Two women

Wednesdays are our Jeevan Sahara staff review meetings - and the first Wednesday is the day we talk about what we did over the previous month.

There are so many stories to tell, but let's listen in on the lives of two women.

Annie Haokip was sharing about her home-based care team's experience.  She told us about two widows that her mini-team of her and Dipika Das have been giving home-based care too.  Both of the ladies in question are HIV.  Both have been physically sick for a very long time.

One lady - we will call her Mrs. Tarala - was admitted at our JSK centre 3 times.  She lives around the mountain in a place called Mumbra.  In an appartment with many family members, but none to help her other than her teenaged children.  Everyone else had nothing to do with her.  Our staff and volunteers from our church started to help. 

And help they did.  Over the past few months our folks became family to Mrs. Tarala and her 3 semi-adult children.   At one point they even did plumbing as the toilet had been damaged and no one was willing to help.  Most of the time it was caring for Mrs. Tarala who was bed-ridden.  The TB of the brain that she had been suffering meant that her quality of life was pretty poor.  But she was loved.

In the last days before she died last week, our staff and interns visited her every other day.  We know that though her life has slipped away, every loving and caring input that she recieved from the JSK family and church volunteers brought a smile to King Jesus' face - even as he shed his tears for the deep sorrow that Mrs. Tarala went through. 

Annie shared about how challenging it had been to look after Mrs. Tarala - but how glad she was for the opportunity to do so, especially over the last month as Mrs. Tarala faded.

Annie also talked about Mrs. Indu. 

Mrs. Indu had tuberculosis.  And when she was admitted at JSK just over 2 years ago, we found out that it was a multi-drug resistant TB that she was suffering from.

After being discharged from Jeevan Sahara, our home-based care team followed her up in her home.  It was hard for Mrs. Indu to take her medications.  She was skinny and the MDRTB meds were many.  Daily injections for 8 months.  Multiple doses every day for 2 years.  She seemed so sick.  I thought she would give up.  And so did she, but our team continued to meet and encourage her, cajole her, wheedle her back to taking her meds.

Last month Mrs. Indu successfully finished her 2 year course of medicines.  She used to weigh just over 30 kgs.  She has gained an amazing 20+.  Annie and Dipika now have the happy task of encouraging her to mind her weight!  Mrs. Indu also worships at a local church and has started work again.

Where would Mrs. Indu be without the love and care that our Annie and Dipika and others have poured into her.  In a word: Dead.   We are so grateful for how she has received various forms of shalom into her life.

Two women.  Both lives touched deeply.  One alive, the other alive in our memories.  Both blessed. 

Two women.  Who go out daily to help people with HIV.  We are grateful for Annie and Dipika - and the other 4 home-based-care mini-teams who are serving the 200 odd HIV positive friends that Jeevan Sahara has the privilege of working with.

Happy days in chemo-land - and on the other side of the subcontinent!

It's been a while since fingers have tapped keyboard in the Eicher home - and not because nothing has been going on...

Once again, the wonderful ferris-wheel of life we are on has made another turn for us Eichers.

Dad started his 2nd round of Chemotherapy yesterday.  His oncologist delayed the start by a week, since Dad's neutrophil count was low, but when it gradually inched up it was all systems go and Dad was back to Room No. 512 - the very first one that he had been admitted to in Bethany hospital - for a 1/2 day procedure.

We have got to the point now where I drop off Mum and Dad at Bethany in the morning and pop in around noon to see how the drip is going.  By 3 pm Dad is normally back home.

Yesterday was a bit longer as Dad's feet are swollen - and the doc wanted to do an ultrasound on the feet to see if there was some deep vein thrombosis.  None seen - so Dad has a course of injections and today the feet did look slightly less swollen (or is it my hopeful spectacles that I am wearing).

The surprising thing at this moment - and we are living in a minor age of surprises - is that while Mum and Dad are peacefully sleeping in their room - and Yohan is asleep in the front room, and I am obviously tapping the old keys at 10.29 pm on a Thursday night...  Asha, Enoch and Sheba are on the other side of the country in Vishakapatnam, Andhra Pradesh!

Well, we are all about as surprised as you are in some ways.

Truth be told, we had more or less accepted that after a happy decade of summer departures from Thane during the kid's vacations, we thought that this summer we would be largely here.

For one, Dad's condition was very unclear, and with chemo starting up, we wanted to be around to help if needed.

And secondly, when we went to the authorities to ask for permission to have Yohan come up to Mussoorie with us, we got a big fat 'no.'  Hard to take, of course, but there you have it.  The wheels of the law grind slowly, and they grind very finely.

So, we thought this is it.  We are here and lets make the best of it.  A small outing was held for Asha and her friend Jemima - with Sheba taking her up to Lakhnadon in Madhya Pradesh to be with Dr. Chering Tenzing at the mission hospital there, and me going up there a few days later to pick up our two young ladies.   Enoch, in the meantime had almost a week with his dear friend Mark - football, swimming, PS2 (I think I got that right) - almost 24x7.

Enoch and Mark share a few last thoughts before Enoch is whisked back to Thane in the Papaya

But then on Monday evening we had the thought. Sheba's older sister Daisy and family were coming to India after a longish time to be with her husband Ramesh's ailing mother in Pondicherry.  First port of call was a 2 week long stop at Amma and Appa's place in Vishakapatnam.  Asha and Enoch's school only starts on June 9th.  What if....

It seemed impossible, but we tried to book train tickets for the morning of the 3rd... and hooray + thank you Jesus!  we got them.   And so our happy three arrived in Vishakapatnam at 11 this morning and have already been feasting on fish and prawn curries and having multiple conversations!

How I wish Yohan and I could be with the merry throng at "Jeba Villa" - the house that Amma and Appa built in Tungalam - a small village outside Vishakapatnam during the years they were working in Rourkela.

What makes this visit special is that it really is the first time that we are getting any time with Shofar, the youngest of all the cousins (Yohan may be the newest, but he is still at least 11 years old).  We did get a heart-breakingly short glimpse of the family last year, but now is the time for the cousins to really get to know each other a bit more.

And so here we are - on opposite coasts - seperated by a 28 hour train ride - but rejoicing that this beautiful window of opportunity did open up - and we were able to jump through it: three of us 'in the flesh' and the rest of us who are back in Thane doing it vicariously!

Happy days in chemoland - and on the other side of the sub-continent.

God is very good to us. 

Thursday... not quite Chemoday

Last night we met an oncologist.

We were all in the building.  It was Bethany Hospital's celebration of Nurses Day - and Jeevan Sahara Kendra was asked to perform a skit which we did with aplomb - a small number skit on loving your neighbour (complete with 'run-4-AIDS' activists, a politician and a news crew).   Dinner was served to all and sundry after the programme - just as Dad's appointment rolled around at 9 pm.   I managed to get Dad a quick bite before it was time to walk up to the first floor for his appointment.

Dad's stand in oncologist (Dr. Bakshi is out of town for a week or so) looked at the blood report from yesterday morning and told him that we would not be starting Dad's second round of chemo... yet.

Dad's blood count is lower than the oncologist was happy with - and so he has asked Dad to wait for another 2 days to see if the counts go up a bit.  So we did not admit Dad for his next round of chemo today... instead, he was back at home, waiting.

We will doing another complete blood count tomorrow - and if the levels are a bit higher, will start the second cycle of chemo on Saturday morning.

Each day is a new challenge.  And a new joy.

As the Bible puts it:  
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Minnie

She was in jail for 3 years.  She seems to be 20 years old now.  Why she was put in is not clear.  We will call her 'Minnie.'

Sheba got a call while she was in Madhya Pradesh by a social worker from a church which has an active and patient ministry in a number of jails across Mumbai-land.   Sheba has been to the local jail in Thane with social workers from this church-based organisation when a women's wing was opened up last year.

The request was whether we could have Minnie at JSK. 

Apparently, the authorities suddenly decided to release her.  Three years into her imprisonment - and suddenly she was told to go home.

But it seems she does not have a home.

Our friends took Minnie to two or three addresses that she claimed were of her relatives.  The people who were met at each place denied knowing anything about Minnie.  Heart-breaking stuff.  Someone is not telling the full truth.  On one hand there is every possibility that Minnie's relatives wanted nothing to do wither her.  On the other hand, she may not be fully clear about where she is from...

In any case, our friends were stuck and asked if we could help out at JSK.   So when Sheba came back from Madhya Pradesh, the social workers and Minnie were waiting for her at our centre.

We decided to do some HIV counselling and testing and let her stay the night at the JSK centre.

This morning the result was a happy 'negative.'  Good for Minnie, but it also means that we really cannot keep her at the JSK centre as we are focussed on people who are working through their HIV challenges.

When the dear folk from the organisation came by to pick up Minnie they were astonished.  They met a different Minnie, one who joyfully told about how one of our nurses had massaged her, about how she was included in the morning staff prayers - she literally jumped on her bed as she shared her experience at JSK.

The social workers who had brought her were dumb-founded to see the change in Minnie.  They literally cried.  These women who faithfully go to the jails and work with the prisoners and undertrials - how often do they see changes take place?

Seeing Minnie's change of heart re-challenged our friends to seek humane places for Minnie's next steps of rehabiliation.  The thought of taking her to the remand home was thankfully scrapped - and renewed efforts are on to see what can be done for her.

Will you say a prayer for this young woman?

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As Sheba was talking to the social workers, she asked about an African woman who Sheba met last year at the Thane prison.  The lady was Positive and Sheba wanted to know what her condition was.

The social workers told her that the authorities had released this woman.  Good news of course.  But then the heart-break.  The woman had been in jail for 3 years.  

Three years of her life were spent in Mumbai prisons - only for her to be set free as the trial fell apart.  Apparently this lady had a business where she brought in suitcases full of hair from her native country to India - and then stocked up with baby items on the way back.   Her business paid for her flying in and out as well as gave her a livelihood.

Except that some local NGO accused her of being a prostitute.  She was arrested.  And spent 3 years in jail.   And to top it off she is positive too.

Sheba asked the social worker to put us in touch with this lady.   

It's not been a good fortnight for justice in our country  - but there will come a day when everyone gives account for what they did... and did not do! 

Come Lord, quickly.

End of a cycle

This week Dad finished the end of his first cycle of chemotherapy.   3 doses - given each Wednesday at the Bethany Hospital. 

Admission on the morning of the dose.  The drip into his port.  Then the medication is given - with the nurses taking utmost care not to introduce any infections.  Think universal precautions cubed.

A few hours of rest and then a discharge.  

Of course - at all times, Dad keeps up with making sure that everyone feels special.  This week was the first that he was not on the 5th floor - and so he had a whole new world of nurses, ward aides, doctors, other patients and relatives to get to know.  The man sharing his room was 96 and with advanced cancer.  I did not get to meet this man, but hope Dad was able to reflect some light into his life. 

With our home so close, I can pick Mum and Dad up from the hospital in the Papaya and be back in almost no time.

Lots of tender-loving-care at home of course.  And then on Tuesday morning a blood test.  The results are ready by evening and then we have a night appointment with Dr. Bakshi.  Each time we met him, he was pleased with the lab reports and so gave a thumbs up for the next dose the next day.

We have done this 3 times now - and completed our first cycle.   5 more cycles lie ahead.

By God's grace Dad has not suffered any clear side effects from the chemo.  He burps alot, but that is mainly due the the 'replumbing' done after his major tumour resection.  

But then on Wednesday night he did not sleep well - and had diarrhoea yesterday.   A reminder again of his weakend immune system.  We prayed and gave metrogyl.  By noon to day he is a lot better.

And he has also been gaining back some of his weight.  Between his 2nd and 3rd doses, we got a whole kilo more of Dad!

The blessed normalcy of it all has meant that Sheba was able to go last Saturday and drop Asha and Jemima off at Lakhnadon Christian Hospital in Seoni Dist.   Enoch has been with his friend Mark (Drs. SP and Vanita Mathew's son) in Dahisar since Monday morning.  That left a fairly quiet house - with Mum and Dad and Yohan and myself making up the resident family.

But trust Mum to think up a project.

While Sheba was away, Mum scouted for some plants.  And Yohan by her side, went out and bought them and a bunch of gardening stuff.  And remodeled our windowsill garden - with the able help you young Y!

The upshot is that we now have a whole bunch of flowers in our front room - and smiles to match!

So when Sheba walked into our home on Tuesday afternoon (having gone straight over to JSK from the train station as there were patients waiting for her) she got a lovely surprise by the our flower-meister and her willing chela.

Tomorrow sees me pick up Enoch from Dahisar (after watching him play some football as he is in a coaching camp with Mark till 10.30) and then I head to the station myself to take the train to Jabalpur and pick up Asha and Jemima.

One of the great gifts of cancer is the sharpness of focus it brings on life.   Obviously on Dad's life, but on each of our lives that wa are living.

I recently picked up a book that I am sure I must have read eons ago, but is still very fresh - The Savage, My Kinsman by Elizabeth Elliot.  It's the story of how she and her daughter and two other widows of the 5 young missionaries who died in the jungle began living with the group of people whom they had wanted to contact and share the love of Christ with.

In the foreword, the legendary photographer Cornell Capa talks about meeting Elizabeth Elliot and asking her about her own faith and her husband's violent death:

I wondered how Betty could reconcile Jim's death at the hands of the Aucas and the Lord's apparent failure to protect him from them. 

Her answer came back without hesitation: "I prayed for the protection of Jim, that is, physical protection. The answer the Lord gave transcended what I had in mind. He gave protection from disobedience and through Jim's death accomplished results the magnitude of which only Eternity can show."

Which act of obedience does God want of me today?  Tomorrow?   What about you?

Let's not keep any debt pending - except the constant and overflowing debt to love - which we can joyfully keep repaying all of our days.

One cycle is over.   The next begins soon.  Let's not waste precious time...

Love lived out... in many ways

We met Dr. Ashish Bakshi this evening and he said that Dad is all set for his third dose of chemotherapy tomorrow.  The blood tests are what can be expected for a person on chemo - WBCs 'low', platelets 'low'  but not disatrously so.  Dad has a healthy appetite.  We think he gained a whole kilo from last week.  A certain ice-cream cake has been dissappearing from the fridge (more on the cake later). 
The short and sweet of it is that Dad is well enough for his next dose of chemo - which brings us to the end of round 1 - of 6!   Thanks for all your prayers.  Dad seems to have taken doses 1 + 2 really well, and we hope and pray that dose 3 will be more of the same.

It's been an interesting few days since Sheba and Asha (and Asha's friend Jemima) scooted off to Lakhnadon on Friday night.   Enoch was here with us for the weekend and played 'caps cricket' with Yohan (one of the games he has invented with his collection of fizzy-drinks caps).



Having discovered that you can watch the Indian Premier League on streaming internet for free - we have had our share of cricket matches being seen by young E.  The caps game has inticrate rules and eleborate scoring - which both boys go in for with glee (and which sounds like a constant low-level squabbling to the untrained ear).

Sunday evening was wonderful - and a bit wierd.  With Sheba and Asha away - we celebrated a birthday - of our dear Jasper Gabriel.   We are normally up in the cool of Mussoorie - so have not celebrated it much over the years - but with John being out of town for most of this week, the family came over for some festivity - and to be with Oma and Opa too.

Enoch and Yohan did their bit in getting the premises ready for the big bash:













Could we really have had 12 years go by since we welcomed Jasper into this spinning world of ours on the 13th of May 2003?



What a lovely young lady she has become!

It is a special joy to see someone flowering into personhood when we have been with her at every stage of her life so far.

Today we see a confident and sensitive person who has the world at her feet.

'Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart' was our prayer for Jasper - and for all of us.  As we shift our eyes away from what are often cheap thrills - and draw deep from the Lord Himself, how much our cup flows over.

And how much our cup flowed over with the joy of having John and Nalini with us for the evening.


One of the many lessons that Dad's cancer teaches us is that simple basic (and so, so often forgotten) one of just how valuable each person is - and how precious our relationships are.

Over and over again I have wondered at the deep outpouring of love that so many have for Mum and Dad.  What is striking that it is both from people who go back 40+ years with them - and also folks (like the entire nursing team from the 5th floor of Bethany Hospital) who have just gotten to know them recently.

A wonderful heritage of love.  And a testimony to how God has been shaping Dad and Mum over the years - so that during the times of trial, what spills out of them is love.

Talking to Dr. Stephen Alfred earlier this afternoon, he told me that in Dad's recent minor surgery to install the chemo port, they had put a sheet over Dad's head to keep any infection from entering the site of the insertion.  While this sheet was covering Dad, Dr. Stephen asked him whether he was uncomfortable with the sheet on - and Dad responded that he was thinking of the people in Nepal who had been trapped in the rubble - the many who died and the many, many who were wounded.


Mum continues to be a solid rock.

Despite age and the heat (somewhat modified, of course by having the AC on in their room in the nights and some afternoons) - and despite all the challenges she is going through - this is one determined German lady. 

But Mum is also one who is able to adapt to things.  "In acceptance is strength" is what she told me a number of times recently.  Accepting when things don't turn out exactly like we want them to.  A valuable lesson for us all to learn.

Mum loves flowers, of course.  And delights in seeing beauty around her - esp as the tree next to our kitchen has ignited itself into a fire storm of red:








Yesterday morning I dropped off Enoch at his dear friend Mark's home.  Going over for the early-morning drop gave me a good excuse to have breakfast with our dear friends Drs. SP and Vinita Mathew.   Their continued generosity and joy in life are bracing tonic for us all.  Hats off to such lovely folk.  Enoch agrees whole-heartedly and has been having the time of his life for the past 2 days with them.



I will sign of with this picture.   Dad and Enoch in prayer.  Grandfather and grandson.  We wish that Dad didn't have cancer.  But are so, so blessed to have Dad and Mum with us during these days.

How much our loving heavenly Father yearns to hold us in His arms.  They are open, but are we willing.  Do we rest our head on His shoulder... or are we still running and running and trying to scrape by on our own sweat and saliva.

As Dad is sleeping peacefully tonight, we entrust tomorrow and all it entails into the hands of our loving Lord Jesus.   Tomorrow we expect more of the same - love lived out, in so many ways.

It is really, really odd to have Sheba and Asha in Madhya Pradesh, Enoch in Borivali and for Yohan and I to be with Mum and Dad here in Thane.  But we know that He who holds the future is also holding all of us in His hands.

3 ladies on a rail n road trip

Life is never dull in the Eicher household.

And sometimes the Eicher household is not all in one spot.

Like tonight for example.  At this time on Friday night we were all here in Thane.  But the next few hours changed everything. 

Last night I took Sheba and Asha and Jemima (Asha's friend) to the Thane railway station at 11.15 PM.   We had decided that morning to try and get a 'tatkal' ticket to Jabalpur for the our intrepid ladies to go and meet our dear friend Dr. Chering Tenzing - who is heading up the Lakhnadon Christian Hospital.

At 10 am we were told that Sheba's train ticket was booked and that Asha and Jemima were 6 and 7 on the waiting list.   By 8 PM their status was 3 and 4.  I was sure that their tickets would be confirmed.

They weren't. 

At 9.30 an SMS came saying that the final chart had been prepared and that Asha and Jemima's tickets were still 3 and 4 on the waiting list - which meant they were invalid.  We discussed about what to do.  Should we call it all off?  Should we try and brazen it out?

We took the latter course.  We left early and parked the Papaya on the east side.  I got the ladies onto the platform and went and bought 2 unreserved tickets for the girls.  And then an hour's wait till the train steamed in at 12.50 AM.  I got the ladies in and hoped that they would get another berth at least.
The train headed off north and I drove back to the sleeping ones at home.

Sheba buzzed me at 1.30 to find out if I had gotten back home.  She said that the ticket collector had come and said that he would see if there were any other berths.   He never came back.

All three shared a berth and made it up to Jabalpur by 5 PM this evening.  There they had the joy of meeting Chering at the station.

While on the train Sheba had called up Nimmi Kerketta - one of her childhood friends from Rourkela who lives in Jabalpur.  Turns out she lives near the station and so after a rough night they had a grand welcome to Jabalpur at Nimmi's home and then Chering took them out to dinner. 

Chering is a remarkable lady.  Sheba and Chering go back to their days in the late 90s at the Christian Fellowship Hospital in Oddanchataram where Chering did her higher studies in specialising in Medicine while Sheba did Family Medicine.

We have kept in touch since then - with Chering joining Nav Jivan Hospital just as we were leaving for Mumbai in 2001 and then serving at the Herbertpur Christian Hospital near Dehra Dun.  The picture is from a time when she helped out at the Prem Sewa Hospital in Utraula.

For the past year Chering up to her eyeballs in work at the Lakhnadon Christian Hospital.  Chering writes about her life at "What Gives" - a short and pithy blog about her adventures.  One of the things Sheba told me about Chering right after we were married was that she does cartwheels.  We have watched Chering over these many years of service and are amazed at what she has been able to do.  She has a big heart - and a great laugh - and reads and thinks in 101 directions at once.  One of the reasons we want Asha and Jemima to be exposed to remarkable folks who are doing so many things which are often unseen (but not unnoticed in the Throne Room - Malachi 3.16).


At 9 PM Asha called up briefly to say that they had arrived at Lakhnadon. 

Here is to our adventurers!