Dolkan village

Yesterday John (pictured above, a Nursing lecturer from Carlisle) and I went to Dolkan village, 2 hours from Thane, to visit a remarkable man called Abraham. The village has no good doctor, and many people suffer without good medical care. The photo above is of the main villiage centre, which has a good number of small shops. Below you can see the local shoe shopping precinct!

For many years Abraham has been serving the community in grace and selflessness, to try to bring better health-care to the village.

It was humbling and satisfying to see the relationships that Abraham has now built with the locals. They all love and respect him, and he jokingly confiscates money that local children were gambling with, and a chewing tobacco box from a young boy, and they love him for it. You can see him below standing to the left of the tree addressing the youth.

Abraham is a small man, not reaching my shoulder, but he has such a big heart, and a matching smile. He has remarkable enthusiasm in a difficult task, and he gives all praise and honour to God.

Until last year he was living in a small shack smaller than your garage, but last year with the help of Lok hospital, a beautiful home was built for him, with an inside toilet (the first he's ever had), and 2 bedrooms. He cannot believe God's goodness to him, but the truth is that he deserves so much more!!

A few months ago he was bitten by a viper, and went to a hospital an hour away, received no treatment, and went home to begin fighting the effects of the bite. He was expected to die, or at least lose his leg, but he has survived, with only some swelling remaining in his affected leg.

Funnily enough, there are some bible verses about this;

Mark 16:18 "they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

Luke 10:19 "I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you."

However we shouldn't just let ourselves be bitten for the fun of it, as we are also warned in scripture!!

1 Corinthians 10:9 "We should not test the Lord, as some of them did--and were killed by snakes."

People in the village have told him that he should not be alive, and that his God must be very powerful. Perhaps he was also able to survive because he is so fit. Fitter than me certainly- at the age of 52. He regularly walks 20km per day to visit outlying villages/farms. He has a scooter, but finds it a bit daunting using it. He recently fell from his scooter in fact, and so it sits with a broken brake-lever unused at the moment, while Abraham walks 20km on his swollen leg.

I am very moved by his courage and determination, and so I'm planning to go and visit him once a month, and help him with his medical work. He doesn't speak much English, but my Hindi is now just about good enough to get by!

Adam