July 2004

Dear Saints and Aints.

Shalom from Nagpur, India.

This will probably end up being a messy, incoherent, disjointed newsletter but I must write.

I arrived in Nagpur on the 18th of June and since then have been trying to get settled in and get the computer etc. working. This was not as easy as I anticipated. A detailed description of all the things that kept going wrong or were not right to begin with will not help you and hence they are judiciously omitted.  But the Air-conditioning Yohan installed “by faith” works ... and makes a lot of difference to the way I live and work.

I do however want to mention that I went with Bapu, the staff in charge of the Childcare plus program here, to the girl’s home. It is a day’s drive from here. But I had forgotten our roads and traffic which made the 650 km into a 13 hour ordeal ... I also had forgotten the bedding I could expect at the girl’s home. The pillow was sort of like the stone that Jacob used at Bethel but the “visions” I experienced had nothing heavenly about them. But the time there, among the now 200+ girls was nice and we managed to take photos and video clips.

It is good to be home. The almost 20 hour flight from Vancouver to Mumbai was uneventful; the last bit – Mumbai-Nagpur – was less so. I never knew if the pilot let me drink my coffee or make me wear it ... I drunk it. Going through immigration and customs in Mumbai was hassle free – it was a new experience.

As I walk to the taxi I surreptitiously touch the elevated walkway at the airport with a finger and then touch my forehead, heart and cheek with it. The cheek part was probably a subconscious desire to learn Hindi faster – I dare not touch my lips with it lest my way home I would be via a hospital ... I shake my head and grin and wonder if I will ever grow up or ever remain a child  ...

Days later, comfortably seated in my easy chair I wonder if it is not this child-like attitude towards God and life in general that brought me unscathed through many difficult and even impossible situations.  I eat food; had my mother cooked what the kids feed me, my father would have rushed to the "Golden Arches” or the lawyer’s office filing for a divorce ... I have been betrayed, maligned, cursed, kicked and been told people use my name as a swear word because we can’t pay wages and – I still manage to smile through it all. But, I am a hardy soul ... 

However, at this very moment I am bushed, tired, caput. We had no electricity for 15 hours through the night and the whole day and – it is hot and humid. After that I listened to our pastor for 3 ½ hours about the woes of the church and to Bapu another 1 ½ hours detailing all the headaches of the homes ... I want to retire, run to the mountains, and hide in a cave ... and write over its portal:

OHWAHATANASSIAM!

Yet, believe it or not I am blessed beyond what anybody has the right to be blessed. I do not seek the reason for God’s blessing upon my life in me but in Him; it not my worthiness but His love. Don’t ask me to explain it; I can’t. I just accept it.

This past week our pastor, Bapu and I meet early morning for prayers to somehow beseech God to work his way in our lives and that of the homes and staff.. The furlough has wakened in me a new hunger for God, a hunger I share with these two young people. I do not know whether the time spend with the saints in churches and homes were a blessing but the endless hours driving and being alone with God proved a great blessing to me.

Nevertheless, thank you for the blessing you have to be to me and our kids and staff. As with God’s blessings I do not look within myself for the reason but to your love, that though undeserved, you showered upon me. The 35000 km I traveled alone, the 24 hours at Virden stuck in the snow and sleeping in my car, the endless lonely hours and the homesickness which at times seemed to overwhelm me were made possible only be the wonderful reception I had and the warmth of your fellowship.

Thanx for that! Thanx also for your many gifts which were “unthanked” for for the past few months. We will change that!

Please pray for Yohan and the staff. Yohan needs wisdom and courage. He took more kids this year ...

Now I must go to sleep while Bapu sends this out for me.

In His great love.

Frank.