At Stewart and Pennis

 

At granny and grampas

 

Visiting Phil and Catriona

We were very fortunate to manage to meet up wit so many friends and family when we were back in the UK. Both Phil and Catriona, and our other friends, Ross and Aileen had relatively new babies as well, so it was lovely to have a day with them.

Alistair loves running!!
 

Terribly afflicted by PPS!!?

It is true I'm afraid, and as a medical man I know just how serious this condition can be; it is proud parent syndrome!! Sorry, but I cannot hold back any longer. I simply must tell you how sweet Freya has been recently! She has really started to engage and laugh, and she is sooooo much fun now. She also has 2 teeth! and she has started to crawl!!!! OK, I think that is probably enough for now!

Our Church

This is a photo of our Church. It has been a real blessing. Jo has made some friends, and I am now babysitting every Wednesday to allow her to attend a mid-week homegroup.

Although it hasn't happened yet, we plan for me to babysit 1-2 afternoons per week to allow Jo to go and do some Speech and language work at the hospital as well. She actually has her first patient to see on Monday, which she is really excited about. 

Jeevan Sahara Kendra

I realise that we put a lot more on this blog about our dull and uninteresting lives than about our rather exciting work!

Here are a few pics to help you orientate your minds to patr of it!

The first piccy is of the sign above the door of the project. The name means "centre for life and hope". Thankfully the name is quite appropriate for most of our patients.

The next picture is of some of the team at jsk.
From Left to right- Ebeneezer, Soni, Seema, Shanti, Arun and me. The team was made smaller recently when all 3 of our nursing staff and one of our field workers left quite suddenly amidst difficult circumstances. However I was really encouraged by the fact that there were 13 people at our staff meeting last Friday, of which 3 people were patients who now work for us, and 4 were volunteers.

The third photo shows our in-patient area. Since the nurses left we had been unable to offer any in-patient services (only out-patient). By God's grace We do not think that anyone has died who would have lived if our in-patient service had continued for that time. However last Wednesday we had a new patient come to see us who was very sick, and had already been told by 2 government hospitals that she would die soon, and been discharged without treatment.
Amazingly.... A lady who had some nursing training, and we were expecting to come to help us at some stage once we had found her a place to live...... Just turned up that day, with her bags!! We therefore arranged to admit the sick lady, and Our new Nurse also stayed at the centre to care for her. We started treatment, and she responded really well, and was discharged after 1 1/2 weeks yesterday. She will continue treatment at home, and there is a Church volunteer who is linked to the case who will help with follow-up counselling and practical support (eg. food). This is a great example of our vision. We want to see God's people reaching out to bless and love people with HIV. Jesus would have done it!

The last picture is of part of our ceiling. Every time a patient dies we stick a star to the ceiling. There are about 70 stars there. It is very moving. 

better news

Just to update you on my dad's situation, his further tests were fairly encouraging.
It doesn't seem the problem is as bad as I'd feared. There has been a biopsy done, and we will have some more results in a week or so.
There is still a fair chance of malignancy, but good hope that if it is then a curative operation will be possible.

I got an email from a friend today, and this is a section of it. I found it really encouraging-

"My Mum was diagnosed c breast cancer about 7 years ago. After 6/12 she had a large recurrence. The biopsy showed the same cancer as initially. Post op the very experienced breast surgeon (40 years of practise) told Dad that it as a very aggressive recurrence involving under her arm, and he was not able to resect it all and the prognosis beyond a year looked grim. When the path result came back it was non-malignant much to surgeons embarrassment and utter amazement! Now being a sceptical medic I have always been wary of ascribing healing to God. However I do know that he does heal and this for me was a clear case of God's hand. Mum is still v well. I just tell you this story to say that whatever the outcome of the biopsy you need to know that God can heal if he so chooses for His purposes. We can't know why he does /doesn't choose to heal.....but we must just faithfully pray and commit such situations into his mighty hands knowing that he is sovereign. He controls our destiny. "

I was just remarking today to 2 of my colleagues that I believed in God's healing power, but I lacked the faith when I pray for healing, and don't really expect anything to happen. Perhaps God is going to use this situation to reinforce my faith in his omnipotent power!


Please keep us all in your prayers.

Bad News

Dear all,

I have recently recieved some bad news, and would appreciate your prayers at this time. Last Tuesday my father found he had a growth in his large bowel. This Thursday he is going for further tests. Some part of me wishes to be at home in the UK with my family, but another part of me knows that many people here would suffer if I weren't here in India.

It was particularly nice that when I heard the news of my fathers condition one of my patients could see that I was upset, and came and prayed for me, and gave me words of encouragement, saying that I had given him so much hope and encouragement, and now he wanted to do the same for me.

Thankyou for your prayers for dad. No matter what the outcome, we have the assurance that he knows our lord Jesus, and that gives us hope and faith in the future, whatever it holds.

While we were home, our pastor gave a message about God being a God of the valleys, as well as a god of the hills, and at the time it really spoke to me. Now I know that God will remain with the Black family through whatever valleys we must now go.

Please note that jo and I have no internet access at home at the moment, and so it will be more difficult for us to answer your emails, so please be patient with us.

God bless you all, and thankyou for your prayers

Bomb blasts

Just to let you all know that Jo and I are very sadened by the incidents of the 1th July here in Mumbai, with about 200 dead, and 600 injured.

However we are well, and life here is going on as usual. Please pray for the victims and their families.

It seems likely that these blasts were coordinated by a muslim terrorist organisation, and the major fear that we have is that there could be major repercussions from the majority Hindu society, with riots and Muslim deaths. Please pray for this to be avoided.

Childrens work

While I was in the UK the project started a day-care project for 7 of the children we look after. They get looked after all day by the wife of one of our social workers, and she also helps with the home-work of the 2 children who have started school. Yesterday we organised for her to recieve some training in pre-school education from another local charity, and she should gain some certificates for this. Who knows, this could be the embryonic stage of a more formal orphanage/school situation. (we also have 2 orphans being cared for in a small house by another of our patients, and I sponsor 3 other children's education).

It seems likely that this work will have to expand quite dramatically as more and more parents die, leaving behind HIV negative children. Please pray.

Childrens work

While I was in the UK the project started a day-care project for 7 of the children we look after. They get looked after all day by the wife of one of our social workers, and she also helps with the home-work of the 2 children who have started school. Yesterday we organised for her to recieve some training in pre-school education from another local charity, and she should gain some certificates for this. Who knows, this could be the embryonic stage of a more formal orphanage/school situation. (we also have 2 orphans being cared for in a small house by another of our patients, and I sponsor 3 other children's education).

It seems likely that this work will have to expand quite dramatically as more and more parents die, leaving behind HIV- children. Please pray.

Horse drawn carriage

Here's a fairly disappointingly poor quality photo taken with the camera on my mobile phone. I took Alistair with me to buy some train tickets for some friends who are coming to do a bit of travelling in India. It took a while to finalise all the tickets, and Alistair was really very patient. We were standing on the route of these horse trips, and every time a carriage went past Alistair would shout at me (or hit me in the face- I'm a bit worried about that tendency) to get my attention, and say "I want to go on a horse one day"! I think what he actually meant was "I want to ride in a horse drawn carriage today"

I was really very dissapointed in his grammar, and told him as much (only joking).
It cost 50p for the ride 

House visits

Here is sister Shanti (R) who works as a social-worker and counselor. The lady in green (Manakshi) is a lady who is supported by our fellowship to come and show God's love to people 2 days a week. The street is a fairly typical, but actually quite plush slum street. 

Teaching

These are the junior doctors from Lok Hospital. This was taken at one of their teaching sessions. I do teaching for them two afternoons a week (most weeks). 

Travelling in style

We recently managed a rare trip to the nearby town of Matheran. The town has a strict "no motor vehicle" policy, so here's Jo, Ali and Freya travelling to the town! I walked. Figured I needed the excercise!! 

Taxi

Here's a picture of a typical Mumbai Taxi. Until recently it was illegal to run a taxi that wasn't of this traditional mould 

Bog out our window

Yes, quite literally! This photo was taken by Jo during her breakfast! All these people are going to relieve themselves amongst the rocks! The book I'm reading at the moment "Maximum City" says that women have to go to the toilet at 3am in the slums of Mumbai! (what do women do when they have the runs??!) 

Wet Bog out our window!

The rains have come!
What a dramatic, and welcome break from the heat. We have been known to sit in the flat in the evenings without any fans on, and we have been sleeping under a sheet. Being scottish I have to complain about something though...
... it is now even more humid. 

this is an early morning picture of the same stretch of ground a few days before. It is so humbling to see that people right outside your window have so little, and sleep under 4 poles and a mosquitp net. I don't know where they are sleeping now that the rains have come. 

Bless India Rally

This is a photo taken of the stage at a recent "bless India" rally held in Mumbai. there were about 20,000 christians present to worship and pray for God to move in their land. It was pretty amazing to see so many people worshiping God.
Also of significance, 2 major local politicians came, and allowed the organising team to pray for them on the stage. 

Circular cut-and-paste

Hi All this is simply a copy of our circular email, so if you've read it stop now!
It's been some time since we sent a 'circular' to let you know how we are getting on. We have been in touch with many of you over the past months and we do try to reply to everyone in person as we really appreciate any news. To everyone else, I hope you have been able to keep up to date with our website (address below). We update this regularly with news and photos, and know many of you are kept informed this way. This is why we have been neglecting these circular e-mails.
For those in our support group, we are very grateful to Sharmaine for also helping to keep you all in the loop and encouraging you to pray for us. We have been SO encouraged by all your prayers, e-mails, letters etc. It really does make such a difference to a day to receive these and to know that we are in your thoughts. I have said it several times but will say again that we have never felt better connected with our friends and family than since we came here. To use a familiar expression, God works in mysterious ways!
We arrived here in Thane 8 months ago today full of anticipation and a fair amount of trepidation. Our experiences since that day are too many to list here but, as most of you will know, there have been positives and negatives. Days when we have felt so excited to be here and about what God is using us for and other days when I have cried and, if offered, would have taken a flight back home to all that is familiar. Through it all we have known that God is with us, and you guys, which has made it easier. We have stepped significantly out of our comfort zones which is never easy but always ultimately rewarding. We wait to see what will happen next and know for sure that we are different people from those that left. Not least because we are now 4 instead of 3!
It's hard to believe that we will be back in Scotland 4 weeks today! In some ways it seems like a lifetime has lapsed since we were last there with so many significant life events having happened (new country, new baby, 2 house moves, a month in the hills learning Hindi...) That said, it also feels like yesterday that we stepped onto the plane.
We are so excited about our trip home (14th June - 11th July) but are conscious that, as somebody wisely prayed, we wouldn't have too high expectations and risk being disappointed or struggle to leave again! We are very aware that it will be an extremely social and very busy time that is full of emotion and inevitably tiring. This will be true especially for the kids who will be experiencing a constantly changing environment. Although Scotland is our home we have to remember that Freya has never been there and Alistair will have no real recollection of it! We will have to give them 'quiet days' as much as possible. That said, please don't be offended that if we don't manage to see you and know that we would love to if we could!
We will definitely be at our home church, Queen's Park Baptist, on 2nd July in the morning. We will be saying something about our experiences so far in the service. There will also be a lunch after the service where we can chat to folk in a bit more depth. If you are interested please come as it will be a good opportunity for us to catch up with you all.
Looking forward to catching up with as many of you as possible soon. Meantime, check out the website!
Love Jo et al.

Challenging and Inspiring

Rick Warren is not your typical American evangelist. He's not an especially charismatic speaker, keeping his rhetoric deliberately folksy and low key. He's unassuming, a little bit pudgy and has a fondness for Hawaiian shirts, even when he's delivering his weekend sermons.
A long time ago, he decided he never wanted to be on television. He doesn't think a lot of televangelists or the powerful, media-anointed leaders of the Christian right, whom he accuses of "self-centred consumerism" and self-aggrandisement at the expense of their spiritual mission. Until relatively recently, he worked almost entirely under the radar and, despite building a movement of extraordinary power and reach in churches around the world, was barely known in the broader culture.
And yet he has achieved extraordinary things, and intends to keep achieving many more. His church, which he founded from scratch 26 years ago, attracts more than 20,000 worshippers each week, making it one of the three largest congregations in the country. His sermons, which he posts on the internet, are downloaded and used by thousands of churches around the world.
His book, The Purpose-Driven Life, has been America's top non-fiction seller for the past two years, doing twice as much business as The Da Vinci Code with 25 million copies. He and his congregants have adopted a unique method of organisation that has permitted them, among other things, to set up drug treatment programmes in southern California and the Mexican border town of Tijuana, provide three square meals a day for the entire homeless population of Orange County for 40 days, and offer training to more than a quarter of a million priests around the world - everyone from pastors in big-city churches to ministers in the smallest villages in Africa.
Starbucks has honoured him with a long quotation printed on its coffee cups, part of a series in which customers are offered words of wisdom from major writers and thinkers. Warren's line - asserting that none of us is an accident, that we are all part of God's plan - is the only one from a religious figure.
And Warren has much more up his sleeve. He believes he knows how to tackle what he calls the "global Goliaths", problems so intractable that nobody has managed to come up with a solution. He's talking about poverty and illiteracy and pandemic disease, and even more abstract concepts like spiritual emptiness and egocentric political leadership. What he really wants to do is launch a new Reformation, in which the organisational power of churches - any churches, representing any faith - is harnessed to deliver what politicians and international aid organisations and NGOs cannot.
"The first Reformation was about creeds, and this one is going to be about deeds," he said in an interview in his Green Room - a soundproofed office right next to the cavernous Worship Centre where thousands of people gathered for a Mother's Day service last Sunday. "The church is the body of Christ, but really its hands and legs have been amputated and all it is is a mouth."
People are not only encouraged to take their own decisions in his system; figuring out what they should do to help others is at the core of his message. "It's not about you," reads the opening line of his book, and he means it. The purpose of life, he believes, is to figure out what God intends each of us to achieve, and then to set about achieving it. Warren's Saddleback Church may be huge, but he has also split the congregation into manageable "small groups" of eight to fifteen people, who act as each other's church family, set goals and go about achieving them - whether it is helping someone's troubled relative or setting off on a mission to Cambodia.
These small groups, in turn, communicate with other small groups, perhaps half a world away. Always, the focus is on finding someone with credibility as a community leader and working through them. This is not a traditional, paternalistic model of missionary work, in other words; it's more about creating a decentralised, cellular model of organisation that can reach the sorts of people who usually remain invisible and entirely powerless.
Warren's interest in addressing the world's thorniest economic and social problems is relatively recent. It was stirred by his wife's interest in Aids, and then confirmed during a trip to South Africa when he asked to be taken to a village, more or less at random.
To his amazement, the pastor of the local church (which met in a tent) knew who he was - he had been downloading Warren's sermons for years from a post office computer an hour and a half's walk away. To his consternation, one-third of the 75 people attending the service were children orphaned by Aids.
"It was a shock, a wake-up call," Warren said. "That night I stretched out on the ground to pray under the African sky and asked, 'God, what else am I missing?'" And so he launched his so-called PEACE programme - a kind of viral marketing project for global stability, economic justice and access to health care and education. For now, his organisation has undertaken a series of pilot projects in 67 countries, just to see how it goes.
The system works. Warren himself has made several personal adjustments since the runaway success of his book made him rich and famous. He and his wife, Kay, decided right away they would make no changes in their personal life. They still live in the same house, and drive the same Ford truck, which is now six years old.
Rather, they decided to make some aggressive decisions about the money flooding in. Warren not only stopped accepting a salary from the church, but paid back his accumulated salary from the past 25 years. Rather than giving away 10 per cent of their income to charity - the traditional tithing system - they decided to give away 90 per cent.
After some grappling, Warren also understood how best to deal with his own celebrity. He turned to Psalm 72, in which Solomon prays for more influence, not less. Warren said that opened his own eyes. "The purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence," he said. In other words, becoming famous didn't have to be a distraction; it could be a tool in attaining his goals.
"I could have bought a Pacific island and spent the rest of my life having people bring me drinks with little umbrellas in them," he said. "But this is not about me, as I wrote in the book. It's all about others."

From the heart

Well, what a buzzing centre of activity our flat has been of late! Like Sauchiehall Street! Over the past week we have had Roger and Michelle Hartley (+ 2 friends who they work with) and Henry and Maggi Merriweather to stay with us. Along with Paul and Jean Dobbing who visited us in March, that makes 3 couples from Queen's Park Baptist Church (our church in Glasgow) who have stayed since we moved flats! It has been brilliant to have a bit of banter with folk from a shared culture. We've enjoyed conversing freely and being able to understand exactly what's being talked about - with a good bit of humour too which we miss. How about all our friends get together and draw up a rota of when you're coming to visit. That would be fun!

Jo continues to struggle here quite a bit of the time, missing all her friends and work back home a lot. I am busy and occupied at work, which makes things easier for me, but most of the time Jo is in the flat with the kids. Feel free to say a wee prayer for her. It would be appreciated (and for me). We are all really looking forward to coming back to the UK, it is only 6 weeks now!

My work is difficult at times. I find the language barrier extremely frustrating. If I could only converse freely in Hindi I could be a proper doctor again, and see patients by myself!! WOW! At present Sheba (the other Dr.) and I see pt.'s together, which is quicker than seeing them by herself, and she values my opinion, and listens to me. However she often doesn't translate large sections of conversation, but just paraphrases. I lose any humour and depth to the "Doctor-Patient relationship". I know this will improve, but I need to be more disciplined at studying Hindi.

Alistair is now 2 and a great wee conversationalist! He knows quite a few Hindi words and, I think, understands a lot. He spends all morning chatting with the lady who comes to help us and she only speaks Hindi. He's learning to assert his independence (interpret that how you wish!), mainly in the the area of food. He has become a picky eater at times and isn’t gaining weight. He also sucks his thumb, which is not ideal here, so I think I'll treat him for worms just in case this is why he’s not getting fatter!!!!

Freya is a delight. She is growing really fast, and has had no illness. She is quite strong and I think is more physically able than Alistair was. It will be interesting to see if she crawls/walks sooner than Alistair did. Alistair continues to be very fond of her and is quite protective if others get too close!

Upwardly mobile

Freya is actually pretty nifty on her pins. She can't crawl, but if we put her in the middle of a double blanket she'll be off it and rubbing her face on the marble floor before you know it!! 

Big Girl Now!!?

Here's a beautiful shot of my knees!? Thought you'd like to see an up-to-date shot of the four of us. 

Enjoying the new toys

Here we all are enjoying Alistair's new toys at his birthday party. Adam was as excited as the (other) kids. 

Biker Boy

This was Alistair's present from us. He is pretty chuffed with it (but was possibly more excited by the balloons when he first woke up!). He rides his bike everyday, and our lounge is quite large, and has marble floors (fairly standard in India- carpets would be no good with all the dust and dirt.) which is ideal! 

The Big Day

The biggest event of recent times has of course been Alistair's second birthday. It was a lovely day, despite the fact that Ali had a bit of a fever. We had a party, and 11 other kids came. Alistair was dosed up with paracetamol beforehand, and was on really good form. He seems to thrive on company. 

cool dude

Alistair loved the sea, and was quite tempted to join the Indian kids who were playing in the water. However we had to insist that he didn't go for a swim for human effluent reasons! 

Beach Babes

On good Friday we had a day off, so we took the opportunity to go into Mumbai, and visited the local beach. The stalls were all pretty tacky really, and we got pretty hassled by touts- this is something we are not bothered by in thane. but the photos look good! 

13 Orphans

There is a Christian orphanage 4 hours away from us who have 13 children affected with HIV. These children were being cared for by a local Doctor, but now he has left the area, and an alternative has not been found. We have therefore taken over their HIV care, and this week we saw them for the first time in two batches. They are wonderful kids, who are so grateful to be receiving help. Some of them had simply been abandoned on the railway platform. So sad.
Unfortunately their HIV care was all wrong, and may actually have done them harm, as it is likely to produce drug resistance quite quickly. Thankfully most of them didn't actually need treatment yet, so we will be able to stop treatment and re-commence in a few years. 2 of the children have got treatment failure though, as they really needed treatment, and have been on the wrong drugs, and have treatment failure and are getting sicker. They have drug resistance now, and are therefore likely to die sooner than they needed to. It is very frustrating and sad. Please pray for them. Please also pray for us to remain strong in the face of death of children.
I gave each of them a small note-pad and pen, and they were so pleased with such a small gift!

Party preparations

Alistair had his 2nd birthday party on Saturday. Here he is helping to count the gingerbread men. He has counted to seven all by himself!, but stumbled with the task you see here. "1,3,4,7,6,5,20,5,3,....." he was heard to say. I let him know I was very dissapointed with him (only joking). He runs around the flat just wearing a nappy (or nothing) most of the time, due to the heat! 

Cute as.....

....We think! (proud parents syndrome). Freya at about 8 weeks old.