Dear Partner in Christ,
Greetings in Jesus' Name.
The monsoon is very late this year. Instead of the monsoon starting in June, it arrived only in the beginning of July. This year too many insects of various sizes and shapes some whose sting hurts [did not bring about any serious effects] has entered the houses. Moreover too many snakes are spotted and some killed all in these past 12 days. Prakash killed a cobra last Monday and he was yelled at by the people of the locality for killing a cobra and that too on a Monday (both the cobra and Monday are very auspicious here). At the doorstep of the pastor of the Indian Missionary Society's Church a 6 feet long cobra was spotted but escaped. John spotted a cobra (about 5 feet long) in the garden at the back of my house.
Added to the cobras for the first time we are seeing pythons in this area, usually they are spotted only in the thick jungles. Prakash could not kill a huge python of (thick as an adult male arm and about 5 feet long) in the hospital campus; it escaped near the pump house. Near Laban's house a baby python is spotted and was not killed. The staffs say that pythons are more difficult to kill than the cobras. The Santhali tribals believe that the python is the father of the cobra and so they will not kill the python. But Praise the Lord all RHS staff will kill any snake that are a threat to human life. Last year one our contacts - a Koya boy child died of cobra bite. We NEED your constant prayers for protection.
Add to all this there has been a series of critical illness with our staff. That is why a prayer circular in the middle of this month.
1. Prabhati, newly married staff [wife of Niranjan] went in for a spontaneous abortion, nearing 4 months of pregnancy and is very weak.
2. Niranjan husband of Prabhati underwent a simple hydrocele surgery and it turned septic, he is now recovering.
3. Dilip's father went to be with the Lord on Monday (11/07/05) due to renal [kidney] failure. Dilip is the only member who supports the family. He has a younger sister, who failed her metric class last year. His mother was a street side vegetable vendor and as the father was most of the time sick did not do any work for many years. Will appreciate your prayers for Dilip and his family. All messages to Dilip can be emailed to the email id of mummy at iris_paul@vsnl.net and it will be passed on to him.
4. Jyoti's brother in law Praksh is at a hospital in Sunabeda (140 Kms from Malkangiri - 5 hours by road) and is dying of hepatic and renal [Liver and Kidney] failure. Prakash is around 45 years and has 3 small children and his wife is not educated.
5. Shanti's (wife of Sopon) brother around 18 years ran away from her father's home and is not found even after searching for 2 weeks.
6. Minothi's [wife of John] sis in law went into fits during delivery of her first child and delivered a girl baby by forceps, and there is deep injury mark. The sis in law Lolitha is now out of danger, but the baby still needs to be on a ventilator.
7. Sandhya's [wife of Somesh] father is sick for the last one month at Jeypore.
8. Nivedan - he was an excellent staff of RHS. A couple of years ago he got married and moved to Orissa Missionary Movement as its Executive Secretary. Last month he has been diagnosed of liver cancer and has been told that he has another two more months to live. He is 31 years old and is the father of a daughter and a 9 month old son.
9. Romesh's father, Mr. Deenabahandu Khosla had a fracture of both the bones in his forearm 2 months ago and had a cast but still there is some pain. The cast will be removed next week. Please pray for full cure.
10. Last week, I had a check up and I have been said to have an enlarged heart [straightening of the left border of the heart] peripheral cyanosis on and off. My kidney function for the very first time is slightly increased. [creatinine 1.45 and urea 45 mgm] I feel weak last few months and my Hb% inspite of many vitamins for last one month is 10.8 Gms. All the vitamins only increased my weight and I feel breathless. I am not Hypertensive and I am said now to have brittle diabetes. All this is off sudden onset as even a few months ago, because I felt tired, I had a complete check up and nothing was found so all the doctors said that I am getting old [60 years according to me is not 'OLD'] Anyway I rejoice that He has kept me well and going all these many years. I have cried and prayed a lot for all issues here. Last month I read in the Streams in the desert that "God's jewels are Crystallised tears".
Laban and family and Sopon and his family are on their annual vacation. Pray that they will have a refreshing time.
Our Jeep has gone off the road after covering 49,482 Kms. The front wheel tyre has a 1-inch tear, the suspension on the left broke and the left back tyre burst beyond any repair, fortunately it was just a few kms from Malkangiri and so we made it home. The spare tyre has had too many punctures and can now hold only 15 pressure and we need 26 pressures in the tyre. Do not worry in God's time we will get the money and buy all the 5 tyres and service the jeep and once more it will be entering the interior jungles on His mission trips.
All this has drawn the RHS staff closer to God and so inspite of all the circumstances we know He still holds our hands and we still rejoice that He has seen it fit to keep us going.
It is indeed hard to rejoice, BUT as individuals and as staff of RHS we are rejoicing and continuing the work. We will surely appreciate your prayers.
Thanks a ton for standing with us.
Closing with prayers
Iris.