two weeks - helping out (we hope and trust) with an amazing group of people who are working to bless sick children.

Our hope is that these two weeks will be formational in Asha and Nikita's lives - that it will open their hearts to the needs of others - and the joy of serving.   And we also hope that they will really enjoy themselves and be sources of joy to all the folks there!

Nikita has been praying daily to Jesus that she wants to be a missionary paediatrician.  Asha (as far as I know) has not been praying anything so specifically - but we want our dear ones to stretch their wings and fly.

Do we do so with a bit of fear in our own hearts?  Of course - but here's to our lovely and loving ladies as they step out on this adventure!

There and Back again

The last 3 days have been packed with our 10th annual JSK staff retreat.

Appropriately enough we went back to the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission - the place where we had our first staff retreat back in May 2005.  Then we hired two Sumo jeeps which were enough to comfortably carry all our staff and volunteers there and back.

This time we had to hire a bus.

3 solid days of so much.

And now we are back to Thane.

Here - in no specific order - are some of the shimmering images that remain in our heads...

Early Sunday morning took us on a walk over the bridge to the Mukti Mission farm - and the graves of Pandita Ramabai and so many of her co-workers who have worked there.  Including our dear late Dr. Sheela Gupta...


 We had started our time with praise and worship at our Jeevan Sahara Kendra... followed by the first day of spiritual sessions by bro Joe Ahire and Rajesh Gajare and team-building games.


The traditional annual staff and families photo was taken.  We have a lot of new faces at Jeevan Sahara Kendra - which is a real blessing for us all.

This year the retreat was great for the kids because they both had friends who were in their general age-groups.  

Asha had Anna Peter and Alisha Edwards to be together with and they all got on like a house on fire.  It was good to have these 3 young ladies in the front row in all our meetings - participating both in the worship and the word - and also having a wonderful time together.

The ride back in the bus was very long - but we were sped on our way by an almost endless stream of song from the back of the bus - where Asha spent most of her trip with her friends.

Enoch had Gopal Das and Aaron Peter to hang out with. 

Our kids are growing!  Enoch used to have to be carried around on previous visits - and now we had him sing a solo at the talent show - which took us by surprise as he had not told us about it before.  Asha put on a side-splitting imitation of "Dr. Sheba:" in one of the skits presented that night.

Being back at Mukti was special.  This year the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission has completed 125 years since Pandita Ramabai started a school for girls at Wilson College in Mumbai.

After 1922 till 1992 the mission chairman was from the Christian and Missionary Alliance.  I knew that my grandfather Elmore Eicher had played a role at Mukti - but was surprised to see for how many years he and his brother Albert Eicher and their dear colleague Gerald Carner had served as chairman of the board.  Barring one 2 year slot they served in turn as chairmen between 1949 and 1977. 

We had a private visit with Mrs. Lorraine Francis - who is the current Mission Director and prayed with her for some of the children and young single mothers currently at Mukti.  Lorraine had tears in her eyes as she prayed for those she cares for - and there are over 1000 residents at Mukti at present!

As we stepped out of the backside of her office we saw the original 'prayer tower' - made of the solid stone that most of Mukti seems to be made of.  As I watched a young woman went up into the room to pray.

Dr. Sheela Gupta had always wanted us to serve a medical help at Mukti - but we did not hear a call from the Lord to leave what He told us to do - so far at least.

So it was a thrill to see that a team of 2 dentists have joined the Mukti family to help lead the hospital and that they have just been joined by an MBBS doctor too!

Dr. Pheba Abraham and her husband Dr. Abin Abraham have just completed their dental studies and are following a missionary call to serve at Mukti.  They are helping restart the community development project and help the hospital reach out to the local community as well as care for the Mukti family too.  Dr. John has just joined and on the day we visited the hospital, they were running a community outreach health camp!

Dr. Pheba had been part of the strong student fellowship in a place called Kharad and she and her newly wed husband have decided to give a commitment to help lead the Mukti health team - an answer to many prayers.


The messages that Bro. Joe Ahire gave us were challenging - all about us being true worshippers of God - but not just singing songs and clapping our hands - to live out lives of complete surrender to His holiness.   With all the challenges that Mukti has gone through over the years - it was clear that we were in the right place - a place where a mighty revival based on prayer had been sparked in 1905.

Part of the joy of this retreat was deepening our friendships with our new colleagues Drs. Emmanuel and Mokshaa Isukuru and their lovely son Vo-way, as well as with Sam and Lydia Ganta and the new batch of UBS students too.

Vo-way is such a joy of a boy.  He kept being passed around - and I got my turn with him too!




The problem with retreats?

They end.

And we have to come back.

But we come back all the richer.

And with a sack-full of joy.

This year's 'Talent Show' was some much needed laughter therapy for us. 

The Thane Eichers did their part too with a sketch where repolling was ordered for Jeevan Sahara Kendra - leading to all the main candidates showing up and asking for votes:
 

Who needs an asli Kejriwal, Sonia or Modi when we have our own versions! 

Retreat

We are in retreat.

Not retreating - but spending time together and with the Lord - to be refreshed and renewed.

Last night we had our first Jeevan Sahara Kendra staff awards night.  It was a time of much laughter and joy (I got the coveted "stuck to the computer with fevicol" award).  Nathan and Marise hosted us all at their home (we had 27 awards for staff and interns - so you can see that we are really growing!).

Anil Edwards giving Peter Chettiar one of the coveted awards amidst much laughter

Today we are at the JSK centre for the day with bro. Joe Ahire who is ministering to us on the theme of 'Behold I make all things new.'  Then this evening we all clamber into a bus and drive off to the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission where we will continue our retreat tomorrow and on into Sunday.

We finish off by driving over to Daund (30 mins away we are told) where our long-serving staff member Daniel Kautikkar is getting married to Yerusha.  We are looking forward to the new couple joining us at JSK next month.  Yerusha is a nurse - and we have been praying for nurses for years!

Looks like we will have at least 28 awards to give next year!

Nothing like a good chicken biryani to get the conversational juices flowing!  Agnes, Shanti, Lydia and Sheba talk things over

Marise gives a beautiful mini concert for those who lingered on till the end...