Wings

Hooray for the aeroplane!

In a few hours we will be joined by some of our favourite people on earth - Sheba's older sister Daisy and her husband Ramesh and their daughter Frankincense ('Frankie'). We love them so much, but this will be the first time they are visiting us in Thane - because they live half way around the world in Arizona.

What makes it possible to traverse half the globe in a matter of hours? That gleaming sign of high technology - the fixed-wing, jet-propelled aerocraft.

This 7 day period has given us already two amazing visitors - and Daisy and party will be the third - all possible because of inter-continental jet-speed travel.

Last Friday we were joined by the amazing Richard Phillips. An areoplane delivered this dear friend (sadly without his luggage) at our place in Thane. The 9 hour flight from Heathrow spanning what used to take 6 months by ship. Richard is an old friend from Taylor University - an amazing Irishman whose parents were pioneer church-planters in their own green and beautiful land. Richard continues the family legacy having served with his wife Wendy in Uganda and Zimbabwe - as well as serving God in the marketplace through Dell computers.

Currently one of the hats Richard wears (besides being father to 10 year old Zeph) is the CEO for ACET Ireland - a remarkable charity that does AIDS Care and Educational outreaches in Ireland. Wendy and Richard have been link people for a number of AIDS Care programmes in Zimbabwe under the banner of the Matilda Project which has touched the lives of hundreds of people in Zimbabwe.

It was so wonderful just to have Richard in the flesh in our living room. Drinking chai. Talking. Listening. Bliss. I kept scratching my head, amazed to know that it was actually happening. That Richard had managed to squeeze in 2 days on his way to Hyderabad to meet with other ACET International leaders this week.

Good things keep getting better. On Tuesday we were blessed with a visit by Rabi Maharaj.
This remarkable Trinidadian (of Indian origin of course) has traversed the globe - covering 120 countries and 600 college campuses so far. Rabi's message is simple - he knows and loves to share about who Jesus Christ is to him.

The story of the first part of his life has been well written in his book "The Death of a Guru". Rabi was once worshipped by others - as he shared with us this week - but was empty inside. His pockets and drawers were bulging with donations that his devotees brought to him as diksha - but he knew that he was hollow for all the mystical experiences that he had gone through. But then he realised the wonderful truth of who Jesus is and how much Jesus really loved him, Rabi had to do something that he was not used to - he had to humble himself and worship another.

Despite having been through 3 gruelling flights from California to Minnesota - and then to Amsterdam - and then out to Mumbai - despite arriving at 3 am after this marathon on wing - Rabi seemed fresh as a daisy.

Rabi is aging well - its almost impossible to make out his age from the outside - but it is his inner freshness and delight in sharing from the Bible that take you aback. Relying on the Holy Spirit to guide him, Rabi shared over the course of the day - hitting so many of the areas that we needed to be reminded about: our amazing inheritance in Christ - being called as a royal priesthood - how important it is for us to be in unity with each other - and how this is such a vital testimony - how much trouble we can spare ourselves by trully esteeming each other as better than ourselves. The day was a rich feast of ideas, shared passionately and with an amazing set of anecdotes and insights from across the world to back them up. An added bonus was Rabi's son Franklin - who is starting his last year of high school - and brought a sharp intelligence and empathy with him on his first trip to India.

And so we get back to the countdown to Daisy, Ramesh and Frankie's visit to us. The welcome poster is being made by Asha and Enoch. Brownies have been baked. A day has been set apart to meet them at the airport and whisk them down to Mumbai to see the Gateway of India. Expectations are high. We are waiting for our loved ones to be jetted from Delhi and deposited through the wet rainy sky to Mumbai airport and into our lives.

Wings. Amazing fixed-wing aeroplanes. Facilitators of so many relationships. Knitters of the Global village. The Global now.