Deep breath!

Its been an intense 3 weeks. As the Thane Eichers, we have experienced so much that October seems like a totally different country, a different era to us. I will try to unpack some of our experiences on this adventure called life over the next few days - but I already feel that the rush of time is hurtling us forward...

But lets make a start.

The vortex really got underway with our dear friend Jaya being admitted with terrible pain - which turned out to be from gall stones and a stone lodged in the duodenum. The process of providing care for her and the children (along with our other church members) was a cathartic one. Jaya had surgery where the other stone was discovered unexpectedly (a very rare occurrence) and so was sown up again for further tests. She has had the pain settle and has been advised further surgery in 2 weeks - but has opted to wait longer till the Christmas holidays - to see what may happen till then. We know that God heals in varied ways - and that the surgeon's knife is one of them.

Hot on the heels of all of this was the annual family-oriented camp that our group of house-fellowships organise at Khandala. This year was the first where I plunged into helping organise it - and it was a wonderful blessing.
As city-folks - when do we get to get a view like this? (pic courtesy Dr. SP Matthew).

Or when do we as a family get to sit outside on the lip of one of the amazing table tops and look out as the sun rises?

We took our sleepy kits, our Bibles and bedsheets - and happy hearts to sing and praise God on the beginning of a new day. Morning has broken indeed!

(further pics courtesy of Rajesh Yesudasan).

Besides the stunning natural beauty of creation - there was also the moving beauty of wonderful lives - broken people being mended - the power of God's word being explored and shared together - fellowship over meals - kids running around - the odd visit by troops of fearless monkeys - superb worship times - discussion groups to lead - personal prayer times - and the general good-natured chaos of a 3 day camp with 200 plus folks together.

And all of this now seems ancient history since we are talking about events 2 weeks in the distant past.

Stay tuned for an mini-avalanche of musings and experiences as we traverse the country - back to Lonavala for the JSK Positive Friends Family Bible Camp - then off to Jharkhand - then back via Rourkela (Orissa) and finally home sweet home to Thane.