Crying with them.

It is uncomfortable to write this. But I want to share it with you, because it is real. Some days are harder than others. Some days don't call for smiling and hugging to celebrate life -

On these days, there are deep moments of connecting with strangers in desperate grasps and holding on when all you can do is cry with them.

A child of 12 years old was brought into our ward after having been attacked and raped by three men. She was so small. The police came in to get a report, sitting by her bed, asking her questions.. she lay there still, answering them without looking at them. We wanted to scoop her up into our arms and speak comfort to her. I wanted to hold her, but some family was there by her, around the bed. So we could only watch from a distance. Her hair was stiff and dirty, so were her clothes and she wore no shoes on her feet. She was wearing a green dress and gold arms bracelets.
At one point, one of the women had to carry the little girl to the toilet because she was in too much pain to walk by herself.

At the same time,
on the other side of the room a young woman laboured to give birth to her second child. Her first one had been a stillborn.

We walked over to her, where her mother was speaking to her -- encouraging her to keep going, keep pushing. We saw two feet come out first.. breech babies usually deliver themselves.
So we waited -

Then the madam (doctor) came over..
The breech wasn't delivering by itself this time. It was a little stuck. So she began to pull and coax the baby's head out. The three of us stood around the bed, clutching the mama's hands, and the grandmothers hands in ours..
Those were tense moments, of praying and waiting to see --
Then the baby came out, lifeless.
A baby girl of 28 weeks.
The grandmother wept in our arms. The mother wept on the table. They held our hands and we cried with them.

"God is near to the brokenhearted." We prayed for His comfort to draw them close together. Hope will rise -

learning an important skill

A woman tore very badly giving birth today. My teacher and I sutured together - I was able to suture 10 stitches. Then we prayed that the sutures would hold up nicely while she is healing. She gave birth to a beautiful baby boy that she named Aneel. He is her first child, she is 18 years old.

- Orissa

It is near to us, in our hearts, today

What book can transform a nation? - The answer is, the Bible.

There are certain books in the Bible that I just haven't read straight through;
books like 1 & 2 Samuel -- well, that all changed yesterday..

Maybe you have wondered what a group of midwives do with their free time while they are settling into a new country awaiting permission to work in the hospital?

We decided to read through the whole Bible together as a team!! It has been so incredible, so so so amazing!!

Starting yesterday we made small groups and took different books from the Bible to start reading. The purpose of this is to read the whole book in context and get the full story. And to read the Word out loud, which is an important part of the whole thing because hearing the Word of God does something, something radical.. like bringing revelation - and transformation, which is why I am convinced, it's living and active, sharper than any two edged sword..

I feel so grateful.

My small group read outside in the courtyard yesterday for about 4 hours. We didn't do anything else during that time - we just read. We started with the book of 1 Samuel, then 2 Samuel, and today we began reading the gospel of Matthew. Tomorrow we hope to start reading the book of Acts, which is about the early Church.

Samuel is a book about wild men. Matthew is the beautiful account of Jesus, a 14th generation descendant of the great king David ( who we just read about in Samuel ) and how Jesus brought a message to the world that had never been preached before..
love that turned the world upside down.
I am eager to get into the book of Acts tomorrow and see how the early Church lived life together.

getting the Word in my heart,
Orissa

PS. Today we made some friends on the steps of the Church where we live. The children were outside after school waiting to be picked up so we stopped to talk to them --
They said their national anthem for us in Hindi; and then I had to sing the American anthem with Bek for them! I do think we croaked as we strained to reach the high parts, but o well - it made the children laugh!
In the end we sat around with them discussing the Bible and how much Jesus loves.
It has been a full day - full and wonderful.

O beautiful land, at last, in India

our eyes are adjusting to being open after a long flight,
the click and whir of another airport fills our ears, and we gather together

with our backpacks
bibles
and water bottles,
we are an interesting group of 26
women, children, husbands, mothers, daughters, and a son

bright colours, splashes of bright, soft and light -- we don our punjabis and breathe in deeply!

O, we are here!
O, we are in India!

the outside air is cool
I think this place is amazing

it seems that all of my life i have been waiting for this moment, for this feeling, of being here..
i had been hoping and praying and wondering about this since childhood,
dreaming of going to India, that far away land -- where my name Orissa comes from

it feels good, and full
to finally be here

walking here, breathing here, talking to them
to them in their bright colours, selling fruit on the corner
or zooming past on their fast motorcycles - a whole family on one bike!

near us i notice a group of deaf people signing to each other,
i am captivated by their animated conversation and wish to join in
later over dinner i sat next to one deaf man and we signed to each other!
they are so beautiful, their speech movements so captivating

standing in the courtyard, in the hallway, on the stairs..
i love them, these deaf men and women who i watch,
and i want to learn more so that i can join them in laughing over the joke that's just been told -- this is my welcome to India!