Beloved kids

With Adam and Jo just about to get into the airplane and fly off to the UK on Monday, Enoch and Asha are about to lose two beloved friends: Freya and Alistair. The frolicsome twosome came over this week to spend time with our kids - and everyone enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

Asha the teacher supervised Freya's drawing (for under 10 minutes - since Freya then wanted to do something else). Duplo blocks were brought out. Colouring books coloured. Stories read. A small tea-party held. General roughhousing. House-house. The list goes on... it is marvellous what the imagination of children holds.

After a small lunch there was a time of practical cleaning with Freya and Asha in full swing. Not only did the dishes get cleaned - the floor did too (and I think the washers were also a shade cleaner by the end of it)!

Asha ended off the time with a story by Enid Blighton - Noddy - none of her hearers went to sleep - despite looking intensely comfortable!

We will all be missing Alistair and Freya (who was born here in Thane). When will our kids see them next? In their tweens? As adults? We hope much earlier.

God be w’ye

Three years have gone by. Only a moment. Only a lifetime.

Adam and Jo Black joined Jeevan Sahara Kendra in September 2005. A general practice physician from Scotland – Adam joined the JSK team whole-heartedly. This week we had a small time of thanksgiving to God for what He did through this family. A short retrospective through some of the lives of the patients that Adam touched directly (and Jo touched through her support for Adam) brought tears to the eyes.

Just one example: Sachin was a 10 year old boy who had HIV and was dying with a cancerous leg. Adam met with him when he was admitted at JSK, when he was at home in the shack his mother shared with her new husband. Adam carried Sachin in his arms and joked with him, talked and prayed with him, treated and played with him. In his final days Adam visited Sachin’s home. On asking what message Sachin had for the JSK team – the final words that Adam heard from Sachin was: “Praise the Lord.”

A few months before Sachin died his uncle brought a sapling to JSK. The tree that the municipality had planted in front of the centre had died and so we had Sachin plant this sapling in its place. It continues to grow and remind us of this brave little boy – it will also continue to remind us of Dr. Adam and his investment in the lives of many of our Positive Friends here in Thane.

Here is a picture from the tree that we gave to Adam and Jo as a small memento of their time here.

And so we have the bitter sweet task of saying good bye!

As Adam and Jo move we send them with all God’s blessings. Having come from Scotland, the family is now shifting to England where Adam will be starting up in a group practice. Jo is likely to take up more work with speech therapy. Alistair is due to start school and Freya – who was born here at Lok Hospital – will continue to grow from the cherubic child she is into what God has for her as a young lady.
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Though Adam will be returning to general practice we expect that he will continue to be involved with some of the issues that he worked with here. For one the area he will be serving has a large ethnic population from South Asia and so his Hindusthani will be much appreciated there. Furthermore, his practice partners are giving him the liberty of working two days of the week for charities, and it is quite likely that he will be involved with training different organisations in Eastern Europe and Africe (and we expect in South Asia as well), especially in issues of HIV care.
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There were many a moist eye during our small farewell for the Black family. We know that we will never forget them - and Adam told us that we will always be in their hearts too.

Only eternity knows the final value of what our lives are.

God be with ye dear friends! Go with joy and strength in the Lord – to new frontiers and ever more joy in Him!

Our JSK “mass choir” gave a rousing send off with their rendition of “Sambhal Prabhuji”

Spare a prayer

Spare a prayer for Mr. Langru.

He is currently lying in a hospital cot in the Thane Civil Hospital. Next to the latrine. With another man with him in his bed.

There is no one to look after him. The nurses have given up. They say that since no one is there with Mr. Langru there is nothing they can do.

Our staff visited Mr. Langru. They found that both the men were struggling with each other. The other man is semi-comatose and has pus from open wounds. They help pull them apart and looked after Mr. Langru. Gave him a massage. Talked to him. Sat him up.

What Mr. Langru has most is a poverty of relationships. His financial poverty is there - and his poverty of health means that he is not likely to last the month. But these are but the bitter fruit of multiple destructive decisions and situations he and others around him have made.

Is there a way out? For all intents and purposes it seems unlikely. But we must keep trying. We have seen Mr. Langru make decisions totally against what we have advised - and are not surprised to see the horrible situation he is in - but that should not - must not stop our love - in whatever way possible.

Our staff are trying to get Mr. Langru's brother to visit him and care for him. We are working with his wife - who has suffered much abuse and denigration from him. We are talking to God.

Spare a prayer for Mr. Langru.

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