Rowdy Rabble from QP

We recently had the absolute joy of having 6 folk from our home Church in Glasgow come to visit us for 8 days. The time just flew in, and was really too short. I'm pretty sure they were all tired by the time they left, and would have liked to have stayed longer! They were more organised than me at blogging, and did a blog post for each day that they were with us. You can see their blog at http://www.clanblacksupport.blogspot.com/. Because there is a lot of info on that site, I'll remain relatively brief, but here are some picture highlights.

Arriving at Mumbai International airport. They had a noisy flight, with a crying baby over their shoulders! I still remember the first time I stepped out of the safety of the air-conditioned airport the first time I came to India in 1998. It really is an assault on all the senses! We took our own luggage to the car a few metres away, and half a dozen porters tried to wrench our bags from our hands to place them in the back of our car. They assured us it was OK, as it was their job, but then wanted pounds Sterling as payment for their unsolicited harassment.

The trip from the airport involved 4 of the bunch going in a 10 seater taxi that I'd booked, with their secret chocolate stash for Jo and I taking up 4 seats. This resulted in Brian, John and I taking a second taxi. This was supposedly an AC taxi, but the driver delighted in turning off the AC whenever we were distracted in order to save fuel. I think he did this about 15 times in the 1 hour journey! John was the trips official photographer, and pretty much filled his memory card in the taxi I think, snapping everything from one horizon to the next!

In the taxi to visit one of the projects I work in. The gang from left to right are; Sandra, David, Sharmaine, John, Brian, and last but definately not least Ishbel.

At the Oasis India healthcare project. Oasis are mostly involved with Women and children. Oasis visit a number of Government homes, and also have 4 outreaches in the red-light districts themselves. They also run a couple of homes, and a vocational skills training centre. A recent focus for them has been to get heavily involved in anti-trafficking work, to try and rescue young girls who have been sold or kidnapped into prostitution.

Here we are on the local train. A hot and sweaty endeavour, especially if the fan in your section is not functional!

Alistair and Freya also enjoy riding on the train!

You all knw the saying "rules are there to be broken", well in India it should be "rules are there to be flaunted"- especially on the roads! But here we are on a cruise of Mumbai harbour - "No photograpy allowed"

At church on Sunday.
Freya learning the ropes of screen work at Purnatha Bhavan. 25 kids and 18 women live here in an idyllic setting in the hills 2 hours north of Thane.

At JSK. This is taken with Naseem who works helping out at the centre with cleaning and making Chai! She invited the whole team to her humble home, which was just lovely of her. There are some photos of this on the team's website.

Dinner at the blacks!

THE END!, but do look at the groups own website http://www.clanblacksupport.blogspot.com/.

"Run Shay, Run"

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.
After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?'
The audience was stilled by the query.
The father continued. 'I believe, that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.'
Then he told the following story:
Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?'
Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.
Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, 'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.' Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. His Father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat. At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher. The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game. Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first! Run to first!' Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!' Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball ... the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home. All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the way Shay'Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third! Shay, run to third!' As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!' Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.
'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world'.
Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!
We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the 'natural order of things.' So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?
A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's least fortunate amongst them.

The voice of an atheist

I recently got back in touch with a good friend from University who is now living in the states. We have had a few exchanges on facebook, and I found some of the things e had to say about his atheist faith quite interesting. Ultimately I think that there is a God- he is evident in everything all around me, and it takes a great deal of faith to say that there isn't one. I have added my own comments to his text in orange;

"Well Adam, I have to say I'm more of an atheist than anything these days. I was a strong Catholic, but I struggled with many theological issues that sent me into very deep meditations about life & the nature of the universe, etc. I guess you could say that I came to the conclusion that everything in this universe is accidental, which is by no means to suggest that it is thereby any less remarkable. (in my opinion it is much more remarkable to think that in a relatively short time frame all life 'happened' than to believe in the guiding influence of a deity) I guess I feel that as a mortal, it is and will always be beyond my ability to understand God, and for that reason, any perception I have in God either is, or might as well be, my own creation. (my attitude towards this statement is that it is illogical. If a tadpole cannot understand a human, does that make humans imaginary? I agree that we can have no fixed impression about the exact nature of God, but the fact that we use our imaginations to try to understand something of what he/she/it might be like does not mean that a deity is "imagined") And if I cannot know the intentions or desires of God, then it's just as well for me not to think in those terms. If there is a God, I just hope he believes in my existence more than I believe in his. Or hers. Or its. Or theirs. I mean, what do I know really? (it is not what we know that is important. Faith is not a matter of knowledge, but a matter of belief) I got to the point that I had to just throw away everything I'd accepted and trust my gut for better or worse, and if there is a God, I don't feel it or see it, to be honest. But of course, atheism is a faith too. I can no more prove the non-existence of a deity than I could prove his existence. Maybe I just want my life to make more sense to me, for practical reasons.But being an atheist does not make me anti-Christian. Well, not in theory anyway. There is a lot about American Christians that I see as hypocritical and it does anger me when I know that's not what Christianity is about. It isn't something that should be used as a validation for hate and prejudice, yet I see that a lot over here. Some people give Christianity a bad name, and I think if Jesus were here now, he'd treat them much the same way as he treated the Pharisees. ( I can sympathise with this argument. The Church often appears critical and judgemental, but this was not God's plan for his Church. God told us to love our neighbour. He told us not to judge lest we ourselves be judged. He demonstrated practically how to reach out with love to the marginalised of society, and in almost all of his recorded dealings he did so. The reason the Church is not always effective at doing this is not because of God, but because of man, and the Church should not be condemned because of man's failings) Anyway, I might struggle with the idea of a god, and I have to say that I don't really believe that Jesus is god or was the son of God. In fact, I have to say that I don't even know what that means—when I really think about it, the term "son of God" doesn't make any sense to me. (the concept of the trinity - God three in one, Father son and holy spirit, is very difficult to comprehend. It is hard to imagine how God could become man. I personally think that the Father son relationship between God the father and Jesus is actually far more complex than that, and perhaps the reality is that Jesus had a man's body, but his spirit was all God. I cannot believe that his physical form as a man was in any way part of his godliness. It says in the bible that "God is spirit" My own simplistic way of looking at the trinity is to say that they are all one. The father in heaven is a spiritual being. Jesus spirit was God's spirit in some way budded or "cloned" to use very un-politically correct terminology. I believe that this portion of God's spirit is referred to as his "son", and was separate and distinct to the father's spirit. Jesus on the cross talks about his father leaving him. The two could be separated. My view then of our own make-up as human beings is that we also have mortal physical bodies, but also a separate spirit, that is unique to each individual. I believe that as we come to know Jesus, part of God's spirit comes to live in us, and helps to guide and mould our own lives and direction. This is the holy spirit. I believe that after Jesus died he returned to be with the father, but that he has retained some form of personal identity, and a spiritual form. I believe that after we die we will not have physical bodies in heaven, but will also become spiritual beings. But I still hold Jesus high as a brilliant man who remains one of my personal heroes. And I still respect the Bible. And I realized today that I still live by the Ten Commandments as best I can, but I don't think about them as much. Still, they are a very good set of rules to live by, no matter who you are. If I live by a golden rule, it would be the second form of Kant's Categorical Imperative—"Always treat others as an end, and never merely as a means". I guess you could say that's the same as "Treat others as you would have them treat you". I have to say that my change in beliefs has not changed my behaviour toward others. There are some things that are right and some that are wrong, purely as a matter of common sense, and everybody deserves to be treated with the dignity that their status as a moral animal bestows on them.

So, I finally got around to checking out your blog and lost a couple of hours yesterday as I got drawn deeper and deeper into it. I like what you have to say about what you believe about Heaven, by the way. I remember when I read Dante's Inferno, and was a bit taken aback that Plato, Aristotle, etc were stuck in limbo (even if there is a 'limbo' or 'purgatory' which is not clear from scripture, it is perfectly possible that it is like falling asleep, and the person affected would have no concept of the passage of time until his judgement. This would mean that as far as the individual was concerned he died and went straight to heaven.) because, being pre-Christian, they could not get into Heaven as they had not been baptised. The absurdity of making such a sticking point over what seemed to be a technicality was like a slap across the face to me. (my opinion is that it is nice to be baptised as a public testimony and a reminder to you when your faith wavers that you have made a commitment to follow Jesus. However I do not believe that water has any special significance in physical terms, but is only symbolic of the washing away of your sins. In scripture water baptism was not actually a baptism of forgiveness, but was called a baptism of repentance (or being sorry for having sinned or having done wrong). Jesus is said to have come to bring a greater baptism, which is the baptism of the spirit of God, which is a baptism of forgiveness of sins. It should be noted that Jesus did command us to go and baptise. It is traditionally believed that this refers to water baptism, but it could equally be thought to refer to baptism with the spirit.) Did it not matter at all the manner in which a man lived? If he had let himself be dunked in water and said he believed, even if he wasn't all that sure, would that make all the difference? (I do not agree with Dante- if he believed that those who have not had water baptism will not be able to enter heaven.) Oh yeah, and Mohammed was stuck deep in Hell. That's especially ironic when you consider how Dante borrowed heavily from Muslim writers to create his own vision of Hell. (You have to appreciate surely that Dante's inferno is a work of fiction, and so not too much weight should be placed on his writings)That whole episode sparked a lot of deep "what do we know anyway?" (which is why any faith is based on 'FAITH' not knowledge. This is the way God intended it. When a child is in it's mother's womb, it has no concept of what awaits it in the wider world. I view our spirits being encased in our bodies as being a bit like a child in the womb, and death a little like being born into an entirely new existence. Then we will be able to understand more, as we are able to view God and humanity from outwith the space time continuum. Our bodies tie our spirits to the physical universe a bit like an umbilical chord ties a baby to the womb. Jesus uses this analogy. He talks about being dead to self, and being born again when we become Christians. It is a phrase that is used glibly "born again Christians", but I found in my life that the day I became a Christian was like being born again, and I suddenly understood about a God who loved me, and who forgave me, no matter what I had done. It was like a fresh understanding of my own worth in god's eyes, and gave me hope and joy). type questioning for me. And as far as the ethic of Christianity goes, it would make much more sense to me that a person's moral behaviour, the content of their heart and their conscience, and the peace they feel toward their maker, should be the only matters that would determine whether or not a person would get into Heaven, so I totally agree with your outlook there, or I would agree entirely if I believed in Heaven and an afterlife. ( I think an afterlife is the wrong way of looking at it. I think it is the same life, and we will still have the same identities. God existed before matter was created. therefore he exists in a form that cannot be quantified in physical language. Time does not exist without matter. What is time but a human construct we have arbitrarily coined to describe the movement of the planets, particularly the rotation of the earth, and how it causes a shadow to be cast by the sun every 24 hours? Time is something we are bound to from the moment we are born on one particular rotation of the earth we call our birthdays until the day that we find our poor physical bodies have too quickly grown decrepit and died. What is time to a God who exists outside the physical realm, and for whom there was no birthday, no decay, no death? He is the same then, now, and forever. When we die, we will be of similar make-up. I believe this is what it means when we are created in God's image. Not that we have our 'father's eyes' or our 'mothers nose'. In this way, Eternity is not a very long time, but it is an existence outwith time and space. It is only in the absence of time that eternity is possible to conceive.)

Tour of the City

I was a little bit naughty, and sloped off on the Thursday afternoon of the week long conference to do a bus tour of the city. The first stop was the science museum. Ooh! - look at the scary dinosaur. It moves and roars as well!

I knew that giong on the tour would be very educational for me- but how much!! I was able to put this exhibit to immediate effect when I went back to my HIV clinic in Mumbai. I have no concept what the dancing-Indian-pixy-boy in the centre has to do with immunology. I guess that must be another of lifes imponderable mysteries.

This was my favourite- a glass pipe about 1m in diameter stretching from floor to ceiling, and completely filled with obsolete microchips. It looked really cool. (I guess you had to be there - sorry)

How old do you think this govenrment building is? 100 years? 200 years? Nope, it is 5 years old, and constructed entirely of concrete! Impressive though.

The inside of Sultan Tipu's palace. It was constructed entirel from wood. He was a great military strategist, and defeated the British with long-range ballistic missiles, which looket alittle bit like large "rocket" fireworks!

Possibly the high-light of the tour for me was this cow lying acros the central reservation of a busy junction! You see cows everywhere. They are sacred, and so no-one eats them. They can become quite mangy and sick looking- ironic really. One might have been forgiven for thinking that this cow pictured must have been a victim of a hit-and-run, as it certainly couldn't have chosen to lie in such an uncomfortable position. Shortly after this photo was taken though, the cow got up and walked off!!!!

Just a cool guy! I think this will remain one of my favourite portraits for some time.

Now you know where he went after retiring from formula 1??

In the "Lal Bagh" or "Red Garden", so called as it is well known for its red flowers in season. There weren't many red flowers when I went, but...

...I managed to get one picture of a red flower especially for my father-in-law John! It's only a wee bit past it. (he likes taking photos of flowers!!)

In India it is often the traffic that stands still, but not at this busy junction, thanks to the help of Bangalore's finest!
Window cleaning anyone?

On approach to the Bull temple. There is some link to one of the God's - Laxmi perhaps (the goddess of wealth). I think she rides on this bull. Or it might be Shiva - the goddess of creation and destruction. I'm not too hot on Hindu theology.

This is the statue of a bull, around which the bull temple is constructed. As I walked around the back of the bull, some young lads who had been selling trinkets outside came and introduced themselves as guides, and proceeded to ask me for some money. They made a bit of a show of seeming holy- presumably to impress me into giving them more money- however their pretence collapsed somewhat when some other devotees dropped some money into a small offering at a shrine, and one of the lads quickly looked around and shoved it in his pocket.

As I went to leave the temple, the man pictured above in the entrance held out a tray with 50 rupees on it, and then after i had left swapped it for his usual 10 rupee inticement that he usually uses for visitors that are not foreign.

I must say that I left the temple with a bad taste i my mouth. There was no feeling of anything sacred about the place at all, but more of just people trying to rip other people off. Shame.

All of the photos above were actually taken in one afternoon on my city tour. I guess something worth noting is that most of the things I enjoyed were nothing to do with the tour, but were just things you happen across at the side of the road. India is so like that. So much to see in every direction. Don't blink! You might miss it!

MMMMMmmmmmm

I found a very nice bakery in Bangalore- something we really do miss in Mumbai.
One day I ate 5 of these donuts!! It was an accident! I bought them for someone else!

Bangalore continued

Sorry about that random diversion to the "who needs a truck" thread, it's just that I took that photo in Bangalore, and just happened across it just now! Below are a few more pictures of Inside some of the sessions at the conference.


There were 150 delegates. The maximum number that we could accommodate. Nice group of people, many of whom were already doing some form of care for people with HIV/AIDS. The problem here in India is that there is so much need, that people don't know where to start. In some ways it makes sense for people to say "well those people are going to die anyway" or "why should we help them, it is their own fault". I have unfortunately come across these attitudes too often. One church pastor even asked me "why are you trying to help these people, when God has already shown them his judgement"!!! I was pretty gobsmacked by that one- what did Jesus do when he was on earth? He went round healing the sick, cleansing lepers (HIV today is equivalent to leprosy in Jesus time)

The opening ceremony. It was blissfully short thankfully. On occasion, these ceremonies can take up half the time allotted to a program. It seems that everyone has to be thanked, and everyone has to be given flowers, and then everyone that has been thanked has to give a speech to thank the thankers for thanking them, and while they are at it, thanking everyone else again too. It is even more lengthy and protracted than the above sentence in real life, let me tell you!

Yours truly in full swing!

Everyone had an opportunity to use some educational flip-charts that we were given. Very useful for use in the field. Many pastors go to outlying villiages with no electricity or running water.

Who needs a truck

Clearly not this guy! He's coping quite well on his 80cc moped. Is his rear mudguard actually touching his wheel?

Bangalore

OK, I realise that I rarely get things added to this blog when it happens, but at least I do get it added eventually!

Recently I was fortunate enough to be added to a list of speakers at an HIV/AIDS conference in Bangalore run by an American charity called 'Samaritans Purse'. The conference was mostly for church pastors, and it was to encourage and equip them to be able to reach out with love to people suffering and dying of HIV/AIDS. There is a lot af fear and lack of understanding about the illness, and as much as anything, people just need to know the truth. Often people are scared of catching the virus unnecessarily.


This photo is of the main shopping street in Bangalore- it is called MGM Road. It is very westernised, with bars, coffee-shops, cinemas, and even the occasional pool-hall!

I had some chicken from this KFC in 1998, and later had a bit of a tummy upset! I avoided their delights on this occasion (I didn't have time)

I was able to feel quite at home with the "Bombay store" supplying all my Bombayite needs??!!

I loved these "Ironwallahs". I have not seen these in Mumbai, but I saw several of these in Bangalore. The iron actually contains a charcoal burning compartment. This fellow was delighted to have his photo taken, which was nice. Often when you show peope their photo on the back of your digital camera they start to giggle- grown men no exception.

An interesting trip to the barbers?

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed.

As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects.

When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said:

"I don't believe that God exists."

"Why do you say that?" asked the customer.

"Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist. If God existed, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can't imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things."

The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber:

"You know what? Barbers do not exist."

"How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber."I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!"

"No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist becauseif they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside."

"Ah, but barbers DO exist! That's what happens when people do not come to me."

"Exactly!" affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES exist!That's what happens when people do not go to Him and don't look to Him for help.That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

Reports 2000 killed by cyclone in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh - More than 900 bodies have been recovered in Bangladesh following a devastating tropical cyclone, but local news reports put the death toll at more than double that figure.
I received an email from a friend in Calcutta a few days ago asking for prayer as they were expecting a major cyclone to hit, and had been warned to stay in their homes. She remarked at the time that she felt bad praying for the cyclone to miss calcutta, as she knew that it would just hit somewhere else.

A couple of days later another email told me that she had heard that the cyclone had moved eastward, and would not be hitting Calcutta, but Bangladesh instead. Below is an article from CNN, along with some extra photos from the BBC website. Perhaps the statistics would have been a lot worse if the storm had hit the crowded streets of Calcutta that I witnessed in August.

People often say "if there was a God then he wouldn't allow the suffering caused by natural disasters". I don't fully understand it either. Actually I'm not expecting to be able to understand a lot of things in this life, but I do believe that God is just, and our understanding of how he hands out his justice is very limited.
I believe that much more human suffering is caused by man's complacency than by natural disasters. Perhaps events like these help to awaken human-kinds sense of compassion and mercy that so often lies dormant, and brings about some form of a greater good? I don't know.
Our perspective of natural disasters is based on our understanding of this temporary and fleeting physical existance we call "life" But I believe that God's understanding of "life" goes much much further. I believe in a life that continues beyond the grave, and gives a great hope to people who have had to suffer in this life.
Although I cannot begin to comprehend eternal and righteous judgement, I know a man who can, and about 2010 years ago he said when he was surrounded by crowds of people (possibly living similar lives to many of the people that have been affected by the cyclone in Bangladesh)
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." (Matthew Chapter 5)- did you notice that Jesus-the-son-of-God said that people who are poor in spirit posess the kingdom of heaven? Did you notice the people who will be blessed?- Mourners, meek, righteous, merciful, pure in heart. There was not a lot of room there for people who sit at home criticising others and going to Church once a week (I'm sorry if this attitude offends some of you). Jesus also said that a good tree bears good fuit, and that a tree will be known by its fruit.

Some people who look at the Church today do not see God's love being acted out, but instead see people focusing on conversion and salvation, preaching damnation for anyone who has not put their faith in Christ.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Steve Chalke, a remarkable Christian, and someone who is not afraid to make a difference. He started an organisation called "Oasis" about 20 years ago. That organisation has accomplished so much around the world to help the suffering and afflicted, and I have recently been involved in a small way with an HIV/AIDS project they have recently started in Mumbai.

Steve Chalk recently wrote a book, and I haven't read it, but I believe it said something about Jesus not paying for our sins on the cross. The Christain west has been outraged, and I believe he has received a lot of criticism. Someone told me yesterday that he has been basically excommunicated from evangelical christian circles. I don't know if that is entirely true.

What I do know is entirely true is that I can only admire a man who realises that what he believes goes against the grain, but rather than go with the flow, grow old, and die without telling anyone, he is willing to be different. Willing to think outside the box, willing to stand firm. Couldn't we ALL stop-just-doing-things-the-same-way-that-everyone-else-is-doing-them. God has called us to be willing to step outside our comfort zones to make a difference for him.

What I do know is that through oasis Steve Chalke is reaching out and saving lives all around the world. He is showing poverty stricken Indian Prostitutes with HIV the love of God. He has orphanages. He has health projects. He is impressive.
He has recently been given a huge contract by the government in England to build about 8 new academies. He is establishing a cutting edge youth centre in an old cinema in Clitheroe (where we're moving next year). Has the wider body of the evangelical church done better?

I really fail to see how this man is not a powerful and positive force being used by God for good.

I find it hard in my heart to criticise the man. What have I accomplished in comparison to him? Do I know scripture better? I doubt it. Do I go to Church more often? Do I pray more? Do I Feed orphans and widows more often?

I may not agree with his doctrine, but I don't think that is centrally important. What I think is more important is to recognise the fruit in his life, and to focus on producing fruit in our own lives.

For me the central concept of being a Christian is loving God and loving your fellow man, and Steve Chalke touched upon this passage of scripture in his talk yesterday-
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? "Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." If all the Law rests on love, lets just get on and do it, and stop worrying about the detail.

Families stand amid the wreckage caused by the cyclone Friday in southern Bangladesh.

This new-born baby, cradled by its grand-mother, survived, and has been called cyclone

As flood waters recede, aid workers say they expect to find scores more bodies when remote villages are finally reached and the counting is done. They face debris-blocked roads, no electricity and almost nonexistent communications.
The government said on Saturday that at least 915 bodies had been recovered, but news media, including a United News of Bangladesh report put the death toll at 2,000.
United News said it had reporters deployed across the cyclone region.
Cyclone Sidr, with sustained winds of at least 131 mph (210 kph), made landfall Thursday night along the western coast of Bangladesh near the border with India, unleashing floodwaters.
"We still don't really know the extent of the damage. There are so many areas inaccessible," World Vision spokesman Vince Edwards, who is in the capital Dhaka, told CNN.
Adding to the tragedy is the loss of rice crops, normally harvested in December, Edwards said.
In Dhaka -- about 200 miles north of the worst-hit region -- there were power outages, massive traffic jams and spotty phone service, CNN's Cal Perry said from the city.
"From an infrastructure perspective, the country absolutely has been brought to its knees," he said.

Elephants help move fallen trees that have blocked many roads and hampered the efforts of relief workers trying to reach stricken areas.
Areas along the coast received the brunt of the storm, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane. The worst-hit districts were Patuakhali, Barguna and Jhalakathi. Sixty percent to 70 percent of homes in those areas were destroyed, according to local officials.

Nabiha Chowdhury, spokeswoman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said 150 fishing boats were missing. The fishermen may have been caught in the storm and were unable to return to land, she added.
Chowdhury said about 600,000 people had fled, adding about two million people lived along the coast. She said the latest number of people injured was 15,000 with 1,000 missing.

Tousands of people have fled to state cyclone emergency shelters

It is possible rainfall from mountains will swell rivers, and by Sunday night or Monday the surge could reach already flooded locations in Bangladesh.
Sidr's powerful winds and lashing rain uprooted trees, leveled homes and even damaged buildings where residents sought shelter. Video footage from the height of the storm showed high, rolling waves along the coastal areas and winds blowing so hard palm trees were flattened.
Video footage shot from a helicopter Friday showed villages flattened and large numbers of people without shelter.
The U.N. World Food Programme announced it has enough high-energy biscuits to feed 400,000 people for three days.
Members of the Bangladesh army and navy were trying to help.

Bangladesh has a long history with deadly cyclones.
In 1991, a devastating cyclone killed at least 140,000 people, according to the United Nations. And in 1970, Cyclone Bhola struck Bangladesh -- then East Pakistan -- killing 500,000 people. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration considers that storm to be the 20th century's "greatest tropical system disaster."
While the storm was one of the worst in the last hundred years to hit the country, improved warning systems and shelters have kept the number of deaths far lower than the disastrous cyclones of 1970 and 1991, when the death tolls were in the hundreds of thousands.

Married life

A man and a woman who had never met before, but were both married to other people, found themselves assigned to the same sleeping compartment on a Transcontinental train. Though initially embarrassed and uneasy over sharing a room, they were both very tired and fell asleep quickly - he in the upper bunk and she in the lower.
At 1:00 AM, the man leaned down and gently woke the woman saying, "Ma'am, I'm sorry to bother you, but would you mind reaching into the closet there and getting me a second blanket? I'm awfully cold."
"I have a better idea," she replied. "Just for tonight, let's pretend we're married." "Wow! That's a great idea!" he exclaimed.
"Good," she replied. "Get your own blanket!"

After a moment of silence, he farted.

Count Your Blessings

There is an old hymn that goes "count your blessings, name them one by one, then you'll realise what the lord has done" Being in India has really helped me a great deal to see just how blessed I (and we as a family... ...and for that matter most of those living in the West) am (are!)

I received this in an email today, and I don't normally forward these things (although I do like receiving them), I've cut out some of the text, but I thought some of the statistics in the following paragraphs were quite eye-opening;

'How does one acknowledge God's blessings?' I asked.

'Simple,' the angel answered. Just say, 'Thank you, Lord.'

'What blessings should they acknowledge?' I asked.

'If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy .'

'And if you are reading this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.'

'If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... you are ahead of 700 million people in the world.'

'If you can attend a place of worship without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world .'

'If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.'

Stress Indicator

A friend sent me this picture on Facebook recently, along with the following text "I've attached a picture you can use in your medical practice. It's a stress indicator and is a pic of two dolphins. If the patient can see the two dolphins, then his stress level is acceptable and there's no problem. However, if he sees anything other than two dolphins, he is severely overstressed and requires treatment. Try it yourself. I think there's an Indian version using two elephants."

After I had examined the picture for a moment in some confusion, I sent him a return message asking "what does it mean if you can see two cows?"

A virtual tour of our neighbourhood

Alistair recently got a new bike (an early Christmas present as his trike had 'died' from so much use). On one of the dry afternoons in monsoon I took him for a ride, with Freya in the buggy. This was quite a novelty as usually it is far to hot to do anything resembling outdoor physical exercise.
These shots give you an idea of the streets around where we live. This first one is right outside our gate and features the ever-present rubbish dump. This is it looking pretty minimal actually and without the usual array of 'wildlife' namely pigs, dogs and crows, that feed off whatever they can find.
In the mornings the rubbish is collected from outside our flat, loaded into big buckets then taken across the road and dumped here. Ladies then spend several hours picking through the rubbish looking for anything salvageable. This is one of the many sights in India that makes my heart cry out. Why are they destined to this life, purely because of the caste they were born into? This has to be one of the most degrading occupations. Imagine the stench, in 35 degree heat...

This picture of Alistair is not just a nice one of him but also, I think, quite poignant. The contrast between all that he has available to him by virtue of his birth versus the simple, difficult life of these children in the slum behind. I felt really quite uncomfortable taking this picture although, as always, I was greeted with smiles.

Round the corner. . . and here you can see one of many luxury high rises going up all over Thane and Mumbai. Another stark contrast between the homes of the middle classes who are increasingly purchasing these kinds of properties, and those of the construction workers who build them.
This is just one of 8 or so similar towers under construction right outside our window. The families of the construction workers (like those in the 2nd picture) live on site in slum dwellings. When the building is finished, their homes are pulled down and they move on. We have posted pictures before of the slum outside our window.