Preparing for the Last Days...

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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.