Hot in the Summer...tonight!

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!