Letter to Mission Hospitals

Letter- 8

Dear Friends, 

Greetings and regards, as you now move on, to readjust to the phase of life in the community you serve, following the lifting of most of the ‘locked down’ restrictions. 

I am grateful to those who wrote back and got in touch, following the last letter. Anna and I have made it a practice to remember friends in the mission hospitals on Sundays. This letter series is an attempt on our part to share some reflections using the sights and scenes in our garden. 

It was raining in the morning today. During the brief dry spell, I went to the corner in our garden, where the Moss Rose flowers were blooming. The sight of a honeybee arriving for nectar in the picture above, captured my attention. In between the showers, the honeybees came to find its feed. It dawned on me then, that it is an apt symbol of the mission hospitals.  Where else can people go in difficult times, except to a Mission hospital, where hospitality awaits them! 

I was encouraged to hear from a Christian hospital that its lead doctor is the consultant helping the local Medical College to run the COVID treatment service. Most of you are the moral and emotional strength to your counterparts in the other hospitals who feel stretched by the increase in the number of COVID 19 patients. Each mission hospital is like this flower, giving itself freely and abundantly to those who seek its help.  

Let me also share with you another bunch of flowers from our garden of Pink Rain Lily, to remind us of a message from the fragile flowers. These flowers have a lifetime of about seven days before they wither away. During that time, they open and close each day, no matter how harsh the weather might be. Even after a heavy down pour, they look fresh and agile! It looks like they are designed for hard times.

I have a sense that mission hospitals have such an ethos and culture. Most of the hospitals have withstood many trials and testing times. It is because of those who work there with a sense of calling and God who causes the “sun to shine during the day and the moon during the night”!

Dr R.S.Arole, who transformed the rural health care in India by demonstrating how, women village health workers can change the  health indices of rural India, said to me in an interview in 1985 that, ‘Mission hospitals brought health to rural India. Now it was time to bring education, better livelihood prospects and improved agriculture practice’. He saw mission hospitals as the lifeline for the rural community. His words were prophetic. Most of the mission hospitals have diversified to address the issues which bleed the rural population!

Anna and I think of you and send you our love and regards while you innovate to turn the challenges into opportunities! 

M.C.Mathew. 7, June 2020