85 degrees at 4am?

Wow, heat.

It is truly better to go to the source of all things. The source of truth. The source of Mathematics. The Source of logic. The source real pizza. And I think I have found the source of true heat in the world. And we have not yet really begun to experience the “May Heat” as I hear many around us talk about. It is hot. Even for an Indian. It is Phoenix Arizona here. I am surviving, but wow. This is the real motivation to take my 110 kilo body (240 lbs) and get it to shrink to at least 210lbs (97 kilos?) by june 2 when we arrive back to the states. With no sugars, no real processed foods, no pop and certainly no “Edy’s French Silk” ice cream – I have the boundaries I need.

Okay, yesterday the power was out till 7:45 am, but by the time I could post-we were off to morning devotions at the hospital. I gathered it was the woman at the well (John chapter 4) but I could not really understand all the points. We have a new staff worker here at the hospital, a friend of Vincent’s (a staff chaplain and director at the hospital). I do not yet understand his body language.

Each Friday my father-n-law meets with the evangelist team here (of 4 men) for the day. Yesterday they had some personal stuff to attend to, so I hung out with Kathryn in the A/C (air conditioned) office and began outlining a good book on the ‘metrics’ of Nonprofits. Basically a change to a value driven form of fundraising. And changing your usually line of ‘100 men each year are a part of our program to re-enter society’ to a results amplified “return of investment” statement that ’80 of these 100 men will never step into prison again, make and average of 60% more each year than they did before their incarceration, and 42% are highly involved in a religious or civic volunteer organization.’ Now what would appeal to a business, investment and caring mind that truly wants results in the ‘service industry’ of nonprofits (often working in areas where many for profits fear to walk).

Okay. So we had a wonderful lunch together (I was very tired after exercising that morning and only having 3 idly’s). Then the LINK team (evangelists) arrived here at the hospital and we enjoyed around 2 hours of catching up with everyone’s lives, and hearing for about 60 minutes the new adventures that my brother-n-law, Robert, will be spearheading in India for at least 5 years in the realm of Bible translating. Some time for prayer and praise and our meeting was over.

I finally got hit with that darn jet lag bug. Kathryn has been napping 2-3 hours each afternoon since our arrival. I have not felt too tired until I collapsed yesterday onto the bed and slept till 5:30. Let’s just say I was not motivation to get up and go 5 kilometers down the road to Yerpedu (the local village here) to Vincent’s house for a small group gathering. As usual we talked about some verses in I Peter chapter 4. One of them told us not to grumble (murmur) any longer but to serve and love each other in the household of God. So I felt convicted as usual. And the Lord got his point across to me, and to a few others as we discussed.


We returned for leftovers from lunch (obviously a good thing) and I only ate one plate (letting me know that my body is starting to regulate its diet now, a good sign). Watched Lil’ Rounds and Anoop take the walk off stage for Idol. Helped Kathryn for an hour with the design of a “logo” to help the branding of the DLRH (David & Lois Rees Hospital). And then hit the sack after contemplating Galatians 1:6-10 for a few moments, again.

Good day overall. Nothing amazing, but actually regular, normal, boring days – not having to be the son-n-law and daughter returning home and meeting with people all day… is a welcomed change. Hopefully we will be a little more relaxed today (Saturday) as the HIV positive children come for there monthly meeting to celebrate all the birthday for the next month and receive their HIV medicine for the next month. I have learned that this medicine is soo valuable if take at a young age that an HIV infected child (usually during birth) can enjoy 40-60 years of life. And I hope they can see a cure or at least a complete stop gap on the advancement of the HIV virus in their next lifetime.

The Clinton foundations 5 year commitments to India are coming to an end and this important, and successful, monthly meeting for over 100 HIV kids in our half of the Chittoor district needs some funding. Please pray for this need – and if you would like to help this specific program that will have to be cancelled sometime this year… WRITE to me, comment this post. I am not sure how much the program costs. I know we use to get 10K from the Clinton Foundation each year – but I think only 2-3K is probably dedicated to this specific CHILD program for HIV+ (or HIVpositive) children. Seriously if your church has a goal to help the AIDS epidemic in the world, and specifically the innocent young life’s that have been infected by birth or blood transfusions – uh, we can hook that church up! And it will be used in an effective way!

Thanks for your 5 minutes today reading about our lives lived as you sleep! Good night or good morning to you!

…it is 5:20am, and all souls are now up at the Rees residence as the hand basin in the dining room we use to clean our hands after eating (we eat with just hands in India) has not broke and the only shut off valve is 100 feet outside the residence. Drama begins right on time. I hope you enjoy your Saturday in the states as you read this.

** we will try to get some pictures taken, and then uploaded sometime… maybe Sunday?