David

I sat with David for about an hour yesterday. He has captured the hearts of our team here, but has a literal hole in his own. He desperately needs heart surgery. Albert has spent the last few weeks trying to get David’s family to take him to the hospital, or grant permission for Albert to do so. David’s uncle should arrive today and Albert hopes to acquire such permission. The second hurtle is the money for the surgery, but our team has assured Albert that it would be covered. We will figure out a way.

I sat with David and showed him pictures of my family and my son David. I slowly told him the story of David and Goliath. I prayed with him. I took his picture and let him take mine. I made animal noises. I did anything I could to make this sick, sad boy smile. He has only smiled a handful of times, and heaven breaks in when he does.

Leper Hospital

We made plans to visit the leper hospital this morning, and I had forgotten what a difficult experience that is. After a difficult and hot hour-long drive, we arrived at the Little Flower Leper Hospital. Abraham greeted us and escorted us through the wards. We walked into rooms full of 20-30 people afflicted with leprosy. Many had digits missing from their hands and feet, and some, limbs missing. Their bandages were speckled with blood spots, and it looked more like a war hospital that those afflicted with an old, treatable disease.

We walked down the rows of beds and made eye contact with those who had been sent away from their families and rejected by society. The simple act of looking them in the eye and greeting them, “Namaste,” brought a smile to many faces. In each ward we would engage this slow processional, adding hugs and hand shakes along the way. Then we would sing a worship song or two. I found myself choked up a number of times and struggled to keep from bawling in front of everyone. The music seemed to be a comfort to them, and some clapped or hummed along.

Abraham escorted us to the main office down the street where we met Brother Christa Das, who founded the hospital in 1982. He has skin of old leather and a heart of joy, and would quickly and easily break into a 4 tooth smile. On his wall were awards and a magazine from a few years back with him on the cover as India’s Man of the Year. We sat with him for about half an hour and asked questions about the hospital and his journey. He worked for 14 years in Kolkata with Mother Teresa, and shared her challenge to “preach without preaching.” His reasoning for living his life this way was quite simple. “Jesus said to care for the least of these. I believe the least of these here are lepers.”

As the team debriefed later, we concluded two things. One, that we will most likely not experience a resolution from our uncomfortable experience at the leper hospital. And two, we need to determine who the least of these in our lives are, and respond with love and sacrifice.

Make A Joyful Noise

“If you are going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”
- 1 Cor. 1:31

I’m listening to the kids singing upstairs, worshipping God and singing/yelling at the top of their lungs. It is a beautiful, joyful noise.

Today has been a good day. This morning Albert took us to their new land. I was there 4 years ago when it was only a large empty space outlined by a property wall. Today stands the first of four buildings. It will hold Albert and his family, all the children, and have space for visiting teams like us. It is a big step toward a God-dream that Albert is saying yes to. Eventually there will be buildings to house 1,000 orphans, a school and a training school for pastors. We stood on the roof and prayed that these dreams would become reality and God’s will would be done. That the opening of the front gates would be opening arms of love to all that enter. We prayed that the government would not take a portion of the land to build a new road. We prayed that it would be a place used by God.

The light of God’s love shines brightly in dark places, and this ministry is definitely a beacon of light and love here.

Traveling to the Glory of God

We have had some traveling woes. Nothing major, but some professional minors. Our hotel “right next to the airport” was 45 minutes away, decreasing our potential 6 hours of sleep to 4. The hotel had bedbugs. We think. Getting our tickets in Delhi took a long time, so we had to run to the plane during final boarding. Then we sat on the runway for over an hour. Then we flew to Kathmandu but didn’t land there, re-routed to Lucknow, fueled up there, sat for another hour, then finally landed in Kathmandu, missing our connecting flight to Simra by well over an hour. We were so late to Kathmandu that we missed our contact with our plane tickets to Simra. After a few hours we finally had tickets and flew to Simra. Getting off the plane and seeing Albert was such a relief and joy. We drove about 90 minutes to the border and waited for immigration. Traffick was thick and eventually came to a standstill. Our driver said in 15 years he had never seen traffic so bad. We had to abandon the cars and make it to the immigration office by foot. The officer eventually showed up and demanded a bribe for coming out so late. We obliged and crossed the border. Then we went to immigration in India and then came to the building where we are staying. The shower and good night of sleep was amazing and refreshing.

I’ve been pondering 1 Cor. 10:31 today, which says that we should do everything to the glory of God. Everything. Even eating and drinking. What about traveling? How do we bring God glory when we have to run to catch our flight only to have it sit on the runway for over an hour and are tired and we miss our next flight and the baby on the plane won’t stop crying… How do we travel like this to the glory of God? Perhaps it is by having extra grace. Being patient. Smiling at Mr. Grumpy Pants. Being gracious and understanding. Showing love. I think and hope those things have been more evident in our team than the opposite. It has been humbling and a reminder that we are not in control.

We need to work out these logistics for sure, but we acknowledge that more than order or control, we need God and His Spirit.

Flying to India

I brought a “travel” journal with me. The last entry was made 3 years ago while in Kolkata just before my wife and I picked up our son from the orphanage. Then no more entries in the travel journal. A ten month old will do that…

Now he is 4, and my 8-year-old daughter sits next to me as we fly to India. Carolyn is excited, and we are joined by 5 others from our church: Micah, Jordan, Arielle, Carrie N. And Carrie T. We are headed to Bihar, India where Micah will run a 5 day photography program for the kids in the orphanage. I am “leading” this trip, which means logistics, finances and pastoral care. It is a solid team and I am not worried.

Before hopping on our first flight, Arielle pulled out some “get to know you cards” and we socially jumped right in. This is going to be fun.

Heading To India

It has been three years since I was last in India, and I am anxious to go back. This time Carolyn, my 8-year-old, will be joining me, along with 5 other people from our church. The entire team is excited, and scrambling to get last minute logistics taken care of before we fly out tomorrow. The trip is for about two weeks. We’ll spend 5 days in Bihar, India, and 2 days in Kathmandu. Then the team will fly home and Carolyn and I will meet my buddy James in Delhi for 3 days. In Bihar we will be doing a photography program with children in an orphanage. Carolyn is really excited about that part. It will be good to be back in India, and I’m excited to see what God will reveal in our time there. Please pray for us and our journey.

I’ll be blogging the trip here whenever I can get access to the internet…