theParoublog -09

Happy New Year 2KX

2010-01-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

Hello, everyone.

New Year... New Posts...

Now that we have high speed internet.. no more excuses...

we will be blogging our many adventures in service to the Lord through BSSI... Benevolent Social Services of India...

FROM NOW ON PAROUBLOG2010.BLOGSPOT.COM

New House...

2009-09-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

Joshua & Kathryn Closed on their first house 9.19.09

Here are the pics from our big day!

At the "Edgewater Crossing" office - becoming a slave to the lender!
(Brenda, our agent through thick and thin in the background)

Entering through the backdoor to our NEW home!!!
... but wait...

We need to do this properly after 5 years, 13 days and 20 hours of marriage...
I finally fulfilled a promise of a house for ourselves.

This little black folder has all the important stuff in it...
it represents patience, frustration, dreams, promises and adventure over the last 3 months.

"Last Meal"
We treated Emrys and Usha (Kathryn's parents) to "Matteo's Resturante" as our last nice meal since it is beans and rice (or, rather, curry & rice), from now on!

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New Dog pics

This is Crystal Paroubek

She is very energetic compared to Claire...( 2 years younger)

She is finding her place in our family (next to daddy at night!)

She is very sweet when relaxed, softer than Claire
(no kidding!)

Yep, both sisters are getting use to each other!
That is a "good thing" (as Martha Stewart might say)

Chillin' with Mommy.
Both dogs are beagles outside when we go walking...
but inside they turn into breathing pillows!

Thanks for visiting!!!!

AFTER A LONG TIME!!!

2009-09-07T12:32:00.000-07:00

BUSY week, we adopted a new dog... and are signing on a new house this week, working, moving, remodeling... cleaning, packing... and going insane!!!!! please pray for us!!! the inlaws arrive this weekend. we are about 5-6 days behind where I would like to be.... mmmm. what is new? here are the current pics of the progress, or lack there of sorry for the mess and the microscopic dust in the air... sue me! JOSH

1st. a reminder of where we have been...
then

now, the progress over the last 4 days of work (insulation and wiring not seen!!!).

It is starting to take shape like a real office!!!

New shelves for Usha's storage (BSSI and food)
We call them "Matt Shelves"

======================================
And here is the pics of Claire's new roomate:

"Crystal Paroubek" Adopted Sept 5th, 2009 (1 day after our 5th anniversary)
From: Lafayette, Indiana "Crystal Creek Kennels" (hence the name)
She is a licker!!! We are breaking that habit, needs some help with sharing and socialization with dog also.
She is a cutie, loves to cuddle, her and Clarie already had their first brawl (probably of 4-5 this month).
She is a beagle cross with ??? not a pug (as advertised)... but probably a german pincher or dachshund?
She will come around in the next 2-3 months and and be a good invitation.. she is 2 years old.
And we like her already... good listener and learns fast...
(the family grows....)

Update 7.28.09

2009-07-28T01:48:00.000-07:00

It's 4am and we are getting ready to travel to the upper midwest for 12 days. Here is where we stand with the remodel. When we return we will be running wire, insulation, drywall, painting, flooring, mudding, and then finally furniture (desks). So we still have a ways to go. But first things first (wedding and visiting family, and talking to churches over the next 2 weeks).

Prayers are always appreciated!

Construction Begins!

2009-07-12T07:20:00.000-07:00

The long awaited process of the storefront/storeroom has begun the transition into a office room, meeting center, media center, bathroom, and some storage and the "Official Headquarters of Benevolent Social Services of India" (B.S.S.I.).

enjoy the shots...

First, remove the articles in said "room"

Kaleb (left) and Matt (right) helping out...
(you can kind of see the new entrance from the living room on right
and the stage in front, 10 inches high, will step down into desk area.)

Finishing the door before bed (1am)

(there will be a wall put up here by next weekend,

and hopefully drywall also!)

We are also working for 6-7 hours on it today (Sunday afternoon)
more pictures later this week... enjoy this so far!

2009-06-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone.

Here is a little more of what we have been up to (for the "inlaws" mostly).

n'joy

The "Shed"

Working on some landscaping
and a new parking spot in the backyard.
(in process, will have mulch up front,
and rock to park on eventually)

Cleaning out the Storefront for construction.

Okay, more ... sometime... maybe next weekend.
We are busy living life, and catching up with our "to do" list.

Thanks for checking in.

Quick house tour... for those who care.

2009-06-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

Most of you know we found a great little number on foreclosure for cheap.
So we are joining the owners of America for tax write offs and for stimulus money!

Here is the tour (click for larger pics):

(behind our backyard tree line is the main road)

Let's go inside, from the rear entrance...(great room)

Guest room/Office
Kitchen

Master Bed/Bath/Beyond
(entrance through the kitchen).

(and we leave through the mudroom/garage door).
---------------------------------

Hope you enjoyed.
It is built in 1998. laid on it's foundation in 1999. One 60+ year old women owned it from 99-2006. Been in foreclosure hearings for 2 years... on the market for 80 days.

And maybe, just maybe, it will be ours by July 24th.
Fingers crossed.

PAROUBEKS KEEPING BUSY!

2009-06-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

Hello faithful readers....

We have been busy cleaning, emailing, in meetings, job hunting, house hunting, and working on the landscaping of the Mission "House/Offices". Instead of talking too much, I will let the pictures clue you in. It has been busy, and will get busier and we keep cleaning, remodeling the offices, landscaping, and I look to visit the IOWA/NEBRASKA area during the 4th of July -- and then we will welcome robert back around July 15.... and hopefully close on a house in July.... and then I have a wedding up in the Cities on July 31st and I am trying to organize a 10 day trip to talk with mission teams and youth leaders in MN-WI-IA.

Sorry my bloggin' has been down,
I am planning on being more faithful in JULY
(we will be getting high speed then - so the slowest part of bloggin' will be my typing.

Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers... more announcements, and pictures to come... so keep checking in...

(click on the images for larger versions as usual)

------------------------------------------------------

the night we returned, 12:30am, Indianapolis

Picking up Claire in Atlanta, IL.
(another home of Paul Bunyan & his huge hot dog!)

And now, our little Victory Garden (planted 3 weeks late)

phase 1

phase 2

phase 3

phase 4

phase 5
(tomatoes hanging and on ground; Right to Left: zucchini, beets and cabbage; back on the right in Josh's cucumber patch)

phase 6
(now we wait for God to do his thing)

I also decided to stack are camping fire wood on a shelf.
(I am hoping to have a fire pit soon for the folks)

--------------------------

Now the Storefront moving experience
(we are 3/4's of the way done cleaning as I post this)
This is my immediate homework today and tomorrow
(inside and landscaping)

the before shot, a little bit of an eyesore.

the game plan: two trees, ivy, signage, and roses for Usha!
(click to see larger version)

Phase 1:
Removing dirt and preparing for a plastic sheet, rock, new wood borders, and a arbor vide!
(we will be looking for a cheap concrete bench at garage sale this summers)

More to come on this project next post....
-----------------------------------------

We are also cleaning the inside of the storefront for a functioning office by Labor Day.
Moving everything to a storage site 1/2 mile away. pics of that eventually also.

Cleaning phase 1

Cleaning phase 2
(this is our other homework this weekend...
getting this all cleaned out for contract bids)

---------------------------------------
here is the house we recently put a bid in on,
foreclosure, bank owned, undervalued...

Here is the link:

http://www.easystreetrealty-indy.com/miListingDetail.aspx?SID=943226746&LV=0&MINP=0&MAXP=999999999&MINBD=1&MINBA=1&MINGA=0&PT=RES&BS=False&MBM=False&MSF=0&MYB=0&MDM=0&NEW=False&HP=False&CT=Cicero&BO=False&OGC=False&RE=False&PH=True&ESR=False&SB=-1&POP=PRICE&MINPT=0&MAXPT=999999999&FNDX=0&VNDX=0&MLNUM=2915501

--------------------------

Okay, well more will come later.
Now back to work.
We also have to get the GRAND MARQUE ready to sell to help get this "remodel" started by July!

I will try to post more in a week or so.
Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers.

Back and Alive.

2009-06-02T23:29:00.000-07:00

We made it back tonight, about 5 hours later than expected. Apparently D.C. had some "Obama Drama" as Air Force 1 needed to use the airfields at Dulles for the president's trip to Egypt. And some genius has build Andrews Air Force base's runway about .5 miles too short for a full tank and a full load for a full ride to Egypt!

So we sat for 4 hour on the tarmac. Can I get any stimulus for that wasted time - of course the whole airport had to come to a halt for the presidents 5 planes.

It is 2am and we have unpacked all of our stuff... so the living room is a mess. But we need to organize all of our gifts tomorrow and ship them off this week.

We will post some more pictures at some moment. But now it is showers, bed and then a 3 hour drive in the morning to pick up our little doggie.

Thanks for checkin' in...

Return Flight Itinerary...

2009-06-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

Return Flight Itinerary: Joshua & Kathryn Rees-Paroubek

Jet Airways, Flight # 9W226. Departure at 1am June 2nd. Chennai-Brussels-New York
Arriving New York (JFK) at 12:15pm (EST) June 2nd. (20:45 hrs)

United Airlines, Flight # UA7837. Departure at 2:24pm June 2nd. Arriving at Washington D.C. (Dulles Int'l) at 4:05pm (EST).

United Airlines, Flight # UA7631. Departure at 5:00pm June 2nd. Arriving at Indianapolis, IN at 6:51pm.

Arriving back to residence in Lapel, IN approx. 8:00pm June 2nd. If you wish to leave a message for us on our cell phone... 317.902.5426.

Please pray for travel mercies on our bodies, and that we make the connection in D.C. (since we only have practically 20-25 minute to get off one plane and board the next...)
Thank you all for thinking of us daily... your remembrance of our lives before God is what powers this trip, and what gives us the wisdom and understanding we need for the road ahead.
We appreciate everyone who reads this blog, and makes requests to our Father in heaven for the lives of two ordinary people in Indiana.

T-minus 48:00

2009-06-01T03:00:00.000-07:00

Here is the rundown of our last few days before leaving:

Santhosh got a little chilled at Chinese on Saturday night.

The family enjoyed food with friends

After church on Sunday, we visited Josh's favorite restaurant...
Hotel Saravana Bhavan!
Here are the kids pinching each other underneath the table and smiling...

A typical Indian "Plate Meal"

A "paper dosa" (like a crepe) with chutnies (dips)

I'm just taking it all in... glad to be there!

The In-laws with "Geanie" (Mohanados's daughter)

Santosh was bushed at 5pm, no nap, after visiting Mohanados

A street shot on the way back home.

Katie and Usha took off this morning for some shopping...

Kathryn went along, and shot this, cause...
well... look at it.

Suresh, Sangeetha and her mother treated us to a traditional Kerala meal.

Even though I return 25 lbs lighter,
I still can't cross my legs and eat!

And now we begin...

One hour later...

2 hours and 15 minutes!
'Nayana-Priya' approves,
inspected by number 2 (years old)

================================
As you read this we are most likely standing in some line at the Chennai Int'l Airport... or waiting in the lobby for our flight number and border to be called up.

Thank you for reading up on our adventures...this whole time. It has gone very quickly for 6 weeks. Too quickly. Please rememer us as we travel and pray for the total needs of the David and Lois Rees Hospital in Yerpedu, India.

Maylasian-American (for a day)

2009-05-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

Today we enjoyed life as western tourists in India. At some point, you have to. And you don’t need to feel bad about it either, really. I am upset when I see missionaries starving themselves from enjoyment in a form of spiritual flogging—because they feel indulging the 5 senses in activities that they were meant for is somehow sinful. I will save my soapbox diatribe for another day-- but I feel that it would be an obligation to Christ's body at large to go body surfing in the ocean at least once a month on behalf of those who are brothers and sisters of mine ("in Christ") who cannot enjoy the ocean from Minnesota and Wisconsin and Indiana and... you get the point! I HOPE they would return the favor by enjoying some walleye each week for those of use who can't find them here!

So, we don’t usually eat out at the Malaysian restaurant, or have Domino’s Pizza (mostly for the fact that you can have around 10-15 meals in the village for the price of one pizza). But we enjoyed both today.

The ladies, driven by Suresh Attah, the majority of the morning and and afternoon finishing the shopping lists… So Ed & Charlotte, Dad and “members of the council” you all were on the list today. I think we are done now. And Suresh’s wife, Sangeetha, is on holiday for Saturday and Sunday (and was off of work tonight around 9pm to enjoy the pizza with us)… so, I am happy that we will be able to relax with her and the family and enjoy a couple last days together – to welcome Katie G. to the family in a calm way.

Instead of rattling on and on (as I am prone to do in the last days of a trip… ) I will leave the rest of today to pictures from the last two days.

I will recap Sunday and Monday late Monday afternoon and then post our itinerary as we leave from Chennai with Robert Monday and need to be at airport by 10pm for a 1am departure to "Amrika". Enjoy!

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Heading out for a day of shopping in Chennai:

yep... it is what it is

India: land of sarees and fabrics

beautiful and delicious mangos always available

Katie and Kathryn streetside

flower store

fabric stores, streetside

Cashmere rugs

more Cashmere rugs

wood elephants

Vases

For some reason I thought of Jeremy Schneider here.

Here is the better side.

Lunch at the Malaysian Restaurant

Santhosh with Josh-ana

Robert with shaved ice-cream

Katie G with shaved ice-cream

4 boys in a little rickshaw

Later that night we ordered Dominos:

Santhosh enjoying a Meatzaa Pizza.

The little one taking it all in!

The boys working off the pizza.

our family + 2 cousin's families

Thanks for stopping by and looking into our world today... please be thinking of our health, packing, time and travel over the next 5 days.

Shopping... ugh...

2009-05-28T18:42:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I am certainly not the king of shopping. I actually don't like it much at all. So I am glad to report that I have bought 99% of my gifts, or our gifts, for friends and family this trip.

We left at 10am this morning to hit a leather shop, money exchange, craft center, Spencers (air conditioned mall) and Victoria Tech. Institute (aka 'VTI') to purchase some items that are made from disabled Indians given a trade. Of course we discovered items that we decided to purchase for people. I will say that in India you always end up finding some gems that you just can't pass up. So a $100 shopping budget quickly becomes $140 or more. If you are here for the first time... then you probably will pay $200 if you are not watching your cash-money!

But the items at VTI are cheaper than most, the gifts that is, and the cause is good. And it's India... I mean you gotta buy some things that are hand crafted and could be turned around for 4x-10x what you pay for them here!

We returned around 6pm from our shopping and proceeded to head to 'Sateesh Kumar's' house... this is Sateesh Attah, uncle Sateesh. It was there that I had three servings (plates) of food and then someone had the bright idea of asking his wife to cook me a dosa. 1 dosa + Indian hospitality = 3 dosas! I am still feeling slightly ill and satisfied somehow at the same time. I have found that Sprite is a must (or 7up) in the evenings.

I know that I am old now cause his daughter is going into 12 class this June. School here is June - April. Your 11-12th school years are actually a prep period for college. They are not typical school loads or schedules. It's actually a really good system and way to prepare. But with 1.3 billion people, most of the 'social sector' or 'public good' equations in India are figured out. Maybe the money isn't there, but they sure know how to organize large quantities of people for efficiency. Especially when the average Indian only works 5-6 hours a day, mon-sat. Sometimes I wonder just how prosperous India would be with a 7-5pm schedule mon-fri, or mon-sat. Watch for what you ask for I suppose.

Katie G, from Nebraska originally - but now a study at Emmanuel School of Religion (Seminary) in Tennessee joined us for the day of shopping. I think it was good for her to enjoy the sights, tastes and sounds of India.

And, as if there is a great frustration following us from our home in Yerpedu... the power cut out at the end of my closing prayer (family prayer time) tonight. So am I writing this as quick as I can and sending everyone my apologies for not posting pictures from today.

We should have electricity (the 3rd phase) up and going so that the master bedroom is powered soon today. I hope. The other 2 phases (living room, kitchen -- two guest bedrooms and guest bathroom) are working. So at least we can eat and the fridges are working. I will have to post pictures off of my mother-n-laws computer later tomorrow.

Prayers: That we would be able to enjoy the last 3 days here in Chennai, purchase what we need, pack away what we need and make the memories that we need.

Praises: Usha and Santhosh will be arriving around 8am tomorrow morning. I will look forward to having the whole family together and eating at friends houses this weekend. OH - and pray that our bodies are prepare to fly by Monday at 2:30pm Central Standard Time.

Wednesday RECAP

2009-05-27T14:06:00.000-07:00

We said our last minute good-byes this morning to the various staff members up at 5am at the DLRH. It was a melancholic time for me. Time has gone by so fast, and it seems as soon as we found a rhythm to life at the hospital... we only had two weeks left. One of the problems with marking time by the number of 'Sundays' you will be worshiping in India--is they sneak up on you. This trip has snuck up on me. In my heart I am not ready to leave India. But, I am convinced that nothing will change, and the pressing financial needs of the work of BSSI require time and energy on the U.S. side of the world over the next 2-3 years.

I enjoyed most of the trip back to Chennai this morning. I read, the kids slept. It is amazing that they have finally completed the 4 lane interstate highway over the last 3 years since we have been gone. It is not a highway from US standards. It is more like a "boulevard" of two lanes in each side with a large 10 foot island, raised about 5 feet. For those readers from Indianapolis, it is like the road outside of the speedway. No matter a person can travel at 50 mph now, compared to 35-40 last time we were here... and I can appreciate the small things.

We arrived in Chennai at my Inlaws personal flat (apartment) around 9am this morning. After breakfast, Kathryn and Robert began day one of the shopping spree. And were gone till 5pm. Emrys and I sat in an A/C bedroom/office and began the first 7-8 hours of a 20-24 hour conversation before leaving here. Immediate small and large goals for myself, Kathryn the Board of Directors before their arrival this September. There is much on the plate, many ideas, but you know what they say about eating the elephant (... one bite at a time).

Kathryn was excited to show me all the gifts for family, friends, etc. I was excited to see the 7up she brought home. I also was excited today to try Kathryn cousin's (Suresh Attah = Suresh Uncle) mother-n-law's (are you following me?) Indian cooking. She made a pumpkin squash, coconut and bean dish (red beans) tonight that tasted straight out of New Orleans. It was awesome... I could not help but eat two helpings each meal. (moral of the story: Joshie's tummy is yummy today).

Our daily marathon of 8 hours of intense conversation finished and I proceeded to veg out and listen to the iPOD for one hour and then play with "NayaniaPriya" (Suresh Attah's baby girl of 18 months I think?). Since the little one only knows a few words in Tamil and Malayalam (Tamil is the language of Tamil Nadu-- the state we are in now, and Malayalam is the language of Kerela--the lower west coast of Indiad where Usha's family roots are from) and maybe 1-2 english words... there was not much in the way of conversation... but it is amazing how universal a ball rolling on the ground is. So, I enjoyed by evening. I will make sure to get some pictures of her and the rest here to post soon. promise.

Katie G, arrived from "Amrika" tonight (that is the way most Indians pronounce America). I laid down to sleep around 9pm, thinking that I would rise around 10:30 to join the team to pick her up (Emrys, Kathryn and Suresh). I felt like I had just taking a nap and got up and suddenly Katie was in the doorway saying 'hello'. So, I guess I was more tired than I thought -- probably because I had only slept around 3 hours last night. I think Katie is a med student, or a nurse here for the summer. I should know by now, since we have been preparing for her visit for some time... but I am utterly useless sometimes... now is one of those times.

So, long day short... it is around 2:30-3am in the morning as I recap this day. After my 4 hour nap. And I am ready for a bath (how one says, 'shower' in India), and to continue my nap. Maybe some 7up before I retire to the bed?

Prayers: Specifically for RAIN for Andhra Pradesh where the hospital is. And for safety and fun over the next few days here with family and Katie. Finally, for the deeper conversations, philosophical debates and critiques of how the mission needs to change as a whole over the next 24-36 months in order to welcome the next missionaries into the slot that my in-laws currently fulfill... and to prepare the U.S. organization and operations during this time to become a more affective partner and organization to that end. And for the patients of the David and Lois Rees Hospital who suffer with HIV, TB and Leprosy. You know, the REASON why we are here...

Praises: Indian food. Indian stores. Indian chocolates. Indian butterscotch ice cream. Indian 7up.

Maybe some pictures to come tomorrow. They are on our camera, but we are living out of a suitcase again, instead of having everything in a dresser/wardrobe. Thanks for visiting this blog again today... and in the days past. Your interest, prayers and emails are wonderful (even here in the city where we can get up to 50-70 kbs internet connections... hurrah!).

BUSHED!

2009-05-26T11:47:00.000-07:00

Well, today is our last day.

Yes we have said goodbye to over 40 people...
Yes we have taking many pictures...
Yes we have been packing all evening...
Yes we have been playing with the puppies...
Yes we are tired.

So, no pics, no words, just up at midnight downloading our computers onto our external hard drive before bed and surfing the net to stay awake.

I will post more later, tomorrow.
We leave for Chennai tomorrow morning and will be there for the next 5 days before we leave.

So, stop by again some time...

Monday = Monthly Meeting

2009-05-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

Today the monthly meeting was scheduled one week early due to are departure and the in-laws being gone in Chennai next Monday. It was a good day.

I gave a devotional for the meeting based on the Parable of the Weeds and the Parable of the Good Samaritan. I hope most of the point got through. Basically I was pointing out that in Christ we are like weeds that become wheat, bearing good fruit. And that the token actions of these new sons and daughters of the Kingdom of God is the ability to not put our religious structure ahead of human suffering and the needs of this world. That God never asked us to sit on a mountain and meditate for days on end... though I would probably enjoy deeper meditation on the words of God. But he constantly points us to the hurting, needed and left behind until his return... that his children are the preservation of the world until he comes to 'remove all causes of sin and all law breakers'... so those who are still law breakers oughta recognize, repent and become wheat (children of the Kingdom of God, saved through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ).

And I pointed out that this little hospital is a earthly outgrowth, fruit, of the life of the Rees family. This is the Kingdom of God come to earth... until the full kingdom is revealed.

Most of today was met with frustration. The power has been on for 1 hour and then off for 30 minutes. It is confusing what is happening around here. No matter, although it has put an hamper on the degree of efficiency today, we are still getting stuff done.

Today Emrys went 3 hours away to Chittoor, the district headquarters. Think of a district like a super-county and the district headquarter like a super-county seat. They made some progress on the immigration front, we think.

I finally got around to filling out the beginning of our new transformation of the US Board of Directors. It will be a two year process, and probably a two month process to figure out what the end game really looks like, but we are getting half way there. I feel good actually having some stuff on paper. It took around 5 hours to get it all done with the power the way it has been, but my current task has been accomplished.

It is late right now, I am just checking e-mail and posting these words. We took a large group photo of the staff today. It is on the other camera and I am using the wrong laptop at the moment. So you will have to do with the large picture below (bottom of the blog) of the staff last winter, until I can edit today’s photos and post them tomorrow, or update this post.

Prayers: that we accomplish all that we can tomorrow, Tuesday, our last day at the Hospital. And for more rain. We have gotten one good storm last Thursday-Friday, but we could use another one here for the farmers and the temperatures.

Praises: Telegu praise music, it just sounds nice. And the fact that we have the chance to be forgiving, fully human, and to have a hope that cannot spoil or fade. (in this I greatly rejoice!)

Thanks for your prayers… and birthday emails, cards, etc. Even though they took 3 minutes to download here… many were worth it, and I thank you all.

PUPPIES!!!

2009-05-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

After waiting soooo long. Here you are. About 8-10 weeks ago 5 puppies were born, we arrived around 6 weeks ago… one puppies has been lost (snake bite)… the other four are surviving along fairly well, so far.

So here they are… I have named them as follows:
mamadoggy (the mother),
joshpuppy (the big fat black one of the group),
Kathrynpuppy (brown with eye liner),
santhoshpuppy (who is hyperactive and always barking, the one that is brown and white)
and robertpuppy (who like to spend time far away from the rest of the family in the front yard, that is the skinny tan one).

Happy Sunday... we are just doing church, talking and relaxing...

To Avery and Olivia – enjoy kids!

puppy rollcall!!!

This is "santhoshpuppy" hyperspastic

"robertpuppy" the loner

kathrynpuppy, see the eyeliner

joshpuppy is the fat one on the left.

cute puppies always get birthday cake

Santhosh with the puppies, eating cake

puppies + sugar = fighting for 30 minutes

mamadoggy is a good mommy,
gentle with her puppies and was scared (well, not trusting) of humans, but Kathryn has broken her of that fear after a month.

HEY it’s my “Putina roseu” (Day you were born)

2009-05-23T10:18:00.000-07:00

So, I woke today, like any day—I slept in a little since it is my day. The first time I have celebrated my birthday in India. I was thinking that my first trip was from JUNE-AUGUST, my second was JULY-SEPTEMBER, my third (with Kathryn) was OCTOBER – FEBRUARY and now this one is APRIL-JUNE. So I have seen every month except March. I guess we all have to have one goal.

Santhosh was singing Happy Birthday since 6am for an hour before I made it out of the room, luckily our second fan (yes you have to have 2) is very loud!!! So Santhosh was the first to give me my gift, before I washed my face or brushed my teeth!

Kathryn and Usha surprised me during morning meditations. After the morning prayer I lifted my eyes to see a cake with 3 candles on one side and 2 on the other. So that is 32 isn’t it?

And then came the 'special' birthday candles.. that never go out, ha ha ha!!!

first try

second try

third try

After devotions I opened my presents.

some new handkerchiefs

lifebouy soap, 12 pack... dreams do come true

new lungees

Santhosh thought I needed the tags on my face.

This afternoon I spent finishing an outline of a book and having a little conversation with Emrys. Nothing to big.

Tonight we went to eat at an Indian buffet. Really good food. It was an expensive westernized hotel atmosphere. But we had a selection of 12 different hot dishes, several salads and several deserts.

Also they snuck another birthday cake in the mix.

Now it is home, a nice breeze outside, feeding the puppies, mamadoggy and dusty some cake. Bloggin’ shower and bed.

Hope you are having a good day also.

LINK and Prayer Meeting

2009-05-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

Well it is Friday. Sorry this post is coming so late, but look at it this way, you will have 3 posts to catch up on!

Friday, we started the day with the usual LINK team of evangelists. They are in charge of follow up for many of the patients and their family members who are interested in knowing more about Jesus or have been baptized recently. It is too bad that many of the local Christians are so uncomfortable with HIV positive Christians (many of them new, sense they have recently thought about dying, or rather life after dying), that they don’t really accept them – or have programs for them.

Anyway, the LINK team, besides my family here, are the closest men in my “Indian” life. Good, good men! We actually had a great time discussing the last 10 years, since the team was established, and where they are at with their goals. Many things have not been met, but a new approach is on the horizon for ministry, family and business in their life. So maybe it is good that I am joining with them now, as their plans change. They will get back to me in July with a new timeline till 2020.

After joking around and talking through ideas and other stuff, not really a time line, but the things a time line should include, we had a prayer time and were dismissed by 4:30pm. That was enough time to say hello to a few people, and relax with Kathryn in the dining room (watching… c’mon you can guess… cricket!).

Prayer meeting for the Yerpedu Church of Christ was at John Basha’s house. He had eye surgery last week and will be wearing eye gear (sunglasses) for the next 30 days. It was good. One of my favorite Telegu (the language here) praise and worship songs was sung last night. It basically says “no matter what problems in life.. Jesus in the answer”. It reminds me of my trip to Haiti in 1997 where “Jesu la unique solution” was painted everywhere.

We had a fun conversation on the way home with Rhamachandria (he is the farmer that became a ward attendant… that became a store room manager… that became a social worker in the last 6 years). He basically went from a $1,500 rupee p/month job to around $5,000 rupees a month (oh.. sorry… $30 USD to $100-120 USD) over the last 6 years through hard work and education. He is a very fun friend to have.

After stuffing myself at John’s house I sat around in the front and played with puppies from 10-11pm before bed… we got home just in time to see Chris win American Idol. I am actually happy. I wasn’t a huge fan of Adams. Yet I think Chris was milking the “girlie-girl” vote. I wasn’t surprised as much when you think about it. I could see Danny’s voters going for Chris’ music much more than Adam’s releases.

And.. that was Friday. The day before my first Indian B-day.

Thanks for your time…

Thursday: Tirupathi, twice in a day!

2009-05-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to sleep in to 6am. Really. I usually wake around 4-430am. So, after some study--I gave the devotion for morning meditations (for the staff at DLRH). Hopefully, I showed how grace is different than mercy, and about the difference between Christianity and the Islamic and Hindu views of salvation. We are all pretty much in agreement with how a human should behave... we are a little different on the depth of depravity we see... and we are different in the prescriptions to fix the fallen world. It was my last time to speak to the staff in the mornings.

We spend the middle part of today (10am - 4pm) in Tirupathi. Shopping and various stops, the real reason that we stopped was to meet the president of the agri-college, and to meet the local chief in charge of all the rural agri-business in the area (the southern 3 districts -- Chittoor, Nellore and Kadapa). It was good to meet both men. And considering the 'positions' they both hold, they were very gracious to give us the time of day and more.

After several other stops we finally showed up back home tired and ready for a late late late lunch.

Tonight we went to Bhushanam's house (another trip into the city!) to have dinner with him and his family. His son will not be returning till Saturday (but we already have birthday plans for... mmm.. me!). Bhushanam is always smiling, always. So it is always good to be around him for a while. Tommorrow is the last time I will see the LINK team... that will be sad. We have not even addressed the needs of the LINK team now and future and the plans that they have. And this is the most disapointing part... This will be a need next time we visit... or if I come alone during the winter this next year.

Of course, I forgot to get a picture with everyone! Even after telling Kathryn to bring the camera. Ya... all of this 'documenting' each hour of our life is new... give us a break will ya?

RAIN!!! RAIN!!! RAIN!!! Thanks for all of your prayers... after 4 weeks we finally got another rain. Actually the last one was only about 10-20 minutes of rain in late April. This was the full measure and heaping over. Lighting, Thunder, huge drops, downpours for 1 hour, soaked up by a thirsty thirsty thirsty earth. Kathryn and I will be sleep out under the front roof tonight! It is so nice an cool now.. 75-80 degrees.

I am reminded now everyday that we are getting closer to saying good-bye to all of our 'extended family' of the DLRH. And it is kinda sad. I guess I can look forward to seeing our little doggie-dog back home (Claire-bear).

(I am sure she is enjoying Illinois with "Cocoa" the weiner-dog)

Prayers: Largest thing now is to have a Q3 and Q4 plan for the next 6 months after we return to begin a large transformation of our U.S. operations, board and begin the process of moving Emrys and Usha out of ministry as Administrators of DLRH and begin the task of finding a missionary family that would love to work with the least reached, least helped, least remembered of India... cause we are on their doorstep here!

Praises: After spending the day in Tirupathi (city of 500-700K people and over 150K visitors a day) I am glad to live 6 kilometers north of a village of 10,000 people today! The quiet is good for the soul I think, and also for the patients to heal faster.

Thanks for stopping.

Oh, the drama of Wednesday!

2009-05-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

Oh boy…. What a day. As usual I ran in the morning, and enjoyed some time on the internet. I met with Mohandas (the financial head man here) for an hour to go over his view of things and some immediate needs (conversation still continuing next Monday/Tuesday), before breakfast..

I had a good day planned, I thought. Meet with Guvara Reddy again to discuss the leprosy and TB work (now that we have covered the HIV/AIDS work that we do). But then at the end of morning devotions that announcement was made that the main director of all of our state funding for HIV work ($40-50K a year) was coming to worship at the nearby temple and wished to stop and visit.

Mother hates living next to the Thirmala Temple in the city of Tirupathi about 30 miles away. This happens quite often. So then for the next 3-4 hours all the quiet and peaceful bliss and workings of DLRH was interrupted as we had to clean up, and prepare for an officials visit.

Kathryn was not feeling well at all today, and I laid down with her to take a nap after lunch around 2pm. Before I knew it I was a little sweaty and it was 4pm. And I thought, ‘Oh no, I am the Son-n-law and I missed meeting this gov’t official from Hyderabad.’

Only to find out that they called around 3pm and said that they were not coming…

So, as you might expect, this is the 78^th time this has happened… (not sure on the number, they stopped counting after 15 I would guess)… it is quite common. And the frustrating thing is that my Father-n-law and Mohandas were going to run to the Chittoor District headquarters this morning (Chittoor City) to meet with the Collector (basically the regional governor of the district, directly under the state governor). And they had to cancel this trip due to the Hyderabad Official’s surprise visit. And this means paying a partial payment on an air conditioned car rental for the 2 hour trip to Chittoor and the 2 hour trip back. Ahhhhhh!!!!!!

So that was the majority of the day. I finished a book finally. And the family sat around the front yard and talked tonight from 6:30-8pm… and then we had baked potatoes! I read another couple chapters of ‘Atlas Shrugged’… and now to bed. Good night.

Prayers: RAIN. Only a few days left here.. we leave in 5 days from the hospital, ten days from India. Pray for clarity of thought, enjoyment of time, and progress on some core issues for the next 3-6 months.

Praise: For drama, sometimes the most frustrating events in a day can keep everything in perspective and how meaningless much of life is… if you don’t have your priorities in check, or a God who is not bound by our drama to cling to when stress comes like rushing waters! I am thankful for the chance to laugh about today… when I wake tomorrow.

Thanks for many of the recent emails. If you are reading this faithfully please email Kathryn by surprise over the next 1-2 days just to bring some joy to her life here. Please, for me? Rees_Kathryn@juno.com

Preparing for the Last Days...

2009-05-19T23:00:00.000-07:00

(click all images to see a larger version as usual)

We have 8 days left here in Yerpedu. It is actually sad to think about it now. Part of me is ready to be home in the states, and part of me feels that I am home here. And the majority of me knows that I have no home here on earth compared to the glory that is promised me, this world is not my home.

But there is something romantic about the rural parts of India. There is a real magic here. The pulse of the country. Like the farms of Iowa, the ranches of Texas. Like the cattle ranches of Nebraska, or the soybean farms of southern Indiana. It is the part of India that many tourists will never see, just like many tourists from Europe, the Middle East and Asia will never sit at my parents table to eat. And it is too bad. Beyond cultural exchange and understanding… there is the common life in a country. The day to day, the common struggles of the working poor in Wisconsin, in Kentucky, in Louisiana, in California. And this is the area that we minister in. Even so, we press farther into the hurting, the forgotten, the rejected, neglected, the least honored, the most feared. And with God’s grace we offer the hands of love, and heart of compassion and a spiritual power able to conquer those empty fears, rejections. We are here to extend the love of Jesus, and to offer a living hope in him.

And this does not change wherever Kathryn and I may roam. However, there is something about Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh, India. Those words mean something more significant than Buffalo County, Wisconsin, United States. So… I can’t just walk away from those words or not be moved by the needs of this small country inside a country. Chittoor has over 30 Lakhs of people (over 3 million). It is basically the population of Iowa—NOT in a state, but in the area of 2-3 counties in a state. So imagine that.

Our HIV/AIDS work covers the central and east areas of Chittoor, and this is around 2.5 million individuals. With an estimated 1.55% infected rate of HIV, and around 2-4% of all mothers who CHOOSE to be tested coming back positive for HIV before birth… I wonder what the real numbers are. I suspect that we have at least 5% if not greater here. And that is something to be worried about. South Africa went from 5% to 25% in 5 years!!!! It is the highest affected state in India. And we are one of the highest affected areas… truck drivers wanting nightly entertainment, temple prostitution nearby where priests look the other way, adultery and a common culture of having one legal wife and 2-3 other wives.

And other ways of course, but my main concern is not only to help the rate of infection, it is the children born from HIV positive mothers. It is simply the easiest way to help the cause—nutrition, drugs and testing. A little investment in a child, possible around $300 per child private funding, and the support of free health care and HIV medicine for mother and child. And the child will not contract the virus. And that child then can have a balanced diet, good water, good education, a house with a roof and clothing… and a chance to make 5-20 times per year what his/her parents make… and eventually take care of their parents when their health deteriorates later in life as HIV will become AIDS for them.

Today I ran in the morning and could tell it was gonna be hot! And it was. What is amazing is that from 10am to 2am in the afternoon, the peak of the heat, we can dry our jeans (not our cotton shirts, or even our towels…but our jeans) in 30-40 minutes. Just by hanging them in the dry, hot, 110-120 degree heat. That is how hot it is.

I sat with Guvara Reddy, the operations manager here at DLRH, again this morning and we will finish up our conversations tomorrow. It has been very educational. I am not sure if I enjoy hearing about great sounding international relief efforts that are only funded for 2 years and have no exit strategy. I could give you a list of examples I have seen so far, but I don’t want to be frustrated this moment. And the amount of funding is pathetic to many of those who are willing to help the cause. In the nonprofit world you will not make the money that you would in a gov’t hospital, or private…of course. But many of these wages are near what a house maid will make for cooking, cleaning and laundry work. And this is for field workers that are already positive and have health risks and are trying to help the cause. So, I think we really need to see what more we can take on.

The Bible says that to not take care of family is to be “worse than an unbeliever” (in Jesus Christ, that is). Actually the Apostle Paul is the direct person to quote. And while the ‘minimum wage’ that the gov’t is offering, through Clinton Foundation, Catholic Relief Services, and other Intl. orgs is enough to scrape by on… I have to ask: ‘are we taking care of our family?’. Not so much the Rees Clan. But the David and Lois Rees Hospital Clan. Do we provide a different Christian operating environment here to our employees… Christian, Muslim or Hindu… or nominal whatever. And do we feel that they are close to us like extended family, do we feel an obligation to offer them a better wage, a better life, and also better opportunities through micro-credit and education to pursue greater avenues for salaries?

Or if we cannot bump everyone’s salaries from $100 a month, to $200 (cause that would mean around $1000 a year for 80 people… and that is about double our current labor costs!)… What if we were able to offer not only a better environment, but a superior retirement package that would compliment their national social security, the national pension plan, and the usual gratuity at the end of several years labor of 10%.

And can we, or do we wish, to revamp the good programs that we have been able to handle over the last few years. Do we wish to raise the funds, sponsorship and fund them from our side? Or to personally begin a deep and thorough application process to find other international funding agencies? There are many needs, but which ones are the ones that we can handle. I look at it this way… what has God placed in our hands, and what have we grabbed and not thought of? It could be that all that we are involved with is currently aligned with God’s plans for this institution now and over the next few decades… but as an outsider, and son-n-law, I must ask.

Okay. This afternoon I spent working on some more reading and outlining a book…

Then I got to spend 1 hour teaching the young one how to do addition and subtraction, and I taught him some of my ‘secrets’ to math. I hope I didn’t mess him up to much. Oh, Santhosh… God help you!

We ate dinner with Vincent and his family (Vincent, Sunitha, Bobbi and Abie his two sons). The chicken was great and the ‘vadas’ were great. Like a fried doughnut, but not sweet, actually quite tasty and with a little chutney sauce on the side (coconut, peanut paste and some pepper)… and chicken, and rasam and other things. It was a great meal and you could see how much Sunitha was happy to serve us. That is the nature of hospitality and the respect for the quality and humanity of your guests here. Something India has to teach me, always.

After returning home tonight Kathryn and the gang starting watching a movie on the tube, and I continued my nightly ritual of 1-2 chapters of “Atlas Shrugged” to escape for a while. “Who is John Galt?” I am really enjoying the novel and the philosophy of Ayn Rand. It is basically and individualistic, secular worldview. And instead of fearing it, like I am sure many Christians would – I actually can embrace much of it, cause I do believe the Christian arguments and the Christian allocation of resources (not in a broad national program sense) can compete within the market.

Actually that is what I hope we can do as an institution… to appeal to the investment drives of many Americans and Indians. To move from Free Trade (the fundamentalist view that Rand argues for) as the nonpartial field to begin play on, to Fair Trade (conscious decisions by free market participants to purchase products dedicated to fair profit sharing and not just ‘prices are falling’ bottom lines) to then ask for even more… to promote what I am calling “Faith Trade” with is product + investment. Or investment in the cause with the bonus of a product that is an outgrowth of that very cause… ie: purchasing coffee vs. purchasing fair trade coffee where the workers get a fair wage and cut vs. purchasing that same fair trade coffee plus another 25-50% of the cost of the product being invested in a 200 student school for the village where the coffee is produced so that their children can have greater opportunity, while the families will eventually be earning enough from their higher wages to pay for mechanized harvesting… so not needing all those kids to help in the family business/farm. If you get my drift…

I am talking about using your money for commerce and investment at the same time. So that you get a quality product (service or good) and you get to invest valuable capital into a social cause that will satisfy your desires for a return on investment (not a monetary return) but still a return!

Ooops, I wandered back into my thoughts about the work here… sorry.

Have a wonderful day… wherever you are.

Prayers: RAIN. Please join in the chorus of all men and women asking God for 2-3 days of good rain here to give the ground much needed moisture and to help the crops along. Also please pray for Kathryn who is currently taking her turn on the “sick merry go round” here.

Praises: For the bond of peace in Christ between Christians. Beyond language differences, cultural differences… one thing I find wonderful.. there is One father, one son, one spirit, one faith, one body, one baptism, one hope… and we are being conformed currently for another culture in the future… whose language is love, whose borders are a new heaven and earth, and whose king is the Lord God, maker of heaven and earth… even for a second time in the future.

I listened to Jeff Deyo’s version of “I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold” running this morning… and it was grandiose, glorious and rang true in my heart, in this land… today. So I praise God for the enjoyment in short spans of that future glory I know I am waiting on. I hope all readers of this blog either understand that hope fully before ignoring it… but rather I hope that also reach for the rope of rescue and wait for a loving Savior to pull them from their sin, self, and guilt into a living hope, a clear conscious and a meaningful reason to stick around here on earth for a few decades to carry out the continuing message and ministry of Jesus Christ (in his physical absence). Really. Don’t sleep on this… it is better to listen to the emissaries, ambassadors, spokesmen and citizens of the King as they give a warning on how to escape the wrath before the King arrives to set all that is false, correct again, and to remove all that is not in his will (and all who are not in his will) from existence for a new heavens and earth for his most beloved creation of mankind.

Thanks for stopping and reading this long post… I appreciate it.

Typical Monday.

2009-05-18T23:00:00.000-07:00

(A picture from the harvest)

Today we arose to find that the 3^rd of our 3 phase power had finally burnt out. In India you get power in three phases. When the 3^rd phase is active (I should say all 3 phases), you can run things… like say…air conditioning!!! We had an emergency with the electricity meter 10 days ago, of course the company said they would return in 2 days to fix the problem and install a new meter. 10 days later... crash!!!

On the bright side. I am feeling much better today. So much that I ate some fried fish. And it was good! Yep, that same fish from yesterday. I am glad that I could actually taste it.

This afternoon was spent sweating, reading, sweating, talking with Kathryn, sweating, spending some time laughing and talking with Vincent, sweating and catching up on a few emails. Nothing outstanding. We are about 10 days from leaving the hospital… so this is a critical time to create that list of “to do's” for the next 6 months, at least.

Seeing that the in-laws will be in the states in September… it is critical that we get started with several things before their visit. Plus I will be working on “my side” of stuff.

Kathryn and her mother went to town tonight to do some shopping. You know the special things like electrolyte packets and 7up.

So, yep. Mondays are Mondays also in India… nothing new about that.

Prayers: RAIN. Enough said. Really pray for this, I am not kidding, especially for the crops. And to pray that we make use of our time, and can get a focused plan for the next 6 months. And 3rd current power so we can fill the water tank and have A/C.

Thanks for checking in today, sorry we didn’t save the world.

(Santhosh at Sunday night's Worldwide HIV/AIDS vigil)

SICK!

2009-05-17T23:00:00.000-07:00

Today I arose with a wierd feeling in my gut/stomach at 4:15am. I couldn't go back to bed, so I worked in the office for a while, until 7:30. The feeling did not get better. I knew that something was wrong--cause I usually don't get sick much during the year--so I can tell when it is coming on. What would be a trip to India without being bedridden for at least half a day!

The culprit? Chicken Biryani. It seems that there is around 4 cups of oil and around 6-7 cups of ghee (ghee is basically butter that is processed to become very sweet, and it is really fatning). I did not realize this as I was eating 4 plates full of biryani yesterday for lunch and supper. So today had one highlight.

I was able to hold back the sickness for 3 hours to keep my promise to visit Vicents church about 15 kilometers north from the hospital. It was not a fun ride, not fun waiting to preach, but it is a strange grace that during the times when I preach (if I am sick) I have never felt the sickness until I sit back down (this also applies to being nervous, for some reason God has seen it fit to wait until I sitting down to release the 30 minutes of nerves into my body at once). This hapened today, where I had to excuse myself and curl up like a sick dog behind the church building out of the sun for about 15 minutes.

I spoke on John 14:1-14 in case you wish to look it up on the web. I suggest ESV.org. I enjoyed the time of back and forth, questions, answers, etc. We focused mostly on the statement of Jesus that "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father"... and what this means. Finally we spent time thinking about our roles as Christians to point people to Jesus, and as they get to know the biblical Jesus--he will point them to the father.

I returned home and basically drugged myself up and slept from 11-4pm. I still feel a little down, and I have no energy (as all I have eaten today is a bottle of 7up, water and two pieces of french toast this morning). Imagine eating salads for 30 days and then going to Hardees and ordering 2-3 burgers... that is basically the shock I gave my body yesterday. So, I will not forget this lesson.

Tonight is an international HIV/AIDS candle light service around the globe. Of course, like usually we only heard this from the state gov't about 10 days ago, and had to prepare and ask people to come to the T intersection in the middle of Yerpedu where the David and Lois Rees Hospital sign is. I did not go, cause ... well , you know. Kathryn has stayed behind to help me... and to watch TV. But Robert and the In-laws took some pictures.

Prayers: For me, so I can be back to 100% by monday evening. And for RAIN!!!

Praises: For the grace to share the gospel on a Sunday morning with God's family in India. Sick or well, it is always a blessing to reveal new portions of scripture to those who have never heard those parts before. Their faith and questions inspire me to keep at it! And praise for iPODs and being able to listen to music when you are sick (even rap!). And praise for the 18 lb fish that a staff member brought for us to enjoy -- after I am not sick.

(Kathryn happy to have fish on the menu)

(Robert not so happy to be cutting fish steaks)

Good tidings and love from India...

(The puppies send their love also!)

Friday/Saturday recap

2009-05-16T01:02:00.001-07:00

The last two days have been great. 80-95 degrees mostly, and a nice wind. No rain, so keep praying for the farmers here in the district. We can all use some rain these days...

(S.Vincent, Emrys Rees, G. Bhushanam, Josh Paroubek, Adam Basha, V. Bhaskar Rao)

Above are most of the members of the LINK team. They are p/t Chaplains of the hospital, and they roam the countryside villages in the evenings and Sundays to help new Christians and support many of the local village churches (15-50 people each usually). They are a bunch of characters. They have been working in this function for over 10 years already. We had a usually "Friday Meeting" (10am-3:30pm) today (break for lunch). It was good to be with them. Adam was present for this meeting, his father "John Basha" recently had lasik eye surgery and is chillin' a home with some special sunglasses on for a week.

After the meeting we bumbed around. I read and watched some cricket. Kathryn was helping her mother is several things today. We stayed on campus in the evening and attended the Yerperdu Christian Church's Friday fellowship study (songs, bible study-conversation, and some snacks at the end). The wind picked up tonight.. it was great. 20-25 mph gusts while you are outside on mats singing to the Lord. A little sandy at times, cause of the wind. But fun.

Today we have been busy. Kathryn has been documenting step by step with the camcorder, how to make chicken biryani. It is a great dish. And India favorite. The wife of a worker here at the hospital came to show Kathryn and her mother how to make it. I finished my sermon for one of Vincent's village fellowships tomorrow. Lunch was extraordinary. So good, even, that we had left overs for supper also!

Here is a picture of the meal. It was definitely a great "early" birthday present (mine is next Saturday). Actually I don't need a gift, now that we have had this. mmmmmm.... if only the Internet had a "scratch n sniff" option. Santhosh usually takes 1 hour to eat his food. But for some reason pizza and biryani are gone in 10 minutes.

Today the final counts for all the Elections over the last 2 months are coming in. We are still waiting to here what the local make up will be. Basically who will be in power in the local division headquarters of Thirupati. That is the city of 500-700,000 that has the largest grossing Hindu Temple in the world. Second only to the Vatican. And the policies of Thirupati affect the hospital quite a bit. DLRH is a famous hospital here, it is the only free hospital for what we offer in over 600 square miles (think of 80 miles by 80 miles... that amount of space). So it is good to know that the leadership in the local gov't is friendly.

Emrys and I had a 4 hour marathon meeting today. Nothing really accomplished on any one subject... but progress on several things...slowly it is coming together. I think.

Tonight we are just relaxing, catching up on stuff, talking more about the immediate 6 month needs, etc. Kathryn and I spent a good hour out in the front yard talking about life, the mission, the future... it was good. I fed dusty popcorn, which he loves, and only gets once in a great moon. The Puppies didn't quite know what to make of popcorn.

(the puppies outside in our front yard, more pics to come, promise)

Prayers: For the Indian election - so far the current government has spanked everyone (stability is good here). Please keep praying for rain for our soil! We really really really need it, it hasn't rained since April 25th last month (our last Monthly Meeting for our HIV positive kids).

Praise: Kathryn's hands have not itched for 2-3 days, and she can enjoy the last few weeks of time here. Please pray for our conversations and planning since we only have 10 more days here on campus, and 5 days in Chennai/Madras before we leave. And Praises for what we have accomplished so far. AND praises for iPods. The last few days when I have been running in the morning it has been good to listen to some Hillsong United. So praises for technology, praise and worship bands, the coolness of the morning, and Jesus!

Thanks for reading and looking!

Okay, Just one more swipe... (a day that will live in infamy)

2009-05-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

Comment away...
(here is what happened to me before American Idol tonight)

Hope you enjoyed my "surprise"...

(this one is for "the council")

Hot in the Summer...tonight!

2009-05-13T19:10:00.001-07:00

The last two days have been dominated by heat. Yes, HOT!

But we are surviving here. Actually last night the sky was thundering loud from 4-5pm, but no rain. Just talk. If you take 3-4 showers a day it actually doesn’t feel that bad. If we were without water… then I would be writing a different story.

The last two days I have been able to spend over 3 hours talking with Vincent. It has been good. He was traveling both for a Christian rally and for the hospital farm over the last two weeks. But it was good to sit down and catch up. I was honored to hear how much an email I sent to him last April (after I had officially resigned from Valley Christian Church in Minn), had affected his decision to stay on with the mission for another several years.

Yesterday and today were dominated by meetings. All were good. Guvara Reddy is the head man here overseeing all project operations. I guess you could call him the COO of the place. He has been here at the hospital as long as Kathryn has been alive. We only got about 20% down into all the programs here – we bit off the “Parent-to-Child-Prevention” program for HIV/AIDS. In short it is one of the most important programs that can be done to keep a child from infection from the virus (only through birth and mothers milk).

It is amazing that a mother can have full blown AIDS and the baby will not be a carrier. God is good in this way. However, if $100 is not spent at birth for a cesarean, and around $100 is not spent in the first 10 months (to get formula or cow milk – forced to feed off of mothers milk)… the child will take in the Virus. Actually the child’s body even has a lining on the windpipe and stomach that protects it from it’s mothers milk (virus)… accept any introduction of a different liquid (especially water, and especially dirty water) breaks the lining and the child will become HIV positive. So you can tell this to women, but the fact is other liquids find there way into a childs mouth—so this is theoretical at best I feel.

And we are understaffed, under funded when considering the HIV positive workers that are the front lines in this program for counsel, comfort, and aid to mothers that are positive for HIV and expecting. Really for $200 investment, I am sure it saves the $1000-$2000 for other HIV expenses and not to mention the loss of family savings, and more emergency gov’t care, and the shortened life, and the loss of taxable income for the state…etc.

Okay. I won’t depress you any more. But the conversation really affected me. After lunch the power was out from 1:30-3ish. So most things were at a stand still. Then I met with Vincent for a couple of hours – Kathryn stayed inside for some office work and to help cook the evening meal. I met with Balaraju (yet pictures of everyone are coming soon)… and we had an extended family meeting from 6:30-8:15 before we ate.

I had intended to do some office work, but “Stranger than Fiction” was on the television last night, and my father-n-law has never seen it. It is by far my favorite Will Ferrell (sp?) movie, and it is even better to watch it with someone who hasn’t seen it. Yes I like it more than Anchorman or Elf. Kathryn loves Elf.

The Indian elections are finally over (yesterday). Exit polls are not promising for a nearby state where the BJP (former national leaders till 2004) have gained control. They are a pro-business pro-Hindu party. I guess you could relate them to the Republicans – if the republicans were fervently Christian only (enough to look the other way to religious persecution). So this would mean that Orissa (the state directly north of us) and the state directly to the west of us(Karnataka, with its capital Bangalore) have a very fundamentalist political stance towards non-Hindu faiths. Orissa is where you hear of the church burnings (with people in the churches), and other “for hire” thugs being used to intimidate Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs.

These are the first exit polls ever in India – so I am not believing how dire the situation is yet. We will get the final results around 8pm Friday American time.

Prayers: for RAIN, seriously. My mother-n-law is starting to worry about the farmers and their crops this year. And for the government elections here. There will be no majority party, so we can look forward to a summer of coalition building.

Praises: We are half way done with our time here, that is sad actually, but we have been making some progress lately. Not as fast as I would like. But I am glad that discussions are moving forward and that the potential for this hospital to affect this whole state’s AIDS policies, and even the nations TB policies is amazing. This little 10,000 person village, this little leprosy hospital that David and Lois started in 1970… I am amazed at the potential for influence on national and regional policy we may have. If we can shore up funding and do the tasks we have at 100% without taking upon ourselves projects that God has not confirmed we enter into. ..

Wordy, as usual. Have a wonderful evening out there in Amrika!

The DLRH Tour...in color!

2009-05-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

As promised to many... today I will skip the play by play and give you a tour of the property. Granted these pictures are from different years and seasons (since it is 5am, dark, and I have to scour my mother-n-law's computer for pics).

Please click on the pictures for a larger view!

Here we are entering from the roadside to the David and Lois Rees Hosptial.
Renamed after Lois' death two years ago. New Sign!

The Main Gate (Main House on left, Security shed on right)

the Security Shed, and Dusty (of course!)

A look down the entrance road to the Main House doors (also the Staff Meeting rooms)

Swinging around back the Main Front House.

Around back the Directors Offices (backside of Main House)
There are also 3 small guest rooms on this side.

This is the only picture I could really find of the empty lot directly behind the Main House.
If you can imagine a Children's HIV Ward built there by Christmas this year...
and two more wings (girls and boys) built by next winter (for a grand total of 20-25 children)...
it will be a wonderful sight from the office!

Continuing down the Main Entrance road, affectionately renamed "Lois Lane"
(the parallel road 100 yards away, leading to the grave site and the orchards is "David Drive")

Next plot of land on the left is the New HIV Ward (Adult).
FAME - a Christian Medical Org - is helping to construct this building.
It is farther along than this picture (6 months ago), however,
this picture gives you an idea of the floor plan.
Most of the walls are up now on the left side of the ward.
It should be done by Indian Independence day on August 15th (we pray).

Next down the road is the HIV ward (current). These four rooms are joined by four more around back.
You can also see the Maintenance/Car shed attached to the building.

The Main Square for all of our events and celebrations.
Maintenance Shed/Cars on left of picture.

Here is the Guest house (Located about 50 yards behind the Maintenance Shed).
It is now being used for Office workers that have to travel to work during the week.

To the right of the Main Square we have the Hospital grounds. Here are the Offices (counseling, accounts, pharmacy, and our resident doctor all share this building). The backside of this building is storage and the hospital's kitchen.

The Patience have a large court yard with plenty of benches to sit and enjoy company, and the day, by. Even during these hot summer days, it stays cooler and breezy back there.

Here is a view of the Nurses Ward and the Main Leprosy Ward (left side male ward, right side female ward).

Here is a picture of the inside of a typical ward.

Okay...back to the Main Square and around the back of the Security shed...
and walking down around 100 yards...

...we come to the grave site of David and Lois Rees.
Behind the grave site is the farm.

Cows.

Planting mango trees w/drip irrigation.

The two that made it all happen. (David and Lois Rees)

And that is pretty much it. There are 25 acres. You have only seen around 6. The rest is employee quarters, and orchards, rice patties, sugar cane fields, and the "upper land" that we are currently trying to figure out the best vegetables to plant up there.

You can WIKI "Chittoor District, India" and you should be able to learn a little about the area. If you are interested. It is basically like Arizona/New Mexico this time of year -- and like Oregon/Washington State during the Monsoon! The "backwoods" of the southern districts in Andhra Pradesh (our state).

You should really see it yourself! REALLY! If anyone is interested, letmeknow!!!

100% done, and I mean it!

2009-05-11T08:11:00.001-07:00

Today I helped Kathryn reorganize our room, and finally put the last touches on her barrels for the store room. Her hands are just about cured, so we didn’t want to push it. It feels great to finally be done (although about 3 days later than planned) with big project #1 for mom. And only a day after mother’s day . Now… for projects 2,3,4,5… for dad.

Here are a couple shots of the final room. It still is a little more ‘packed’ than I wanted. But it is as good as she is gonna get. The barrels and all top chests are empty on the shelf.

Most of the barrels that we got rid of (over 20 from this room alone, another 10 from the roof) we broke down into the several chests you see on the wall here.

So, final tally… 7 barrels of books for the in-laws. 3 barrels of books for Robert. 2 for Kathryn. This family likes books! good for me (since I had over 20 boxes of books last time we moved).

After this Kathryn took a break. I clean up our room, moved some stuff around, and mopped up the dirt/dust. Boring housework, but needed to be done (for good sleep, less stress, you know).

I met with Balraju again this evening. He is the new guy – being trained to take about 30-40% of my father-n-law’s headaches from him. He’s a great guy. I think Vincent, Balaraju and I will be going down to Thirupati (the big city) later this week or next to visit the Agri-College). Perhaps there are some ways that we can help the back 10 acres of nothing…

Some evening food, conversation and an early bed. Exercise begins again tomorrow. Gotta make weight you know. (the power just went off at 8:30pm… not expected… then flashed on for a few seconds… a very bad sign).

Prayers: For our conversations as we are dealing with some deep, philosophical, budget and future planning areas. These are important conversations over the next two weeks. I could really use prayers for note taking, understanding and being able to ask the right questions.

Praises: It is India. We are here. It is stressful. Were we expecting anything less? It is a better life that I could have planned for myself 10 years ago. So I am not going to complain - -actually I am going to praise the Lord.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for praying. And THANKS for your emails… they are awesome to read!!!! Really – we may not always reply, but we are reading!!!!

Sunday, HOT Sunday!

2009-05-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

Well the heat returned today with a vengeance. We visited the local church here in Yerpedu. About 30-40 members. However, with the heat and the holiday season they are only averaging 25 members and around 10-12 kids for Sunday school.

(this is me 5 minutes after waking up, but happy!)

The highlight of the day was pancakes. Since we were in the city on Saturday we bought some “non-necessities” to enjoy the hot days with. So that was great. Nothing like pancakes, home made syrup and Limca (lemon/lime soda) to start the day with.

I spent the today reading and outlining a book, “God is at Work”. It is a very interesting read for me, since I am a little turned off by the “tentmaking” life-style arguments over the last few years. I am growing in my concern or the economic growth with the spiritual growth of the villages we encounter, and how we maybe able to help. So I am happy to hear some of these arguments from a book.

The family watched “Om, Shanti, Om” it is the biggest grossing Hindi film in history. I skipped out on it. Feeling a little tired so, it is to bed early.

Prayers – Kathryn is feeling better, still needs prayers for her hands. She should be at 100% by Tuesday/Wednesday. Thanks for thinking of her.

Praises – Yesterday and Today have been good for the soul. A break from the stress of reforming, revisioning, re-everything here at the hospital. I am looking forward to talking and dreaming with the family this week as we map out the new “Children’s Ward” that will house anywhere from 10-15 children who are too sick to leave, or families are too poor to attend to them. I am just looking forward to seeing a bright colored children’s house of their own next time we visit. So praise the Lord, for the funds that are now available and that the ball is rolling.

Thanks for checking in on us!

Days Meeting & Thalakona ("Head Falls")

2009-05-09T07:47:00.000-07:00

I will have to recap 2 days today...Friday we had a "Days Meeting" for a few local congregations. It wasn't a full blown one, because it is summer and many don't have the income to spar the $3 for transportation and food to get to the hospital. Above is the group of 40 or so that did show up. I was asked to address them for a bit, so I did. More like a tag team with G.Bushnam. We are called the "Two Jokers". And that is almost all we do. It is either an intense conversation or intense laughter. He is like my "Indian Older Brother"... although he could be my father. Except he looks only 40.
Hopefully I will get a picture with him next friday, and the rest of the LINK team. The rest of the day I spent watching cricket, reading and taking some deeper notes on office issues.

This is Adam in the forefront (John Basha's son). John is a member of the LINK team of chaplains and preachers. In the back in Baskar (Baskarvel formerly) and his son Prashan. Good men to know in these parts. The love the Lord, can sing, and can hold the rhythm. So, all are good qualities around here as well.

Here is the little one (Santosh) finishing his soft coconut. First they cut the top, then you suck out the juice with a straw. Then you give it back to them, and they open it up and scoop out all the goodness for you! We are on are way here to Thalakona, "Head Falls". It is a federal game reserve that has bear, deer, and many other animals. Unfortunately it is the summer season and many animals are back in the forest near the upper water chambers of the mountains. But we still enjoyed the trip. (Jennisa, my sister has been complaining that there are no pictures... so here we go!)

So, the theory is that if you tie a stone onto a tree with some fabric... you are creating a baby crib. Kathryn and I are only JOKING!!!! We are NOT expecting.. but here she is asking for 3 and I am asking for 6 kids.

These are the famous falls. This is actually the lowest time of year for the water. So you can imagine how awesome it must be when 4x as much waters is rushing down this mountain in the rain of January! I didn't have to edit the light or the contrast on this photo very much at all. It really was that beautiful!

Here are the in-laws, Emrys and Usha Rees. They are posing for a picture with Usha's camera. I am sure we will get those photos tomorrow to post - there are several other photos of Kathryn and myself on her simcard. No matter. Here is one of the few shots where my mother-n-law is actually in front of the camera, instead of holding it.

Here are some monkeys for my sisters kids to look at. Yes we have them here, but they have the personality of a rabid cat. So they are like a bunch of old men running around... and can be pretty mean, unless you have a stick!

The Falls were near the village of one of the workers at the David & Lois Rees Hospital. So we stopped at his wife's parent's house to eat lunch. The best Chicken Curry I have had in many years!!! And spicy! They are a farming family by trade and have both of their daughters at home frequently to help with other business, and to see the grandchildren. Here is the "token" Paroubek cow shot. For some reason I love cows in India. I just thought this was a good time to show the typical upper class village house (this would be poor for city standards). These folks make roughly $300 a month combined -- but that is enough for high living outside in the "Montana" regions of India.

WISH YOU WERE HERE! I hope you enjoyed a few pics. This normally would take someone 20 minutes to edit and post this many pictures... but I have been siting here for 80 minutes... so that is all you get tonight! REALLY, we wish you were here. The best time to visit India, at least this side, is when it is 70 in the evening and 90 during the day, lush, rainy and fresh smelling from late October - February. We would love to take anyone interested in a trip sometime in the future. You will be changed, no doubt. This is a beautiful land, beautiful people and the NEED is great for God's people to work here. Even though it is averaging 110 degrees now (the dog days of summer) it is still one of the best places to be on earth... right in the center of the forgotten, needy and oppressed people of India.

Prayers: Please pray for everyone's health as we kinda over-extended ourselves today.

Praises: I love "Second Saturdays" ... they are like a built in family holiday each month on the 2nd Saturday. So I praise God for this nice time away with family today. AND I praise God for my two grandmothers, my mother, my mother-in-law and my sister today. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL MOTHERS.. BUT ESPECIALLY DIANNE PAROUBEK.

(none of this would be possible without my mother... and I love her sooo very much!)

As always, from India...

Wedding, Cricket, American Idol

2009-05-07T20:26:00.000-07:00

That pretty much wraps up my day yesterday. I woke with Santhosh and Emrys early to leave for a wedding in a town about 1 hour away. The new doctor here on campus, actually he has been here for 1 year but new to me, was celebrating his son’s wedding. It was an experience for me. My first Christian Indian wedding. It was a Lutheran wedding so it was high on pomp and circumstance. However there were several village customs that are very animistic or even Hinduistic that I saw. Which is odd. Emrys told me the Lutheran missionaries only paid attention to the pantheon of gods here when they came – and not the customs, seasons and other things.

What is odd is that I am reading Galatians this summer here, and Paul mentions there (and also in Ephesians and Colossians) about the “Elemental Spirits of the world”. Now many interpretations of this phrase (1) the elementary parts of faith that should lead to the “high school” of faith in Jesus the Messiah, (2) Man made seasons and celebrations according to the solar clock in the sky, moon, stars, etc, (3) Demonically influenced celebrations, philosophies, and religious practices keeping one only elementary in his/her faith. No matter what Paul means, he does link these to simple practices that are very superstitious at the outlook. Special times, seasons, days, hours, numbers, rocks, jewels, spices…etc. And for Lutherans to be so gun-ho about Romans and Galatians… I would think that wouldn’t be the case.

We had a filling lunch before leaving the wedding. Some good conversation back to the Hospital Campus. And I assumed a role on the couch and watch England and West Indies cricket yesterday. England was 26 for 4 wickets (wickets are like an out, you get 10 before sides change). 26 is awful. Usually a good match is 126-4. But they staying in there with one person racking up 146 runs. (usually 40-60 runs is a good showing). England ended up 377 for the first inning. And they were able to get West Indies out with around 160 runs to forced them to stay on batting to begin the second inning (two innings for a 5 day match). So it was entertaining.

Took a quick nap, and watched the “Rock n Roll” American Idol night. I liked it much more than last week. I guess everyone is behind Adam. But I am pulling for Allison. However I am sure that Adam will get it (maturity factor for a career) and Allison will probably release an Album in 18-24 months when she is older. Anyway. I enjoyed both of their songs and the duet.

And then sweet sleep last night.
Easy day. Hot day. But relaxing.
Tomorrow we have a “Days Meeting” hosted here. Just like it says – Christians from area villages are meeting here for a whole day of teaching, singing and fellowship. This way a small fellowship of 8 people in a village of 100 people, can gain encouragement from being around 80-120 other Christians of the same people group in different areas of the country side. I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Prayers: Continue to pray for Kathryn’s hands. And if you haven’t checked out about McKStellan… you better today! Please join the prayer network for him also.

Praises: Today was filled with drama in the office because of a “mentor nurse” that we only learned of on Tuesday that was suppose to arrive tonight. At least the stress didn’t ruin our evening as a family. This I am glad about.

Thanks again for reading my words. And for your thoughts.

Adjusting..slowly. (long post warning, again!)

2009-05-06T18:13:00.000-07:00

So, today is wasn’t comfortable. But I was able to handle the day okay. I think my body is adjusting finally to the temperature. I still need to drop some extra luggage… but I actually walked into our office for family prayer time (6:30pm) and was cold. And it was 79 degrees!!! Seeing that airlines are usually around 64-68 degrees during flights (cause it is something like 100 below with the wind and altitude outside)… I will probably be wearing a long sleeve shirt for the ride home. At least I should be better prepared to work out in the son with concrete panels, wedge bolts and tight spaces when I return!

Kathryn and Robert spent today sorting through childhood books and about 3 hours separating comic books into series. Actually that have SuperBoy Issue #1 sealed in near mint condition. Actually “near near mint” like a 9.5 in case anyone knows anything about comic books out there. And they have a mint condition “Steel” issue #1. Whatever that is worth… So they will probably be on Ebay and Craig’s List tomorrow to see if it is worth it to sell them, or to hold on to them to help their kids college fund someday.

I continued reading through my ‘micro-credit’ book, outlining it… and briefly talking to some staff about it. Vincent – probably my closest friend here in India—just got back from visiting with Sampson (the man I spoke of a day or two back). So I am interested t hear more about his experience and education last Sat-Mon learning about the last 10 years of effort of micro-lending by Sampson in Northern Andhra Pradesh. Actually that sounds weird cause “Andhra” means “lower, bottom” (I am pretty sure), Pradesh means “Land” basically. So Sampson lives in the “Northern Bottom Land”.

I helped the Rees’ right hand house man for the last 20 years clean up the front yard yesterday. There is a HIVpostive (HIV+) ladies meeting tomorrow – the exact women I think about with this micro-lending stuff—at the hospital grounds. It is a monthly meeting to distribute medicines, encourage each other, form relationships and receive free health care. There are around 100 women regularly, but around 150 in the support group. If you can make it here, care is free—thanks to Americans who have invested into this venture over nearly 40 years! HIV+ women, especially ones with children, can receive reimbursements for their travel expenses thanks to the Clinton Foundation. However, the children’s program (once a month) is being cancelled due to the fact that the Clinton Foundation will no longer fund the program.

The Indian Gov’t was suppose to find a way to carry on the work after 5 years. 5 years have come and gone, and no long term planning by Delhi, and no planning by DLRH either. The thing is…it is only around $100 a year for each child. They gov’t medicines for HIV are picked up around 10 kilometers away. So we do not distribute them (hopefully we will apply to test and distribute in the next 18 months). But the other expenses (travel, one month’s rations of healthy food, education, fun activities (like monthly birthday celebrations) and the important role of forming a support group between parents (mostly mothers) and especially these young students that will be loosing parents in the next decade, and will also become very sick in 20-40 years. They will need friendships formed in a safe place like the DLRH (David & Lois Rees Hospital) to help them through these times. And the growing counseling staff here can help in those times.

So I am sure we will be looking for alternate funding from the state government over the summer, so that this program can resume in Sept/Oct. Or else I think we may approach a new church, who currently doesn’t invest in the work here of BSSI and only ask them to support these kids. It seems easy on paper, but difficult I am sure to get a church of 200 families to support a work like this, and only this. $100 a family a year, a profile of the student, possibly letters…maybe. But at least updates for their prayers AND some commitments for a team from the church to come and visit the work here, the children during their monthly meetings, and to bring gifts on behalf of the congregation. Actually it is a deeper commitment, a tangible commitment, a “mini-adoption” commitment like compassion. We currently have 95 kids (I believe) in this specific program for our distribution area, but I am sure it will be another 100 in 12-24 months (so that is why I say a church with 200 families). If the program is done correctly, I belief many couples would sponsor two children in the future – allowing us to help over 300-400 families become a VERY LARGE support group for the rough challenges ahead. But that is me, theorizing again in India.

Speaking of, we are partnering with Compassion later this year to help 300 students currently in houses (with poor families) in the local big city. That project should be a headache to initiate, but a blessing to be part of. If we are able to return during the slump in construction from Christmas to Ash Wednesday, I will be interested in what it all looks like together. I hear that 300 children is actually a small project for Compassion. I am just glad that it is not a 300 kids orphanage but is helping children stay with parents who would not be able to afford them, or would spend their family savings over the next 12-24 months to help the children—and wind up worse off than before. This help for the lifetime of a students school years (including their pre-college of 11-12th grade, it is a different system of schooling here) is life changing.

I forgot exactly what I read in a book recently but a study in 1990’s from a UN funded outside firm said that 90% of poverties problems (critical problems) would be solved if those involved were given (1) At least 1 nutritious meal a day, (2) 4-6 concentrated hours of schooling-combined with that meal, (3) Sanitary drinking water from a bore well, or ability to boil their water, (4) Sanitary conditions for their toilets and waste water, and … I think the last was (5) regular medical check ups (6 months) and vaccinations. But I am not sure… the first 4 are correct. Anyway. Add “keeping the family structure together” and that is psychologically important as well.

Okay, I have spoken enough today. Sorry, rambling again. We baked 4 pizzas tonight at the request of Santhosh. After words he prayed that God would bring Kathryn-aka, and Josh-ana (aka and ana = big brother/sister) back soon after summer so that we could have more pizzas. So, I will join him in this prayer. In the midst of a large project (before us) to oversee and the maintenance needs after 40 years, the stream of projects the Gov’t would love us to help them with (since we are the only reliable HIV program in the district), and the opportunities for helping teach growing Christians, especially church leadership… it is good to step back and remember that God also may wish to bring us back so that a little boy living with my in-laws can have his prayer answered of weekly pizza during the Christmas season.

I am sure of the priority that I put on pizza compared to replacing the 40 year old roofs here (30K USD estimated). But, I am not sure if I know exactly God’s priority list. I feel that His may take other things into consideration – and put my list to shame.

Prayers: That Josh would continue to be formed into a reflection of Jesus Christ in mind, spirit and heart. And that he would relax in many ways and let the Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of mankind to skillfully shape his heart. For Kathryn, that her hands continue to heal ( just her upper palms and the spaces between each finger are itching now, compared to the whole hand last week at this time).

Praises: After I return from a wedding tomorrow morning – we should have a storage room finally done and with all the kids stuff in there (until we leave at the end of the month and toss more of our stuff in there). Praises for no injuries during the process, or upper respiratory conditions from all that dust and old mildew, spores, etc. And praises that we enjoyed laughter, a good conversation and pizza tonight together.

Please – don’t destroy my IDOL surprise this week, anybody!!! Let me have my 24 hour delayed enjoyment of seeing who is voted off!

Relief from the Heat (long post, warning!)

2009-05-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it rained. Rather, last evening. What was great about that, was this morning. It was like November, 65 degrees at 9am. GREAT! Everyone else was cold, but Usha and I were in heaven. (Don’t worry, it was back up to 105 degrees, by 1pm). It was great to have to re-open all of the outside windows and turn the large exhaust fans on to try to capture the cold air inside for the day.

Today I had a semblance of normalcy. After devotions and family prayer time (9-10am), I placed about 4 drums full of books for Kathryn and Robert to glance through. Since I did not have anything to do with those (until the end) I was able to begin figuring out my schedule here for the remaining 20 days at the Hospital. We know for sure that we will be leaving on the 27th of May to spend the last 5 days of our trip in Chennai. So, seeing that today is the 5th… That is just around 3 weeks from today to put in 120-150 hours of work, research, dreaming, conversations, etc. to help the mission anyway we can.

After lunch I sat in on a “Directors Weekly Administration Meeting” (or something along those lines). It was scheduled for 75 minutes. Of course, it started 15 minutes late and ran for 105 minutes. So, 1 hour and 10 minutes on the schedule in India is actually a 2 hour block. And no tea! It gave me a chance to observe the 10 different “heads of departments” that oversee the staff here of 30-40, and the 30-40 off campus staff for various HIV and Public Health Projects that we are in partnership with (Clinton Foundation, Indian Gov’t, National TBAlert campaign, etc). At least I have had a taste of Hospital Administration, and … its not me.

I spend yesterday continuing to research more about this “Micro-lending” stuff. I have been very interested in this since 2006 when I saw the creator of KIVA.org advertised on the next Oprah. So I had to watch the show (one of those ‘ordinary people saving the world’ shows). And So this trip I purchased the originator of micro-lending’s (Muhammad Yunus) book “Banker to the Poor” when our library had a sale of old books in March.

Specifically I am wondering how we can either work with existing micro-lenders, or somebody out there who would like to raise their own funds and come to India and work with the most vulnerable of society. And from my observations – that is a woman, of low-caste origin or “scheduled caste” (tribal), one who has no husband (usually died of accident or HIV related causes), has 1-3 children, and is HIV positive—but taking the medicine to prolong life 10-20 years. It is also those AFFECTED by HIV, the same mother and family but they are NOT infected, they are now ‘outcasts” (modern day biblical lepers) from there general village society. How do we empower them? Help them to improve themselves!

So, if we run into anyone who would be interested in full time work getting villagers to trust them with micro-lending…and specifically looking to put some power into the hands of HIV infected/affected individuals – boy do we get a steady supply. I think we are averaging 20 new infected cases each week now.. and that is only what we are finding. I suspect that actually means 200 known cases, and probably another 200 that are not known. I could be wrong, I hope I am overstating it. But I fear that I am understating the fact that this would be only 420 cases for over 3 Million (or 30 Lakhs, one lakh – 100,000). So I wish it was only 400 cases a week for a population that size. That would be .05% infection rate, and we know that Chittoor has a 3% infected population, probably more like 6-8% (many with TB don’t realize they are dying very fast cause that are also HIV positive). So .05% over 50 weeks is not quite right.

Anyway, back from that rant. You see my interest is groups of 5-10 women forming teams that can encourage and keep each other accountable. Also that this would be a mixed bag of poor, of AFFECTED and a few INFECTED so that sickness/death will not destroy the teams. And in a village with an average of 200-500 people in this district (most of our work, 80% is rural)—support, opportunity and the growing infrastructure here to get goods into the major cities (Chittoor City, Sri Kalahasti, and Tirupathi, among a few others), provides more than an opportunity to see self improvement, better drinking water, better nutrition, better sanitation, literacy, children being educated beyond 9 years of age, and improved clothing make its way into the villages. And the fact that a person/organization would assist these teams, but they would actually do it (and to be trusted with the money) would be revolutionary. Simply, it is unfair that they have no opportunity to pull themselves out as a person, or as a small group of persons, but are tribal/scheduled castes and are near prisoners of the social welfare system in India.

My father n law has a friend that has been doing this kind of work in Northern Andhra Pradesh (we are the southernmost district) for several years. So I am looking forward to meeting him and discussing some of these issues, as this could even mean the hospital would no longer fear loosing gov’t or Int’l aid for medicines if our TB, Leprosy and HIV patients were able to improve their $500-$1,000 a year lifestyle to being self-employed and producing $2,000-3,000 or more. Basically they could afford even better food and all of their medications for the year (and for their children) if ever the funding from gov’t, Int’l projects, or even the US failed. That sense of sustainable health (not sustainable funding, but the effects of it) is HUGE. Not only saving thousands of dollars over a lifetime of heath and medicine costs, but also producing products, services and taxes for Chittoor and Andhra Pradesh. It is a HUGE benefit for all people involved, investors, supporters, bureaucracies, foundations, etc.

Okay. So that was my afternoon. I began having 1-2hour conversations with staff of the hospital getting a better clue on what they do, what they wish they could do, near term problems and any solutions they can see to fixing these. My hope is that we will have a good 6 month plan by the 25th of may and 75% of an additional 2 year plan for the major transition of leadership here, a new era for U.S. volunteers and board members, and possibly a mini-capital campaign for maintenance emergencies (before an official handoff to the next directors) and a sustainability campaign for BASE funding. Sounds like a mouthful, and important stuff. YES!

Did I mention you should pray for us! God is a large character in this equation, and he has sustained this mission through much already. So I am not worried about that part. We need only to do our part. And to not step ahead of His intentions. Yet I know that he is pleased when his children allow his Spirit to form in them the heart of Christ – and they begin to understand that God’s will is truly all that matters, and to accomplish that in a fallen world will demand sacrifice, pain, tears but you will also experience joy, friendship, satisfaction that you have never known when you are helping those who have no-one to help them.

Truly Christ’s words were prophetic about himself when he said, “unless a grain of wheat falls and dies, it cannot produce a harvest.” Jesus’ death had cosmic consequences of sin, death, our self control and satanic oppression. However, is it not obvious that those who want to be like Jesus will also be WILLING to “lose their lives to find them”? And not only that, won’t his followers who are being formed to have his same heart be LOOKING for opportunities for this kind of sacrificial living? If you are one of those, or know someone who may be looking and searching for long days, hot summers, spicy food, pain of empathy for the innocent, compassion also for those irresponsible with their lives (sexuality) and now reaping the consequences, advocating for those who have no advocate… helping the fatherless, the widow, the poor, the alien. I know a place that would love to meet you, in a lonely forgotten area of Andhra Pradesh – sort of like a lonely forgotten areas like Nazareth!

Prayers – for Kathryn. I think we have turned the curb. We have a wedding to attend Thursday morning from 9am-1pm. I am praying that her condition would improve tomorrow. Also prayers to stay focused, but also enjoy time as a family and not as missionaries, so to speak!

Praises – I think we will be done with the store room for sure tomorrow after the kids finish their barrels, and we sell all the used barrels to staff and local recyclers. So praise for this “project” that has been hanging around the house for 15 years… that it is 80% done, and 100% organized. Now it is a matter of the in-laws sifting through some more barrels of fabrics and books in June and July when there is more calm and time.

Okay, long post. I will resume exercising tomorrow so posts will probably be less wordy. Maybe. It is me after all! Thanks for your love and prayers. And your friendship.

Monday, Monday... so good to be.

2009-05-04T18:52:00.000-07:00

FIRST, let me say thank you to my sister Jennisa for designing a new blog for us. We are very pleased!!! Check out her business at “Once Upon a Blog” (click on the left… over there…a little down… yep, that one!)

Today we woke up to no electricity for two hours. Usually we don’t have it from 5:30am – 6:30ish. But for some reason it didn’t come till 7:40. No matter, water in buckets is still water in buckets, and we use propane lanterns until it arrives.

We continued to long road to cleaning up the place. We actually moved on from the main store room to the laundry room. The offices here were at one time a large room, 15 x 25 feet. Several years ago a wall was erected between the this space to separate the formal office from a file and office storage room. There was the accumulation of a decade of stuff, but the main reason this happened is due to the lack of room in the main store room. Now that this has been remedied—we were able to place the barrels, dryer (for the monsoon season) and several chests of files in the store room.

And now we have A LOT of room in the laundry area. Enough so that Emrys can iron back there. Pictures to come. I also decided to take an old hand crafted book shelf from the 1960’s and bring it into the living room (to provide more room back in the laundry area). We moved several items from the living room back into laundry and then moved the bookshelf (the main one) in the living room about two feet back. It has given the living room a different feel. Open space, not crammed together like before. I think it will go over well when we have meetings in the house.

I played cricket with Santhosh from 4:30-5:30pm. All the time the clouds were getting darker, and huge thunder was rolling above (dry thunder is loud and common before the real rains come in India). Around 5:45pm the power went out.. and then flickered…then flickered again… and this is basically the worst of all signs! We basically spend three hours and fifty minutes of the next four hour in the dark (with the lamps). But it was raining out side so it was nice and cool. A much needed rain.

It actually was good though. We were able to begin talking about the transformations that need to take place in the mission before and during the stage of handing off the “Directorship” and “Deputy Directorship” when Emrys and Usha retire from administration to enjoy life and help various church leadership and women’s ministry. All five of us (In-laws and 3 kids) were there talking and eating cheese sandwiches (actually it tasted alright to a Wisconsin boy).

There was much discussed and I think we are getting close to having a real schedule of 4 main topics to hash out this month (the top four concerns/opportunities/needs… and then hopefully 14-16 secondary and tertiary needs that we can place into a 3-4 year plan including the transition of missionaries sometime in the next 24-36 months.

Prayers: That our conversations are heavily spiced with faith in a God who can handle all of our problems. That our conversations are honest and loving at all times – even when we disagree or are “venting” frustrations. That our conversations will have goals that are not only godly, or God honoring, but have a healthy dose of dreaming big enough for the Creator to have his hands in it all. Please keep remembering Kathryn’s hands. Her “bumps” in the hands have subsided, but the itchiness is still there.

Praises: Rain. It rained from 6-8pm. It was glorious!!! Rain is good! I hope it will be cool here for at least two days. And praises for the power being out, and being force to have a deeper conversation as a family. I good breakthrough I feel.

Thanks for your continued thoughts, they are shared from this side as we think of many of you... often!

Sunday...(rest)

2009-05-03T06:08:00.000-07:00

We visited a small village church this morning. I was offered a chance to preach, so I took it. About 30-40 villagers. 2 hour service. Hot with a breeze. It was nice. We were able to witness the nephew of Baskar's (a chaplain here at the Hospital) baptism.
The rest of today has been 7up, leftovers, watching cricket, reading and editing photos. AKA - rest.

(some pictures above of our storage project... more to come)

The Worst is Over

2009-05-02T18:33:00.000-07:00

So today we finished the bulk of the sorting. There is still about 1 ton of scrap metal in the front yard, plastic cases, some clothing...book shelves. So we have a little of our work left on monday/tuesday. and we have 3 barrels of fabrics and some computer equipment to move from the laundry room to the newly improved storage room. Kathryn and Robert have 4 barrels of childhood books to sort through on Monday also.

At least we were able to rearrange the 'living room' area. That was a relief. Even though I haven't sweat like that since football 2-a-days in high school. It was good to be soaked in sweat but at least sitting in a chair in a clean room, finally. I was given the task of walking up to the roof (120-130degrees) and bringing down 10 barrels (4 full of papers for recycling) and several other items. Even the 105 degree heat with a little breeze feels good after being up there for two minutes.

But I think I dropped 2 kilos working yesterday... that would be 4.5 lbs. At least I have that going for me. The only sugar I get out here (by choice mind you) is a 20 oz. 7up every other day. And maybe some "thumbs up" - a cola brand here.

i was invited to preach tomorrow at a local village congregation that Baskar (one of the evangelists/chaplains of the hospital) oversees. At least I got a 24 hour warning instead of the usual 2 hours. It is really a privilege to speak while I am here, But only on Sundays and a few mornings. After next Wednesday it will be 10 hour days working on the future of this mission, financial status, investor relations and media campaign ideas for the several items here that are behind schedule: chief of these is the maintenance of the current buildings.

By the time you read this, I will have probably already preached my sermon, and will be resting watching cricket on a Sunday. I hope your Sunday will also be worshipful and relaxing.

Prayers: Kathryn's hands flared up again. Please pray for her healing!

Praises: God's goodness and mercies are new every morning. Some staff who have slowly let the word of God touch their lives are interested in baptism. Amen!

thanks for your thoughts.

Almost, is so far away.

2009-05-01T18:50:00.000-07:00

Well, we have really turned the corner and it is just a matter of maybe 10 hours until we have everything packed away and cleaned up. Then we can re-arrange the living room, provide about 75% more room in our laundry room (not to mention everything being well organized now)… and we can rearrange Kathryn’s room from a snapshot of her years before leaving for High School in the U.S. – to a great guest room for whomever reads this blog and says, “You know, I would like to visit this hospital)”.

So, that basically describes our day from 9:30am (after morning devotions for the staff) until 6:30pm. Sweat, mildew, dust, and heat. But we have a cleared out and re-arranged storage room and when all is said and done today (Lord willing) we will hage gotten rid of 75% of the items in storage (mostly paper). We are recycling as much as possible. But is stinks that we had to burn over 50% of the papers because they are – sensitive in information. Oh well, nothing like the smell of 40 year old mildew paper burning in the morning.

I didn’t get to see who got voted off of “Idol” last night. Kathryn and I hit the sack around 9:30pm.

Prayers: That we have the strength to finish what we started today.

Praises: Progress!

The Back Side of the Mountain

2009-04-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

(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.

Lifebouy!!!

2009-04-29T05:37:00.000-07:00

Today was great. I got a bar of Lifebouy soap. It is basically the fullest amount of lye in a bar of soap without blinding you or melting your first layer of skin. enough of the sissy Dove bars... I want power.

We spent 9:30-5:30 continuing the cleaning circuit in the living room. Actually it looks worse now, although we made some great headway -- only 3 more days (we estimate).

A shower and a few minutes here at the computer and we will be having a prayer meeting and Bible study in the staff meeting room in a few minutes. I am sure that will be normal, except it is my in laws anniversary. we'll probably watch some cricket and eat late after the meeting and then hit the sack.

No big news today. dominated by great memories stored in trunks and junk that should be burned.

Prayers: We are having Bible study tonight because there is a preaching convention in Chennai this weekend and many of the churches up here are going (since the sermons will be translated in Tamil, English and Telegu.). So please pray for Vincent and the other speakers this weekend. And for the listeners!

Praises: Suresh Attah found Emrys' Canadian citizenship card. So that was a huge relief. First to Emerys and by proxy all who live with Emrys.

Thanks for your emails these last few days to some of you out there... they do mean a lot. Even the boring stuff! theparoubeks@juno.com or comment here.

Barrels o' ___?

2009-04-28T17:22:00.000-07:00

Today started like any other. Windy, cool (meaning 80-85 degrees). It was pretty cloudy as I ran. I finished outlining a book to help up change our paradigm and philosophy basically from looking at those who give to BSSI as donors, to investors. And seeing their money not as gifts, but investments they wish to have a return on (no a monetary return, but nonetheless they want their money to accomplish something). So, that 1st outline is done.

Things were going just as normal as can be…Tiffin (breakfast), morning devotions at the DLRH. And then we were dismissed from the staff room. Suddenly Kathryn smiles and says, “are you ready to help my mother clean out the storage room.” I had forgot about that during the morning.

What followed from 9:30 -6pm yesterday (actually only accomplishing 1/3 of our work, if that) was the slow movement of one 50gallon drum barrel after another out of this storage room and into the living room for evaluation. We are taking many pictures of this process (for your amusement, and our documentation). It was not “fun”, lets say. However from childhood ‘junk’, to Kathryn’s 700 children’s books, to then ledgers from 1920!, to discovering books from 1860-1910 from great grandparents, to Emrys’ photography collection from the 70’s, to finally a mother load of family pictures from the early 1900’s in Wales (Emrys father’s side) all the way to 1990’s.

My back is killing, my muscles seem to take about 30-50% longer to repair themselves in this climate, I have a headache, I went through 2 shirts (the pre-lunch, and post-lunch shirt) – but something happened amidst the frustration, overwhelming ‘stuff’ of it all, when we started this morning emotions were a little…mmmm… short. And when we finished my mother in law was discovering her husbands family that she had not known—or was seeing people she has met in her life as children. My wife was making homemade pizza (that we enjoyed around 7pm) and it was just neat. I can’t describe it any other way.

There are things that should have been burned 30-40 years ago that we are discovering. There are “trinkets” that don’t make sense to hold onto. But you also have the never opened original ‘Indian Barbie’ of Kathryn’s which I am sure is worth something. Or Roberts early 1980’s Michael Jordan cards. Especially the Indian made ones – I am sure there are not many of them out there!

So, last count I think we have around 46 barrels and around 14 metal chests. I told you it was a project! So I wonder what pain I will feel at the end of tomorrow, and what discoveries we will have made. (I also found out that our house has an attic yesterday… actually it is an outside stair case to a flat roof with a asbestos roof constructed over it, providing a place for the cats to sleep (I have never seen a cat here in 4 visits until yesterday) and more empty barrels!!!

Prayers: Pray for our bodies to keep up doing this sorting. BUT even more pray for two things. (1) Bascavel (an chaplain for the hospital) ‘met with an accident’ (as they say here) about 48 hours back. He is missing work this week as he recoups. There are little outside signs of the accident (a van ran into his motorcycle with both himself and his wife on it). We are praying for a fast recovery and that his internal tests (taken yesterday) will come back negative of damage.

Praises: (2) I hesitate to make this a total “praise” column request, since it will remain a prayer request, and a link on this blog for some time. But I was relieved to get a good connection tonight (basically around 100Kb’s in the village area is good). So that I could actually upload and catch up on the last week of “Baby McKStellan’s” life. I should just say Stellan. So rather that recap – do me a favor and visit that cute picture on the right column of this blog. You can read the whole story of Stellan McKinney about half way down on his mother, Jennifer’s, blog on the left. It is captioned “The doctors told me my baby wouldn’t live…” (something to that nature).

Okay. Thanks for reading…. And everyone should tell my sister happy birthday tomorrow on the 29th (mysweetlittlefamily.blogspot.com)!!! As we celebrate 31 years of marriage between my in-laws also on the 29th!!!!

God bless all the eyes that read this blog,
Thank you all.

Monthly Meeting @ DLRH

2009-04-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

Today I awoke early, 4am, and needed to get some ideas on paper. Yah, just be glad YOU are not the one who lives with me – Lord help my wife, hear my prayer!

After exercise I was told (at least I got a 2 hour warning) that I needed to prepare a 40 minute devotion (actually 30minutes plus translation) for the Monthly Meeting of all the staff at the hospital.

It was great to see about 80 of the 100 staff assembled here today. Once a month the outpatient staff and all the local staff are required to be at DLRH for a review of the previous month and important events coming up. And some fun time (birthdays, anniversaries, tea). The chicken vindaloo was awesome. I wished that my friend Ed Hudgins could have been here. He would have broke out into a North Carolina southern boy reaction to the spices in that chicken I am sure! It was fantastic. We had a large meal compliments of my parents due to their 31st year of marriage (also my sisters 30th year of life – same day!!! How ‘bout that!)

Kathryn and I were honored at the event for our willingness to come out and to take on a new role in helping the future sustainability and investments of the mission here. Though we are still discovering what it exactly means in our roles – specifically my role. We do know that investor relations, communications and future strategic initiatives will be the general umbrella of our service to BSSI (and in part, the David & Lois Rees hospital). So at least I sound important! That is the key in life right? Long titles on business cards and several pieces of paper on the wall’s behind ones desk?

Really though – as we are here it is good to know that we are pursuing a deeper understanding of the Hospital, the needs currently, the dreams of staff and our parents… and also the GREAT potential for partnerships, long term investments, community investment and other avenues so that we don’t only offer the villages here medical help in a time of need/crisis but an economic network and community to help them reshape and recover their former life. I am honored to at least be in this part of the process.

I bummed around during the afternoon having conversations with several staff that were not in their meetings. 4pm the whole staff spend 1 hour cleaning up the grounds. Actually this is not normal at all and is a good way to show that we are here to serve and that no person is greater than another – even though our responsibilities maybe larger or in a different sphere. When there is a used gum wrapper on the ground, God doesn’t care if you are a PhD or a common construction worker. Pick up the trash! Many Christians would do well to understand this.

We also had a couple of girls who were here on internship leave today (we missed most of their time here over April). I was confused as to the real nature of their internship and the requirements from the local Bible College & Seminary in Chennai. It was a shock to remember the requirements of my 1998 trip to India (worth 2 credits) compared to the lack of requirements with these girls. Perhaps “internship” is a glorified mission trip during the summer and not for credit?

Anyway – now that they are gone and we have a little more room in the house, we are going to finally go through… prepare thyself…. “the storage room”. Don’t worry it will be documented. This room has been shuffled and re-apportioned (let us say) over the last 15 years since Kathryn’s grandmother returned to the U.S. due to age, illness and retirement. Needless to say that my earlier diatribe about cleaning up the trash, and that ‘no one is too good to clean up” will apply to Kathryn, Josh and Robert as we help Usha clean, discover and reorganize this 15 x 15 storage room!

There was no memory of supper last night for some reason. I was watching a Pakistani-Aussie cricket match when Santhosh reminded me it was his “Tom and Jerry Time”.
*** side note to Matthew Naumann – we are trying to use “Tom and Jerry” like your “Scoobie-doo” time.

I only remember laying down with the intention of a 10 minute rest before working on installing our software and working on pictures so far…. And suddenly it is 3:15am and I am up… yep, be glad YOU don’t have to live with me. I know I am … wait… uh…

Prayers: Please pray for Emrys as he is under the gun getting his Canadian passport renewed (he will have to travel to Delhi this week to meet with the Canadian Consulate’s office). And continue to pray for our vision here, and that we can see and hear clearly what God is wishing for this hospital and the other work of BSSI in southern India.

Praises: Kathryn looks to finally have beaten back the jet lag monster into submission. Thanks for thinking of her. It is good to not see my wife suffering with an abnormal biological clock (as you all in the states are around 10 hours different that we are!!!)

Thank you for thinking of us, there are so many we think of in the US during the day. Any comments and updates from your side are always like a 10 mph wind coming down the mountains here after the electricity cuts off in 115degree heat (hint: they feel great!)

1st SUNDAY

2009-04-26T19:42:00.001-07:00

Well, so today there was no running/exercise program. We will chalk it up the Sabbath I guess. We rose around 7:30 just in time to see the power to go off for 1 hour. After eating some breakfast we had to separate the crayons to make sure every child (about 12 of them) has the exactly number and colors… all 24. One thing I learned today is that kids here don’t see crayons much—so the become a little obsessive about “mine”. Something to work on, their character, I guess.

Big lunch and I spent the afternoon discovering the 200 options on Suresh Attah’s new camera. Impressive. It’s like a professional camera, for non professionals. That pretty much ate up 4 hours of time, between a half an hour power outage.

Kathryn took another nap this evening, I got to meet the new doctor. I was really bummed when the former doctor chose to work full-time in the nearby city of 700K (Tirupati). He still visits to help out when he can. But the new guy is great. A retired doctor after 30 years in the Indian gov’t. He was a leprosy doctor for a long time. Now he has been trained in the last 5 years to be a vocal advocate (both to speak in villages and before committees) on the HIV problems here in Andhra.

I also got to talk for an hour with Balraju. I hope I didn’t murder his name. I don’t know the spelling yet. We talked about future projects and fund raising ideas from the stateside to compliment the need for infrastructure, education and agricultural investment in the rural villages here (so they can actually afford to be charitable someday with their money—instead of receiving it).

Had a late meal at 8pm. And fed the “mama” dog outside with some bread , rice and curd (like sour yogurt). All in all, a good day. We didn’t get to downloading our pictures and getting ready to post them. But I will soon. Hopefully tomorrow we will post several. (now I have to do it).

Prayers: please pray for clear thoughts and the commitment of a few principle figures here to have time to hash out these future ideas and current needs for the hospital. I really want to have a good start after 2 weeks here and I am ready to share and ready to listen to all proposals.

Thank you for following us. And we always thank you for thinking of us before the LORD.

Rain, glorious rain.

2009-04-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

Today was a special Saturday for the mission. As I mentioned before each month the children in the surrounding 3 districts with HIV report to the David and Lois Rees Hospital. It is a lot of fun to see so many smiling kids. With the 5 puppies around the front offices…it made for cute photos. But I am out of my time line.

This morning I awoke at 4:30am. So we are getting better with jet lag. I think Kathryn would write more on this blog if she wasn’t suffering so much with her jet lag this trip. I think she is taking it enough for both of us. Regularly in the states Kathryn can sleep from 10pm to 12pm the next day on Saturdays. Impressive, I wish I could do that! Please pray for her transition as the time is basically 10 hours different… so it tosses our bodies around. She slept for 8 hours off and on today and I just carried her to our bed now at 10pm.

After catching up on my two blog entrees… I went running again this morning. It was very humid today. I could tell. After 20 minutes of working out Kathryn said, “Did you just pour water on your shirt, or is that all sweat?” Yah, no water.

After an enjoyable cold water shower I discovered that I would be leading the devotions for the hospital staff at 9am. Thanks to my revival of Galatians over at saintjoshua.blogspot.com I was able to print off the introduction stuff and use that as a rough layout to speak on. Vincent translated for me. He is a good man. Always translating, so I gave him some heavy duty throat lozenges.

I worked with Kathryn more on the ‘logo” progression for the hospital (“branding” for the community), and kept up with my book outlines just in time to spend 11-12:30 with all the kids that were here with parents. I would guess that there were around 70-80 students today.

Each month parents bring their kids to get money for food, travel, medicine and extra nutrition supplements in a program that runs due to the Clinton Foundation. Due to conflicts with the gov’t administration, the Clinton Foundation will be pulling their money. So it would seem that we have our work cut out for us right away when we return—find funding for HIV+ children. I have to break it down per/child. But I think kids are an easy heart string…especially when you see the HUGE benefit a child can obtain with medicine, nutrition and education in the future. A HIV+ student can live to see 50 years (and all around that is great!).

Around 1pm the RAIN came. It was beautiful, a real monsoon rain in the middle of April (generally these rains don’t come after March). 30-40 mph gusts, cool rain falling, I was in paradise, if only for a moment. The whole countryside has been cool ever since today. About a 15 degree difference.

Kathryn and I slept from 2:30-5pm this afternoon. I was directed to open my eyes from my peaceful slumber by our resident director of the family (Santhosh). So we played around for a while, with Dusty and the other dogs also. The power is usually off here from 5:30-7:30am, 1:30-3:00pm, and 5:00-6;30pm. Today it was off till 7:45pm. So you really can’t do much except sit around and sweat. So I sat out at the table in the garden, with the cool breeze…and enjoyed some quiet time.

A meal with the family and an hour discussion with my father-n-law and here I am fighting the urge to lay down on the hard office floor. I am bushed, I need to just upload this… and sleep!

Tomorrow is church, down in Yerpedu. Looking forward to this very much. And a day to finally get all of our technical stuff in gear.

Thanks again for reading!
JOSH
Ps – Hey Matthew, just saw you became a follower.

85 degrees at 4am?

2009-04-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

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?

Destination: David & Lois Rees Hosptial (Yerpurdu, India)

2009-04-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

Greetings to everyone again, thank you for making our trip, the work here, and our friendship important enough to read, think and pray for over the next 40something days.

Yesterday – Thursday, April 23rd, our luggage finally caught up with us in India. I awoke with Suresh Attah at 3am and proceeded to the airport in Chennai. As everything was going way too well to be normal in India…and I had made a wise crack on our decent the day before concerning what else could go wrong (car issues)…our Mahindra Jeep began to have fuel problems. We were lucky at 3:20am to have a retired taxi driver turned businessman getting petrol (gas) next to us. He helped us enough to get the car going again.

I arrived at 3:45 as our luggage arrived and followed a young lady from Qatar Airways to the Chennai offices at the Chennai International Airport (code: MAA). Since I had my luggage 10 feet from myself… of course I had to wait for 45 minutes for the day shift supervisor to arrive to make one signature before I could leave. Ah, sometimes India and efficiency are like oil and water.

Back to the Rees flat on the north side of the city (Wiki: Chennai, India for more info), we loaded the roof of the jeep and left town around 6am quickly since the “Bund” (not Bunt I guess) could allow for large mobs, etc. We made it passed the boarder of Tamil Nadu into the state of Andhra Pradesh and we were safe…until the jeep started loosing power every 10 minutes, then 8 minutes, 4…2 kilometers…stop. We were lucky enough to stop near a mechanic shop who spent the nest 45-60 minutes tearing apart our fuel lines and cleaning all our filters. It seams that all the fuel lines and gas tank had been cleaned 3 months prior – except the read fuel line due to two rusted screws. Guess where the problem resided?

I appears that my father’s advice in the states about never letting your fuel tank get below ¼ applies even more in India. The diesel here is 3-4 times dirtier than the states. Still good enough to function, but you need to clean out fuel lines each quarter of the year. The gas had gone to 1/8th the previous day during errands and several pieces of dirt, string and even a small feather (yah, Kathryn and I were puzzled) entered the fuel line from the tank… and had been the true source of the problems. A 160 rupees bill and a 40 rps. Tip and we were on our way!

We arrived to the D.L.R.Hospital around 11:30 am unshaved, up since 3am, slightly sunburned, a little tired and sweaty just in time for all the staff that was working (light staff cause of regional and national voting today) came from the other side of the property to meet us. I felt like a slob, but they didn’t seem to mind the sweaty son-n-law. We were able to catch up with friends here already and to meet some new employees, including one who was on his very first day.

Today was mostly a time to unpack, rest, watch the IPL (India Professional League) Cricket matches (basically the ‘major league’ of India Cricketing—including international players during the off-season), taking long walk around the hospital grounds, and –of course—helping Santhosh build a train out of our empty boxes to sleep in last night. Oh, we also watched the rerun of American Idol. I was disappointed with the disco theme – that was ‘karaoke’ before anyone sang.

Finally I washed up with an Indian “bath” (basically a 30 gallon drum with water and a large 2 liter cup, scooping and pouring water over you). I could have used the showerhead, but it is all the same really. Hit the sack last night after joking around with Suresh Attah (and helping Kathryn feed the 5 puppy-dogs that are near the offices at the hospital.

Kathryn’s dog from 12 year back “Dusty” has been the faithful guard dog and father to 8-10 litters over the last 9 years. These puppies are usually semi-adopted by the security guards because Dusty has better genes than the other “dingo” looking semi-wild dogs around the hospital (for example, there are 4 small puppies near the HIV/AIDS guest quarters that are kind of looked after by the patients and guests of the hospital. However, these 5 in front have been underfed for at least 7-10 days and are beginning to look too skinny. KATHRYN to the RESCUE! We fed the dogs an old “idly” (a cream of wheat mixture shaped into a 3 inch flying saucer shape to tear apart and dip into several different “tiffin” (literally “non-rice” or rather “breakfast food”) curries and chutneys. They were very hungry and thirsty. Something tells me they will be very healthy young pups after Kathryn has 6 weeks to express her longing love for our “Claire-Bear” back home to these 5 little ones and their mother. Yes there is a good chance that a fraction will only make it to June – But it is true that God seems to put “Kathryn’s” into various dire situations all around the world (from a litter of puppies to a political exile camp in
Africa).

Prayer Requests:
 Please pray for our plans over the next 3-4 days. We will be taking time to brainstorm and write down all the issues, dreams, tasks and logistics that are facing the hospital over the next 5-10 years. Specifically the next 2-3 years. Pray we do not get bogged down in the weeds as we are looking to frame 3-4 weeks of discussion based on these issues.
 Please pray for the LINK team here of chaplains/preachers who will be meeting with Emrys and myself on Fridays during the day to discuss the many economic, physical, emotion and spiritual avenues of the ministry here at the hospital and its continuing effects in the villages around here.
 Please also pray for stamina as it is wonderfully hot here during the day (100-120F) and we have had wind on from 2-8am in the mornings. Kathryn and I will be documenting the next 3-4 days as we begin to tear apart the 20x20 foot storage room in the Main Office here. Our goal is to re-organize it and see what discoveries we will make in the process. Dead or alive…ha ha haaah!!!

Thank you for your inclusion of our misadventures in your life today – I hope you have smiled and have enjoyed the many events of the day. (it is 5:30am, the power has just went out… and I am thinking… “when will I post this?” and “wow I am sweaty”))

I have decided that I will get back into the online commentary (actually it is more of the online “meditation” on short sections of the Bible daily to see what observations I make during the day). So you can check out saintjoshua.blogspot.com over the next 40 days to get into my spiritual head! When I return in June, I am planning to continue this with our dog each day… companionfortheroad.blogspot.com.
NAMASTE!

The Long and Winding Road...

2009-04-22T10:22:00.000-07:00

Praise the Lord we arrived, with out wits but not our luggage, YET!. As I write this blog it is between 9:45 Indian time on Wednesday-we have now been IN India for 18 hours. I hope that our luggage is currently somewhere near the skies of Israel/Saudi Arabia. What a trip here!

We began Monday morning in the USA -- please understand that magically as a person flies to India time speeds up and you begin to loose the next day. Okay, so we began at 6am in our modest house in Lapel, Indiana. Rainy, stormy, windy. Having not looked at weather.com before leaving we were unaware of the hurricane size storm that was swamping Virginia, New York and even my home state of Wisconsin all at one time. Our flight left on time (10:00am) from Indianapolis to D.C.

As soon as we landed in D.C. we began planning our priority of Lunch. We found a wonderful “ethnic” restaurant in Concourse A at Dulles Airport. Is it called “Dosi”. If you are ever at Dulles Airport for more than a 2 hour layover, I would recommend this place. A little expensive – however – everything (yes even the bread) is cooked fresh and fired (prepared) after the order is issued. Very good food. We were satisfied….and so began the end of our enjoyable trip to India.

Our next connection flight to New York was suppose to board around 1:30pm. So we arrived around 1:15 to gate A4. We organized our carry-on to have easy access to books, etc. and eagerly awaited our United flight. Five minutes before our boarding the FSA (I think that is the agency in the USA) issued a “non-entry” command for LaGuardia and JFK airports due to 30-60 mph wind gusts. So our plane was delayed for 1 hour. Then one hour became 1:30minutes. Then 2 hours. Our “Jet Airways” (and Indian Carrier) flight from NY-Brussels-Chennai was to leave at 6:10pm in New York. For international flights you must make contact with the gate at least one hour before take off, when they shut down the gate.

So I was busy calling Jet Airways and punching strange buttons on the automatic voicemail system in order to talk to an Indian directly. I finally got through as the 3^rd (yes 3^rd) employee at Dulles opened a “Do Not Open” door near the same gate… now everyone was laughing of the failure of the employees to even know what is going on at the airport. Needless to say I had to then hang up and call from ¼ mile down the concourse. Having gotten through finally I then learned 4 minutes later I needed to sprint back to Kathryn to get her passport so that we could tell New York that we were still going to make it.. barely. Yes, I was that guy running down the concourse that you always see at least once while you are flying… the guy I use to make fun of!

We finally boarded at 4:15 and were on the runway at 4:30 in enough time to then be told that we were going to be delayed 90 minutes on the tarmac. So I had to call our agency (fellowship.com). Our agents boss, Dennison, was able to help us over the following hours. Okay, so we are on the tarmac for 1 hour (it is now around 5:45) when we learn that we will be delayed until 8:40pm for our departure… so it was decided to let us off the plane. 30 minutes later the announcement came over the PA that our flight was cancelled. 2 dozen of us who were going to miss our international flights then proceed to concourse C, near gate 20 to wait in line for an hour to get “endorsed” flights from United with another carrier (so we will not be charged twice for one international trip). It was in line that we met a business man from India (now living in Virginia) that was flying back home to Hyderabad (capital of the state where the Rees hospital is located). His name was “Anand”. Kathryn talked to a southern belle who was the daughter of a Jewish Rabbi, and she was going to school in Israel.

So we had two new friends to help the hour go by. It was during that time that our fearless agent (Dennison) was overriding our current itinerary with a new one through Qatar (a United Arab Emirate) state about 500 miles south of Kuwait (you can Google it). By the time we got to the counter… it was all worked out and they took 2 minutes to endorse our new flights and we were off to concourse B to enjoy a Fuddruckers meal of a fish sandwich and chicken fingers.

Halfway through our meal we heard that we were being called to board our Qatar Airways flight 50 minutes before take off? I ate my fish as fast as I could… and Kathryn backed up our chicken fingers. We later guessed that Qatar Airways gets everyone in the plane so they can get the drinks and entertainment (each seat has a screen with access to movies, shows, news, games, etc.). Basically they are tossing free bread to the mob so that passengers have a great experience.

Rain picked up and we found ourselves sitting on the back rear right of the plane. Behind the HUGE engines (and I mean a Boeing 777 with just 2 engines… they were HUGE) and seated over the luggage compartment. So Kathryn watched for our luggage. A special vehicle carrying 7 pieces of luggage (our two pieces, and 5 other pieces from two families who were also scheduled with our same itinerary). The baggage guy proceeded to look at the numbers, his lists, take them off the vehicle, then on, then off and finally back on (rejecting them) and then Kathryn and I began to talk to 3 flight attendants (in order of responsibility) to see if that can make a call to the baggage men and explain why these pieces are separate! “No no sir, it will be on, it will be in transit” was the response. Basically, just get in your seat you do not understand international travel or our airline. FRUSTRATING!!!!!

Our plane then proceeded to move in the opposite direction of our luggage. We didn’t know if we should pray, cry or turn red in anger… we chose to do all three! It took about 3 hours to cool off and realize that when you fly you really have NO CONTROL over anything, only the remote in your hand of what you watch and the volume. And you can go the bathroom, when the light tell you it is okay. Other than this… you are a ‘guest’. Qatar’s service was GREAT. Best I have had since Singapore Airlines in 1998 on my first trip to India. We even had an ice cream service of food. (I know, rough life huh?). So I proceeded to attempt to stay up all 12 hours for the flight (to switch my internal clock), while Kathryn slept for 6 hours in the two empty seats in our row.

I was able to start watching three movies but did not stay awake to see any endings… in and out all flight. We arrived at Doha international terminal for our connecting flight to only realize that it is a special concourse for foreigners and not the main airport. So they can tell us information, but have now way to actually do anything. Another frustrating point as we were trying to get a commitment for the airline to send our luggage on the next day’s flight to Doha and then to Chennai. It is basically a huge “duty free”(non-taxed) mall with 12 flight gates built around the shopping center. Very impressive with their marketing. Really an inventive idea to get more money while people wait.

Frustrated again we boarded our Chennai flight and I ate a quick meal after take off and slept for 3.5 hours till landing. Obviously we knew our luggage was still in D.C. but we were glad that a customs agent met us as we walked to the custom gates and said that they have received several answers to our complaints and we needed to register a formal loss of luggage form and then it could be “telexed” to DC and Doha. So we spend 90 minutes figuring all of this information out.. and Usha Rees (Kathryn’s mother) and her cousin, Suresh waited for us outside. (If I write ‘Suresh Attah’ please understand that it only means = Suresh brother, or brother Suresh – it is a somewhat formal name for family members.)

5:45am Indian time (2 hours from our landing) we finally were home explaining the previous several paragraphs to an eager team of parents, brother, cousins, and Santhosh (whom you will come to know and laugh about in the days to come). We have been shopping, seeing friends, napping and eating today. Relaxing as we wait for our luggage to arrive in 5 hours (it is now 10:30pm as I finish this post).

There are elections tomorrow in our district where the hospital is located, and here in Chennai there will be a formal “Bunt” (curfew, closing) basically a calculated day of civil unrest and disobedience in relation to regional and national elections. We are hoping to pick up the luggage and cross the state line before 6am tomorrow morning so that we don’t risk getting caught in a 500-5,000 person mob.

So, we are safe, happy, glad to meet our new sort-of niece (Suresh Attah’s daughter) ‘Naynanapryia”. And glad to finally hug Santhosh, our new younger kinda brother in the Rees family… as it goes. Home cooked Indian food by Suresh’s mother-n-law and a bed to stretch out in after 34 hours of ‘travel’.

No matter what, it is a better alternative than catching a maritime vessel and spending 4 weeks in transit to India! More to come when we can write. We are headed to the Hospital in Andhra Pradesh tomorrow. The David & Lois Rees Hospital which constitutes about 75% of the work of BSSI (Benevolent Social Services of India).

Thank you all for reading this LONG post and caring enough to include our adventures in your life today.

JOSH

We Made It - luggage did not

2009-04-21T19:22:00.000-07:00

Read our prayer below and prepare for a heck of a 34 hour experience in travel from Indy - Chennai/Madras India. We are too tired currently to catalogue the most interesting experience of our 4 years of travel. But I will later today.

Thanks to all who are following, praying and thinking of the Paroubeks.

Travel Update

2009-04-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

Josh and Kathryn's flights have been changed up a little bit due to the weather out East today.

Here is the new info below!

Qatar Airways flight #52 leaving Washington DC at 10:30 pm arriving in Madras at 3:45 am (India time)

The flight takes approx 20 hours. They will be flying on a 777 plane, which Josh says is larger than Air Force One.

More updates will come from them once they get settled I'm sure!

Prayer

2009-04-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

Lord,

Into your capable hands we commit this trip,

For whatever glory you wish.

Let us be open to your guidance &

Inspired by your word and people.

Grant us travel mercies,
Grant us health mercies,

Grant us patience and joy,

Grant us our request we pray...

Lord have mercy!

Christ have mercy!

...upon us.

CONFIRMED!!! (itinerary for all of you prayer warriors)

2009-04-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

Here is our flight information for Monday April 20th.

10:03am - 11:35am (Indianapolis to Washington DC)
United Airlines # 7628
2:08pm - 3:28pm (Washington DC to New York)
United Airlines # 7238

6:10pm - 11:05pm [India] (New York to Chennai, India)
Jet Airways # 9W225

Please pray accordingly... (India is 13.5 hours ahead of Central Standard in the USA)

4 days!

2009-04-16T06:21:00.000-07:00

EXCITED!

We are ending our trip today in LaCrosse visiting Josh's parents. It has been a great trip. Vacations always seem short when you are visiting those you love, but always seem long when you are just by yourselves. Do you get that also?

Lord Willing, we will have confirmation numbers for our flights by days end. We have been charged the amount on the CC so that is a great positive. We just need to do a little last minute shopping and backing.

Tomorrow (Friday) we will travel to S. Illinois to drop off "Claire Bear" with some family friends while we are gone. Looking forward to seeing her get adapted to a new house for a day, and a little friend (daschehound) for her extended stay in corn country.

For those of you who are visiting our blog:

--> Please submit any comments as to what you would like: concerning pics, subject matter, etc.

--> Sign up for our "followers" list also--especially if you are praying for us (as it would be great to know a round about number that is praying us)

--> If you have your own BLOG/VLOG that you would like us to list on our site to help your traffic, but also to show support for our trip... hammer away!

--> We are also trying to think of a short format way to keep up our thoughts and the logistics of what we are doing. So you don't just get what we are learning, but why we have discovered that... and also prayer requests. So any help, suggestions for a 3-4 point easy format for everyone, would be wonderful.

You can always get a hold of us at either TheParoubeks@juno.com (or @gmail.com)

1 week and counting.... till 4/20/09

2009-04-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone.

We are awaiting our confirmation from our travel agency. they have been great. if you need a cheap ticket to a far away place... fellowship.com and ask for Leanne Leigers. Tell her Josh Paroubek referred you.

We are visiting WI and MN this week to say hello to friends and family... good times.

We are scheduled to leave June 20th. We will be posting our itinerary as soon as we get our confirmation in the next 48 hours.

Please be praying for our travels, confirmation, and communication.

JOSH/KATHRYN