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.)