Flying Domestically inside of India

On Friday, we travelled from Chennai, formerly known as Madras (and, subject to verification, the place where St. Thomas, or Doubting Thomas, was martyred) to Pune, which is in the state of Maharashtra.

It was time to say goodbye to the hustle and bustle of Chennai, and I mean, wow.
Going through the security at the airport in Chennai was quite interesting. Before I even got to the ticket counter, I had to have my checked bag go through security screening device. I then had to get a special card for my carry-on and have that checked by another guard before I got on the plane.

Then I had to board a bus to take me out to the jet which was waiting on the tarmac. It was a little like those city buses which have multiple entries, cause there were two ladders to get onto the plane, one for the back of the plane and one for the front.

I was fortunate enough to get an exit row (always the best if there is no first class available – j/k), and I even got the aisle. That’s called “good living” folks.
Next to me sat “Gopi,” a 58 year old industrialist. We proceeded to chat for the entire flight to Pune. I asked him about the game of cricket, which is almost a religion in India. Gopi’s eyes lit up at this.

I was asking him these questions, and he very nicely said, “How about if I tell you about cricket, and then you can ask questions at the end?” He proceeded to tell me about the “Test Match,” the “One Day Match” and then the 4 hours match. I could go on, but I have something more interesting to share.
Well, you see, because we getting along so well, I decide
d to ask him a question that none of my American travel companions had any idea about.


Do you know what that does? Yeah, this is a men’s bathroom, and I am not entirely sure whether there is something similar in the women’s bathroom, but it is possible.

I thought I would ask Gopi about it.

Gopi’s answer surprised me a little bit. His explanation about the efficacy of this “tool” set me back a bit as well.

It seems that the Indians don’t always have toilet paper handy. Because many parts of India are suffering from poverty, they may not have toilet paper at all.
He said that after they did their business, they would use their left hand to clean things up. The trick, he said, was to have some water handy, something of a lubricant, I supposed. Thereafter, they could wash their hands and tidy up any “leftovers” from the squeegee action. (I was thinking to myself that it is entirely possible that in those places where no toilet paper is available, maybe soap and water are unavailable also).

He further indicated that with the modernization of India, more and more places had this annoying toilet paper in the commodes, and it made it difficult to get really clean (as with the water and the left hand squeegee).

As a compromise, they put the hoses and dishwasher kinds of nozzle next to the commode, so you can have a little water lubrication to assist with the squeegee action.

You then washed both of your hands and everything was just great.

It was wonderful to meet Gopi, and the flight was very pleasant. As it was time to say goodbye, I mildly agonized about whether to shake his hand or not (cause his story was told with much believe in how great it would be for the world if we didn’t have to waste our trees to make toilet paper).
Well, I did shake his hand, but by the time you see me to shake my hand, I will have washed it many times over.
Stayed tuned, more is coming (but Internet is a little flaky where I am, so please be patient. Trust me what I say it will be worth the wait).

The Rescuers Down Under

We were able to see the Slum preschool work the “Rescue and Restore” ministry of Freddy and Daisy Paul from a couple of days ago, but today, we were privileged to visit the shelter where 34 of the “rescued” kids have come to live and begin their “restoration.”


Their house is a fairly large dwelling in a nice neighborhood (let’s talk about neighborhoods are like in Chennai in another setting) with a large, well used front yard (as you can see). There are presently 34 kids ranging in age from very small to young adult, with a live in staff of 6. By my count, that’s a lot of people for this neighborhood shelter.

What is really special about the home is the really beautiful relationship between Freddy and Daisy with all of these kids. Their 2 biological girls move effortlessly among all the other kids. I kept hearing all the kids refer to Freddy and “Daddy” and Daisy as “Mommy.” Daisy informed me that she is the mother that these kids have, and the title is appropriate.




Pictured here looks like a man outstanding in his field, but actually, it is my failing effort to present one of the broken-in Soccer balls gifted by Bryn of Carrollton, Texas to the kids of the house. I guess I was looking for an opportunity to give a speech or something, but as soon as I pulled Bryn’s soccer ball out of my bag, a scene right out of “Shark Week” on the Discovery Channel emerged.


The young men of the house knew exactly what a soccer ball was (okay, a “football”) and they didn’t need any additional bloviating from me to know exactly how to put that soccer ball into good use. And use it they did. Thanks to Bryn.

Daisy had a very special dinner prepared, but a few of the boys had a little dance routine they prepared to show for the first time. Everybody sat down to watch, and I could not help but observe the genuine smile of maternal pride displayed by Daisy as the boys were “bustin a move.”



All the other kids were clapping and very supportive of the boys. It felt very much like a family atmosphere, utterly without pretense. There is an unmistakable feeling of comfort and acceptance that exists in this home. These kids were thriving.

As I was talking to Daisy about the caring atmosphere I was sensing, she would quickly relate the background of each kid that walked by, with a level of detail and concern for each kid as an individual, not as though they were numbers in the group.
She mentioned Kala, with whom I got a quick photo. Seems that Kala’s mother thought there was some sort of curse on her, and that she was bringing bad luck into the home. So, it seems her answer was to ask her father, Kala’s grampa, to drive the little girl 3 hours into the big city of Chennai (which I learned today is close to 8 million people. Wow) and simply drop her off to fend for herself.

Seems the grampa told Kala to sit on a bench while he rounded to the corner to get something to eat. He instructed her to stay right there. After hours, a woman passed by to ask her what she was doing, and she explained her grampa’s instruction. The woman took Kala and the Rescue and Restore house took her in.

Now, to me, it is inconceivable to me that a grampa would do such a thing, but Daisy indicated that there was more. Apparently, after 7 years, the family may wish to retrieve Kala because the period of the curse is over. Daisy said she is pretty sure that someone in the family knows where the girl is, and will come around to try to retrieve her after 7 years time (This because the same thing happened to another abandoned girl after she has reached the age of 20).

Because Kala was old enough to know that this happened to her, you can imagine the potential for bitterness and unforgiveness if she were to see her mother or granddad again. And, here is the real kicker, because they are taught that their heavenly Father loves them, and because the restoration process includes learning about forgiveness, they are better equipped to forgive those who have treated them shamefully when the time comes.

I’m telling you, this is a very sweet little girl, and Freddy and Daisy are being the hands and feet of Christ to Kala.



Every one of the kids has been “rescued” from some kind a dreadful situation. I don’t have the time to go into it all, but I believe the life Freddy and Daisy are living, doing what they can with what they’ve got where they are to help some of the most systematically impoverished people I have ever met, is a model for all who follow the high calling of Christ.
We will be travelling to Pune, India tomorrow. For those of you who pray, please keep us in your prayers.

I've never been to a Leper Colony before.

My first post on this blog told of the "Little Lights" Home for children of lepers. I mentioned that these are, without a doubt, the most marginalized persons in this part of India. Today, Akhi, the orphanage director, arranged for us to visit one of the numerous leprosy clinics run as part of his overall effort to show Christ's love to "the least of these" through basic assistance like cleaning and dressing ulcers affecting residents of the leper colony (this one was called 'Bharathapuram').

In speaking with Akhi, we learned that if a person is diagnosed with leprosy, regardless of their previous education or station in life, they are immediately shunned by their family. In fact, the leper colony we visited today is fairly near the leprosy hospital. I'm told that the colonies tend to pop up near the hospital because once a diagnosis is made; these people thereafter have nowhere to go.

I also learned that when leprosy is diagnosed and treated, it can be completely cured, although no progression of the disease can be reversed. It is not contagious when treated, flat out. However, don't try convincing anyone else of that, since the stigma remains very strong. Unfortunately, even if the disease doesn't transfer to other family members, such as children, the stigma does transfer to children and grandchildren.

To children whose grandparents had leprosy, others outside the colony can tell, because the stigma ends up getting 'hard wired' into their psyche, and they can help but project it outwardly, and they are shunned even when they are outside the colony.

This is the type of work they do, cutting away dead calloused skin from the bottoms of their feet, treating them with dressing, and wrapping them in Gauze.


Ahki's ministry also makes special shoes for these residents, since the progression of the disease before they were treated has left many without toes, or with shortened and malformed feet.

There is a bit of Catch-22 for these lepers, as well. Many have ulcers on their feet, the only remaining vestige of the disease. Unfortunately, the ulcers can only heal if they remain off their feet for something like 6 weeks, but because their only means of survival is begging, and them must walk to where they can situate themselves to beg. Having no sensation of pain from walking on these ulcers, the healing process can never really even get started.



We relished the opportunity to pray with them, but honestly, I really just wanted to put a hand on their shoulder to give some kind of affirmation. I know that in His day, Jesus had compassion on lepers, and he touched them when no others would. We all know how affirming a simple touch on the shoulder or a pat can be, but these people received very little, or no touches at all. I was honestly hoping that doing this would be a very small example of affirming them, as Jesus would have done has He been there (or, was He?).



We also met and prayed for a very cute older woman, Kanakmani, who communicated to us, not in English, that in no uncertain terms, she was a Christian, our sister in the faith.


When was the last time you thought leprosy was anything other than an obscure disease that only existed hundreds of years, and only in the Bible? I think I can answer; never.

Okay, you might want to skip this next part.

I asked Akhi if these treatments were at all painful, and he said generally no, since the nerve endings are destroyed by the disease, starting with the extremities. As he was describing that at times, the ulcer can progress into the bone, and when that happens, it can be painful.

As if on cue, the next person up to get treatment was just such a person. In this case, we observed as the left ankle bone of an elderly patient was being tended to, the clinician discovered that the inner portion of the wound was maggot-infested. She poured hydrogen peroxide on the wound to dislodge the maggots, and then proceeded to take forceps to dig out the maggots, which appeared to be a rather violent action (akin to a bullet being pulled out of a wound in so many Western movies). Apparently, there was some beginning stage of bone softening, but this woman was not feeling it.

This was quite difficult to observe, but it underscores the situation they are in, and speaks all the more to the incredibly compassionate work that is being done with Akhi's group in their overall leprosy ministry.

HIV/AIDS shelter for women and children.

Another of the YWAM ministries in Chennai is called Project AIDS, to work amongst those with AIDS/HIV as well as their families.
According to J.D. Wilson, the director the ministry, they offered to minister in the AIDS hospital, but because the chief AIDS doctor was Hindu, and they were Christians, he did not want them to have contact with the patients. Mr. Wilson told the doctor the ministry would help in any way they could, so the doctor told them they could:

1. Clean up and maintain the landscaping around the hospital which had been neglected
   
2. Keep the sewage system clean and in good working order, and
   
3. (If you can believe this) Run the wild pigs, which routinely made their way into the hospital, out from among the patients.
   

After 2 years of faithfully performing these tasks, the doctor realized they were okay, and allowed them to begin to minister to the patients, many of them in the process of dying.

Seeing the impact on the families, a home for children having lost one or both parents to AIDS, was established, and we had the opportunity to visit with the children and staff if the AID/HIV home today.

This is presently home to 2 women, and 13 children. 10 of the children have lost both parents to AIDS, while 3 of the children have either a mother or a father, but none of who are able to care for them.




All of these children are HIV positive, with the majority of them on antiretroviral medication.





This is a new little friend, Monika, who turned 9 years old about a month ago, and who lost both of her parents to AIDS about 2 years ago. Notice that Monika has dimples, just like me, and a very special twinkle in her eye.

Wilson and his dedicated staff are making sure that Monika grows up knowing the love of Christ, and getting the education she needs to go beyond the stigma.


Man, I am exhausted. How about you?

"Rescue and Restore" slum based preschool and "Street Church" in Chennai, India

Freddy and Daisy, the Directors of the "Rescue and Restore" ministry are involved in many facets of bringing both the good news of Jesus (the Rescue) as well as the good works which follow those who profess faith in Christ (the Restore).

Part of their ministry reaches into one of the many slums of Chennai. In addition to bringing "street church" to those who live there, they have a medical clinic and a pre-school to about 20 children.

We visited the pre-school and caught little bit of the end of one lesson. However, before we could get to the "classroom" we had to walk through a very long section of the slums with row after row of grass huts, basically, with no running water, but oddly enough, electricity which has been tapped from the main line in spaghetti like fashion, not with any kind of safety or security.

You can see the typical construction from one of the photos I've added here.

From what I understand, the only groups of people "lower" than the slum dwellers are the lepers. But I have to say how surprised I was to see all the ladies dressed in brightly colored saris, I mean ALL the ladies.

The Rescue and Restore have a monumental task they are seeking to perform, but with limited means, they must often make difficult choices about how to allocate their resources. Their plan is to get these children some basic lessons, since they would never be in a school, owing to their economic status, and give them a chance later on to possibly get into school. More than ever, education is a way out of the generational cycle of poverty for many at the fringe of Indian society.

In order to keep the kids around for their lessons all day, they keep them around by feeding them a good meal.



It's nice to know that they are definitely getting at least one good meal a day.

The slums are wide open, with shacks and huts everywhere. Unfortunately for these kids, every one of them has been either sexually or physically abused. It seems as they make their way around, they are preyed on by others. The men in the slums may actually have 3 or 4 women with whom they've had children in the slum, so there in no sense of the "dad" protector being around. These are certainly the most vulnerable kids I've seen so far.

While we were visiting, we had numerous people come to use asking us to pray for them.

85 year old "Noah" asked me to pray for him, and I did. He lives in the slum, and allocates half of his small dwelling to the school when it rains. "Thangam" (which means "Gold") was a 40 or so year old woman who had battled cancer, and had lost her entire right arm (including the shoulder). And there were others seeking healing.

I was moved with compassion for these people. These kids are just not that different from kids I see where I live. They laughed, were rambunctious, and had to be shushed a couple of times, and boy, could they pack in the rice.

Later in the evening we were invited to participate in one of the "Street Churches" which Rescue and Restore has on different nights of the week in different locations. Freddy asked me if I would deliver the message.

Okay, so I'm not a preacher, right. But honestly, was I going to be able to say no? I think not.

I realized, more than ever, that I needed God's guidance and direction, because, honestly, I do come from a much different culture that these people.

I talked about the fact that Jesus wanted them to be healed, starting with their heart. I also reminded them of the story Jesus told about the rich man and Lazurus wherein Lazurus, though poor and sick on earth, went to paradise when he died, but the rich man, who enjoyed all the earthly comforts, didn't go to paradise.

For those who have little to hope in, having a hope for everlasting life with Jesus did just the trick.

It was quite a day.

The Little Lights of Chennai

I got to meet Akhilesh "Akhi" Gowrivakkam, the 32 year old Youth With a Mission (YWAM) director of the "Little Lights" home.

"Little Lights" is a home for children of people who are lepers and must live in leper colonies around the city. This home takes these children in to allow them to go to school to get an education with the hope of breaking the very strong stigma associated with living in a leper colony.

Even though leprosy can be treated, and these children will not get leprosy, they would nevertheless not be able to attend school for the education to break the cycle of poverty
which is the reality for these people.

Evidently, there is a strong stigma associated with leprosy, and the only means of support for these parents is begging. Without the "Little Lights" home for these fortunate children, their future would be just as bleak.

These children were bright and happy and beautiful. It is amazing to see the ways in which God is intervening through the dedicated staff of this home.

I especially enjoyed meeting a talking to this little girl, who I called "Money-Penny," who let me teach her a special handshake that my daughter taught me.

I also need to thank Isabella "Bella" Correa for the broken in soccer ball which was given to these kids, and which they received with much joy.

Can't wait for tomorrow.

The long road from Texas to India

There is something strange and wonderful about leaving your house on a Saturday morning and spending enough time flying toward the East to arrive at your

destination close to Midnight on Sunday night.

Together with Wick Nease, the Managing Director of Streams of Mercy, the organization dedicated to matching financial donors with orphanages in the

developing world, I made the long multi-segmented trek to Chennai, India, one of the largest cities on the East Coast of India.

While the concept of flying, quite literally, to the other side of the world, is not new for most, it certainly represented a novelty to me.

Not sure I've quite got my bearings yet, but I am definitely on my way.