Today's links 21/12/2009

A Great Illustration of Incarnation (HT: Z)

From John Ortberg’s God Is Closer Than You Think:

Father Damien was a priest who became famous for his willingness to serve lepers. He moved to Kalawao – a village on the island of Molokai, in Hawaii, that had been quarantined to serve as a leper colony. For 16 years, he lived in their midst. He learned to speak their language. He bandaged their wounds, embraced the bodies no one else would touch, preached to hearts that would otherwise have been left alone. He organized schools, bands, and choirs. He built homes so that the lepers could have shelter. He built 2,000 coffins by hand so that, when they died, they could be buried with dignity. Slowly, it was said, Kalawao became a place to live rather than a place to die, for Father Damien offered hope.

Father Damien was not careful about keeping his distance. He did nothing to separate himself from his people. He dipped his fingers in the poi bowl along with the patients. He shared his pipe. He did not always wash his hands after bandaging open sores. He got close. For this, the people loved him.

Then one day he stood up and began his sermon with two words: “We lepers….”

Now he wasn’t just helping them. Now he was one of them. From this day forward, he wasn’t just on their island; he was in their skin. First he had chosen to live as they lived; now he would die as they died. Now they were in it together.

One day God came to Earth and began his message: “We lepers….” Now he wasn’t just helping us. Now he was one of us. Now he was in our skin. Now we were in it together.


So, how should a person respond when they find the pros and cons of their very existence being debated? (HT:Z)

Caleb Jones, who lives with cystic fibrosis, writes his thoughts on hearing that people feel pregnant mothers should undergo screening for cystic fibrosis, and abort babies if they are found to be affected. In this hard-hitting article, he writes:

Evil like this does not start spontaneously. It starts with an idea that sprouts and develops in the minds of men. In Weimar Germany, an idea of Jews as an annoyance came first. That was anti-Semitism. Then, Jews became a problem to be fixed. That was discrimination and oppression. Then, they were an enemy of the state to be eliminated. That was the holocaust. Presently, unwanted pregnancies of all stripes are considered annoyances. Taking root is the belief that these annoyances are problems to be fixed. With the health of the country becoming more and more a responsibility and an expenditure of government, how many intermediate steps are necessary for expensive populations (e.g. those with cystic fibrosis or Down’s syndrome) to become enemies of the state? I for one will not place my bets on stopping a slippery slope.

And finally some great quotes that had me thinking:

God Gives Us Grace for Wednesday, Not our Imagination of Thursday
(from another excellent article on worrying by Justin Buzzard. Do read the article.)

From Al Mohler's commencement address to the graduates of the Southern Seminary class of December 2009:
If you aim to finish what you start in ministry, you will aim too low or finish what is not Christ's........Start something you cannot finish and give yourself to it for the length of your days, with the strength of your life, to the glory of God.

And another provocative statement from John Piper above this great photo:



Risk is relative. And there is refuge where you least expect it.

So, what are we risking our lives for?

Chocolate from a cow!

I went with Anand today to pick up my phone. I had given it in for repairs (after Anand had soaked it in a glass of water!)

As we walked along the pavement, I was carrying Anand in my left arm because of the crowd. To my right, I noticed a man a few feet in front of me gesticulating angrily, and waving his broom, as if to scare somebody away.

I then felt a sudden pain in my left lower abdomen, as though I had been struck. As I swung around to the left, I realised what had happened.

We had been attacked by a cow!

The cow, perhaps taking evasive action from this angry man on my right, had attacked us by lowering its head, and striking us with its horns. The horns had struck me on the left lower abdomen, and then upwards onto my left chest, and Anand's lower back.

Anand was very upset, and began crying. He had never before encountered an angry cow.

I was worried. I have treated so many patients after bull gore injuries, and know all that could have happened. I quickly entered the phone shop, and did a quick examination of Anand, and found there was not a scratch. I, too, had escaped without any injury.

Later, I bought a chocolate for Anand, and told him he had been a brave boy.

When we returned home, I asked Anand to tell his mother what had happened. He said, "Bad cow hit Dada." He then said something about an angel, that we didn't quite catch. He never repeated his statement again.

After dinner, he had his chocolate. He then ran around the table to me.

"Thank you, Dada! I love you, Dada! Here, big huggie! God gave Anand chocolate!"

Arpita tells me that a couple of nights ago, after Anand had said his night prayer, and lay down, he suddenly sat up. "Pray for chocolate!" He then knelt down, prayed for chocolate, and went to sleep.

Tonight, in family prayers, he thanked God for chocolate!

So, what do you think?
1. Did Anand see an angel protecting the two of us?
2. Did God answer his prayer for chocolate?!

Today's links 12/12/2009

3 Truths That Change Your Life: An excellent blog post by Justin Buzzard, that helped me find perspective last week. He writes about how three simple truths, understood and believed together, help overcome fear, anxiety and insecurity. The truths are:
1. God is Sovereign.
2. God is Wise and
3. God is Good.
Do read the article.

Another great quote I came across on Buzzard Blog:
"People who understand that their creativity is a gift of God, rather than putting it in the place of God himself, discover a paradoxical freedom. They are both free to work and free from work. Motivated by love and gratitude (powerful motivators) they are free to work very hard, giving their best back to God. At the same time, because they know neither they nor their work is God, they are free from the burden of taking themselves or their work too seriously—as if their giftedness mandated perfection."

That's a very meaty statement people like me need to think about all the time, so that we do not swing to either extreme....neglecting our work and thinking work is not important, or, on the other hand, becoming work-driven and elevating work to the place of God ("work is worship"..a very commonly heard phrase here at CMC)

Remember the video I posted earlier of a sermon by Matt Chandler, which I had found very convicting and thought-provoking. It seems that a few days later, on Thanksgiving Day, he had a seizure and was found to have a brain tumour, and subsequently had surgery. Here is a short video (about 5 mins) recorded by him for his church, that was screened at the various services the Sunday after his surgery. It is quite a powerful testimony, and, while I have been praying for this dear brother who has already impacted my life, I have also been blessed by his example of "suffering well".

Here are two good articles from the Desiring God blog:
1. Jon Bloom writes about the "older brother types".....(perhaps most of us fall into this category. Our sins are not so obvious and well known, but are just as deadly). He answers the question, "Do we have to sin more grossly in order to be able to comprehend how much we have been forgiven so that we can "love much"?" and says, "It takes a miracle to be delivered from both blinding sinful self-righteousness and blinding sinful indulgence."

2. Some parenting advice from John Piper while answering the question, "Why Require Unregenerate Children to Act Like They’re Good?". Much like most of our "born-in-a-Christian-family" Indian Christians, isn't there a risk that this might "simply confirm them in unspiritual religious conformity, hypocritical patterns of life, and legalistic moralism?"

This just goes to drive in even more forcefully the fact that while we can train a child to say "Please" and "Thank you" and follow a list of laws, perhaps unhappily, only God can change the heart, so that obedience comes from the heart, joyfully, and from a desire to please God.

Which brings me again to express my hope that our parents will write some posts on this blog with parenting advice they have learnt the hard way over the years.

An interesting article on How December 25 Became Christmas. We have not decided yet what to do this year......Arpita is talking about Advent calendars and Advent candles as a way of telling Anand the story of Jesus' birth, but nothing has happened as yet. My objection to celebrating Christmas has, partly, to do with how the entire festival has become a commercial business, dominated with pagan traditions like Santa Claus, Christmas trees, and silly, meaningless carols. As I wonder about how to tell Anand the truth and the wonderful news about how Jesus was born, I think about how the message always gets garbled at Christmas time. What do you think is the impression the average Indian non-Christian has when he thinks about Christmas, the celebration of Jesus' birth?

On a lighter note, here is a list prepared every year, as an indicator of the state of the economy. This year, it will cost over 87,000 dollars to express your feelings to your true love.

Finally here is an incredible (as in, hard to believe!) video from youtube. I wonder if my brother is planning to do this at his wedding next month

Our 'Formal' Family photo

I think this is probably the first time we have taken Anand to a studio for a family snap. Ironically, we took this picture as part of the requirement for our next adoption.



(BTW, I wonder how this photo looks on your computer screens. For some reason it appears somewhat flattened on our screen, and we appear somewhat fatter, and shorter! Any ideas on how to solve this problem?)

Happy birthday father

Dear Daddy,
Just came out to call you, but as I did, power in the area went, and so phone booths not working!!! Internet still works on the inverter I think, so there you are...
Hope you had a happy birthday, and a great year ahead. Thanks for all that you are to us.

Everyone else..
Life here is good. Today was kind of relaxed as workshops were closed after we had a big fundraising event yesterday. Very reluctantly (Dharmendra's Aunt passed away so he suddenly had to leave Saturday night) I had to organise food for 100 people. Survived it. Lesson learnt, buy plenty extra gulab jamuns... we ran out of it very soon!!
Tomorrow I have to cook breakfast (Upma) for 25 people. God save them.

Just a glimpse of life here : )

Cheryl, hope the exams are going well! Got to head back for prayers...will remember you.

love one another series

We just completed a series on loving one another, speaking the truth in love, compassionate listening, boundaries and a few other topics for living in community with one another. Our church wrote the curriculum for a 6-week series. If any of you are interested in the material I could e-mail it along to you. It is a little challenging and I continue to find myself being convicted by the holy spirit, but in a really good way.

Here's a message from our pastor from this morning. It's one of the few sermons I've been blessed to sit through and really listen to without having to check on Safina in her class or feed Serena or change a diaper or ..... the distractions are endless it seems.

http://www.crcc.org/messages/2009/11-29_love-one-another-revisited

I hope you enjoy it!

~juliana

Anand's big word for the day!

Fire 'ektinguisher'.

Now where did he pick that up?

Today's Links 24/11/2009

A soul-searching, convicting message by Matt Chandler at the Chapel of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It is about 40 minutes long, but well worth watching.



(HT: Justin Taylor)

Arpita introduced me to this great blog series by Noel Piper, in which she writes about how she and John Piper adopted their daughter Talitha Ruth. The series begins with this post, and is easy-quick reading. I found it moving, and got quite emotional a few times during this series, as I remembered our own story. I also found a number of issues that the article touched upon quite interesting: How Noel and John worked through an issue they disagreed about, their letters to each other through this process, how the adoption was linked to their pro-life position and their desire to be examples, and so on.

The very interesting story of the Angola Prison in Angola, Louisiana, and the visit of a team from Desiring God Ministries. The prison is described as "the largest maximum-security prison in America. It is one of the most famous prisons in the whole world. It has only murderers, rapists, armed robbers and habitual felons. The average sentence is 88 years, with 3,200 people in one place serving life sentences. Ninety percent of the inmates will die here. This is a place of hopelessness, so if Angola can change, the rest of the country’s prisons can’t say, “We can’t do this.” I was intrigued by the description of the Bible College within the prison, the six churches, and the missionaries sent out from these churches to other prisons! Here is an interview with the warden Burl Cain (from Decision Magazine in June 2006)

'O Evangelicos', Philip Yancey's final column in Christianity Today, in which he explains his statement "Some of my friends believe we should abandon the word evangelical. I do not. I simply yearn for us to live up to the meaning of our name."

I came across this great picture on one of the blogs I read, and was interested enough to go over to this really LONG article on 'over-parenting' in TIME magazine. (let me also be honest, I didn't have the time to read the entire article) However, I read enough to wonder what we are trying to 'achieve' as parents. Our family mission statement has this to say about our goals in bringing up children:

1. To provide for our children godly roots and wings.
2. To enable them to find love, security and purpose.

'Roots': especially important because our children are adopted. 'Godly roots' because we want them to have a godly heritage, and because we want them to be rooted in God.

'Wings': because we want to be able to help them find their mission and calling, and find the resources and strength to do all that God wants them to. When the time comes, we want them to be arrows: sent out by The Archer to accomplish a specific task.

"Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth.
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they will not be ashamed When they speak with their enemies in the gate." (Ps 127:4,5)

Interestingly, just last week I came across an invitation to a conference called "Raising Kids to do Hard Things". Sounds like what I would like to do.....

Also read this article on Missional Parenting.

(HT:Z)

And finally, some great pictures from the National Geographic International Photography Contest 2009, and the stories behind the photos.

(HT: Z)

Anand's Second Birthday

This last weekend, we had the house full with guests celebrating Anand's life and the past two years. Dad, Mom, Prem and Preethi drove from Bangalore to be with us at this time.

And so, Anand had an extended birthday weekend. Family from Bangalore arrived by Saturday mid morning. Saturday night, we had dinner with Anand's second cousins in Vellore, and their families. Arpita made all the food herself.....Fried rice and Kaju chicken, with raitha and tomato chutney, followed by Anand's favourite green mango icecream.

Arpita made the cake in the shape of a fish, and many small cupcakes, each with a lily pad made of icing, and a frog perched on top. Anand enjoyed blowing out the candles, and cutting the cake. He then surprised us by taking bits of the cake and running around to put in the mouths of the other children there! Each child got a cupcake and frog for himself. We then lit candles for all the children to blow out. I think they had fun.








I have gone into some detail because I was really impressed with the way Arpita planned this event, and set it all up by herself. She made this birthday exciting and fun for everyone who came, and Anand enjoyed every detail.

The next morning, Anand received his presents, and the adults around enjoyed watching (and helping) him unpack them and discover each of them. What fun!

After lunch, the family from Bangalore drove back.

Today, (Anand's actual birthday!), he had one of his favourite people over for dinner...Anandit. He then had the opportunity to blow candles again, and cut the actual bithday cake...again!

Here's a video from a year ago, of Anand trying to climb a chair..




Our little baby has now become a little boy. Here he shows us his attempts to stand on his head...



Discovering his new remote controlled car...



Manhandling his poor tired dad...



Horse-riding with cousin Arpit



Dancing with cousin Tamara..



We are so grateful for the past two years, and for the gift of Anand.

Where does Granny live?

As we were looking at pictures of family, I asked Safina where Granny lives and she said, "In Dia".

:)

Full Armor of G-D!

We had some friends stay with us for a few days last week. Some of you may know Sharad Kunnath. He and his wife, Jenny have two kids, Arpan and Sanna. Arpan is one year to the month older than Safina and Sanna is one year to the month older than Serena.

We had a wonderful time with them and I personally felt so encouraged by Jenny. She is such a sweet heart. Apparently, her grandmother is from the same village in Kerela as Ashish's grandfather.

On Saturday we drove them into D.C. to show them the monuments. Arpan (Appu) rode with us in between Safina and Serena. Earlier during their stay Safina and Appu had an intense theological discussion about whether or not there were monsters in heaven. And, we continued that discussion in the car on our drive.

It was getting dark and Safina was starting to say things like, "I'm scared", "It's scary". After hearing her say this a few times, Appu finally just told her matter-of-factly that all she needed was the sword of the spirit! I was just so impressed by that.

And, because of Appu, I was thinking of doing a project with Safina and hopefully the other kids in our small group where we dress up in the full armor of God. And, have each child talk about a fear they have and then bring it full circle for them.

So, from Ephesians 6:13-19:

-TRUTH banded around your waist
-RIGHTEOUSNESS as your chest plate
-Feet protected in preparation to proclaim the good news of PEACE
-Raise the shield of FAITH above all else, so you will be able to extinguish flaming spears hurdled at you from the wicked one
-Helmet of SALVATION
-Sword of the SPIRIT, which is the word of G-D

And, it goes on to talk about prayer!

Safina has entered the stage where she has become so tuned in to what she senses around her that 'fears' become very real for her. As parents we certainly have to protect our children's innocence. But, fear still creeps in somehow. So, I'm hoping in doing this she will be encouraged.

I love how this passage talks about prayer too because so much of our armor is based on prayer and we're teaching Safina the power of prayer and I think in many ways she grasps this and has internalized it for herself.

Anyway, just wanted to share this sweet story.

I will type up just one more now and this time it's about Ashish.

Ashish and Sharad were preparing to take Safina and Arpan to the park Friday night. Sharad and I were standing at the top of our stairs while Ashish was downstairs getting ready to go. Sharad was telling me how Ashish's dorm in college was a zoo - in one corner there was a flute, in the other a guitar and stacks of paper all around the room. With great emphasis, Sharad went on to tell me that each morning Ashish was always searching for something he needed and could never find what he was looking for. And, right at that 'exact' point in the story, Ashish peeks up from the bottom of the stair and says, "Honey, I can't find my wallet, have you seen it anywhere?".

The timing was impeccable. I always enjoy the history shared between good friends. It is truly something to treasure.

Love,
juliana

at the very least the flu has hit our home

I just wanted to ask for prayer for all of us. I had a really rough patch a few days ago and Ashish and Safina have both been sick. Today, Safina's temp spiked and she has just been very tired and week and not interested in food. Our symptoms match those described under the H1N1.

We're going to wait through the night and see how Safina is doing. Fortunately, Serena has not shown any symptoms yet. And, please pray especially for her since she is in the high risk group. Because I was sick, I'm hoping she has immunity through me since I nurse her.

I'll keep you posted.

Love,
juliana

Are You Educationally Obese? - Questioning the “postgraduate degree delay tactic”

http://www.servantsasia.org/index.php/news/8-general/421-are-you-educationally-obese-questioning-the-postgraduate-degree-delay-tactic

Wednesday, 04 November 2009 02:08

Our generation is faced with more options than ever before. We grew up being told we have the ability to do anything we choose to turn our hand to. But sociologists are now finding that instead of liberating us, that abundance of choice has virtually paralysed us. The opportunities are limitless, but we also sense the stakes are high. We dare not make a mistake. And so, experts have coined a new term: ‘Option Paralysis’ - the tendency when given unlimited choices, to make none, or to delay making a choice. Ironically, as we drown in a sea of options, one of our favourite ways to decide what to do next, is to choose something that will give us even more options. Our indecision usually leads to staying in school: studying more, and longer. This allows us to delay deciding what to do with our lives. We fear making the wrong choice, so we delay, delay and delay, sometimes well into our 30’s, before venturing out into the world to try our hand at something. At 22 more and more people are choosing to do postgraduate degrees, rather than give their chosen field a try. Older, “wiser” folks assure us it will make us more marketable, more competitive. Sadly, by the time we eventually find ourselves out of school we realise we never wanted to be in that particular field anyway, but our debt forces us into the workforce in a downward spiral that keeps us on the treadmill and beholden to society’s expectations for years – until a mortgage, marriage and white picket fence replace the dreams we had of following Christ in a radical way. In Luke 14, Jesus tells a strangely familiar story. It is the story of an exciting invitation. But those who receive the invitation are preoccupied with other things. So, the invitation bypasses the rich and goes to the poor, the lame and the blind. I believe this is the story of our generation. While we preoccupy ourselves with keeping our options open, delaying our entry into the real world, God is forced to pass us by. The urgency of his Kingdom cannot wait another decade for us to venture out of the safe confines of academia to follow him into the hard places of the world: the darkest and most desperate slums and inner cities where 1 in 6 of the world’s population live. So, in another beautiful picture of his upside-down ways, God uses the poor, the uneducated and the under-equipped to build his kingdom. In China, an 18 year old girl, barely converted a year, begins planting churches – over 100 each year. In India, barefoot evangelists, hardly literate, pedal their bicycles to nearby villages, who speak other languages and are hostile to other tribes, to share the gospel. In Africa, widows, sick with HIV minister to orphans despite their own weariness. Meanwhile, in the West our ivory towers are full to overflowing. We gorge ourselves on learning and academia, becoming theologically and intellectually obese. Stuffing ourselves with knowledge, that will likely never benefit the poor or marginalised. Delaying entering the world because we can’t make up our mind what to do with our lives. My challenge to my own generation is this: rather than offering three more years of your life to indecision. Why not offer three years of your life to service amongst the poor? Then you will be older, more experienced, and have a better sense of who you are and what God is calling you to do. If you need further education at that point, you will be more likely to know what direction you are heading in and will be able to make a wiser choice. [Craig Greenfield is the International Coordinator of Servants. He completed a Masters degree in International Development while living in the slums of Cambodia, after several years of working amongst the urban poor. His book, The Urban Halo, on working with orphans is available from Amazon.]

I bestow on you a Kingdom

Today I heard God speak to me through the words of Jean Vanier:

"You do not need to pretend.

You do not need to hide your weakness.

You can be yourself.

I didnt call you to Janta Colony or to another form of community

first of all to help others

or to prove that you were generous or efficient.

I called you because you are poor,

just like the ones you came to serve,

and because the Kingdom of God is promised to the poor."

Recipe Exchange Site

Hi dear family,

In response to Pradeep's post on diet and nutrition, I thought I'd send this information out.

Our friends, Keith and Dayna, designed a recipe exchange site on-line. If you would be interested in joining, please let me know. I would need to send you an individual invitation, they would approve you (since it's a private site) and then you would create a log in and password.

I LOVE this site. I have come to really enjoy cooking for my family, but half of the work comes with thinking of what exactly to prepare. And, members of this site share some of their families favorite recipes and cooking tips.

I would also really love for you all to join because I'd like to learn some of the tricks for making yogurt, for example. Or tamarind sauce, or the ketchup from scratch that Mummy used to make for you all growing up.

Even if you don't have time to post and share recipes, you can still join and have access to the recipes that are posted by others.

In addition, if any of you did end up joining, it would be great to add more Indian-type recipes to the site. A lot of our friends ask me for good Indian food recipes, but I'm only as good as our Betty Crocker Indian cookbook.

Let me know if any of you are interested!

Love,
juliana

Today's links 14/11/2009

I don't know how many of you saw Google's doodle of the day (to mark Children's day) and heard the story behind it and the Indian connection.

The story of the new island twice the size of Texas developing in the Pacific Ocean, formed of junk collecting in the ocean over the years.

While talking about the environment, I was scandalized at the reports of artificially induced snow in Beijing. I don't know enough about this to talk like an expert, but I am worried at the long term effects of this sort of manipulation of the environment.

The account of this professor's irreverent translation of the works of Shakespeare into Punjabi.

The somewhat impractical and unrealistic Ideal Diet for Indians from two reports here and here. I'm sure the principles are well thought out, but I wish the experts would come up with reasonable diet plans that we could follow and recommend to our poor patients.

Nice cartoon from one of my classmates that explains the need for an ideal diet!

Today's Dinner

Home-made spaghetti. Fabulous stuff. And a dessert of custard apple.

Anand's response.....

"Like it, Mummy! LO..O..O.VE it!

Good and bad news

Rejoice with us! Last week, in Bangalore, we have applied to adopt a second child. Now begins the period of scrambling to get the paper work done, planning, preparing and waiting for the phone call we will receive one day telling us our child is ready for us. Pray for us.

Weep with us! Today we lost a chicken to a cat-attack. We are all feeling bereaved at the moment.

Today's Links 9th Nov

I had written previously about this former director of Planned Parenthood who turned pro-life after watching an ultrasound of an abortion being done. Here is an interview with Mike Huckabee in which she talks about what she saw that day.



(HT: Denny Burk)

Here's a church in which worship is literally going to the dogs, and discusses the animals' response to dogma!

(HT: Veith)

A nicely written article about a person who went to church for the first time. How welcoming are we to newcomers anyway?

I recently read a series on Sexual Detox at Tim Challies blog, and found a number of things he wrote interesting and helpful. For example, I thought for the first time about how the culture we live in affects the way we approach our marriages. Challies called this 'Pornifying the marriage bed'. The entire series is available for free download as e-books for single guys and for married guys. If you want, you could read the posts on his blog: Part One, Two, Three, Four, Five and Six

Ashish went to pick up his guitar from being repaired and Safina went with him...Oh, to be a kid in a music store. :)