I did it....

My first uploads on the web!!! (Hyderabad, August 2009)

So whose birthday is it anyway????




Birthday Party, Cake, Candle!!!

Happy Birthday Gala

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy biiiiiiiiirrrrthday dear gaaa..laaa

Happy birthday to you

Hope you have a good day gala (even though you don't have the day off). Looking forward to seeing you in Delhi and having some fun.

lots and lots of love

The Library on my bed

Its been interesting hearing what others are reading and how they are processing it too. Talking of reading habits, I'm eclectic, and have my paws (among other things I'm enjoying 'winnie the pooh' again) in many books at a time. A friend seeing the range and number of books I was going through at a time commented that I literally had a library on (not besides) my bed : )
So here is my current library....

"The cloister walk", Kathleen Norris http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_C/cloister_walk1.asp
"Finding Sanctuary", Abbot Christopher Jamison
"Silence and honey cakes: the wisdom of the desert" Rowan Williams

I tried figuring out how Pradeep does that thing with jackets and links... alas I am totally net 'unsavy'. But I hope to tell you more about the above three books (the first a gift from Anil and Nisha, the other two from Katharine's great treasure trove that is at my disposal for the year!!), All are about monastic and contemplative life but also speak to me as I live a different yet in some ways similar commitment to the community Asha Niketan that is mine for the moment.

Another book I just finished is "The fishes come home to roost", by Rachel Manija Brown - a very well written, painfully honest yet humorous account of a young American girls life in small town India (Ahmednagar) when her parents move across the globe to join a Baba's ashram.
On the side I also dip sporadically into Amy Carmichael's poems - an amazing collection called Mountain Breezes, Tagore's Geetanjali, and Kabir's shloka's. Does anyone have any memories of studying the last in School? Bangalore recently had a Kabir festival which is what got me interested in him again.

Anugrah, I have quite a few Henri Nowens (back room cupboard and can get you any of the other Indian editions published by St. Paul's. , so let me know your wish list.... about a year ago as I moved to Bangalore I read his "With Burning hearts - a meditation on the Eucharist" and found it very meaningful as it was based on the emmaues walk, and talked about relationship. AT that time especially, it prepared me for the new community and people I was coming to be part of. I'm currently reading another one of his called " our greatest gift - a meditation on dying and caring". I picked this up again after Albert (the assistant on our team with acute kidney failure) suddenly lost his father to a heart attach a couple of weeks ago. Do pray for him. Medical treatment is going to be difficult and his creatinine levels are quite high. So far no other symptoms though. But he is very disheartened. So hard to know what he can do and how we can support him....
I've read the Sabbatical journey too, and would love to hear about your reflections on it Anugrah....

I'm just back from an unexpected family reunion in Hyderabad (thanks to some really depressing property disputes). Juliana, thanks for the pictures of Safina and Serena. I printed out a few for Granny and she has added them to her collection in front of her bed!
Had a great time with Anand ....he was the only male in t he houseful of ladies at Granny;s. Will figure out next time how to post pictures of that on line. Looking forward to mothers visit tomorrow...and Delhi next weekend...Yipee.

Serena Gurgling - 2 months old

Safina movin' n grovin'

Old Irish Saying

There's an old Irish saying that goes something like, "A good swimmer makes a terrible sailor". And, it seems to be true. We have an Irish friend who is a great sailor, but doesn't know how to swim, which is probably why he sails so well.

Anyway, yesterday marked Serena's 3-month birthday!!! I took her in for her check-up and she got one immunization at this appointment. Safina was with me. I was preparing Safina for what was going to happen to Serena just so that she didn't get upset and when we were in the office waiting for the doctor to come in Safina started patting Serena and said, "it's alright Serena, you're going to get a shot, but I'm right here." And, then after the shot, Safina gave her lots of hugs and kissed the little spot on Serena's leg where she got the shot. It was very sweet to see. She's a really good big sister.

She's also a prolific climber. I took her to the park after the appointment and there is a rock wall where kids can climb. This is usually done by kids twice Safina's size, but she can scale that wall so well. Other moms were standing by and were holding their breath as they watched Safina climb. But, she really is good on her feet and just seems to have a knowledge of hand-eye-foot coordination. It's really impressive.

And, Serena is our mellow baby. She is just so mild, loves to converse and smile. She tracks all of us with her eyes, but loves to watch Safina.

Next week we're off to the 'seasore' as Safina calls it. It's our first real family vacation in a really long time. It's hurricane season right now, so we were a little concerned that the weather would be bad at the time when we were at the shore, however, the projected forecast looks great. We should have beautiful sunny weather, and not too hot and sticky. Our A/C is out at our house, so we're looking forward to the nice reprieve. We're trying to hold off as long as we can to repair the A/C because more than likely we'll have to replace the entire cooling/heating system. It's about 20 years old and just an enormous cost to replace. It's something that we'll have to replace though before winter settles in. We can manage living with out A/C in the summer time, very miserably. But, it's just not possible to go through winter without heat in this climate.

Anyway, I hope to type up a more in depth update on the girls and send it on. I've also posted a few videos on my facebook page. I'll have to upload some on this page too.

Love,
juliana

Another nice video

An incredible video I lifted from my classmates Facebook page. I have no idea who the couple in the video are, but I was especially impressed by their coordination. Notice the number of times her right hand plays for his left hand and vice versa.



Maybe Sweets and I should start practising.....

Trip to Mahabalipuram

We were really blessed to be able to go with Prashanth, Joanne and Tamara to Mahabalipuram last weekend for a very refreshing holiday.

Here are some pictures from our camera. Jo has taken some excellent snaps on their camera as well.

We stayed at the Cornerstone Family Life Centre, a really beautiful and well kept Christian guest house which is right on the beach.



This is the life!



'A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk
Along the briny beach...'



Building castles with Tammy





Big Brother!

"A Disciple's Renewal."

A prayer from 'The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions'

(HT: Challies)

O My Saviour, help me.
I am so slow to learn, so prone to forget, so weak to climb;

I am in the foothills when I should be in the heights;
I am pained by my graceless heart,
my prayerless days,
my poverty of love,
my sloth in the heavenly race,
my sullied conscience,
my wasted hours,
my unspent opportunities.
I am blind while light shines around me:
take the scales from my eyes,
grind to dust the evil heart of unbelief.
Make it my chiefest joy to study thee,
meditate on thee,
gaze on thee,
sit like Mary at thy feet,
lean like John on thy breast,
appeal like Peter to thy love,
count like Paul all things dung.
Give me increase and progress in grace so that there may be;
more decision in my character,
more vigor in my purposes,
more elevation in my life,
more fervor in my devotion,
more constancy in my zeal.
As I have a position in the world,
keep me from making the world my position;
May I never seek in the creature what can be found only in the creator;
Let not faith cease from seeking thee until it vanishes into sight.
Ride forth in me, thou King of kings and Lord of lords,
that I may live victoriously, and in victory attain my end.

My reading list

Dear all,

Am in Pathalgaon, Chhattisgarh, spent the last 9 days giving 2 batches of training and tomorrow will start another 2 in another place.

So exhausting, but in the evenings, I've taken time out to read quite a bit more than I usually do.

Was reading "The Jesus I never Knew" by Phillip Yancey in the train, loved it, but put it on hold, in order to finish a bunch of Henri Nouwens that Sr. Elizabeth loaned me for these few weeks while I'm here.

So I started on "Wounded Healer" which is supposed to be his best, but found it too difficult to read, so dumped it and picked up "Sabatical Journey" which is his journal (edited by friends) during a sabatical he took which was also the last year of his life. He died a few weeks after the last post.

A fabulous read... gripping... and it spoke right to my situation just like the last 2 Nouwens that I read - "Reaching Out" & "In the name of Jesus".

I've become a fan. And if anyone is thinking of getting me a gift, I'll post a list of Nouwens that I want on the blog.

Now I'm halfway through his biography which is equally interesting but in a different way. It tells of the complex person that Nouwen was and his struggles.

All this reading has been changing me hugely... will ruminate on just how in another post, when I get back to Delhi.

Emergency!

Here's a great audio recording that had us in splits, of a 4-year old who called 911 for help with his homework!



(HT: Between two worlds)

"The Gospel and the Poor", and some good books

Today, Arpita and I watched together this excellent message by Timothy Keller called "The Gospel and the Poor: A Case for Compassion".

Tim Keller: The Gospel and the Poor: A Case for Compassion from Here's Life Inner City on Vimeo.

I thought this was a very comprehensive talk, and very thought provoking.

Tim Keller speaks about how ministries of the word and of deed cannot be separated, and how the two are so closely linked in the Bible. He makes a convincing case that the way a person was judged righteous in Biblical times was on the basis of his attitude towards his wealth, and his sense that he should use his wealth for others. He says, "In the Bible, the word "poor" includes the weak, the elderly, the mentally and physically handicapped, the refugees, the new immigrants, the working poor, the natural disaster victims, the unemployed, the single-parent families, and the orphans." and speaks about the differences between the conservative and liberal sides to the debate on how the problem of poverty should be handled (the conservatives use the term "Ministries of Mercy" while the liberals use the term "Ministries of Justice", for example) and about how both views were in the Bible, both were true, but not wholly true, and each needed the other view to complement it. He talks about the three ways the church needs to act towards the poor (relief, development, and reform), and why all three are needed.

All in all, a very good message, and I would encourage each of you to try and watch it. The video is slightly long (about 73 mins), because it contains the message first, followed by a question and answer session....worth downloading and watching when free.

(HT: Here's Life Inner City via Between Two Worlds)

It was good to hear this message at this time, especially because I am halfway through a book called Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road, also written by Tim Keller. This book was gifted us by Jeff and Janet Leman (at Herbertpur), and has been quite an eye-opener.






By the way, I thought it would be interesting to know what each of us are reading these days. I tried to activate a program called shelfari for the blog, that would display a shelf of all the books the owners of the blog are reading, but it didn't seem to work out. Anyway, just so you know, one of the other books I am reading is "Systemic Theology" by Wayne Grudem, which is a really interesting book on theology, and not at all as boring as I might have expected. I thought it would be a good idea to study the Bible, and the Biblical basis for some of the doctrines I hold on to. Each chapter deals with what the Bible says about a topic, and ends with a passage from the Bible that could be memorised about that doctrine, suggested further reading, and an old hymn about that doctrine. This book is now available in India, as an Indian hardback edition, and, again, was gifted us by Jeff and Janet Leman.

In addition, as I wrote earlier, I am halfway through "When I don't desire God: How to Fight for Joy" by John Piper. You can find the free online version of this book by clicking on the title of this book above.

Another book I have just finished reading is "Autobiography of a One Year Old" by Rohan Candappa. This book was gifted to us by Ashita and is a hilarious look at the world as seen through the eyes of a one year old.

So, do write in with your reviews of what you are reading these days.

' "Father" is the Christian name for God' and 'Cheap vs. Costly Grace'

“If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.

For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God. Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.”

—J.I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: 1993), 201-202

(HT: Of First Importance)

PS. I just learned about acknowledging your source while blogging, from this source, when I did a google search on the meaning of HT)

Cheap vs. Costly Grace

“Cheap grace is the enemy of the church. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth . . . an intellectual assent to that idea is held to be sufficient to secure remission of sins. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without repentance. . . grace without discipleship, grace without a cross . . . Costly grace is the gospel [of the church] . . . It is costly because it costs a man his life, and grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his son . . . it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God . . . When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York, NY: MacMillan, 1959), 45-48.