Jeremiah 33:3  Call to me and I will answer you...    Thank you, Lord, that you are always faithful to your promises.

It was 3AM last week in a hospital in a strange country, a little boy sleeping on a mat on the floor (my call button), mosquitos feasting upon me through the screenless windows, IV tethering me to the bed....life was reduced to gasping breaths against the pain in my abdomen, breaths that whispered "Heal me, O Lord!"  And He DID answer me.

Day by day He has strengthened me, restored my bodily functions, lessened my pain.  Today I actually walked up a flight of stairs into the hospital, waiting in the crowded clinic, had my staples removed and walked (a tiny bit wobbly) down the street to the taxi.  Praise the Lord, the surgeon proclaimed me on the way to recovery.  Tomorrow (Tuesday) we take a 9 to 10 hour train ride to Hyderabad, one day of rest, then 1AM Thursday off to the airport for another 20 or 30 hours to OKC.  Please pray for a safe and healthy trip home for all of us.

It has been a miracle to find a great surgeon and good hospital where we didn't expect it.  It has been a great miracle that I didn't wait one more day before reluctantly going to a hospital.  Thank all of you for your prayers. Thank Johnpaul's family for all the extra work feeding me specially, making me comfortable, even sitting up with me in the hospital.  Most of all, thank God for His love and mercy, lifting me up from a dangerous situation, and setting my feet upon a Rock.  I am yours, Lord.

Alice Sharrock

Alice is Home!

Praise the Lord, and thank you for your continued prayers. Alice is doing well and eating good. They released her from the hospital at approx. 1:00 pm, but by the time we packed everything, chased down the guy who collects the payments, and passed through the gauntlet of people desiring a "gift" for their services, it was after 3 pm before we got out the door. Alice is now safely and comfortably settled in at Brother Johnpaul's home and ready tackle life.

We were again reminded how God can work for good even in times of crises. We had many opportunities to pray for others in the hospital, both patients and staff, who had struggles in their lives. We were blessed many times over by those who returned and thanked us for our prayers. God is so good.

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Please continue to pray as we work on our new itinerary and look forward to our journey back to the US.

Update on Alice

I apologize for not keeping the blog updated very regularly. Things have been a bit up in the air. Alice is doing much better today. She continues to grow stronger and is now eating some small amounts of solid food.

New sandals

We just got the biopsy back today and it confirmed she had an acute gangrenous appendicitis. But God is good, and she is steadily improving each day. We are grateful for your prayers, and Alice sends  her love.

Even though Alice became ill, we have still been blessed by our time with Johnpaul and his family, and look forward to sharing with everyone when we return. If it is at all possible, we have grown to love the children and the people of India even more than ever. They have taken wonderful care of us and we will miss them when we leave.

Please continue to pray for us. We have yet to sort out the travel arrangements, but I know God has this already worked out.


 

Prayer for Alice

Today, instead of our usual thoughts, I need to ask you to remember Alice in prayer. God has been accomplishing some great things here for His glory. Then three days ago Alice began feeling down, but we thought she still hadn't adjusted from the trip. Today, after a a poor night's sleep she woke up in a great deal of pain. A doctor has been here twice and she is now resting. Please pray for healing and rest, and that satan will not sidetrack us from God's purpose. Thank you, and God bless.

Yesterday I touched a leper.  Not just touched--which I selfishly and fiercely avoided in the past--but I hugged and wept and prayed with them.

My hands were on their bowed heads, on numb and failing feet, on gnarled stumps of hands that cannot even dress some of them.  They sat there with primitive crutches and grubby artificial legs, eyes blinded by deadened blinking reflex, noses rotting away in withered faces.  Some in their sixties had the disease since they were 8 or ten years old.  Outcastes in the midst of the crowds of India.

Unclean!  Unclean! echoing down through the ages.   Shunned by a society where extended family is the supporting fabric of life.  Refused access to water--in a hot and tropical land--lest their touch on the pump "pollute" the entire well.

We gave out 10 lb bags of rice, some spending money, and little plastic bags of water.  The water packets were torn open greedily, thirsty throats gratefully slaked.  Water!  Johnpaul told them that Jesus was the Water of Life....then Russ spoke to them from Psalm 31, teaching them that God is with them even in their struggle and pain.  Fingerless hands raised as "Allelujah" rose to the heavens.

Matthew 8:3 has a new meaning for me today.  When Jesus touched the leper to heal him, it may have been the first human touch he had felt for years. When I knelt down to pray for Susilla's numb feet--and touched them--she burst into tears.  When I rose and took her stumpy hands in mine, I couldn't stop myself from embracing her frail and shaking body to my heart.

God uses the unlikely--and sometimes unwilling--to do His work.  He uses the weak, the poor, the fearful to show His power.  And, He brings the outcastes--all of us crippled, maimed and blinded by sin--into the Marriage Banquet of His glorious Son.  Praise God!  Daivuniki stotrum!

O India, India, you who worship a million gods and yet do not know the One who created you!

A few have found the Way...but culture and tradition stifle the path.  There is a huge festival underway, honoring a goddess who rides the tiger.  Everyone, it seems, is flocking to temples to be blessed.  Some enterprising devotees have brought the blessing to your doorstep with a lavishly decorated rickshaw containing two idols, draped in beautiful clothing and flower garlands.  A loudspeaker played praise chants as the young man pushed it down our street, while his companion in a sparkly sari went from door to door asking alms.  Everywhere colored lights look like Christmas in the USA, men have their foreheads painted in worshipful designs, and even a little white dog came by our gate with a blessing mark.

But as in the days of the Bible (which rural India reminds us of) God has called a remnant to Himself.  Last night we had the great privilege to participate in a combination housewarming/birthday ceremony.  A matriarch had been willing to risk her place in Hindu society to follow Christ.  Her grey hair and elegant sari presided over three generations of extended family filling a muddy courtyard in plastic lawn chairs.

The eldest son and daughter follow Jesus now with their families; in fact the eldest son is a pillar of Brother Isaac's church and his yokefellow in ministry.  The youngest son's birthday also celebrated his recent second birth into the eternal family.  Keyboards played, drums beat, and a flute piped pure haunting India into the night.  Russ encouraged them from The Word, and there were many prayers said:  for the home, for a new pregnancy, for two shy little grandsons, for the new clothes being gifted to the college student son.  Brother Isaac led the ceremony and translated for us.  After a long ride home through the ricefields, we realized that God is the Lord in every corner of His world.  May the nations glorify Your Name, O Lord, until the earth is filled with the knowledge of the One True God.

Ahhh India....

3AM  Peace and comparative silence at last...the traffic and thunderstorms and voices have quieted.  Only the scuff of a lone man's sandals on the concrete street, a rickshaw stoically pedaling in from a distant village,  the whistle of a passing train, then a cock deciding it must be morning.  I fall back asleep, my body slowly adjusting to the rhythm of the other side of the world.

4AM  Traffic picking up, autorickshaws adding noise and fumes to the graying light, pedestrians streaming in to the town, crows feuding in the coconut palms, little striped squirrels scolding, the smoke of cooking fires adding to the haze.

5:30-6AM The noise tells us morning has arrived.  Motorbikes, goods carriers, bicycles join all the other conveyances in profusion, each with its own warning sounds--bells, clappers, tinny horns which each driver seems compelled to use when overtaking other traffic.  Some autorickshaws have added sound systems...plus the muzzeins calling over loudspeakers, and Hindu temple chants broadcast to the crowds.  The decibel level is approaching deafening.  A buffalo wanders through the chaos, mooing softly on its way into an alley.  The sun rises hot and red above the housetops.  Tuesday officially arrives in south India.

O Lord God, please let Your Voice be heard above the noise of life, and open hearts to You.  Use us to glorify Your Name in this part of Your world.  Be with us as we go out and touch lives today for Essu Kristu, our Lord.