Indian Missional Blogs

Do you ever want to learn more about what different people in the front-line of Medical Missions in India are experiencing?

Enter the world of blogs.

Real time accounts of what is happening. Slice of life - fly on the wall - end of exhausting day write-ups... and more.

Here are a few choice links for you to chew on (in no particular order). Click on the link to get to the blog!

1. Views from the Mathews - Drs. Arpit and Amy Mathew share their lives and experiences in a mission hospital in Shillong.

2. What gives - Dr. Chering Tenzing's views on life. She is currently at Herbertpur Christian Hospital in Dehra Dun district.

3. Manali Hospital - Dr. Philip Alexander tells us about the happenings in the hills through the lens of the Lady Willington Hospital in Manali!

4. The Learner - Dr. Jeevan Kuruvilla shares about serving at Nav Jivan Hospital in Jharkhand.

5. Around and About - Prolific (!) writer Dr. Shantanu Dutta's wide-angle views of the world.

6. Chai Chats with the Eichers - Andi and Dr. Sheba Eicher on life and service with people with HIV in Thane, Maharashtra.

7. EMFI Mizoram blog - maintained by Dr. Chhana Ralte at the Durtlang Mission Hospital, Aizawl. Lots of inspirational stuff with a Mizo flavour!

8. Shrink's Views - Dr. Dheeraj Khattula's adventures as a missional psychiatrist.

Please contact us about other links - we would love this to be a launching point for you to taste what different folks are experiencing and sharing.

And do send a note to the different medicos serving in these challenging situations! Every prayer and encouragement helps! One way of doing so is leaving comments on what they have expressed in their blogs...

Happy reading!

Shadowing Dr. Jesus

As learners let us follow Dr. Jesus on his rounds.

At the very start of his action-packed book, the gospel writer Mark tells us how Jesus came home to Simon's house in Capernaum. What an honour and joy this must have been for Simon Peter.

But there was a problem. Simon's mother-in-law was sick. She was in bed with fever. So they told Jesus about her.

So many people around us are debiliatated by illness. Simon's mother-in-law would not have wanted to be in bed - and certainly not suffering from her fever.

Today with the advent of analgesics and antipyretics, most fevers are treated as minor events. Just 100 years ago this was hardly the case. One never knew what would happen over the course of the fever. Fevers were monitored carefully, with a dread should they 'linger.'

Jesus listened to those who told him about Simon's mother-in-law. In one short verse we hear: "So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on him." (Mark 1.31).

How much of the healing that we all want to be part of is captured in those few words. As we shadow Dr. Jesus we must carefully observe every part of his therapeutic and restorative work.

He went to her. How often we expect people in need to come to us. Jesus heard. And went. He goes to the place of the problem, rather than waiting for people to appear at his darbar, at his clinic, at his convenience.

[He] took her hand. That personal touch. The touch of love. He did not wave a magic wand, but let his own hands touch hers. How much we need to learn. How quickly we ward ourselves off from people, hiding behind our desks, hiding behind our professionalisms. How much people are hungry for the loving touch. Jesus reach out and took her hand.

[He] helped her up. Jesus gives dignity and support to help Simon's mother-in-law to regain her own stance. Instead of lying supine and in feverish pain, Jesus has helped her to stand. Oh that we would do so too. How often we neglect to help people up. How quickly we can make people dependent on us and our skill sets, rather than giving people the tools to be healthy and wise on their own.

Now we see the two twin results of Jesus' actions:

The fever left her. The disease is gone. That which troubled her and incapacitated her has now left. As Christians who are in the healing profession - we know the tremendous joy when that which has troubled our friends who are ill finally departs.

... and she began to wait on him. This is the part we usually ignore. End of disease? End of story. But the healing process is not just an absence of a pathogen or the elimination of a root etiology. Healing means wholeness - and what does the person do after the illness? In the case of Simon's mother, she was able to joyfully serve - immediately! How wonderful to see a person bursting with health - health not just enjoyed by the now-well-person, but channelled into serving others. Our work of healing is to help the dear people we serve... themselves in turn serve others! And what better person to serve - than the Master Himself?

Values for Kingdom Healthgivers

A post by Dr. Manoj Jacob:

When we as Christian Health Professionals look around us we see a different value system which seems attractive and "glamorous" but the end is heartache and trouble when God's values are compromised. The people of Israel faced the consequences when they decided to have a king like the nations around them and rejected God as King! God warned them in advance but they were not convinced.

The prophet Jeremiah reminds the people of God.. that “God's plans for them are for good and not for evil…..to give them a future and a hope" (29:11)

Isaiah echoes a similar promise by saying, "He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure" (33:6)

All that we need for our lives and profession is available if we use the right key!

Compromising on godly principles may bring temporary "benefit" but the long term consequences are disastrous.

As Christian health care professionals what an opportunity we have to bring comfort and healing to a hurting world! Only Jesus can give hope and meaning to the lives of people who are desperate. .

I like what Dr Varghese Philip once said: "unless Christians be the salt and light, society will disintegrate!"

May we be His channels of blessing to the many people we meet each day and be the 'salt and light'. May God give us the courage and strength to persevere!

Cleaning the spring

Water is so vital to life. We all know that. Many of us work in situations where access to clean drinking water is far from ideal. We see the suffering of disease which springs out lack of clean water for drinking, bathing and washing.

Spare a thought for a startling report on the BBC website which reports that 77 million people in Bangladesh are being poisoned with arsenic - from the water that they drink.

image by Kameehan - [IMG]http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad94/kameehan/bhatiary0003.jpg[/IMG]

The study quoted estimates that 1 in 5 deaths were attributable to aresenic poisoning - caused from drinking water which has been pumped up using the simple hand-pumps that we are so familiar with in rural India. The aresenic occurs naturally it seems - but large scale use of hand-pumps has now exposed most of the population to this poisoning.

How ironic that access to water has brought with it a poison. Unseen, undetected it was being drunk along with the water for years before the effects started showing up in the population.

We face similar situations both literally and figuratively in so much of our practice.

Many things seem good - but bring hidden costs. The consumer lifestyle which so many of our aspirational countrymen have embraced - with its luxuries and comforts - has also brought some of the highest rates of heart disease.

We also face hidden poisons in a spiritual sense. How many times do our relationships seem to be flourishing, when all along we are drinking small doses of bitterness and resentment. The little doses add up to major damage.

Likewise, what goes in the mind may be small thoughts - but they allow bitter roots to dig deep into us - and surprise us later with bitter fruit.

When the prophet Elisha had just begun his public ministry, he was faced with a challenge:

The men of the city said to Elisha, "Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive."

"Bring me a new bowl," he said, "and put salt in it." So they brought it to him.

Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, "This is what the LORD says: 'I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.' "

And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken. (2 Kings 2.19-22 NIV)

Notice the situation and its parallels with so much of what we deal with today. A city which was in a good location. So many of our cities and places of habitation are just that - places which offer many advantages.

But a silent and horrible poison which caused damage to humans and the land. We face so many of these - don't we? Polluting effluents, various levels of chemicals from agriculture and pest-control, the massive byeproducts of vehicles and power plants, human and animal wastes - all in levels far beyond the 'normal'.

As mentioned before, we can also see this at a spiritual level. Broken relationships, greed that runs out of hand, ethical standards that are broken with impunity, pollution of the mind and heart.

So what is to be done?

Elisha speaks the word of the Lord into the situation. He uses a new bowl and salt - presumably obeying what God had told him to do - and cleanses the foul spring.

Is it too much to look forward to the person of Jesus and his command for us to be salt and light in this world? He is after all the one who gives living water!

Could we see humble followers of Christ offering themselves as clean vessels and speaking the Good News into situations that seem hopelessly befouled?

I think we can. And that is at least partly why you and I are alive today.

Let us let our Master use us for His healing work!

Tuberculosis

Its World TB day today. Our country continues to have the largest number of people living - and dying of tuberculosis.

The BBC website has a powerful set of photos about TB in Mumbai, which can be seen by clicking: here.

We are blessed with a government health system that does provide free TB medications. We have the skills to control this disease. The love of God compels us to love our neighbours - even those with TB - as ourselves. We as Christ-followers are the very body of our Lord - His hands and feet in our nation.

What is stopping us from reaching out more?

Take a new look

Dr. Pinto made an interesting comment today. He had just been to Lok Hospital in Thane and was sitting in the small cubicle at the Jeevan Sahara Kendra - the HIV/AIDS clinic linked with Lok. Dr. Pinto said this: "there is tremendous potential for Christian witness in the field of health... if out of the 15,000 Christian Doctors in India we could have 500 get together in groups of 2 and 3 and start hospitals - what a change our country would see."

Challenging words from a man who runs 110 schools and sees 2 lakh students attend his schools across the country.

Can we dare to think boldly?

Most Worry is Unnecessary

Most of us worry unnecessarily about too many things.

It's almost as though we search for problems to give ourselves stress. The amazing news is that much of what we worry about doesn't matter at all! Take a look at these statistics about worry:

a.. 40% of all things that we worry about never come to pass.

b.. 30% of all our worries involve past decisions that cannot be changed.

c.. 12% focus on criticism from others who spoke because they felt inferior.

d.. 10% are related to our health, which gets worse when we worry.

e.. 8% of our worries could be described as "legitimate" causes for concern.

Isn't that remarkable? Fewer than one "problem" in every ten that we worry about is a real concern. All the others are things that we can learn to see differently or eliminate.

- from Michael Sundersingh - EMFI Staff in Delhi