The Back Side of the Mountain

(Above: Santhosh - yellow - with other HIV+ kids at our Monthly Children's Day last Saturday -- more pics are coming soon. Promise!)

Today we continued our efforts to purge ourselves of over 80 years of paper, history, junk and stuffed animals. Before we began I was asked to give the devotion before the staff in the morning. I focused on Galatians (of course) 1:11-18. But I specifically focused on the phrase “He was PLEASED to reveal his son to me”.

The heart of God: the excitement of his heart, the yearning of his heart, the heart beat of God is his pleasure and desire to even reveal his son Jesus to his enemies. So we spent 30 minutes contemplating the kind of God that the Bible explains the Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of the universe to be. And how we have an invitation, as enemies, to leave our former “track, road” of life and take God up on his promise of eternal forgiveness and the gift of his Spirit within. To follow the new “way, path, road” in Jesus. Paul did. And Paul reflects back to his conversion and says that Jesus’ heart for Paul was completely opposite of Paul’s heart for Jesus – until that day on the way to Damascus.

After this set aside time to meditate on the things of God… we began again meditation on the thing of the “Rees” family. There were some gems that we discovered yesterday: priceless photos, over 2000 slides from China, Burma, NE India, and Andhra Pradesh (current state that this phase of the mission is in). We tossed several machines that no longer work – but also found 8mm projectors (2) that are in working order and probably can fetch a lot of money for collectors! If there are any in India – cause they each way 35 lbs and they are NOT coming home with us! The point that we reached the summit of our project (see the destination is to actually make it back down the mountain, not perish on top!), was at 3:15pm. It was at this time that I began to place the REES collection of books (Usha & Emrys’ alone is 4 barrels so far…so…1500-2000 books?) BACK INTO the store room. So we have 4 barrels that are actually back in the storage room now! Only 20 more to go, and another 20 to sell!

We still have 2 barrels and around 5 small schests of “ledgers” from the mission to go through today (this is the last of the large projects overall in the room). The Hospital has 3 gray chests (2ft high, 2 ft deep, 4 ft wide) That I hope we can fit the critical ledgers from 1968 (year of establishment of the NPO/NGO here) all the way till 1990’s (when this cool thing they call a computer arrived here – I am actually using one now… they are neat!).

Quitting time came around 5:15pm as the power went out. This time, however, the hospital had power…we did not. Come to find out that our power meter shorted out (finally after 37 years) and we need to replace it. So after 2 hours of no power and “quality time” for Kathryn and I to lay in our bed opposite of each other and fan the other person (actually team work is 3-4 times more effective) – we finally got back our power. Just in time to make tomato, cheese and cucumber sandwiches! These are a great “cool down” treat after a long hot day. And we watched American Idol last night. I think that Adam kid is going to become to “caricatured” and just might lose this inevitable crown (like the Giants beating the Patriots a couple years back). I still am an Alison fan and I hope that Justin Timberlake wannabe is gone soon. It seemed that the ‘new’ judge (forgot her name) was taking some of the ‘Paula pills’, by the time the show was finishing she could not speak for the last two contestants.

I am bushed.

Prayers: that we find an important piece of paper if is here. A copy of the original marriage certificate of two family friends here in India. We are not sure if it is even here - -however, if it is—we don’t want to toss it by accident. So prayers that Usha’s eyes will be focused and head will be focused as she only contemplates these items for 2-5 seconds before they are burned tossed or kept.

Praises: Kathryn’s itchy palms have been now diagnosed as an allergic reaction to something “new” here. So we can chalk that up to over 2,500 new things that we have done since we were here! I am just glad that she is no longer suffering with the itch, and that her body is beginning to heal.

Thanks for your emails – keep them coming!!!!
Comments are always a great treat before bed also!!!


Our love to all who read, think and pray for us. We need you and we don’t take your friendship and prayers lightly.