Grey

I was pushing the scooter up the small hill when I saw the police jeep. It was standing next to one of the first buildings in our appartment complex.

My petrol had run out (common occurrance). I had the two packets of chicken safely on me which had taken me out early on the Sunday morning (guests for lunch). I was coming home a little winded but happy to have found a shop open and to have bought fresh tomatoes and dhania from a street-side vendour.

I saw the jeep and the policemen standing around. Some in uniform. A few plain clothes. My first thought was that they are raiding one of our well-heeled neighbours.

But as I passed by the vehicles, I looked into the back and saw two old security-men. These are old men that our buildings employ as guards. Because no one wants to pay the real wages - these men are contracted out from a 'security agency.' These agencies provide the men - usually old feeble men - who sit for 12 hour shifts to monitor who goes in and out.

I saw these men sitting hunched over in the back of the police jeep.

Their faces were grey.

Almost like the dirty grey uniform that their agency decks them out with.

My first thought was that the agency itself was getting a police sweep. But when I got to our building I asked the security-man on duty what was up.

He said that a car-stereo had been stolen during the night. These men were supposed to be on duty, but were asleep.

I felt sick. Here I was returning home with chicken, about the meet wonderful friends and then go to worship at our house-church - and here were two old men who were about to be beaten.

The methods used to 'investigate' are notorious. It is well-known that local policemen take bribes from accused to 'mitigate' their questioning.

Where are these men tonight? Are they still in the lock-up? Have they managed to cough up enough cash to be released? Has one of them 'confessed?'

Serving

This just in...

Sheba tells me that one of our partner churches in Airoli is now looking after 15 different people who have HIV.

They have 3 ladies who take time to visit these positive friends - and other church members help in other ways - through donating food and finances, through praying and encouraging.

At least 2 of the ladies who visit the homes are semi-literate at best. But do they ever have heart. And what's more - they know suffering very well from their own lives. One of these dear ladies has a widowed sister and neice who are HIV positive, as well as having lost her nephew and 2 sons-in-law to HIV. What's more - her daughter eloped and now is married to a man - and both have HIV now.

In the midst of their own challenges - this church - and these dear ladies are reaching out.

We are so blessed to be serving alongside saints like these.

Fixed

A lot of things got fixed around us at Jeevan Sahara Kendra today.

Some did not.

Some are in the process of mending.

First the things that were fixed.

1. Both the office and the clinic phones. Monsoons are superb and causing 'line problems'. Its nice to be able to pick up the phone and talk.
2. One of our office laptops that has been in hibernation for over a year.
3. The electricity at the Clinic. An internal fault meant that for most of the morning patients were seen without the power being on. Mercifully it is the monsoon so we did not get the sweat-bath it would have been in summer. After some work it was then fixed by a local electrician. As a subset of this, the inverter was also fixed.
   

Things that were not fixed

1. The Eicher laptop. Mac is sick. Does not recognise its hard drive. Tears.
2. The roads. With every rain a new pothole emerges. The road near our house is excellent - for simulating lunar travel whenever we get around to sending people to the moon. The potholes are 'being fixed' by putting large stones ('paver blocks') into them. This only allows for bigger ones to develop.

Things in the process of being fixed

1. Not a thing - a precious person. 'Winney' - a widow with two children has come for treatment. She has been having continuous diarhea for the past two years. In the last 2 days she went 24 times. Sheba admitted her this afternoon. We want to see what the cause is - and try to develop a treatment regime for her. In the evening she was already feeling so much better. Beyond drugs - there is such a healing power in love. Winney knows that it is not just the treatment we give at JSK, but also us loving her and talking to Jesus about her and asking His help.
2. Our own weaknesses. We are helping others - both at work as well as through the phone with friends who are going through tough times. But we also see our own limits so quickly. A quick retort. A harsh word. As we minister to others in their brokeness - our own limitation show up so quickly. Looking back on the day there are at least 3 times I wish I had not said what I did - or wish I had expressed it in a different tone and manner. They were not fixed immediately, but looking back I can pray about it - and go to sleep with peace in my heart.

He gives His beloved sleep

Blind

She's a teen-ager and she is blind.

Blind because of her HIV.

It isn't meant to be this way.

Not in 2010 - almost 30 years after HIV first showed up.

Not with a substantial number of different interventions that we can do to help people who are living with the virus.

But for Tami all of that is too late.

She can barely see out of her clouded eyes.

The opthalmologist says that nothing other than a corneal transplant will bring her vision back.

Tami is the home-maker in her family. Her parents died to HIV. She has two younger brothers - and one older. One is in 6th standard. One is in 2nd. One who is 20 years old and working. Tami looks after them - and lives with them in a 'room' that is 8 by 10 ft.

Early in the morning she wakes up and make food for them. Then cleans the house. Then gets them up.

Money comes from the older brother who works. Some money at least. Tami looks after the 3 brothers and the whole family lives off the older brother's income.

Its heart-breaking to see these children looking after children.

But that's the way HIV continues to work its way through the population. The brothers are negative. Tami has the disease. The virus has now affected her vision. But the deterioration was also because no one was willing to come along with her for the treatments. No one followed her up.

Tami is blind. But so are all of us. She can't help her blindness. We can. We willfully blind ourselves to everything that is uncomfortable.

Lord have mercy.

Signs of hope

We were in a room with lots of chairs. The paint was fresh on walls and the floors had been scrubbed. We were late. The final prayer was being said.

We walked into a miracle. A local church has allowed itself to be stretched - and to open itself up to people with HIV. Not just some abstract thought - but real flesh and blood people. Children and adults. People who need to be loved in deed as much as in word.

The prayer meeting was the dedication of the latest shaping of love in this church. They have rented a small flat for three children and their foster mother - all who are living with HIV.

We have seen these kids grow up before our eyes. We have seen their bitter tears. We have cried ourselves. Now two are slender adolescents - and the third is entering a new phase as she crosses 7 years old.

We have seen this church be stretched to the breaking point. We have cried with them over the challenges and setbacks over the years. The path of love has been sown with stones.

But here we were - catching the fag end of the dedication service. Everyone was sitting together. People with HIV and people without it. Young and older folks. Living out a dream of a new beginning in this great dark city.

The rains sputtered outside. The meeting broke up into thanks and small clusters of talk as the biryani made its rounds.

How grateful we are to see signs of hope. How blessed to have been a small part in a small corner of light.

Just days before the flat was a dump. Willing hands came and scrubbed. Willing knees bent and stooped. Willing pockets were opened for the deposit and the rent. Willing heads talked through the many decisions to be made. Willing hearts loved. Love made tangible. A new home for this small family of HIV - within that larger family of this church.

Would that we would see so many more of these bright spots of light shining out across the grey wetness of our cities.

Friends

She had HIV for the last 13 years.

She was a mother and active in the church.

But she did not tell anyone.

For the previous pregnancies she had gone away. Her in-laws did not know about her status.

This time she suddenly had pains. It was well before her due date, but her family rushed her to the hospital. After she was admitted a 'routine' HIV test was done. No counselling. No informing that the test was done. Just part and parcel of what it means to be admitted for anything these days in a private hospital.

The test came positive. She was asked to leave the hospital. Her in-laws were shocked. They tried in another place. Same story.

Finally they went to a government hospital. By this time she was stabilised. It turns out that the pains were false labour pains. The pregancy was not full term. But the damage has been done.

The whole church 'knows'. She has been teaching in the Sunday School. Everyone is shell-shocked.

She wants to leave. She says that she will go South for treatment. A dear friend of hers told her that treatment was available in Mumbai. "I can't deal with any more rejection".

This friend is a true friend. One that doesn't give up. Tomorrow her friend will go to meet the lady with HIV and hopefully bring her over to us for treatment. Love is not cheap. It means that we have to put ourselves in others shoes and move forward - come what may.

We hope to make friends with this dear woman tomorrow.

Speaking on Spirituality and Health

Its been a long time since we had a lego posting. So here we have some shots of Enoch's current project. He calls it a church. It certainly doesn't look like our normal house fellowship - where we meet in a small group on Sunday mornings in the home of Jolly and Suma Thomas (do come if you are in the neighbourhood!). Enoch's vision at this point seems larger.



In Enoch's lego church looks suspiciously like the public meeting called the "Great Life Series" which our group of house churches help organise on the 4th Sunday of each month.

The idea is to have a seminar open to all where we explore issues of importance from a Biblical perspective. I spoke on the topic of "Spirituality and Health" at the most recent event (2 rapid weeks ago now!).

Given that there are 74 million google hits for the two words - it was a challenge coming up with something pithy. But at the same time what a fascinating set of relationships between our spirituality and health. A review a few years ago spoke of over 1200 studies that look at religious involvement and spirituality and its correlation with health outcomes. The vast majority of the studies point to positive associations between the two. People who are religious tend to be more (insert positive variable here). The list is a laundry list: lower BP, better cardio-vascular health, quicker recoveries, less complications, better immunities (important for HIV), less alcoholism, less suicide, less depression etc.

That doesn't mean that we can take spirituality like a pill. It doesn't mean that people who are spiritually grounded will never get sick. There are some sects that teach this: Know Jesus and you will never be sick. Hardly. The apostle Paul writing to his dear friend and disciple Timothy (an early and youthful bishop) tells him to not only drink water but also some wine on account of his stomache and frequent illnesses (1 Tim 5.23).

What we do see is that in this broken world, that people of faith mend better, are sick less and live longer. Death comes to all. We fall apart. These amazing bodies have their wear and tear. But how wonderful to see the healing that does take place. The remarkable way that tissues once torn are now mended. The marvel of our immunity taking on multiple threats to our body at once. The recovery from the man-inflicted-but-necessary wound of surgery. The huge number of diseases that are efficiently nipped in the bud without our ever knowing it!

Spirituality and Faith are not primarily about getting physically better - but they sure do help.