small steps

Gentle readers who have been reading our adventures with us will no doubt be wondering if we can talk about something else other than Tuberculosis.

We wish we could - and do try to - but we see so much TB among our friends with HIV here in Thane.

A couple came on Friday. Both have HIV. He has been to the government hospitals now for the past 2 months. They have done something - checking his Cd4 count - and since it was over 200 telling him that he is 'fine.'

Whatever the government health folks have done - it is clearly not nearly enough. At JSK we try as much as possible to work with and help our Positive Friends use the government facilities. Compared to so many parts of Africa (and large swathes of our own country too) we are so privileged. At the same time, it is deeply disheartening to hear the apathy and cruelty that many of our friends with HIV have faced from the doctors and health workers at government health centres and hospitals.

This last month was terrible for our friend. He has lost 10 kgs. He keeps coughing and has no appetite, has a persistent fever and is always weak. Why no one detected this TB and started treatment on him is a sad mystery and an indictment of the way he has been treated.

When he came to meet Dr. Sheba he cried.

After discussing the situation and talking with him, Sheba prayed.

The couple came back today.

The wife could not help but tell this story. Before any medicines were given - when her husband returned home everyone was amazed - he looked so fresh and better than he had been in weeks.
They fully linked this transformation to the prayer on his behalf.

This episode is a small positive step for our friends. But even the longest journey starts with a single step.

What a privilege to be used in different ways. And what an encouragement to see pin-points of light - signs of the abundant life amidst the decay and degeneration that we see so much of.

Discharged

A few days ago Mrs. Ulema was admitted at JSK with high fever.

Mrs. Ulema was found to have TB last month. She and her husband both have HIV. She was asked to leave by her in-laws - but the couple could not find an affordable home and had to stay on.

Two days ago she had a fever of 104 degrees. We were wondering what we could do. We prayed and continued her treatment and loved her.

Mrs. Ulema was discharged this morning. We are amazed and thrilled to see her better again.

Comfortably numb

Last week a man came by.

He was afraid. He and a bunch of his friends had had a party and had visited prostitutes afterwards. They had used condoms but were very afraid. Their religious views meant that they were all teetotalers. He was their representative.

We talked about the risks he had taken. We talked about a test. We gently talked about the fact of his breaking faith with his wife. He did not want to discuss that. The main focus was on whether he could get the HIV virus or not. "I have talked to my priest and am doing the pujas" the man said. Talking with her? No way.

How many times do we sweep things under the carpet? How many elephants do we ignore in the rooms of our hearts?

This man is in all probability not going to get HIV. The statistical chances are small. But he carries around with him the unconfessed - and unhealed break of trust against his wife. Sooner or later that deep wound will make itself known. In their relationship. In the patterns of behaviours he models for his children. In the un-explained hurts that the children receive.

Here is the great secret - confession brings liberation. It may seem impossible - but God helps us. We are so stuck with fear about what will happen to us - that we postpone, delay, procrastinate until we have convinced ourselves that the issues are no longer important - or that they are unforgiveable.

An anthem of a mini-generation ago went like this: I have became comfortably numb. That's where systemic denial leaves us.

Time to give thanks - and move on

Its been 40 years since George Verwer left India. That number 40 again! Just a bit older to me - so I will not claim have 'known' him at that time.

But then again we have 'known' him and Auntie Drena his wife all our lives. Our early years of growing up in an OM family were shaped and moulded by the larger-than-life presence of George. His very name somehow had a special ring to it: "George" - you didn't even have to add a last name. As a leader his influence was immense. As a personal friend and mentor to my parents. As a visionary and motivator... he just hasn't stopped.

Today he returned to India. On Mum's birthday. Nov. 11th.

We went down to Mumbai to meet him. The journey there and back was epic. Sick kids. Tiredness - the joy of the local train - Asha vomitted on the platform of Churchgate station - Enoch provided an encore vomitting episode when we arrived back at Thane station. Full marks for Sheba and her grace to keep us going.

But here we were - at this historic opportunity to meet George. His wife Drena had also arrived - but was not feeling well and so was unable to attend the function.

What I took away from the time was this:

1. George continues his process of open learning - and inviting us all along for the journey. He speaks out and challenges others to join in living the Jesus life - and seeing his kingdom come in all areas - as it is in heaven. The raw material that George uses is the application of the Bible in his own life and in the OM movement that he has been so deeply involved with over the years.

2. George is *way* more interested in the future than in the past. I expected lots of melancholy remeniscing. Didn't get that. Some thoughts about the past - but mainly laconic - and generally underlying God's mercy. The main thrust was about what is to come. A quote he made: "I don't want to hear about the past - I am interested in the future!"

3. George's humility - and joy in preaching God's word. He continues to put in all his favorite things - challenges about how we are to be mobilised in God's vineyard - his total joy at getting good books into people's hands - his plea for love and mercy - his endless desire to see those who do not know Jesus get to know him as their friend and Lord.

All of these things bring up the basic issue. As James says - Elijah was a man like us - and he prayed and for 3 years there was no rain. Then he prayed again and it rained. Same for George. He is an ordinary man - who has allowed and extraordinary God to soak him through and through - and in the process has been used to catalyse thousands. God using the weak.

What hope there is for each one of us. Lets not stop - but keep pushing on!

TB stories

Sheba went over to the Jeevan Sahara Kendra at 8 PM tonight.

After a long time we have admitted a person. She has TB. And a high fever. She is scared.

We know Mrs. Ulema for a number of years now. She married when she was 14. Her older sister and her married two brothers. They all live in the same house. Mrs. Ulema is barely into her twenties now. She got HIV from her husband.

Now that she has developed TB the pressure at home is almost unbearable. They have told her and her husband to leave. The couple have looked around for a rental place but with the prices so high and the deposits demanded so ruinous, they are forced to continue staying with the joint family.

The pressure to 'be well' has not helped Mrs. Ulema get better. We admitted her today to care for her and love and pray for her.

(picture by Matt Scott)

We have seen amazing things happen at the centre.

Folks who were on the very edge of death pulling back and entering life.

Mrs. Ulema is not critical - but she is very sick - and needs a lot of encouragement. Reading from God's word and prayer are so vital - just as much as feeding good nutritious food, taking the right medications, and being loved and touched are. They all work together.

Earlier this evening we thought how nice it would be for her to have some music too. I got out our broken CD player, prayed a simple prayer and pressed the button... it seems to be working! Sheba took it over and said it was working when she left the place.

Tomorrow we have the challenge of Mrs. Candy. She has been started on second-line TB medications. She is not doing well. What should we do? Admit her? Send her away? If we take her - we put us and all our other patients at risk - of getting multi-drug resistant TB. If we send her away she will surely die. We are praying and agonising - and moving towards admitting her with prayer - and with a mask (which we otherwise never do) so as to reduce the risk at least a bit.

TB continues to be a harsh foe. Pray for our dear friends whose lungs are caught in the grip of this bacteria - whose immunities are unable to flush them out of the system. Pray for us as we help through medicines, encouragement and steps of love.

I am very, very proud - in the best possible way - of my dear wife who went over to look after Mrs. Ulema. Though we see much sorrow - we also know that it's a great life - and we will move forward with hope!

Back to school

Term 2 started today. Not for Sheba and myself but for our 2 little ones.

After the curiously long Diwali holidays (3 weeks - pure Bombay - nowhere else) Asha and Enoch were back in school today.

And what an epic day it was. At least the start.

Saturday saw Enoch have a colossal fall from a jungle gym in the park. He got a deep gash under his chin. Sheba contemplated taking him for stitches, but the wound did not bleed much and so cleaned it up and we did dressings.

The first day bordered on the heroic. Enoch in bed with his faithful nurse Asha hovering about. His jaw really hurt, but it gradually got better.

The head bandage then was replaced by a band-aid which gets changed and dressed regularly. We were comfortable with him starting school today.


But then there was the matter of his diarrhoea. We won't go into details, but the long and short of it was that he complained of stomache ache and vomitting sensation this morning. Should we send him or not? Every parent's dilemma.

We sent him. We prayed and told him to call us if he felt sick.

He was fine.

I remember my phantom sicknesses before school started. The new male generation seems to have the same experiences I had in the mid 70s!

George

Tireless advocate of telling everyone about Jesus. That’s what comes to mind when I think about George Verwer.

50 odd years ago, he and two of his college-going friends went down to Mexico to put their obedience to Jesus into practice. No big funds in hand – God would provide. No extensive missionary training – they were just going to do what the Bible told them. No deep nuanced theology – just a radical commitment to doing what Jesus told them. Did the Bible say ‘forsake all”? They did – taking their possessions and selling them and using to money for evangelism. That was the beginning of Send The Light – which ended up becoming Operation Mobilisation.

A few months later, this group of young people were in Europe – living together, trusting in God to provide. A young German woman met them looking for a job in their bookstore. George talked with her and found out soon that she did not really know Jesus. He gave her Billy Graham's book Peace With God in German and a Bible. Shortly afterwards she was challenged by the verse: what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul. The young woman had left East Germany with the hopes of making it big in life. She realised at that point that she was running after things that would not last – and gave her life to Jesus. She was my mother – Christa Roesli Fischer at that time – later to marry Ray Eicher.

George later had a dream to come to India. He did. The earnest groups of young men and women who started coming to India in the early 60s and were joined by others from different parts of our country were part of an experiment in group living and honouring God that has had tremendous impacts in our churches and across our nation. For many OM was their nursery – their experiment of faith – their testing ground where they learned to love God and love their neighbours (often through hard means).

George and Drena and their young children (the youngest of whom was named after my Mum) were part of the OM India experience early on – but then had to leave in the early 70s. Though his heart has always had a special place for India – his passport was not given the necessary clearance to come back for many years. Till this year that is.

On Tuesday George is due to return to his beloved India. Mumbai – the “Gateway of India” is appropriately the place where he will be entering.

The world is George's oyster. He puts in lots of miles to tell people to go out and fulfill the great commission - and keeps doing his part of the bargain too. In the last 2 months he has conducted 60 meetings around the world. I get tired just thinking about that!

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With George coming to Mumbai after such a long time, it is only right that a meeting is being organised at the Patkar Convocation Hall of the SNDT college, Churchgate – for old friends and new – to meet George and hear him share what God has put on his heart. We start with a meet and greet time at 4.30 PM and then have a time of hearing the from 6-8 PM.

This caricature was made by Graham Donald Kennedy - you can see this and more by clicking: here