Friends from other eras - still fresh!

It's not often that you get a phone call from Auntie Hazel Raine - and its even a greater joy to know that she is briefly in town and choses to come and meet you as a family!

But that is what happened on Thursday evening.  We had the joy of having a real saint - another of our living legends - come by and spend some precious time with us as a family.  Lloyd and Hazel Raine came to Bombay as missionaries in 1959.  They helped set up the Berean Bible College in Chembur and lived many a place across Bombay town and poured their lives into others.

Asha took this photo and so is not in the happy throng...

Uncle Lloyd and Auntie Hazel knew Mum and Dad from when they were young bright-eyed OMers in the mid 1960s.  One of Hazel's first memories of Dad is him showing up with 30 young men one day Lloyd and Hazel's place and expecting to be housed and fed - which they were.  And when it was pointed out to him that their dear cook was being worked to the bone, he swung into action and got the young guys pulling their weight too.

Uncle Lloyd went to be with the Lord just over a year ago.  This is the first time that Auntie Hazel has come back to India 'alone.'  But, of course she has family everywhere she goes.  People that she and her dear husband poured themselves into - and who are living lives of purpose and value... all across the country.

I remember them vaguely as they were just finishing their stint at Bombay Baptist Church and then heading out to Calcutta where they spent another 13 years of service.

Auntie told us about how the pollution of Calcutta basically finished Uncle's lungs and forced them to return to Canada to save his life... but how shortly afterwards they were convinced that they needed to come back to India.  And they did.  Without even knowing which of the 4 options they were considering they would eventually take.

And so they ended up in Hyderabad for the last stint of their service in India.  The air was better than Cal or Bom - and they faithfully lived out their love for Jesus.

Which is what brings Auntie back again for a 3 month trip over this winter.   We are so touched to be given the slice of her life she blessed us with!  Her visit was over all to quickly and she was off again to be with folks in Colaba...

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What ho!  A message on FB saying that Noel DeSouza is in town and that he would like to come over and visit us.

I can't even remember the last time we met.  Decades ago.

Noel's mother Theresa was a dear friend of Mum.  She died when Noel and his two brothers Nigel and Nathan were very very small.

Fast forward to today.  Noel is married to Pearl and has two daughters - the older one who is Asha's age.  Nathan is with him in Dubai and Nigel back in Goa.  Uncle Joeseph died a few years ago.

The three lads have survived so much.  And here is Noel - large as life with us on a Saturday morning in Thane.          

We looked back with so much thankfulness to the love and care that Mum and Dad gave at various times and in various ways.

Noel has done really well.  What a blessing to see him thrive.  While showing us photos of his wife Pearl and their daughters, we saw lots of shots of computer servers - and a picture or two of a cricket stadium.

He casually told us that he is looking after IT for the ICC.  Yes, that's the International Cricket Council - which is based in Dubai.

Enoch's eyes grew round when I told him this after Noel had left.

But his eyes - and Yohan's too - had already goggled.  Uncle Noel had come bearing gifts - and one of them was a massive box of Lego.  A huge Star Wars battle creature called an 'AT-AT' - the arrival of which meant an end to Enoch and Yohan's Saturday morning classes with Mummy - and the beginning of some serious building:

Noel and I talked about how much this toy was a blessing to us - he remembered Stefan and my collection - which I was happy to tell him is still being used by Enoch and Yohan (and their Daddy too once in a blue moon).  Those strong plastic bricks - still being used to build dreams - and play out fantasy adventures 30 years later.

Noel's visit was also over far too quickly - but he had others to meet and so we bade a regretful good-bye after a time of prayer together.  

May we meet again - and not after decades...

We may be friends from other eras - our kids may need major back-filling explanations for folks who are strangers to them - but amazingly, our relationships can still be fresh!

Future colleagues... coming right up!

"And te tide and te time þat tu iboren were, schal beon iblescet."

Got that?  It's English.  Only 800 years ago.  St. Mahrer is said to have written this in 1225 which rendered into more prosaic Victorian sounding English goes as follows: "the tide abides for, tarrieth for no man, stays no man, tide nor time tarrieth no man" (all this gyan fresh off 'the internet' of course).

Today we say "Time and tide wait for no man."

Time certainly seems slipping away.  This day is minutes from being over.  December is rushing by like a Mumbai fast local train.  2016 is peeping around the corner.

And so what looks like our immediate future.

Take a look at some of our colleagues from the next lap of life for the Eichers.

This shot was taken 10 days ago at the Harriet Benson Memorial Hospital in Lalitpur.  It was on the occasion of the Regional Advisory Committee meeting so the Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA's) North and Central Regions.  Near the centre, wearing a white shirt is Dr. Sunil Gokavi who serves as the Executive Director of EHA, next to him in the olive green shirt is Dr. Ashok Chacko who was my first 'boss' in EHA many moons ago as he was in Coordinator for Community Health when I served at the Nav Jivan Hospital in Jharkhand.

Sprinkled among the good folks in this picture are dear friends.  Vikram Tirkey, Dipak Singh, Johnson, our own dear Victor Emmanuel.  And there are folks that we don't know, but look forward to working along with.

This picture was posted by Biju Mathew who is the administrator and head of the HBM Hospital which hosted the meetings.

At present we are planning for me to start up at Lalitpur on the 19th of January (5 weeks from now!) with me going up to Lalitpur for 2 week spans during Jan, Feb and March.  After the school year ends for Asha and Enoch, we then hope to shift as a family in early April.

Lots to look forward to.  Onwards!

Mumbai as you have never seen her before

Mumbai is an amazing city. 

She calls the masses from near and far.  Those who were privileged enough to be born in her (ahem, ahem) swear by her.  Others swear at her.  But they still come.  Grudging pilgrims to money.  Village dreams drowned in the go, go, go that keeps the city pulsing.


Here is a picture of Nana Chowk today.  You can see "Elim" our childhood home just behind the lighted steps coming down from the skywalk in the lower right hand of the picture.

This clip is a shot from a beautiful short film of time-lapse photography made by Aswhin Nagpal.  Its quiet hypnotic sound track drives the images forward. 

The night shots wash away a lot of the grime - but perhaps that's what we need every now again.  To see some beauty as well as the ugliness of this great sprawl.

Enjoy.

Mumbai - A short time lapse film from ashwin on Vimeo.

A different world...

I stopped near the Turbhe station and called Abhay.  "I am here" I said, "how do I come?"

"OK" he answered "Come close to the station and take a left into the gully opposite the main gate.  I will send David to meet you."

I hung up and drove the Papaya forward another 50 meters or so.  There was the main entrance to the Turbhe local railway station on my right.  So I took a left into a tiny crowded road that entered what could be any of Mumbai's slum settlements.

Shops on both sides, some selling mobile phones, others rice and other dry goods, small hole in the wall eateries.  The narrow road made narrower by a market on both sides, hand carts laden with oranges (in season right now) and vegetables.   People and motorcycles moving this way and that.  My car moved slowly and my horn was used a number of times.

The road started to climb a hill.  I was scanning the pedestrians for David.  I saw him just as a large car coming the other way forced me over into an awkward spot.  David clambered in, I reversed out and started climbing again. Slowly.

And then I noticed that I was not in Kansas anymore.

The shops had disappeared.  There were small huts on either side.  And there were girls sitting on the stoops.  Lots of girls.  Looking out in the warm afternoon sun.  Lounging on plastic chairs.

At some undefined point we had entered into Turbhe's red-light area.

David guided me ahead.  "Take this lane.  Right here.  Straight ahead.  Left here."   We finally stopped in front of a shuttered ware house.  A small lane led to more ware house doors, men were lifting things.  I parked and we got out.

David Gurung is a part of the Manna Prayer House, an amazing ministry to women engaged in the sex trade and their children, rooted in the heart of the Turbhe red light area.

David took me down two tiny alleys and we were there.  A small door with chappals outside, the sound of singing coming from inside.  We ducked in and were in a small room with some 20 kids and a number of women, in front was an old friend of mine - Asaram K - playing the bongos and singing.

Abhay Sharma - who along with his wife Hoinu helped set up the Manna Prayer House - welcomed me with a hug.  I had been asked to share from God's word, and after some more singing, I was up. 

I shared about the disciples being in the boat, rowing in the darkness of the night, with the wind and waves against them.   What was the experience of these ladies?  I could tell some were Nepali.  One or two of the songs had been in Bengali, so I assumed that a number of them were from Bangladesh or West Bengal.  A madonna-like woman - clearly from Nepal - had a small child in her lap.   I later learned that she was HIV positive and had been started on ART. 

Sitting in the small room - with bright posters on the wall and the kids in front of me being normal kids - squirming and singing and poking each other and sleeping - what would I know of the troubles that these ladies go through?   Abhay told me afterwards that many of the mothers want the children to be at the Manna Prayer House because otherwise the kids are with them in their 'rooms' (curtain-separated cubicles) often under the mothers' beds while they service their clients.

We talked about how the disciples felt that they were alone, far from Jesus.  But that He had been on the mountain praying for them - and went out to meet them... walking on the water.   When those hardy fishermen saw Him the cried out with fear.  All they could think about was that He was a ghost.  But Jesus immediately calls out to them:  "Take courage.  It is I.  Don't be afraid."

And that's what Jesus is telling each one of us.  Be it a woman far from her home in Nepal - in the grime of a distant city selling herself and cradling her child in her lap - or a mixed up chappie with multiple blessings who has just come by for a few hours and will soon be back in the comforts of a flat with a family and love and prayers.  But the awesome truth is that we are both made by a loving Master's hands - and all of us have the amazing opportunity to be loved by the One who left heavenly glory to be born in flesh and blood.


True to their name, there was prayer.  At the end of the meeting, we prayed for a number of the ladies.  Three of them were HIV positive and are being cared for by the staff of the centre.

The picture on the right is from the Manna Prayer House website. One of the things each of us needs is to have a hand put on us and be prayed for.

After the meeting we shared a meal together.  And then Abhay took me over to the original place that the Manna Prayer House started in.  A 10 by 20 ft room, with two beds in it, a small office and big pictures on the wall of Nepal adorned with Bible verses.   This had been a brothel - and they were able to purchase it some years ago.  Today it serves as an early half-way home.  A place where ladies can take the first steps of getting out of the system. Women can come and stay there.  And some do.  For months.  Abhay told about one woman who they were able to reunite back with her family in Nepal.

It is also a place where the sick stay.  Manna Prayer House is looking after a number of women who have HIV - taking them to the govt. hospital for their ART treatment.  Jeevan Sahara Kendra ran a testing camp with them last year - a way of helping the women in the area know whether they have HIV or not.  A small step to try and help them see the value of stepping out of the trade.

Abhay opened a drawer and pulled out a plastic bag and pulled out a bunch of wooden bead bracelets and earrings.  "We welcome women to come and do something" he said "while they make these we talk with them, make friendships, pray with them."  He asked me to chose some for Asha - I took two.

In the empty room we prayed together.  I am so grateful for Abhay and his wife and the amazing single-minded love they have for the ladies around them. 

He told me that there were about 15,000 women in the trade in area.  Each room goes for about Rs. 15,000 rent per month - and the owners ask for a Rs. 5 lakh deposit.  Flesh sells.

The room they are renting for the children's centre is being given to them at Rs. 8 K per month.  No deposit.  The owner has a soft heart for them.  They are using the place to the maximum.

Walking through the lanes with Abhay was surreal.  Here he is making a friendly comment to almost all the women sitting in front of their doors.  The ladies are in a line, sitting on plastic chairs, combing and oiling their hair, basking in the late afternoon sun, listening to songs and playing with mobiles, chatting or playing cards, looking languidly through a peddlers wares of small children's clothes.  I was struck again with just how massively strange it is to have this area so completely different from where we live.  Almost a parallel universe.  A place which I don't want to even believe exists - but is just a 45 minute drive away from our home.

It was getting to late afternoon when I headed out.  The first costumers were arriving.  A young man walks by - a woman with a neon bright shirt takes him away.  Another group of women are chatting when a man walks up.   I look away. 

Many many years ago, a wise man wrote this about a similar situation:

I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men,
    a youth who had no sense.
He was going down the street near her corner,
    walking along in the direction of her house
at twilight, as the day was fading,
    as the dark of night set in.

Then out came a woman to meet him...  (Prov. 7.7-10)

Today a number of churches across Mumbai held a "Mumbai AIDS Sunday."  Different congregations prayed and asked God to touch people suffering from HIV, challenged each other to reach out and care for those in need, prayed that the spread of HIV would slow down even more, asked Jesus to break our hearts by the things that break His....

Abhay and Hoinu and their colleagues at Manna Prayer House are living out these prayers.  We are so, so thankful to God for them.   Eternity will see the impact of their lives.

Fits and starts

Epilepsy is a mystery.

What actually happens inside the mind of a person having an epileptic seizure.  We are told that the seizures come from "excessive and abnormal cortical nerve cell activity in the brain."

The cells seem to be firing at will, but how does it get there - and how does it resolve?

This evening Yohan was reciting a poem he is memorising.  Then he stopped.  He looked side-ways.  Enoch thought he was trying to remember something.  Maybe he was.

But Sheba knew better.  Earlier in the day during a shopping outing Yohan had shown what looked like the onset of a fit.  So Sheba just took Yohan, who was frozen and looking sideways, and lay him down on the couch.

I was just finishing a conversation with Appa on the phone.

"He is having a fit" Sheba told me, and we sat with Yohan and put our hands on him and prayed to our Lord Jesus for help.  Calm prayers.  We have been here before.

And after barely 2 minutes of his slightly stiff, slightly askew manner, Yohan relaxed.  He opened his eyes a bit.  We reassured him that we were there with him.  Asha and Enoch joined us and we each prayed for Yohan and then let him sleep for some time.

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Scroll back to the day before yesterday.  Our weekly Bible study, a small group of us crammed into an even smaller room.  We had wound up the study and were about to have our meal together.  We ask for testimonies and prayer requests.  Manpreet (all names changed of course) - a widowed lady - told about how she was so grateful that she was going to get an 'adhaar' card - and that her 'papers' are now almost all in order.  Then Hira, a young woman, told with tears in her eyes how she has been taking medicines but still gets fits.  She had actually fallen down on the street while walking to our time together.  What could we offer, but prayers and Sheba hugging this dear lady, herself an orphan.

In a day and age when we expect everything to be perfect, when medicine is supposed to deliver health - if not instantly, then at least after a little bit and after enough bells and whistles have sounded - and cash has changed hands.  For Hira, we have seen years of taking medicines and what seems very little improvement.

Should we change the therapy?  Or are we at the very limits of what can be done?

One thing is sure.  We are humbled to know that we don't have everything at our fingertips, that we just don't know everything there is to know (though my actions often seem to walk in that direction).

Every day we must trust.   Our meds help.  That's why we give them.  But cure comes from the Lord.  Each day is another opportunity to hold onto His hand more closely.


It's been more than 2 months since Yohan had his last fit, before this evening.  We are praying that the next one will come well after that... and would be thrilled if this was the last one ever.

A death in the family

James Tusing.  Died 2nd December 2015.

I count myself as an honorary member of the Tusing family after they opened their generous hearts to me while hosting in their home in Churachandpur, Manipur for some months in 1996.

Two years ago we as a family made a visit to Manipur, 17 years after I had last been there.  We were once again hosted by uncle Lalzakung Tusing.  Living on the ground floor were James and Kim.


I have just found out that James died last night.  A deep well of sadness has opened up again.

There are things that we just wish were different, if only a different road were taken.  There are prayers that parents made late at night for their children and we wonder what happened.  There are sorrows that defy easy answers, that gnaw deep within.

Far away in Australia, Jame's brother Philip has just shared this photo of him and his kid brother.

How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?

How do we process grief when so far away, when so apparently helpless?

One thing is sure, one thing is clear.

We serve One for whom tears were not strangers.  A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

His tears mingle with ours, and with those of dear Uncle and Auntie in the wordlessness of the regret we share.  With his brothers Philip and Jacob and their families.  With those who loved James and prayed for him.

We know, that One day will come.  Will come.

When sorrow and grief are no more.  When He will wipe away the salty-bitter stains off our faces.

This day we walk through the valley.

Holding His hand.

World AIDS Day 2015

I just did a search for 'World AIDS Day' on this blog ... and surprise surprise, a good many posts of 'Chai Chats with the Eichers' have had those words.

Well.  Here is another one.  And it is being written with a difference - it is the last one that I will be writing while still serving with Jeevan Sahara Kendra.

World AIDS Day comes on the 1st of December each year.  And for us in India we are now drawing to a close for this World AIDS Day - while folks on the other side of the earth-ball are waking up to Dec. 1st 2015.

This 1st of December marks an amazing anniversary for us.

A year ago today (of all days) Yohan came into our lives.  We had been told in the last week of November 2014 about a sick orphan boy whose parents had died of HIV and who needed to be stabilised and then sent to an orphanage.  We told the concerned folks to bring him over to the JSK centre.  We were not sure what we could do, but we wanted to try.  As I recall they were supposed to come on the 30th of Nov.  Instead, they came on the 1st of Dec. 

Who would have imagined that a year later he would be part of our family.  This evening we told him that we would be celebrating his birthday on the 13th of December - and have a party for him on the 12th!  He is thrilled.  We had hoped to have the legal adoption papers by now, but the year is slipping by and so we prayerfully made the choice to step forward with this.

This 1st of December is also pretty melancholy in some ways.  It marks the beginning of our last month with Jeevan Sahara.  We gave a letter to Bethany Trust in early October saying that we would be handing back the leadership of JSK back to them on the 31st of December.   Amidst the hustle and bustle of this year's World AIDS Day and Mumbai AIDS Sunday work, we have a small voice saying... this may be the last time you do this, and hmmm wonder if that will happen again...

But having said all of that, here was our day!

We started bright and early with Sheba and I having our cuppa and spending time with the Lord on our own.   A recent Family Camp has challenged me to see this as my 'most important meeting' and really look forward to it - and I am reaping some of the benefit of this.

Sheba made the tiffins for the kids while I showered and then revved up our Papaya for our school-car-pooling run.  We were down-stairs by 7.25 and had picked up the other two kids 5 mins later and were whizzing off to BSS in Powai before you can say Jack Robinson.

After I dropped off our treasures, I hared it back to Thane to attend the monthly Pastors Fellowship breakfast which we have each first Tuesday of the month.   I was able to share with my dear friends about the upcoming Mumbai AIDS Sunday - we are hoping that many church fellowships will have a special time focussing on the needs of people with HIV on Dec. 6th - the first Sunday after World AIDS Day.   We had special time of prayer this morning as well.

The Jeevan Sahara Kendra team had headed out early for a special day-long HIV counselling and testing camp in Kalwa along with the Sahwas organisation.   It was a grand success with 126 people being tested in a very underserved slum community.  Our whole team pitched in and the church volunteers were great.  We will find out tomorrow if any of the tests came back positive - but we are very grateful for everyone who chipped in.

After the Pastor's meeting I picked up some boxes of books that we are hoping to give as gifts at the upcoming Positive Friends Annual Thanksgiving time (Dec. 19th - mark your calendars and call us at 9321112065 if you want to participate or help out in any way).

Then to pick up Yohan - who had been given early morning home-schooling by Sheba and then had 2 hours with Mrs. Priya Sane - his tutor.   We then had a quick lunch together and read from one of the Ladybird books which has survived my childhood.

A quick lay down (my back has been acting up again this week) and then I hit the computer to finish off the Monthly Prayer Calendar (sent off just after 1 PM) and then I needed to find out how to get to Govandi west.

Sheba came back from the clinic so that I could head back out again for an HIV awareness programme that Vision Rescue had asked me to do.  I thought I was getting late - and had not been to Shivaji Nagar before so our humble Papaya started acting like she was an F1 racer (not really, but I did go a shade faster than normal).

Shivaji Nagar is a massive slum settlement on the edge of the city.  Literally.  The place where the Vision Rescue folks have a small community centre is right at the edge of this sprawling settlement.  Beyond you see some open ground, then a large land-fill with hundreds of plastic bags flying in the sky - behind which are the mangrove swamps of Mumbai... and then the dirty sea that laps around the city.   The slum is just off the main air corridor, so we saw plane after plane fly by on their way to land at one of the Mumbai airports.

I was brought up to a tiny room with sewing machines lining the walls.  There were posters of sewing implements and clothes.  This place is used to train local women in tailoring skills.  A number of the young women were there - most dressed in hijab - and on the other side of the room their mothers.  We had a good time going over the basics of HIV and how to prevent its spread - and what can be done if we have it.  Knowledge is power - and being able to talk about things openly really helps.  One middle aged lady said that she is so relieved now - since she had been in fear of people with HIV - but knowing that it does not spread in routine daily contact really took a load off her.

We then went out to a near-by cross-roads for a street play which was put on by the NSS group from a Mumbai college.  The play was of course about HIV, but was a bit of a disappointment.  Earnest young folks who had clearly practiced for it - but too many words, too confusing, all in Marathi (when most of the local population in this slum only knows Hindi)... A goodly crowd which gathered did not really what they really needed to see.  But commendable that the group had come out all the way to share what they could...

I had another session to take.  This time with men.  Well, make that 2 men, 8 adolescents and a smattering of boys.  It was good fun to go through the same presentation with the other gender.   The boys seemed to have shorter attention spans - but I think I was able to get through to some of them.

Then it was back in the Papaya and into the gradually rising traffic flows back to Thane.

Tuesday nights are Bible study nights for the Eichers.  We have been meeting in the home of Sister Shanti for the past 3 years now.  Tonight's topic was not about HIV - but almost all those present have some experience with the disease.  Either living with the virus, or the children of someone who does... or did.  A small group - but one with very special needs.  One dear young woman had a mild epileptic fit during our time together.  She expressed at the prayer time how sad she is to be taking medication and still be getting these dizzy spells.    A widow lady thanked God that she was getting an adhaar card soon.  Just 3 months previous she had had virtually no identification proof.  Now slowing the JSK team has been helping her build a set of documents which will help her and her children in the future.

We then all had supper together.  All that is except Yohan.  He had had his meal at 7 PM since he needs to take his 9 PM meds on an empty stomache.   His cheerful presence was with us, however, in the small room as we dug into our rice and rajma.  Our little Bible study is made up of very imperfect people - but the simple and profound truths we uncover need a life-time to implement.  We left with the assurance of the amazing love of King Jesus - and I could see it in the hug that Sheba gave our dear friend who has been suffering from Epilepsy.

So we come to the end of another World AIDS Day.  So much more to be done.  But so very much to be thankful for.