Chris and Kris in India 19

Welcome again to the ongoing saga of us in India, such a lot to write this month.

We have our usual comments from Kris, a look at SODIS and an explanation of what it is and why we need it here, a really great update from Panarwa, a look at the Diversity of where we live and the beginning of a new venture for us.

But first my continuing look at the commandments and of course the question are they relevant in 2014.

A really simple one this month:

‘Thou shalt not steal’

Ok, don’t steal, that’s all it says isn’t it. But what does it mean to us now and what did it mean when written?

Some have argued that the original meaning of the Eighth Commandment was actually a prohibition against stealing slaves or kidnapping people and forcing them into slavery unlawfully. These actions, like murder and adultery were capital crimes whereas simple theft was not. This would make its inclusion with adultery and murder understandable.

Perhaps one day we will understand but for now it is a question open to debate, but does it matter? If a thief breaks into your house and steals your dinner from the fridge would you be willing to forgive him? Or the crops from your garden, does it matter what is stolen? What about your TV or stereo if he is in need, perhaps he has a family to feed and has chosen this as a last resort. When you discovered the theft how would you react?

Proverbs 6:30

‘People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry’

How about a drug user owing his cannabis dealer money and having nothing to pay him with, he is probably already feeling deeply depressed, afraid or even psychotic, (all side effects of using this so called safe mentally addictive drug), where in our society do we draw a line?  Where for us does forgiveness end and retribution begin?

Let’s be clear, I have been burgled, when I walked in my stomach fell to my boots, I looked around at all the spaces where my things had been, first disbelief then anger and a determination that the ‘person’ who had done it would pay, and pay dearly. This was in my pre Christian days, would I feel the same now? I hope I could forgive but sometimes it’s so hard isn't it. If we don’t forgive how can we ask for forgiveness?

When Kris and I first came to India we had bottled gas supplied to us via a third party who bought it ‘at the market’. After a few months we realised it was gas that the government supplied to users six bottles a year at a subsidised price, some who didn't use gas still have it to sell on to dealers who sold it illegally at the markets. One of the most difficult tasks we have had was to explain that we could no longer have gas if it meant it was obtained by fraud.

As foreigners we can’t buy gas for domestic use because no provision is made in Indian law for non-citizens. We finally found a legal way to do it but we still can’t make some of our friends see why for us fraud is theft and this includes at least one Christian family who still get their gas from the black market.

We try not to steal, but we also try to look beyond the obvious and remember that if what you are doing feels wrong it probably is even if you can’t explain why.
Do you ever park in a disabled bay, are you stealing by doing so? Taking away that disabled persons easier access. Do you do undeclared work for cash while still claiming benefits? I know I used to. If a shop assistant overpays you in change do you tell them? So much we do without thinking comes within the domain of this commandment. Look at your own day to day 'thefts' I'm not preaching at you just asking you to think. The commandments are a way of life, not a collection of rules and regulations you must obey. We obey because it is a joy to live life under God's light, to try always to be a better person, we fail a lot, but we keep trying.

To end on a slightly ridiculous but very relevant note: The street sweeper who comes and empties bins and sweeps also collects cow pats and puts then to dry on walls she has selected for that purpose, when dry she sells them for fuel.  Kris spent days going around the roads and collected a bin full for our new rose beds; we wonder if we were stealing the sweeper’s income? For us it was a few cow pats, for her an income.

In a society that you don’t understand it is so easy to forget sometimes that the rules are different to what you have always known. Nobody said anything so we still don’t know if it’s ok or not!

Kris has refused point blank to go out at night with a shovel and a torch so the sweeper doesn't see her; she says people here think we are weird enough as it is. :) :)

Who would have thought that ‘Thou shalt not steal’ could get so complicated!

God Bless.
Ps: Is that your pen in your pocket?

Panawar Update.

On 19th December the new facility for children at Panarwa was officially inaugurated.

About 100 people from Udaipur and Panarwa including the children, gathered to celebrate this joyful occasion. Unfortunately I could not attend due to my illness.

The Panarwa Children's Home and the whole ministry were started by Thomas and Mary in the early 80's and brother T. Mathews was appointed to take care of it.

Mary Mathews opened the new facility by cutting the ribbon. While inaugurating the facility, Mary blessed the building by saying,

 “This new facility will provide our children safety, security and a home to fulfil their dreams in life.”  

Janet Halford (of I-Connect) unveiled the plaque which reads,

“This children’s home is dedicated for the holistic development of the Children of Panawar region. Thanks to NMM, I Connect friends and partners”

Home is

It was a joyful day for the children to see something that was conceived several years ago as a practical way to help the children of Panawar finally completed. From first conception to completion has been a journey we will never forget.

The children also sang a special song praising God for this new blessing. The whole NMM team and Panarwa Children Home leadership conveyed their gratitude to all who have generously contributed to this great cause from so many sources. The effort put into this cause by so many will always be remembered.

We would like to especially thank all those that worked so hard to help make this a reality from Emmanuel and Kings Church Darlington and also thank so many other friends who supported this project for their efforts.

The present facility has four big rooms that can accommodate about 50 children. The old building has now been renovated into a kitchen and dining place for the children, since they did not have a proper one before.

The children and staff at Panarwa have also started to plant a beautiful garden in the front of the building. The next time Kris and I visit we will be taking a perennial plant to add to the garden in remembrance of all the efforts of every person who in some way contributed to this project, God Bless you and thank you once again for making this possible.

We thank God for this wonderful achievement

    

BEFORE

THE OLD BUILDING HAS GONE!

AFTER! Isn't it beautiful

Thank you seems so inadequate for such a great achievement. 

From squalor and claustrophobic conditions to light and airy. 

It is solidly built so that another storey can be added in the future. To you, you know who you all are from Kris, me and the kids of Panawar, I-Connect and many others In India,

'Thank you and God bless you all, without you and your love this would not have happened.

Diversity

Kris and I were chatting a few days ago about where we live and the diversity of the faiths around us.

On this colony (small estate of about 50 detached houses) we live alongside Muslims, Hindu, Christians, Russian Orthodox, Sikh and non believers all mixed together.

The various faiths respect each others views, celebrate festivals together and generally cooperate to make this a warm friendly place to live for all.

Since we came here we have attended Christian weddings, Hindu house warming and weddings, Sikh weddings, Holli (the festival of colours) Christmas and Diwali, Muslim holy days together with our neighbour's.

Jan the 26th is Republic day here, we will no doubt be flying an Indian flag from our roof and celebrating with our friends and neighbour's.

When I was in hospital most of the people we know here came to visit from all faiths they offered their prayers for my life and my recovery, those who could not come sent messages. This proved to me beyond doubt that the way we are treated here is genuine and not a 'front' put on because the Indian people are very polite by nature.

If only the world could follow the example of the people here, they will talk about their faith as we talk about ours, not in conflict but in the sharing of knowledge between people, with respect for all who will respect them.

Our Church, (feature next month) is also based on diversity, we have Indians, Africans, German, Tongan,English,Welsh, and more, all together for one purpose to praise Jesus. Diversity isn't just a word.........its a way of life to be embraced and the challenges met with joy and wonder. So we get it wrong sometimes, as I am sure does everyone else, we have Indian friends (Christian) who without knowing it insult us (if we apply our cultural norm) every time they visit! Who cares...............Jesus doesn't, we can all only as we do where we live try to cooperate and 'Love thy neighbour'...........even if they aren't perfect!

The road we live on

Same road from the other end

Three little girls 1 Sikh and 2 Hindu children who live near us.

We thought you might like to see where we live.

We are the red A Jeevantara club and resort about 7k from Udaipur

Come onto the colony top right of map straight across the crossroads by the vacant lot, pass the first left then pass the resort on your left, pass the 2nd left then turn 3rd left, we are the third on your left.
(If you look really closely you can see Kris waving from the roof)

Entrance to the Colony

Road to main road seen from same spot as above 

Jurassic Park in our garden!

         This is really solid, given 2.5 million years who knows!

 SODIS (Solar Water Disinfection) and PSF (Pre Sodis Filter)

As promised an update on a project Kris and I are passionate about and have spent a year on to get to this stage. We do not take the credit for it but we are both proud to say we have contributed to developing a method of achieving here in Rajasthan what the United Nations declared in 2010 as a basic human right

What is it?

It is so simple if you want to look at it more fully google Sodis and you can download loads of info on it. Globally it is making huge differences to people’s lives for very little cost.
It has been used in various countries such as Africa, Thailand, Indonesia and even in some parts of India. You do need sunshine for it to work though. Two things Rajasthan has in plenty, polluted water and sunshine, the state is made for Sodis!

Simply it works like this:

You get your clear but contaminated water from your source be it a river, lake, well or water pump and you put it in  2.25 litre clear plastic food safe (Pet) bottles (pepsi, coca cola etc) then you fill it to three quarters full, put lid on give it a good shake to oxygenate it then fill it to the top. You then place it on a corrugated metal sheet on the roof in full sun and leave it for 2 days in the sunshine (Sodis recommend less time but we feel 2 days is a safety net for when it is cloudy or overcast). See photograph for arrangement of bottles. We built ours to take five bottles a day.

The PSF System is not required where the water supply is clear not turbid. 

We sampled our water and decided to filter it when we found an inch of mud, dead insects and heavens knows what at the bottom of our water tank. 

Now thankfully cleaned out by Kris as I couldn't climb through the lid because of my balance problems Kris said climbing around on the roof might not be a good idea in my wobbly condition as from the tank its about 45 feet straight down.

Feed from main tank on roof to..........................

Pre Sodis Filter prototype, I have copied a
flow diagram (Below) to show how the
system works in theory. In practise it needs to be
simpler to build. Other than that it works well
producing 20ltrs per 24hrs, more than we can drink
of clear, (note not pure) water. From here it goes
to the Sodis table for purification by UVA from
the Sun.

Prototype made from pepsi bottles
 and odd bits of pipe, a water bottle
and some plastic 'T's.

             

For the geeks among us!  

Yes, that really is a sample from our tank, YUK! By a strange coincidence both Kris and I had over the past few weeks been suffering on and off from stomach upsets which gave me because of my weakened immune system diarrhoea, not good. 

After some enquiry we have noted that lots of people have water purifiers in their kitchens at Rs13000 - Rs40,000+, The complete prototype Sodis and Psf system has cost us Rs450 and we will get that cost down further with the production model which will be simpler. Oh yes and the upset stomachs have stopped.

Now the really yucky bit.

Most houses use submerged pumps in wells for water (as do we). All the original houses pipe waste water (sewage) to a huge underground cess pit down hill of the colony (the 'I'm all right Jack theory) solids are retained, water allowed to flow out into the surrounding rock, however the last phase of the colony has its own cesspits that work in the same way and are uphill of the original buildings...................you got it yet, guess what we are built on............shale over a layer of impervious rock  from where we pump our drinking water. If we could afford it we would get the well water tested but its beyond our budget right now so all we can both say is yeeeehaw for Sodis!

Now we have been lucky, to begin with we are educated enough to recognise the problem and secondly we had enough money to do something about it. Most people who see their children die don't even have any idea what a virus is!

A report from the national Institute of Medical Statistics Indian Council of Medical Research 2012 states that the Infant mortality rate and Under 5 mortality rate (IMR and U5MR) of a nation are both widely accepted as long standing Indicators of the well-being of her children. As such it is indicative of unfulfilled health needs and unfavourable environmental factors of a given population.

According to Unicef India is recognised as having major water pollution problems due to untreated sewerage.

This contaminates the water supply and as a result each year many children and adults die just as a result of lack of access to clean drinking water.

The figures for Infant Mortality rates (IMR) and Under 5 Mortality Rates (U5MR) for Rajasthan show that the second highest death rates are due to diarrhoea and water-borne diseases caused mainly by drinking polluted water.

In Rajasthan alone:

63% of all deaths of children under the age of 5 are due to water-borne disease causing diarrhoea and death.

With Infant mortality rates, remaining as high as this something must change.

Most infant deaths occur in the first month of life, with up to 47 per cent in the first week.

Diarrhoea remains the second major cause of death among children, after respiratory-tract infections. The concerning thing is these are just the figures for Rajasthan and I have been advised by community health workers that these figures are conservative as most childhood deaths are not reported or registered as they often occur in rural or tribal areas. Please please remember these are not just figures, each one is a dead child who could have lived.

About 50% of under-five deaths occur in only five countries in the world: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan and China. India alone is responsible for 22 percent of the figures. And please remember these are only the reported deaths.

Depleting ground water table and deteriorating ground water quality are threatening the sustainability of both urban and rural water supplies in many parts of India. The supply for cities that depend on surface water is threatened by pollution, increasing water scarcity and conflicts among users.

According to Unicef  (2010 report)  “3,000 children die every day worldwide due to contaminated drinking water and poor sanitation”.

Whilst we can’t do anything about things on a global scale we can act locally and reduce the death rates in Rajasthan.

In 2010 The United Nations declared access to clean water a fundamental human right. 
Nice thought, unfortunately they didn't say how to achieve this.

Each time Chris and I travel from home into the city we pass many people who live in tent housing at the side of the roads with a lake close by which is contaminated by human and animal waste. The water is unsafe to drink. This means many woman and children walk miles to the nearest water pump. Also who is to say that the water is safe from this source due to depleting water levels, and potential contamination coming to the pump area from higher ground as no testing of these pumps water purity is done.

With the Sodis system we can save so many lives not only children but vulnerable adults too. It is so simple, that when Chris first came across it one night whilst doing research he showed it to me it was 12 midnight at the time and we were so impressed we stayed up till nearly 3am just reading about it.

Our system holds 5x3 bottles  ie 11 litres a day output

Now the amazing thing is it is the UVA rays of the sun and temperatures of 50 degrees or higher combined penetrate the clear water and destroy all bacteria and pathogens.

then the front row of bottles are taken down in the evening and emptied into your clean storage container and the bottles refilled from your contaminated source and put behind the last row of bottles so they will take a full two days to return to the front row.  

This way you will always have the clean water at the front and contaminated last, no chance of getting the wrong bottle. It is important to not use any bottle larger than I have recommended as the UVA rays will be unable to penetrate.

Now not everyone will have access to clear water some water will be turbid (be cloudy or have particles visible in it) If you use turbid water the UVA rays will be unable to penetrate to do their work so you will have to filter the water first.

Well Chris being an engineer has developed a low cost easy maintenance filter system which we are testing out ourselves. He says he will cut the cost in half in the next model but just grins when I ask him how!

The reason we are filtering our own water is that our water was not clear you  have seen the sample Chris got out of our water tank yuk yuk yuk and we get ours from our own water pump and well, which is meant to be one of the safe water sources. See Chris's comments on this. For around Rs 450 we can supply the pre filter and sodis system to a family, we hope to get the cost down even further. Note Rs100 = about £1.

Both Chris and I feel so passionately about Sodis, we feel it should be available to those in most need who can’t afford to buy the commercial water purification systems. Ironically most if they were given one could not use it anyway as it needs electricity to work and they do not have such luxuries. We feel so strongly that we can prevent these infant deaths and urge you to consider your own children even if they are now adults. If you take a primary school class and consider how many children would still be alive at age 5 in England where we have access to clean safe water and compare that to the children from the poorest families living in Udaipur, who are drinking unsafe water. what a shocking thought that is for any parent. I truly hope and pray that Chris and I can find some funding this year to get Sodis to those who really need it. 

The complete system that supplies us with
clean, pure drinking water.

Not 2k from where we live things are VERY different, please note for the people who live on the street (thousands) this is the local water for a group who run a Chai stand and sell gas bottles, or a 4k each way walk to the nearest 'safe' pump.

Kris took these photo's at the side of the lake just down from where we live. If you look straight ahead at the lake as a whole you do not see all the garbage floating around the edges. It is only when you walk up to the sides of the lake at ground level that you notice where local children and people and animals are bathing in it, and using it as a toilet. 



You have to smell it and see the debris to  fully understand what some people are drinking, and it seems to always be the old, the sick or the very young.

As the water level falls the concentration of virus's and pollution increases.

New born and infant deaths rise in direct proportion to the fall in water levels in Summer

       Home until the monsoon

Many people live like this making an income as they can, a person can be born, grow up, marry, have children and die all by the road side. Never registered, dead babies are disposed of who knows where. Infanticide is more common than anyone will admit for girl babies, so much so that the population balance is changing with some young men not being able to find a bride (India Times Sat 25/Jan).

Given funding we CAN change this, maybe not all at once, it will take years, but with Sodis and the Pre Sodis filter lives will be saved so that in the future everyone may have what The United Nations declared in 2010 as a basic human right...............access to clean water.

It is the middle of winter, days and nights now are warming up, 70 deg F today, soon it will be Summer, at first warm and sunny, then hotter until in late summer when water is short and temperatures are at their highest the dying will begin in earnest.........again .....just as it does every year.

Things that made us go mmmmmmm

Chris

Waking in the early hours to the sound of rain hammering down, its kept up on and off all day, after so long without any it just feels weird!

One of the local cows standing under a tree looking very sorry for itself as the rain poured down.

Deep frustration because I cant ride my bike or work yet, I'm going stir crazy.

A new taxi firm has set up in Udaipur, as cheap as a rickshaw……..competition has arrived.

Seeing the guys from the UK in church Sunday, they are all so white! (Like my legs!)

Kris
I was riding my scooter in the city and a 2 young men well dressed flew past me on their scooter, the one on the back I think it was him was wearing so much aftershave or antiperspirant that I started to cough as did the rider next to me, I could still smell it when 5 minutes later as I sat at the traffic lights and he was no where to be seen. I reckon I could have been a bloodhound and followed his path just on smell alone.

The thing that made me go arrgggghhhh was the local beggars young girls carrying small infants and begging for money but only to tourists and me a westerner, she deliberately walked passed all locals. I stood for a couple of minutes watching her.

 Irritating drivers who overtake you and then immediately slow down in front of you and stop you overtaking or passing them. It happened to me once and no I hadn't been hogging the road stopping him from passing me. Today I saw other drivers doing the same thing to people up ahead of me in the traffic, very inconsiderate and irritating. 

Then there was the estate car today that held up traffic quite a way ahead of me as he decided to do a U turn in the road, he either just stopped or stalled the car totally blocking the road, no traffic could move. The other drivers where not happy. 

I still find it strange that scooter, motorcycle riders who are men who ride with a crash helmet (most don't) but they do not have helmets for their passengers usually their wives and children.

Today has been very entertaining. The strange looks I got when I walked into the Court (Law Court that is) area in the city looking for a Senior Criminal Advocates Chambers. Security looked puzzled until I said I knew the advocate and he was expecting me. No I haven't committed a crime. The advocate is a friend and my landlord. The man who took me nervously to the correct chambers (the advocate can be very formidable, I would hate to be on opposing council) was very surprised at the warm friendly greeting and welcome I received.

The amazing dog being taken on a lead for a walk in the city in itself rare to see as most dogs are strays. Well what was amazing, he was wearing a mans winter overcoat minus the arms to keep him warm.

We have been robbed, the local squirrels pinched our three strawberries that we were going to have today, little horrors! (We love them really)

Wanted for the theft of our Strawberries                                                                                     

A New Venture

We seem to have taken up Bee keeping!

It all started when we got some wild bees in our hedge, well sadly the hedge had to go so the bees went off to pastures new. Then we spoke to a lady who keeps Honey Bees as a living in Hematnagar about 300k from us and invited us to visit and see her farm. Well anything for a day out so off we went in a friends Toyota 4x4 Land cruiser air con and power everything, built for Indian roads. Thankfully it is 90% good flat road so I didn't even have to wear my kidney support. We had a lovely time and saw all her hives, Well of course the conversation turned to why do farmers here (Udaipur area) not employ bee keeping as a way to increase productivity (she claims on average a 30% increase in crop yields where there are hives) her answer surprised us, it’s because there are so few large farms growing suitable crops to make it worthwhile for the commercial bee keepers to bother.
This year as an experiment she is trying 6 hives here but isn't hopeful of a decent return because of the travelling she has to do.

When we explained who we work for and what we do we all had a light bulb go on in all our heads…………….what if she supplied the hives, we delivered them to farms and looked after them and she contributed a % of the honey to fund the project. The farmers would get better yields and she wouldn't have to drive 300k each way every two weeks to check her hives. All our costs would be covered by the honey produced, no cost to the farmer, and increased yields, maybe even an interest in keeping a hive. We haven’t talked it over with the NGO yet but don’t see a problem. In the meantime we now have 10,000 happy little workers in our garden as a trial and for her to train us as bee keepers!

This year is for us to learn about Bees, the problems looking after them in India (What do we do in monsoon?) and allow me to recover fully from my illness. We have agreed to talk about this again soon and come up with a tentative plan for next year assuming we can succeed with the ‘girls’.

They really are fascinating, we have sat for ages watching them come and go to the flowers around here. Apparently they have a comfort zone to work in of about 500 meters, well that takes in the whole colony so we are hoping there will be enough food here for them, only time will tell. We are planting lots of Bee friendly plants either as annuals or perennial shrubs; we also plan two apple trees when we can afford it.

Basic eight frame Hive.(frames are the wax dividers
in the hive that the girls turn into honey comb and 
fill with honey and breed new workers in)

Our 'girls' out working 

Hive with winter cover on to improve the insulation
 (its winter) made from double layers of corrugated
 cardboard and painted by Kris

Site in garden, lots of flowers and shrubs around them soon
the house sits E-W (looking west from here) so they get the sun until about 4pm
Then the wall behind them retains a lot of heat. In the Summer
we will put up some shade for them, monsoon a big brolly.

Projects this year.

The Pragati Marg Foundation, our NGO have told us that unfortunately they cannot fund any of our projects or contribute to our costs again this year.
So we are having to fund those we can afford ourselves again, same as last year.
It has really surprised us how many people thought the foundation either payed us wages or at least covered our costs, they are amazed when we tell them we pay for everything out of our own pockets.

The bill for Chris’s hospital treatment (still ongoing) has now risen to over £1500 (not one penny of which we resent, the medical care has been 1^st class throughout and saved his life) Some good news on this though, we may have found a company who will give non-residents medical insurance (the only other cover is ‘holiday’ for 90 days and is far far too expensive for a year. We are looking into this, it won’t help with the ongoing costs for Chris (current illness clause) but will help if we ever need it in the future, in the meantime Mr Barclay is paying, only problem there is he wants his money back........ but at least it worked as intended, a financial safety net. But for this reason we have no ‘spare’ money to spend on projects as we did last year, so we have had to make some hard decisions.

The English teaching (Chringlish) is only a matter of printing hand outs, about 100 per student plus 50 plastic slips and a file. These we do in colour because black/white would not work as well. This is a cost we can bear. Luckily one of the things we first bought when we came here was a colour printer/copier with ink tanks that hold 70ml of ink so printing costs are a little lower than the normal cartridge type. On the subject of Chringlish another project has now started using it, amazing isn't it.

Kris is also teaching, conversational English, the aim is to get the students to use English in a day to day situation. Kris is doing it through getting them drawing and talking about their favourite hobbies or things they have seen, sort of art with chat but it works. All we have to provide is paper and coloured pencils for this so the cost is very low.

Sadly despite all our hard work to develop it we will not be able to pay to produce or distribute Sodis to villages or other needy people ourselves this year. We both feel so frustrated by this, each unit we estimate will cost, Sodis only=Rs200 if the pre filter is needed its plus another Rs 200 at this stage. Costs will come down as we improve the design we hope to Rs 350 for the complete system, but for now unless we can find funding it has to go on hold.

The new Bee project costs very little to maintain and we really feel this is going to be a great idea for next year to develop it into the village / farming community, so that will continue.

Kris has had to cancel her plans for an exhibition and sale of her work to raise money to help pay for projects,or at least put it on a long hold as we can’t afford the materials she needs in the quantity she would have to have to finish her planned paintings. She is so disappointed about this, she had great hopes to be able to raise thousands of rupees from this.

Chringlish teaching for me is on hold because of the drugs I am on I cant ride and my concentration level is lower than normal so going to teach at the college is out of the question for the time being. This is not an easy decision for me but I have to accept if I don’t rest and recover then I will never get back to full health. I don’t do ‘rest’ very well! However, I have been tutoring a young man at home (1/2 hr per day) who wants to be an IT tech. To get on the course he has to read/write/speak English. When he first came to me he had hello/goodbye and a few words, he could read and write but like so many Indians speaking English is not a priority. Three weeks ago he took and passed all his entry examinations including Oral English, I am so proud of him!

Finally Kris’s plans for a first aid course have also had to be put on hold due to costs of materials and finding a venue. She is considering doing a ‘Breast Cancer awareness course’ based at a local school to improve the frankly very poor knowledge Indian women have on this subject, self-examination is practically unheard of. Kris is putting together a power point presentation and a rough script. As soon as she has completed it we will go and talk to the school about presenting to their staff and maybe older girls and mothers. Ps I’m not allowed in!

Now please don’t worry, I know it sounds all doom and gloom but we have enough to live on (we produce 75% of our Veg ourselves) and have enough to pay the bills, and we both believe that as long as we are following Gods word we will be fine.

What we don’t have is ‘the spare money’ that we were counting on to support projects it now has to go to repay Mr Barclay. As soon as we are out of debt again later this year (we hope) we will be full steam ahead again!

STOP PRESS

EVIDENCE OF DRUG USE FOUND IN ARTISTS STUDIO.

Found in Kris's studio!

Comments from Kris.

Yes these syringes are in my studio, let me explain they were originally used by me to give Chris Intravenous and Intramuscular Injections during his recent illness. As syringes are very useful they were duly washed out and kept as they are great for measuring dosage of herbal pesticides for protecting our garden plants against unwanted bugs and things. I also find them useful as an artist for adding in specific amounts of pigment or colour to my paints, or simply use them to apply paint if I am being abstract in my painting. Hope this clarifies the situation. (Chris...........seems plausible, ok I believe her ...........I remember the stabs in my buttocks!)

Update on Chris's Health.

Well he is continuing to make slow progress in returning back to full health, he is feeling frustrated and stir crazy that he can't ride his bike or get back to work. But he is trying to increase his stamina by doing the odd job around our home, take Sodis for instance I think he has made remarkable progress with this and it has improved the health of both of us, no more upset stomach or runs from drinking the water. The Medical physician who is looking after Chris is great he is pleased with his progress, but Chris is still anaemic and taking medication to restore his iron levels, the good news is that they are now saying it is unlikely Chris will need dialysis, Praise God. He still has bruised kidneys from the severe renal failure and this will take quite some time to heal, he has to avoid riding his bike and using rickshaws as the bumping up and down just add more trauma to the kidneys, if we are desperate and have to use a rickshaw Chris has to wear a back support to help protect the kidneys, and it takes him days to get back to the status quo. He still gets tired but has kept his hand in teaching a young local guy English for half an hour daily. There have been days he could not even manage that but the guy understands and that is not a problem. Chris is desperate to return to full health as am I. Chris is due to see the Urologist next month for more blood tests and a further scan, we will then see if the Prostate is continuing to shrink, hopefully it is and this will we hope mean Chris can avoid surgery. The medication still gives Chris severe side effects, he gets nightmares, only the occasional hallucination now but it is still affecting his balance another reason he can't ride his beloved bike. He can be standing and suddenly starts to wobble, luckily never really falling hard to hurt himself. His body has learn't to cope with the majority of the side effects and he deals with it much more than when they were first prescribed. I am still so grateful that God did not take him from me and that this time together is to be treasured and as Chris says he is on bonus play. The medication is still affecting his concentration and he sometimes he lacks patience, again side effects of the medication but we can cope with this as they are saving his life.

All in all it is still a waiting game, the physician and urologist both have more tests they want to do on Chris at his next appointments. We can not speak more highly of the level of care that the American Hospital has given Chris. 

I am teaching conversational English at FBC using Art as a way to get the girls to relax, they are so nervous about speaking out loud in English and getting it wrong, but hopefully this way it takes the pressure off them and I am starting to see improvement in their willingness to try which is encouraging. I am taking lots of tips and advice from Chris on the subject of teaching as English is not a subject I would normally teach. Health and art are my main subjects and I have more confidence with these so continue to pray that I can be effective.

Visit by Ben and Jo Westerman and team to do a sports seminar. 

We have only had the chance to see them at the college campus once because I cant travel and they had a very busy schedule that meant they couldn't fit in a visit to us at home as originally arranged. We are really sorry we couldn't visit you more often but having no transport and having to wear a kidney belt support corset thingy

makes rickshaws very rough on the body. Maybe next time I will be up and back on my bike!

However by all we heard they all did a really fantastic job.

The students gain so much from these activities.

The volleyball final was one of the most exciting things we have seen for a while, no actual blows were exchanged while we were there but dedication and the determination by both teams to win was off the scale!

The same can be said of the football and the girls Frisbee game was actually dangerous! Wonderful effort guys we really wish you had been able to stay longer and just spend more time seeing more of our beautiful country.

 This guy (left) gets my 'man of the match award' Volleyball Final. Set one, dislocates his thumb, friends pop it back in and then he plays on like nothing happened.

   As you can see all involved were really committed and having a huge amount of fun. Children and even most young adults don't have the time or the opportunity for simple fun and games as UK children do. Go to any of the villages and you will find children at work, only the lucky few or those to young to work get to have a play time. Usually a stick and stone cricket or rolling a bike tyre with a stick. 

So what was happening here was to some organising some sport and games but looked at holisticly it was a great step in character building, learning to cooperate as a team, following rules, fair play. achieving something, the list goes on and on so to anyone who thought there visit here was to teach fun and games think again. These young people will never forget your visit, that's quite something isn't it.

You did a great job, thank you and PLEASE come again.


Well although we could go on and on this month but have to stop sometime!
Next month, Republic day visit to a local school, a look at our church and anything else we think of!
God bless you all and thanks for your support.
Chris and Kris Hyde

Update from India 18

Before I begin an apology for the blue bits, if anyone knows how to stop this happening PLEASE tell me!

Well here we are in the 21^st century, and I am still going on about commandments that were given to the Jewish race over 2000 years ago, why?

The short answer is because I am a Christian who truly believes that these laws are very relevant today and that even now they shape our faith and our lives.

Just spend a few moments reading all ten, I guarantee you will have to pause to consider what they really mean to YOU today in your life.

They are not meant to constrain you but to guide you on a path to the love of God. Since the coming of our saviour Jesus Christ when he was born, lived among us, died on the cross then rose to show he was Lord of life and death, some over the years have argued that we now live in a different time. His sacrifice on the cross, dying in agony as He did, Why?  He did this for you and for me so that we through Him might come to God forgiven of our sins and in the love of Jesus Christ our saviour Now and forever. This is so important that I will repeat it ‘Now and forever’. Not for a few years but FOREVER, for all time passed and to come, we need the commandments, we need as a society to really start thinking about where we are going, where you are going, where your children are going.

Now this month, Gods commandment to us, number seven;

‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’

Adultery (anglicised from Latin adulterium)  extramarital sex is but one interpretation, I think it covers it and we all know what it means so I am sticking with that, sex outside marriage.

Interpretations of what constitutes adultery vary widely, as do the religious and legal consequences of the acts in question ranging from divorce to death.

Ok, let’s start with a bit of truth, really do this…….if you have ever broken this commandment then raise your hand now…….mine is up, I broke this commandment many times before I came to Christ, are you being as honest?

Remember;

Jesus taught that indulgence in adulterous thoughts could be just as harmful to the soul as actual adultery, and it is clear that both carry the same weight of guilt:

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (ESV Matthew 5:28)

Hand still down?

Opponents of this commandment cite the fact that adultery laws are a major contributor to discrimination and violence against women, as they are enforced selectively mostly against women by men who are judging them.

The head of the U.N. ‘expert’ body charged with identifying ways to eliminate laws that discriminate against women Kamala Chandrakiran, has stated that: "Adultery must not be classified as a criminal offence at all". This is so wrong as it attempts to place man’s law above Gods law!  A joint statement by the United Nations Working Group on discrimination against women in law and in practise states that: "Adultery as a criminal offence violates women’s human rights". HOW? I have to disagree here again, the law does not discriminate against women, men do.

If the law is upheld justly against both men and women these debates over discrimination would be irrelevant. Why try to dispense with Gods law because of man’s discrimination against women, the plea “she led me astray” is all too often used when the truth is the man was sexually attracted to the women and did not resist his animal instinct to mate. In other words adultery takes place between two people, I am quite sure that is all men as well as all women were punished in the same way there would be no need for civil rights issues. This argument is like a doctor trying to cure the symptoms and ignoring the disease!

Please note that I do not comment on rape in any form, which is intolerable in a just society.

Still, I am not writing this to vent my spleen against overzealous law makers, it would not be difficult to fill a large book of the most stupid laws we have on discrimination, teachers have to call black boards ‘chalk boards’ in case it offends black kids, white boards have become ‘wipe boards’, man hole covers, ‘Personnel access covers’ where do we stop!……….. Well, lets get back to nice simple adultery.

Some Christians believe that under the new covenant (New Testament, since the coming of Christ) things have changed because he died to forgive our sins. However adultery is still considered by Christians to be immoral and a sin,

(1 Corinthians 6:9–10).  Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practise homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Although Jesus does say that "and that is what some of you were. But you were washed", He still acknowledges adultery to be immoral and a sin.

However, Christ also showed forbearance to those committing adultery, although still commanding repentance. John 8: 3-11

Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

She said, “No one, Lord.”

And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” 

The key I believe is go and sin no more” and then through baptism come to Christ free of past sins. That is what I did, in my heart I truly asked Christ to forgive me and take me as one of his flock, to wash away my past sins of which I confess there were plenty. He did this for me by filling that empty space you have within you with the Holy Spirit and by being baptised in His name in water.

Please consider this, if we lived in a sexually moral society would we still have the problems we do in the UK. The statement below is from the report,

‘Sexually Transmitted Diseases.’                                                                                                                                  By Dr O.e.o. Hotonu MB. ChB. BSc (Hons)

“Virtually all the sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are increasing. The number of attendances at departments of genitourinary medicine/sexually transmitted diseases now totals 1 million per year, a doubling over the last decade. The commonest conditions are genital warts (some types of which can be associated with the subsequent development of carcinoma of the cervix), chlamydia and gonorrhoea, which if untreated can result in ectopic pregnancy and infertility. Chlamydial infection seen in clinics has risen by 21% between 1996 and 1997, and a further 13% from 1997 to 1998 (latest figures). Population surveys have reported rates of chlamydia as high as 20%, particularly in young women. There has been no reduction in the annual number of new diagnoses of HIV made and the latest annual figures (1999) saw the highest number of new HIV diagnoses ever recorded.”

Unrestrained sexual coupling is the reason for this, let’s be honest about this, the direct cause of this dramatic rise in disease is sexual immorality. In a truly Christian society that lived by Gods law this could not happen.

Extramarital sex is considered to be immoral by most Christian groups, who base this primarily on passages like 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: ‘ Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral…….’

This was an attitude was held by some in our own church towards Kris and I.

Let me explain, when asked by people when were you married we reply giving two dates, the first was when in front of witnesses on 8^th October at St Mary’s Parish Church on Holy island (which is the first Christian church in England and stands on the site of the monastery founded in 635AD by Aidan) we knelt and gave our oath before God at the alter there to always be only one for the other and that we wanted to be joined for life as man and wife. This we said to God. This was a Holy vow between us and our Lord. From that moment we lived together and loved as a husband and wife, we had become one in Gods eyes.

Some people even from our own church didn’t agree with this and in their opinion we were considered to be ‘living in sin’. How can a true Christian doubt the validity of a sacred oath to God given in church before witnesses? This is a question I still ponder over.

It was always our intention to have a wedding celebration in our church and confirm in man’s law that we were man and wife, this we did on the 14^th May the following year. What was more important, our oath to God or signing some book that made it legal in man’s eyes? We know when we became one, when on the 8^th of October we swore our oath to God; our second marriage was just a celebration of our joining. We both believe what Jesus said ‘Give unto Caesar what is Caesars, give unto God what is Gods’ We gave our lives to God, man required that we sign a register to be married in man’s eyes, so this we also did.

Sexual immorality, whether adultery or as a single person is a sin, the only way to forgiveness is through repentance and the Lord Jesus, I know, I have a past I was forgiven for, I went through a near death experience lately nearly dying twice and after that I know Jesus is real. (See blog 17 addendum).

I will leave you with this one thought;

1 Corinthians 6:18 (ESV)

‘Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body’.

Please if you are not yet baptised then come to his love now before it is too late for you, nobody knows the time of their own passing, come to him now and be saved as I was. Free yourself from this corrupt diseased society and walk in His love and protection forever.

 Well as I sit and write this its 24^th of December, Christ, born tomorrow, or if you are of the pedantic persuasion we celebrate Christ’s birth tomorrow!

We can’t arrange the star over Bethlehem so we have bought a 50 star shooter box, tonight at midnight there will be 50 stars over Udaipur followed by two huge mortars that climb high into the sky and then let go with (sorry about the pun) an almighty bang. We are giving everything a head start by launching from our roof! CHRIST IS BORN! Then I think we go will quietly off to bed and let all the dogs and children settle down again!

We have decided to have a quiet Christmas this year, we are both still a bit fazed by me nearly leaving us and Kris has had a hard time other than looking after me with a loss in her own life lately so she is pretty worn out.

Really cold for the last couple of days, no sun just over cast, it did this last year for a few days then back came the sun and spring rolled in…….wonderful. It will stay ‘cold’ for another month or so but by that I mean 58F at night and 68F by day, after a year here though I have to admit its 65F outside now and we have the heating on!! BRRRRR.

Well Christmas was great; we gave pressies, ate well, and helped a few people worse off than us. On our roof there was an A4 (each letter) sign that said ‘Happy Christmas to you all’ and lots of lights…..yeah, we are Christians, fireworks went down well. Sign now says ‘Happy 2014 to you all’. We were thanked by many people for our good wishes to them, several said they really liked that it said ‘to you all’ not just Christians.

Thank you all who sent us so many kind wishes, we are softies so we had them all pinned up on a board over Christmas, and the Skype link was brilliant, what a good idea, well done Andrew and all who worked to make it such a good afternoon.

On the 24^th we went to a carol service at a neighbours house that included the kids singing all the old favourites and food, good attendance from the local people of all religions.

25^th we stayed at home, had a quiet day, just us two, one or two people visited to wish us the best, on the whole it was very peaceful, somehow it felt right for us this year after all that has happened just to be secluded and say ‘thank you’.

 

31^st we were asked out by some friends and had a wonderful meal at a new restaurant in Udaipur ‘Zuchini’s’ near court circle, a blend of Indian and Italian food, sounds odd but is really well worth a try if you are passing through. As we left the year ended so we went in 2013 and left in 2014, cool.

On a personal note, and we will not go into details here, nearly three weeks on antibiotics, both injected and oral has completely destroyed my ‘Indian’ defence bugs, proved by eating a road side Samosa from a place we use often and then spending many visits to the bathroom. Kris while sympathetic I’m sure is thinking ‘glad it’s not me’! So here I go again, another three months to build defences.  Being ill really disrupts your life, being cured is good, being alive is better but this is a complete pain in the ***!

Garden

We have had the hedges ripped out to reduce the mosquito population and have planted roses and put in homemade garden 

lights, all looks very lovely at night.Our home made lamps, now replace the hedge and the new layout of the garden as seen from the roof.

I just went and counted there are 17 trays of seeds growing, well when I say trays I really mean washing up bowls as the cheap plastic trays here are expensive and only last one sowing, bowls cost about twice as much but last forever.

                                                                                                                                             This is a water bowl we fill for the cows, we thought it looked a bit dull so we painted it when we did the herb pots!

This count does not include Kris’s herb garden which has now also been sown with (and this is where I step aside and say all yours to Kris) We have planted Coriander, Basil, Parsley 2 types of Thyme Methi seeds (its Indian), Palak, Marjoram, Oregano, Rosemary, Chives, Dill, Sage, Sorrel, and Chulai. Thanks, I can never remember them all.

we have herbs!

A few general shots of what’s growing, note the rose that died last year,      

Hidden in the general vine growth, we thought it had died!

                                             

  Peppers do well in the driveway, probably because of the extra sun and a wall behind them to retain the warmth at night. Those on the roof are in flower, in the drive in full fruit.

The red cabbage are great.

 We still have bees; love them, our little workers.  Carrots heading for the freezer soon, which by the way is seriously full of veg we have grown, must eat faster! We give loads away to friends and neighbours, Loki, round green melon looking thing we have about two a week from the vines we planted go great in any veg meal.

The pelargoniums (Geranium) are from seed and are doing very                                 well where they get the early morning sun

.

                                                      Pixie tomatoes

Pixie tiny but oh so sweet

 Part one of a where to grow the best big tomatoes  trial, this is in the garden part two is on the roof

Garden

                                              

Same variety, same sowing date on the roof

    Who's a happy gardener then!

They taste great, Kris lets them ripen on the vine,

                   it really makes so much difference 

Work.

Due to my illness I haven’t been able to go to work and teach yet. We have been working on SODIS though (a cheap way to produce perfectly safe bug free water and costs practically nothing to run), first full scale trial at home here next week with luck then we will see what the production rate per day of clean water is. The system has four stages of particle filtration (a fifth, activated carbon coming soon), settlement and then exposure to UVA rays for at least twelve hours. The result, clean safe water, cost to date building the prototype Rs450. A machine that does the same from a shop……Rs13000, for a cheap one. We estimate the production model at about Rs400. Now all we have to find is some funding to get it out to villages before the summer and we can save HUNDREDS of lives. In this country 80% of childhood deaths are caused by water Borne disease, how can we let this go on year after year?

The present exchange rate is now;  USD 1= Rs 61.86,  UK £1=Rs102.51…….. Rs450 to save children’s lives!

Please think about that, this is not an appeal for money from you as an individual but if there is anyone reading this who could help us raise a significant amount of money to really get this off the ground and start saving lives please, go and check on us, investigate us, our NGO we work for is called the Pragati Marg Foundation based in Udaipur India, for personal details e-mail drwatsonsmate@yahoo.com, check with immigration, our Church which is Emmanuel Church Durham (alan.bell@thedurhamcentre.co.uk) they have a website if you want to contact them, do whatever it takes to make you sure this is not a scam. We need to be acting soon before the summer death rate rises as it does every year from the contaminated water sources. Please help us save these children.

Chringlish

A client I have been working with for the last few weeks has just taken and passed his exams written and oral to train as a pc repair technician, I am so proud of him.

Also another charity has taken the method up to teach basic spoken English, isn’t that fantastic. When I began writing this I never thought it would do so much good, six months to write and develop into a working system and even now it is getting ‘tweaked’ as new ideas are incorporated Thank you JH. The big difference between my system and standard systems is that with mine the tutor does not have to be able to speak the client’s native language or the client doesn’t have to know any English, although some does help a lot. It works!

Comments from Kris

Things that made me go uhhhhh and ummmmmmmmmmm with motoring as follows.

There are as always lots of near misses between pedestrians, cars, buses and bikes etc but the other day I saw a sight that still amazes me. I was on my scooter about 3 or 4 bikes ahead of me there were 2 motorcycles that were weaving in and out of traffic they suddenly bumped into each other from the sides of their bikes and wobbled outwards but managed to stay on the bikes and not crash to the ground. I think God must have been with them as they were going at a brisk speed at the time and I have seen bikes topple for less impact. The bikers just shrugged at each other and rode on.

Another strange sight was the car that had so many passengers adults and kids packed in that no way could he see out of his rear window was funny as it was a new car and he had his wing mirrors folded into the door possibly so they did not get damaged or maybe he did not realise it. Last night and today through the day it is getting colder and I have seen more bikers riding around wrapped up in blankets not sure how they are managing to keep riding without getting caught up in the thing. Ladies on back of bikes wearing fine saree’s but with blanket or thick shawls wrapped around whilst riding side saddle amazes me. No way could I ride side saddle on a bike I have tried briefly and I was wearing jeans and did not feel safe. I suppose when you grow up riding this way it becomes very natural and the bikes do have foot rests and Saree guards so that Saree's do not get caught in the spokes of the wheels or gubbings so to say.

Hoppy has decided that its got a bit cold for him and moved into our garage at night.

Well I do hope that 2014 is a better year than the last one especially health wise, poor Chris has got deli belly and quite rightly I am pleased it is not me I have had it and hated it.  (SO DO I,  Chris). Our garden is looking good and we have made lots of changes as you can see with the photos. Chris has put lots of lights around the lawn which have received lots of admiration from friends, neighbours and those just visiting. This is my new jacket, fully armoured in the back elbows and shoulders.

I am going to try to learn a new Hindi word each day but it is not easy at my age to remember them all as quickly as I would like. 

I have spent some time sorting out the weeds and that is an ongoing problem. 

I am back at work next week after the holidays, Chris will return when the consultant says it is OK to do so.

Well me again….

January 1^st 2014 happy New Year to all of you and may you all find piece and joy in the lord, remember even when it gets bad that He still loves you. Treat your fellow man with the respect you would want and try to live by His commandments and the word of Jesus Christ our Saviour who said ‘Love thy neighbour as thy self’. For my non believer readers, try it, you will be amazed at how good you can really feel when you accept the love of Jesus into your life. You don’t turn into a weirdo, you just find great peace and support….what have you got to lose?

Welcome to 2014, day one, it’s been a cold day down to 65f and at about lunchtime the sun went in as it got cloudy. We had a visit from friends all very nice.

Ah the bladder calls so off to the bathroom I went, AAAAAAAAAAAH poo coming up the drains, the sewers are blocked and as with all good Indian building the internal drains in the house are below the overflow level of the inspection cover so it can never get full just backs up into the downstairs bathroom  

A wetter smellier sometime later:

The internal drains are sealed by sheets (about 12” square) of plastic held in place by a good shovel full of sand, every dust cover and most towels are soaking in disinfectant and are off to be boil washed later. We smell, are wet and cold, generally not happy, but not the worst that we have faced in our lives, looking back we will probably laugh but not right now…..neither really felt like eating so we settled for toast and a couple of sandwiches after we had cleaned up…..I will never bite my nails again!!

Jan 2^nd.

Man with rods coming today. Luckily the house drains are split left side/right side so although we couldn’t use the downstairs bathroom or our bedroom (on the left side plumbing) we still had the guest room and kitchen that connect to the right side drainage, so by the end of the day we will be poorer but have a fresher house.

We had hoped to show you Sodis in action this month but what with my health and various other distractions we can’t, so next month we are going to do a Sodis special feature, the how’s , whys and wherefores! We have included a couple of ongoing build pics just to give you some idea of what it is going to be like.

 

The master plan!

Mk 1 not yet tested

I had wanted to include this in our last blog, (in the end we added it as an addendum) we repeat it here for those who haven’t seen it.

It has been difficult to write, not because of what happened but because to convey to you the reader the joy and love I feel is beyond my capabilities as a writer. I am still in awe of what happened, Kris and I still hold each other and pray in gratitude for His love, it is very emotional sometimes for us both. Anyway this is my testimony, written as best I can.

I lay dying. Because of delays and misdiagnoses I had arrived at the main hospital in Udaipur GBH American Hospital in a very poor state.

I had contracted two of the most dangerous strains of malaria you can get, this had been misdiagnosed as food poisoning by another doctor so for two days I just got worse until Kris my wife all but dragged me to the hospital with a friend Eric who came straight away in his car to help us. To be honest at that point I really didn’t care anymore.

We got to casualty and over the next little while things became more blurred for me, my major organs were in the process of shutting down, I had complete renal failure, my Liver was failing and my blood pressure was falling fast, I couldn’t breathe properly. I was supposed to go to intensive care but the doctors didn’t think they had time so right there in A&E they all got to work on me.

If you have read our blog (17) you will know the details of my time in hospital and the problems I came through to still be here.

That’s the practical side of this story, but for me there is so much more:

I had said my goodbyes to Kris and told her there was a letter for her on my laptop. I had said my last prayer to God looking back over my life at all my sins and all the evil I had done, I asked him to forgive me and that I was sorry for all my doubts and misgivings about him. Because yes my faith was solid but I still have thoughts that put doubts into my head, I read widely both for and in opposition to my faith, I believe we must never shy away from doubts but should prove them to be without foundation by research and prayer.

As I lay there I knew the end was near, a face came to me, not like a photograph more like an image seen in a poorly lit room, long dark hair, beard and the one thing that even now I marvel at, he had a large ‘Arab’ nose, I recognised Him on a level I can’t explain I KNOW it was Jesus, as I looked at Him he held me close in arms I couldn’t see,  the feeling of love and care for me was beyond my ability to describe, it flooded me, poured into me, words were inadequate and unnecessary.  I have likened it to being a small child lost in a mall, afraid and alone, and then their father sweeps them up and holds them close loving them, there were no words just the knowledge that He loves me, and I truly mattered to him, at that moment I consciously gave my soul into his care, I was I must stress fully aware of what was happening to me, it was more real than the world I was leaving.

From an outside view Kris says she has nursed people who have in the last moments seemed to go into a state of peace, she saw me do this and at that moment she knew she was losing me. She had no doubts, I was dying.

Jesus decided differently.

From that moment on I started to recover, after eight days I was allowed home, I am still very weak and have no stamina my kidneys are still in a delicate state and I am not allowed to ride but every morning I say thank you to God for this extra time he has given me. I don’t know if its days, weeks or years but I praise him and thank him every day for his love.

I now know His love in a way I never have before, I am a changed person, and things that used to stress me doesn’t matter anymore. When asked how we were going to pay the hospital bill both Kris and I simply say God will provide, in the meantime Mr Barclay has it to deal with!

I have tried to tell this as accurately as I can, I have not embellished or overstated any of it, it is simply the truth.

Praise God

Chris

Well that’s all for this month, May God bless you and keep you safe

Chris and Kris.