VP and Joy were contemporaries at Christian Medical College, Vellore in the nineteen eighties during a period when there were many questions about the future of health care in rural areas.
Both of them were family friends from Bangalore and had a missionary sense springing from the experience of their parents.
The conversations between them centred on their response to opportunities in health care in the rural areas especially among the disadvantaged living nomadic life in the tribal belt of Orissa.
VP and Nirmala set out to respond to the needs of tribals community at Lamptaput and Joy and Grace joined them a few years later. Manoj and Manju were another couple from CMC Ludhiana to become partners in this mission.
The health care team consisting of few others focussed on reaching out into the community, particularly in providing hospital based care and community based health and development initiatives. One such activity was day care centres for children in preparing them for formal schooling. Recently children who were in the day care centre are now in higher education, including in medical and engineering colleges!
It is now 25 years since the beginning of Asha Kiran hospital at Lamptapit! Although VP and Joy are no more there the mission has become even more wholistic with a recent addition of a school for children from the local community!The present team of professionals who live and work at Lamptaput are people with intense devotion to their calling!
When Anna and I met with VP and Joy and their families during this Christmas season, there was a sense of celebration of their shared experiences of the last three decades!
Theirs was a significant missiological response to be incarnation !
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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