Broken

Gentle readers. We are dealing with a computer at home that does not work. Not quite like the unfortunate machine in the pic, but functionally the same.

Our blog has stuttered a bit in the last few weeks - one from the sheer bliss of holiday - two from the back-log of work waiting on return (including a camp at Pune 2 days after coming back) and finally the dear computer packing up.

Will try to keep updated, but we are at the mercy of technology (to a certain extent at least). Cheers!

Postcards from Paradise

The silence is like a weight. So still. A rustle of leaves as the wind blesses the trees outside.

Landour, Mussoorie. Shanti Kunj. Our home for a soul-enriching 2 weeks.

All the more fun as Asha and Enoch were along with us to give us new eyes to explore and enjoy the place!

You just cannot beat a view like this out the huge windows that line the upper and lower floors of Mum and Dad's home. I had to pinch myself to make sure it was real.

But we did not only gaze out at the view over cups of coffee - we went. Almost every day was a picnic somewhere. One day Fairy Glen (below) another Mt. Hermon flats, once over to Library Bazaar, till we finally went up Flag Hill on our final day. We are very proud of our little hikers (with minimal complaints from them!).
It was great to have Joanna (Sheba's sister Sarah's daughter) along with us 10 days. What a treat for the cousins to be together (and for us all!).
Post cards from paradise. A taste of what is to come.

Extreme Multi Drug Resistant TB

I am not afraid of HIV. I know that since Sheba and I are faithful to each other - and we take simple but effective steps known as universal precautions in the health care setting that we are safe from contracting HIV.

TB is an entirely different matter.
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It spreads in the air by droplets. It can be present in a closed room for upto 36 hours after a person has coughed in it.
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It is very common in our dear land of India. And very common among our friends with HIV.
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TB is often untreated, or poorly treated. The former leads to death. The latter to death as well - but in the mean time brings about multidrug resistant TB. Today's world has a 3 new letters that spell fear: XDR - extreme drug resistant TB - tuberculosis that is shown to be resistant to all the 4 or 5 basic medications used in TB treatment.
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We have a lady who has multidrug resistant TB. She may be our first known XDR case. Its our dear 'Mrs. Candy'. Today her culture and drug sensitivity reports came back. She is resistant to all 5 basic medications used to treat TB. She is still sputum positive despite twice having taken the full course of the meds.
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What can we do? To replace each drug will mean costs over over Rs. 200,000 per year. Plus the many potential side-effects and the rigorous monitoring that this entails. In South Africa, people with TB are put in hospitals - and not allowed to leave until they are sputum negative. Some of the hospitals have become jails. Mrs. Candy doesn't even have a home. For her a jail would be a kind of a blessing - with some meals and a set of walls around her.
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Please pray for Mrs. Candy. We are about to start her on the basic re-treatment course again - as we do not have other options at this point. We consulted our colleagues at SHALOM Delhi about a government scheme to put known MDR patients on second-line TB therapy for some months and then send them back to their homes to complete the 2 year treatment. Dr. Saira Paulose told us that everyone they sent to the place left against medical advice soon after going there - thus defaulting on their treatment. In discussing the matter with our colleague , Dr. Adam, he said that 20% of people on retreatment do manage to overcome the bacteria even in multi-drug resistant settings. Its not a high number, but its all we have for Mrs Candy at this point. That and the power of prayer.
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Pray for us too. If we inhale Mrs. Candy's XDR TB bacilli - and they manage to colonise us too - then we have the same set of treatment options open to us. Pray for each staff member who is exposed to these dangers everyday. We do what we do for love - because our Lord Jesus did it for us in the first place - but need strength and hope to carry on.
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Macrophages and tuberculosis bacteria. Macrophages are among the most important defense protection of the body. Tuberculosis bacteria however "hide" in the macrophages and are thus able to survive. (Image: MPI for Infection Biology/Volker Brinkmann) For more info, click: here

Premila

Premila celebrated her birthday yesterday. She has now spent half of her life so far in the US - after the bulk of the first half being in India. Here's looking at you Sister! May God grant you many more circles around the sun - and may each one of them be far sweeter than the previous spins!

Tomorrow Premi leaves the US, having spent the last few years in Boise, Idaho. Premi will head over to the UK to attend a residential experience in inner healing and deliverance at the Ellel Ministries in N. England. In early July she will be coming out to India and helping out Mum and Dad in their ministry with Ellel.

I am proud of my sister - of the positive choices she is making in her life.

At the beginning of this year we looked back at our extended family and marvelled at the wonderful changes that took place in Peter and Yashmeet's life. They now see their stay in Kenya primarily as being there to help others know God better - rather than being the Africa representative for a large immigration consultancy. Seeing what God did in their lives we have been praying for similar changes in our lives - and in the life of Premi. We cannot be bound to the past. Life is too short.

Its an exciting time for all of us Eichers and the Thane branch of the family are all looking forward to when we can meet up with Premi!.

Take these broken wings

and learn to fly again

learn to live and love so free

and when we hear the voices sing

the book of love will open up for us

and let us in

- Mr. Mister

Retreat

We experienced a small taste of paradise over the weekend - our annual Jeevan Sahara staff retreat - and by far the best yet.

With families we made up 20 adults and 7 children. We were well and trully away - in the pristine surroundings of the Satyagiri centre for training and retreat, run by the Dominican order in the small town of Igatpuri.

We chose the theme of "The Joy of the Lord is my Strength" and found a thread of joy running through the weekend together.

Dad was our main speaker - and he shared about the need for all of us to be clean vessels in the Master's hands. How as we help others, unless we ourselves are made pure from the muddyness of past and present sin, healed from the hurts and wounds we have received, and delivered from any bondages we may be under - we will not be able to experience the joy of service and see others freed and restored.

The joy of the Lord demands that we are right with Him. And what a beautiful set of opportunities with stirring worship, times of prayer and asking forgiveness - and lots of meaty input from the Word.

It was a joy to be lead in worship by Trevor Ross - and to express our devotion to our sweet Lord in song and praise.

We didn't neglect the outdoors either. On Sunday morning we had an 'Emmaus Walk' - splitting up in pairs and talking about things - with Jesus walking along side us as the third in the party. Our wanderings led some of us up the nearby hills, while Sheba and Lata (accompanied by our daughter Asha and Jaya's daughter Stuti) went down to the nearby lake on their walk.

There was a lot of laughter too. Had to be if our dear Hoofriz Ross was around! Around cups of tea old jokes were pulled out from cold storage. A constant click of cameras kept us well documented and the kids had a ball playing, running around, turning one of the rooms into their own play-house.


The evening saw us show-case the various talents available. Everyone participated in at least a small way - with songs and skits taking the lion's share of the talent on display. The Eichers upheld their thespian tradition with a short play illustrating some of the points Dad shared about earlier in the day - how many of us are carrying burdens that we really don't need to - and how quickly the Lord is able to take the burdens on Himself - if we are willing to!

We also saw some beautiful dancing, another side of Giri Nayak - namely side-splitting mimes! - and a poem written and read out by Adam Black.

The Sunday morning saw two moving experiences. In Dad's last session he encouraged us to make a list of un-dealt-with sins, as well as a list of hurts in our lives. We then had an opportunity to symbolically pin these to a cross and give them over to the Lord. The lists were then burned. It was a deeply touching time - and brought deep joy to us all.

We then had a time of washing each others' feet and celebrating the Lord's supper together. It was very humbling and moving to have my feet washed by my dear brother Sanjeev - and a great joy to be able to wash the feet of my brother Oliver. There were many tears of joy and emotion as we did this service to each other. And the joy during the breaking of the bread was palpable.

Before we knew it, we had already reached Sunday afternoon. But the Retreat was not over yet.
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We had purposively chosen Igatpuri as our venue for the retreat because of our close co-working with the Purnatha Bhavan centre for women and children infected and affected by HIV which OASIS runs.
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A quick visit there was a blessing to us all. What a delight to see the dedication of the staff, the changes in the lives of the children and women, the amazing hand-crafts that the ladies are doing. We were also able to spend some time with the staff sharing our own challenges and praying for each other. It is so valuable to see how God is using others for His kingdom. We are proud (in the good sense) of the work that Purnatha Bhavan is doing.
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We left the Retreat with the Joy of the Lord a deep reality for each one of us. We are proud of our JSK team. Each member is very valuable. This retreat brought out again how important each one of us are for the work of the Kingdom. It also showed us that we must constantly growing deeper and going farther in God. What a privilege to be on this pilgrim journey together!

Post-Retreat Blues

A constant challenge after experiencing a wonderful Retreat is the jarring knock of the day-to-day grind afterwards. We were really refreshed by our weekend in Igatpuri - like the rose above - but when you get back to life in the trenches it all seems far away.

Which is exactly what the enemy of our souls wants to have us think. 'Its all a mountain-top experience' 'Its not real' etc.

Well it was real. It is real. And will continue to be real. The truth of hope, forgiveness and life that we heard and experienced is more real than the hard knocks each day gives us. Thats why we go on retreats - to remind us of the deeper reality that lurks beneath our often slightly soiled (and sometimes positively filthy) days.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Eicher Emmanuel Mennonite Church

In the US state of Iowa stands the Eicher Emmanuel Mennonite Church.

Its roots go to a certain Benjamin Eicher who left the Amish community in 1874 along with others who founded this church - and eventually joined the Mennonite Conference. A short account of this can be seen: here. The gist of it being a pithy reminder by a fellow Amish bishop: "a minister should wear clothing that would show people he was a minister, not a banker." The offending clothing? Round buttons instead of eyes and hooks (like what ladies use today for their Punjabi outfits).

Of course, there would have been so much more than just whether our distant anscestor wore buttons or hooks. The fabric of relationships, the willingness to submit or challenge, the constant balance between individual conscience and the tugs of pride in each of our souls.

To leave a church is no easy matter. Our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters may look askance at the proliferation of small fellowships ("ecclesiastical communities" as the current incumbent of the Holy See calls us) , but the great value in this is based on the conviction that we must obey our conscience, especially when guided by scripture. Time also winnows out losers. In order to continue, a church must be more than just a personality (which I am sure Benjamin Eicher had plenty of), but must also be a living community that worships and grows together.

I don't know much about the Eicher Emmanuel Mennonite Church. We know about it through a distant relative of ours - Tom Eicher - who wrote to us recently. He had stumbled upon this blog and wanted to know if we were related. We figured out that my great-grandfather and his grand-father are cousins.

But what we do know is that each generation has to rediscover - and re-be church. We cannot just inherit a building / pattern of worship / set of rituals. We must ourselves plunge into what it means to worship God together as community - and be His hands and feet. We may end up very different from our parents "ecclesiastical community" - but one day this current set of splinters will all be washed away in the massive roar of praise around the throne of glory - and I suspect that there will be folks there who have round buttons as well as eye-and-hooks!