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UCC Conference Ministers and WCM Board Members Journey to India
December 20, 2011 The last two mission pilgrimages in observance of 200 years of mission are running simultaneously. One group is traveling in India and the other to Haiti and Colombia. These pilgrimages are for conference ministers and board members are partially funded by Wider Church Ministries and a foundation grant. The group of ten led by James Vijayakumar, area executive for Southern Asia, will visit with churches and partners. Tuesday, December 13, 2011: Peace Be the Journey
Joy Lacanienta
Monday, December 12, 2011 We started our day by having breakfast at James Hospital with Vijay’s brother Dr. James Premkumar (Prem) and his wife Dr. Senega. In the morning we visited Tsunami rehabilitation and housing
projects that were funded by Global Ministries and coordinated by Peace Trust
with the assistance of staff from James Hospital. James Hospital was the only We had lunch at James College of Education, then had a tour of the school. This college was established by Vijay’s family and named in honor of his mother. After a brief afternoon rest and a local shopping tour we
visited the HIV/Aids Unit at James Hospital.
During our visit we presented each of the 12 patients with a Christmas
present and In the evening we enjoyed an evening of dance presented by the students of James College of Engineering and Technology, James College of Education and James Hospital School of Nursing. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Prem, Rev. Vijay and the entire family for their commitment to the medical care and education of the people of their community. Mark McKerley
Sunday, December 11, 2011 We’re up at 5:30 am, to be greeted by a full breakfast spread at Peace Trust before heading for the bus that takes us to cars waiting at the Kanyakumari Diocese. From there we are ferried in small groups to four local churches for 8 am worship. Joy, Gary, Kim and John are each slated to preach. We are with Joy and are greeted by Pastor Prem who leads us to the parsonage for tea and preparations for worship. This is a busy season and he is preparing a group that will go caroling to the homes of each of the 100 families in the church. As we are talking, a smiling young man approaches with a package of papers. Pastor Prem prays over the package and then explains that the young man has just purchased a home and has brought invitations for members of the congregation to attend a house blessing. We leave our shoes at the door of the church and are escorted to the chancel. The interior looks decidedly European. Seating is on wooden benches with backs, each big enough for three people. There are four large chandeliers and ten tubular fluorescent lights along with two kerosene lamps, presumably for use in the event of a power outage, all suspended from the high ceiling. There are multiple microphones and other electronic equipment, including a small organ. The “windows” have only shutters, not glass, and are wide open, letting light shine on freshly painted walls and a marble floor. At about 10 to eight, two women begin singing, followed by a choir of upper elementary to teen age singers. Our pastor later tells us they are signaling the beginning of worship. A church bell rings for at least a minute and the church fills steadily, men on the left, women on the right. Worship begins with the first of many hymns, sung heartily with an easy rhythm, adjusting to breaks in the accompaniment when the power falters. Several of the hymns are familiar, including Jesus Love Me, although all the lyrics are in Tamil. There are a number of lengthy prayers offered from knees on marble. About the middle of the service, the pastor makes announcements; a happy birthday is sung; we are introduced and garlanded, and a church leader reads a committee report. Joy’s message is ably translated and well received. Following the service, we watch a little of the children’s Sunday School, are offered coconut milk to drink from the shell with straws and pose for a photo with all the children. We are invited back to the parsonage for tea and plump rice cakes with curry sauce served on banana leaves. Pastor Prem, who doesn’t eat with us, shares that he has an MA in English literature as well as two theological degrees. We share a little about our families, exchange contact information, and leave to rejoin our group. Back at the diocese, we hear that two groups visited congregations of 500-600 and the third group, john’s, was a gathering of about 900. The worship style and content sounds similar in each, and everyone reports a rich experience. We travel out of town for lunch at the six year old James College of Engineering, started by Vijay’s brother to help supplement the income of the James hospital. Representative groups of about 20 male and 20 female residential students greet us, all crisply dressed in navy blue uniforms, shirts and ties. The school is airy, spacious, and modern and the students are eager to interact, even briefly. They are studying information technology, computer sciences and electrical engineering. After a break at our hotel, we travel back to the Kanyakumari Diocese to meet the bishop, diocesan officers and the heads of several ministries. The bishop describes the broad ministries of the diocese supported by its approximately 500 congregations. These include ministries in schools, hospitals, women’s programs, vocational training and youth work. He points out that the diocese is about 50% Christian, including Church of South India (CSI), Salvation Army and Catholics. Asked about challenges facing the church here, he lifts up the violent and threatening actions of the fundamentalist Hindu party (BJP) against Christians, which create tensions in the wider community as well. Secondarily, he talks about litigation over church property ownership, a legacy of missionary times, as property being turned over to the churches here becomes contested by non-Christians. Other problems, such as unemployment, are real, but less critical in his mind. We have an animated conversation about the vocational possibilities for women clergy here. At this time, there is only one woman who serves a congregation. We talk about some of the challenges facing the UCC, our respective experiences with charismatic churches and our mutual Christian witness. From the diocese, we proceed to the James Hospital for dinner with Vijay’s brother Prem and his family. Lined up to greet us are at least 40 nursing students, half of the school’s enrollment. We are garlanded with flowers and ceremoniously sprinkled, sugared, wafted and sandalwood painted before walking through rows of red and white dressed students strewing us with flower petals while others clap rhythmically. Such a copious welcome leaves us feeling like royalty and thinking we have something to learn about hospitality at home. Prem and Senega invite us to the third floor of the hospital into their dining room. Prem responds to questions with more detail about the education projects he’s undertaken and descriptions of the harrowing medical and social situation they dealt with following the tsunami. Common Global Ministries was able to identify areas of the most acute need at the time because of local on the ground knowledge. We are charmed by their presence, engaged with their stories, and sated by a delicious meal. Randy & Karen Hyvonen Saturday, December 10, 2011 Today is our tenth day in India. The sounds, sights, smells of India which once seemed so strange and different now feel common and a part of us. Even though we have been here a while on this trip, each day continues to bring its own surprises, sense of adventure and amazing new learnings. Today is primarily a travel day and while we have made major travel within India via airline today we are driving 3.5 to Kanyakumari by road in a small passenger bus. Before we travel we make a visit to the Meenakshi Amman Temple, the largest Hindu temple in South India. The temple is enormous, housing shrines to many gods. The temple is filled with people many making a pilgrimage to the temple (those are easily identified by their bright orange garb). The temple is filled is vendors all throughout selling a wide variety of goods. The flow of crowded traffic in the temple resembles the flow of traffic on many crowded, busy Indian streets. What seems like mass chaos is somehow managed and people are able to get through and get where they need to be. Throughout the visit to the temple, I think of what it might be to be a Christian in India, a distinct minority religion that must live and work with other religions and faiths. Before dinner we went to the Kanyakumari beach. This was no ordinary visit to the beach. As we were informed that the Kanyakumari beach is "sacred ground," not only the convergence of three major bodies of water but is also the final resting place of Ghandi, his ashes placed in the ocean at Kanyakumari. A Ghandi shrine sits near the ocean. Getting there was a bit difficult as once again we had to find our way through throngs of Indian people with the same of idea of visiting the beach at the same time we visited the beach. Douglas Anders
Friday, December 9, 2011 Galatians 5: 14. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Wednesday, December 7, 2011 As I review copious notes and consider what to share in this blog, I am reminded of the day’s repacking of luggage for the next leg of our journey. It seems we are simultaneously packing, repacking, unpacking and repackaging our experiences as well. The packing of course, is the near overload of sights, sounds, smells and flavors around us. Our hotel in Chennai with terraced pools, high ceilinged lobby and palm trees stands directly across from a building with peeling paint, rubble filled sidewalk and street vendors of multiple goods and services. The bus takes us past a child washing from a basin on the sidewalk behind a young girl in crisp uniform sitting erectly on a motorcycle behind what must have been her father, on her way to school. We gaze out at street scenes of brightly painted shrines, golden statues of revered politicians adorned with garlands, clothes drying on fences, muraled walls, electric transfer stations beside thatched roofed homes, ditches clogged with refuse under flowering shrubs. Our first stop is the St Thomas Mount and Basilica, a monument to the doubting but devoted Thomas who came here in the early 50’s CE, only to be killed, according to tradition, by an angry Brahmin. The mount has a spectacular view of the city and is apparently a thorn in the side of one of the major political parties, a fundamentalist Hindu group that would like to take over this prize property owned by the Catholic diocese. Next is a visit to the Ewart Women’s Christian College, a school offering six different majors for post high school students. 320 students come from all faiths and income levels, but the school especially encourages those who are Christian “first generation learners.” We ask to unpack some of the reasons for this and learn some of the complexities of caste and politics. Although the Indian constitution requires a set percentages of higher education slots to be set aside for lower caste citizens, “Christians don’t have a caste system” and so don’t qualify for the set aside slots, or for the accompanying tuition subsidies. Of course the society does have a caste system, which disadvantages lower classes of any faith, and the Church of South India, our host partner , is lobbying the government to let Christians who are lower caste citizens be eligible for the set aside slots. In the meantime, the Ewart School tries to give as many disadvantaged girls as possible the education that will allow them to help themselves and their families improve their conditions. Our effusive welcome to the school is first a story high banner with the bishop’s picture and words of greeting. Inside the entry hall, we are greeted by enthusiastic applause, then sprinkled with rosewater, dabbed with aromatic sandalwood paste, offered crystals of sugar and red roses, then adorned with garlands before being invited to share tea with faculty members. We are invited to tour the residence underwritten by Global Ministries and dedicated in 2007. This structure allows 60 Christian students from the diocese the chance for a quality education. Although the girls live 4-6 in a small, very sparsely furnished room, they seem excited to show off their space. Following our tour, we share in worship. Sheldon delivers the message and she is clearly a highlight for the young women, whose church has no women bishops. They are also delighted by Joy’s presence. She is wearing local dress, and since she comes originally from the Philippines, is a visible reminder that we are all connected. Worship is followed by a presentation of dance and song by students. Another school for children and teens with disabilities has come to share an enthusiastic dance routine. Their teacher has worked with them for two years as a volunteer and their principal gives an impassioned description of the challenges some disabled children face in their society and her hopes to provide them with life and vocational skills as adults. After a brief rest at the hotel, we head out to see St George’s Cathedral, an edifice that speaks to the origins of one strand of present day Church of South India. It is a beautiful, light, spacious, thoroughly European style church whose columns are covered with tributes in English to dead British members, mostly men and seemingly mostly military. It is situated on the campus of the diocesan headquarters and is being prepared for a local wedding, which we catch glimpses of during our afternoon/evening visit. We enter a meeting hall adorned with Christmas decorations and another huge banner. The bishop, who has been scheduled to meet with us, has been delayed and so we are introduced to leaders who will share power point reports of activities and projects of the Madras Diocese, our host partner today. I am repacking as I write, to condense expansive details from people anxious to share the depth and breadth of their respective passions. We learn of the extensive activities for women (bible studies, fellowship, preschools and counseling centers). The diocese’s 5 hospitals employ 83 doctors and 284 nurses. Still, they are in dire need of specialists, especially in rural areas, and are working hard to upgrade their facilities to offer quality. The director of hostels (residential facilities) describes programs that touch nearly 2000 children, including a wide variety of camps. The head of the board for mission and evangelism is particularly happy to share the numbers of those he and a team of 120 missionaries have brought to baptism over the past few years, averaging about 5000 per year, and creating the need for new land purchases to create worship spaces and for programs to “address the needs of new believers.” Faculty members have prepared a meal for us, and hover over multiple tables set for two, making sure that we are well fed. Since a couple of our group have developed sensitive travelers’ stomachs, the rest of us do our best to eat heartily. The bishop arrives at the end of the meal and we accompany him to his spacious office. On the way, several of us are surprised at a 3 year old diocesan public display of the story of the life of Jesus in pictures, all depicted through very light skinned, European figures. We wonder if the display could benefit from repackaging. Bishop Devasahayam shares a brief history of the Church of South India (CSI) and the church’s efforts to represent all its contributing strands in its polity: He emphasizes the significance of education for improving the lives of people, especially those from the lowest castes, who were once “untouchables” and who are the largest percentage of church members. For those students to be able to attend school, they must often live away from home, and thus the bishop, who himself was a “first generation learner,” considers hostels (student residences) an important and necessary commitment of the church. He lifts up Global Ministries’ assistance in providing capital for that work, and his hopes for adding a second floor to the Ewart College hostel. Our return to the hotel is subdued, as we try to digest the day’s rich content, find spaces for new information and prepare to reassess and repack yet again. Randy & Karen Hyvonen
Tuesday morning, and I wake smiling, remembering the fun of the previous night. We had dinner at the home of Drs. Anil and Teresa Henry. Some of the hospital and school staff were there and we enjoyed getting to know them a little better. Anil’s parents, Dr. VK Henry and Nancy Henry, were also there. (Nancy served for many years as a missionary in India and lives here still.) To begin the evening we previewed a documentary about the Christian Hospital at Mungeli. The film is in the process of being edited. As dinner was served, we discovered that there was entertainment! Dr. Anil has a karaoke machine…yes, a karaoke machine! He had fun entertaining us with a few songs, then invited us to join in. Our repertoire ran the gamut from Frank Sinatra to John Lennon to the Village People! I think we all enjoyed it, and were especially glad to know that the man who seems to work 24/7 can take a few moments to be silly! It was memorable. And unexpected. And a whole lot of fun. We leave Mungeli at 6:30 AM for the two hour drive to the airport in Raipur. We are traveling to Chennai, leaving the Church of North India for the Church of South India. It is difficult to take our leave, as we have all been so profoundly moved by what we have experienced at Mungeli and Tilda. Anil has brought breakfast for us: what might be described as a breakfast burrito (a fried egg wrapped in a flat bread, then wrapped in newspaper to keep it warm. We gobble those down and what seems like only moments later we stop and a young man boards the bus long enough to hand us two bags of food! Samosas (deep fried pockets of chickpeas, potatoes and spices), fire-roasted chili peppers and jalebis (deep fried fermented sweet dough) Oh my! We are satiated! At the airport we share prayer and bid farewell to Anil and others who traveled to the airport with us. We are fairly quiet on the three hour flight – sleeping, catching up on journals, or simply reflecting on the days at the Mission Stations. But we are wide awake as the plane lands ready to meet more partners. We are greeted at Chennai by three clergy from the Madras Diocese of the Church of South India: The Rev. Sampath Dows, former general secretary, (who attended General Synod 27 in Grand Rapids in 2009); The Rev. Reuben Jayakumar, the Ecumenical Officer; and the Rev. Rajan Davakumar, a local pastor. The bishop has been called away unexpectedly but we hope to meet him before we leave. The men present us with gorgeous shawls, a gesture of welcome to friends. The fabric and colors are stunning and we admire the variety of colors shimmering in the sun. It is hotter here and more humid than in the north, but the air quality seems a bit better. At this point two of our group – Sheldon and Douglas – leave for Family Village Farm where they will meet several children who are sponsored through churches in their conferences under the UCC Child Sponsorship Program. The rest of us board the bus for our first encounter with Chennai, a city of some 10 million people – that is nearly nine New Hampshires! The Church of South India was founded in 1947, the merger of four denominations – Methodist, Anglican, Presbyterian and Congregational. There are now 22 dioceses, 21 in India and one in Sri Lanka. The church has a strong commitment to the Dalit people, India’s so-called “untouchables”, and we look forward to learning more about the many ways the church lives out “God’s preferential option for the poor”. In fact, the bishop of the Madras Diocese, the Rt. Rev. Dr. V. Devasahayam, is Dalit. After we have had a brief rest at the GRT Hotel we set off for San Thome (St. Thomas) Basilica, the site where the body of the apostle Thomas was entombed…the remains were moved several times, and now rest in Ortona, a small town on the Adriatic coast of Italy. Thomas came to India in 52 AD and was martyred here in 72AD, stabbed in the back while on his knees in prayer. There is a myth that holds that when Thomas was killed, a cross (I’m not sure where the cross was…) began to bleed. Soon people were drawn to that cross, convinced of its healing powers. It is said that many were healed of various infirmities after praying beneath that cross. Our journey from the cathedral takes us by a beach which we are told is the second longest continuous beach in the world. It is dark by now, so we can’t see the water, but there sure is a long stretch of sand! We are told that it is the major recreational area in Chennai, and there is plenty of activity at this hour. There are vendor carts everywhere – a number of which boast that they sell American Sweet Corn!!! We make a brief stop at a handicrafts center to purchase gifts to bring home: scarves and tunics and other souvenirs. Then we head back to the hotel for dinner and sleep. It has been a long day of traveling and we have a full day tomorrow, when our incredible journey will continue. Kim McKerley
Monday, December 5, 2011
Our day begins early as we gather in the lobby of Park Hotel in Delhi. Today we fly from Delhi to Raipur. Our Sunday worship is with the Bishrampur Church, a congregation of the Church of North India. The service begins at 10:00 AM. The Delhi airport proves to be both challenging and complicated for us. Longer than expected check-in lines and a traveler with pocket knives in his luggage (not one of us!) create significant delays and no small amount of panic in our group. Our progress is slowed, but the sprint through the airport to our gate gets us there on time. Breathlessly, we take our seats on the jet bound, eventually, for Raipur. We are greeted at the Raipur airport by Dr. Anil Henry, one of our medical missionaries, and several members of his staff. Dr. Henry brings food for breakfast and a school bus for our transportation. It is one and a half hours by bus to the church. When we finally arrive at the Bishrampur Church it is 11:30 AM. The congregation has been worshipping already for two hours. The bishop of the diocese greets us in the yard. We enter just in time to receive Communion and the benediction. The Communion liturgy is spoken in Hindi, the language of the region, but we know the form well and heard God speak, inviting us to communion with Christ and with all our brothers and sisters. There is truly one table that unites us! The Bishrampur Church was the first built in this region. Our early American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions missionaries established the congregation in 1870. On the walls on either side of the recently-renovated sanctuary are the names and terms of service of the many missionaries who served the congregation. Among those names, I discover Whitcomb and Baur, UCC family names that hold special significance to me. I feel surrounded by the saints, walking in their footsteps and standing on their shoulders. The congregation greets us warmly. The Rev. Douglas Anders, Conference Minister of the South Central Conference, is invited to preach. He speaks of churches that are not locked up in their past, keeping people out. He challenges us to be churches that are open to the future and to all. In the afternoon, we are guests at the Diocese’s Youth Rally on an island near Bishrampur. Four hundred thirteen (413) youth and young adults are assembled, arriving from 21 of the 35 churches in the diocese. Our group teaches several verses of “I Woke up This Morning with My Mind, Stayed on Jesus.” Ariel Royer, the youngest member of our delegation, offers a testimony to the gathering. Ariel reminds us that we are all one—no matter where we are from—and she challenges us to listen to and to love one another as Christ has taught us to do. I find especially inspiring the musical talent provided by groups afterward. It is a friendly competition complete with trophies. Since there is no electricity on the island, a gas-powered generator stands available to continue the rally after dark, until the gas runs out. As the sun sets, our bus leaves for Mungeli. It has been a long, rich day. Our missionaries, Anil and Theresa Henry and their staff provide a bountiful supper and gracious lodging in their guest house. We are truly blessed by the generosity of these missionaries and by the wonderful ministry of the Rev. Dr. James Vijayakumar, whose faithfulness is a sign of the covenantal connection we share. Blessed! The Rev. Gary M. Schulte, Conference Minister
“Journey To Love” Today we travel to visit the Taj Mahal, one of the best known tourist meccas in India. This eloquent monument to love is located in the city of Agra, about a three hour drive from our hotel in Delhi. We board the tour bus at 6 am in order to beat the traffic both in Delhi, and on the road to Agra, which is teaming with tour busses and private transport vehicles, all on the journey to Agra. Delhi at this hour is far less congested than yesterday afternoon. Street lights glow in the early pre-dawn haze. We settle in on the tour bus to enjoy the coming of this new day and all it hold for us as pilgrims. Gradually the vastness and complexity of Delhi merges into outlying communities, then villages and farmlands. We begin to see a more rural side of Northern India: open air markets, vibrant with fruit stands and push carts displaying mounds of bananas or oranges or limes. (They may be the home of “specialization.”) The highway is lined with small canvas-covered stalls selling fabrics, shoes, bags, religious images, home supplies, and shops, some offering cascades of fresh vegetables, others sell sacks of rice, all sorts of grains, seeds and spices. Then there are the “fast foods” prepared by men working over hot fires: deep frying breads, roasting grains, stir-frying vegetables, cooking rice. We see peanuts piled high on flat-bed carts harnessed to small horses. The villages are interspersed with small farms growing mainly rice and a few vegetable crops. All of this is seen in passing as we motor toward Agra, caught up in a challenge of the tour busses vying for the distinction of arriving at Agra ahead of the one behind them. People in the villages along this highway appear to live their lives mainly outside, trading, visiting, bathing, tending laundry, walking with loads on their heads. Their “outdoor patio” includes cows lying around wherever they choose even on the highway median, and dogs of various colors but mostly all the same size, that seem part of the landscape rather than related to any human. And then there are children, beautiful in their crisp school uniforms, striding purposefully in a direction that must be to school at this early hour. They seem such a contrast to the basic agrarian life that frames their journeys. Our heads spin trying to make sense of life lived in such diversity, and so completely different from the overt orderly routine of our culture. The traffic here is fantastic! Anything that can be put on wheels (motorcycles, cars, busses, trucks, automatic rickshaws, bicycles, bicycle rickshaws) moves along in constant ebb, and flow, intermingling with hooved creatures (small horses, cows, camels) drawing flatbed carts, 2-wheel containers, huge loads of indeterminate “stuff”, rickshaws overflowing with riders. The pressing, flexing, constantly moving flow of traffic is punctuated by insistent tooting, beeping, and honking, which is a generally understood as a request of the vehicle ahead to “please give way so we can pass,” and sometimes offered as a more dire warning. There is no road rage in all this tangle of movement We are heady with adrenaline by the time our bus slows to a grinding crawl not half way to Agra, far outside of a city that we learn is celebrating a local festival of their Hindu temple. When we finally inch into the main part of town an hour later we see streets swarming with men carrying flags, women clad is saris of brilliant emerald colors swirling around them, children and animals everywhere, and stalls selling everything imaginable. We spend at least another hour leaking slowly through the throngs of celebrants and hundreds of others just “doing” life along with four to six lanes (depending on who wanted to pass whom) of all the aforementioned ways of traveling and transporting. It feels as though we’ve been drawn into a movie. The cacophonous sounds, the constant movement, the swirl of brilliant colors, people everywhere!…a visit to the Taj Mahal should be nothing less than the exhilarating experience of humanity converging on this great monument human LOVE. Seven hours after we set out for this royal destination we finally arrive. Our guide for the tour leads us through 100 yards of stalls, shops and free-lance sales artists urging us to buy their trinkets. He walks us to the outer courtyard outlining the history of such powerful love, describing in infinite detail the columns and turrets, the carvings and stone, and then, finally invites us to walk through the great West Gate that leads out to a breathtaking view of the Taj Mahal, sparkling in the afternoon sun, welcoming thousands of visitors, described by the king who built it as his paradise on earth. It is so utterly beautiful that there is no adequate comparison. There are no words, except from The Poet, to capture its essence. Perhaps it is enough to say that the Journey to Love, embroidered with stark contrasts between the human struggle to survive daily and the rarified world of those few whose journey is easier, remains the Way that all of us travel throughout our days. Amen and blessed be, Sheldon
Culver Friday, December 2, 2011 Breakfast at the Park Hotel marked our introduction to the delights of India. We are in a place where a wealth of flavors snap our tongues into their context. Finding our way onto the bus, we merge into honking horns, auto-rickshaws and our big bus. The last two mission pilgrimages in observance of 200 years of mission are running simultaneously. One group is traveling in India and the other to Haiti and Colombia. These pilgrimages are for conference ministers and board members are partially funded by Wider Church Ministries and a foundation grant. The group of ten led by James Vijayakumar, area executive for Southern Asia, will visit with churches and partners.
From left to right: James Vijayakumar, Gary Schulte, Ariel Royer, Douglas Anders, Joyce Bathke, John Vertigan, Mark and Kimberley McKerley, Roddy Dunkerson, Karen and Randall Hyvonen, Sheldon Culver. Not pictured: Joy Lacanienta. |
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local hospital to
remain open at the start of this tragedy, treating more than 16,000
victims. Funds from Global Ministries provided
relief for families of this fishing community including the replacement of
boats, nets and other essential fishing equipment, tools for rope makers in the
second tier of destruction and construction of approximately 90 houses in three
communities. While other relief agencies
responded only to the fisher folk on the immediate coastline, Peace Trust,
James Hospital and other 
community leaders chose to assist all those in
need. 
sang and prayed with them. 
Tuesday, December 6,
2011
Like other days on our trip thus far, Monday brought us to places of both lifting inspiration & heavy sadness. The feelings were even more acute yesterday because of our agenda: we visited two vibrant & pragmatic hospital communities in rural parts of Chhattisgarh, India.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Saturday, December 3, 2011
