Gains in the Loss !

Letter-12

 

Dear Friends,

 

Greetings and good wishes as you move on to another week! We are still in a frozen mood as we think of disputes in the borders of Indo-China, Indo-Pakistan and Indo-Nepal. The COVID-19 pandemic is not showing any sign of control. People live fearfully and anxiously. The economic stress is now palpable. The political leadership is struggling to make sense of the situation. The Church leadership is not bringing us a prophetic word of comfort of hope. I have felt weary thinking about all them. 

 

As I walked in our garden, I watched a phenomenon which brought a revival to my soul. The following three pictures ore of trees, which suffered damage in the storm about six weeks back. The branches were broken off in the storm and I feared whether the trees would survive. 

 

Six weeks later, all the three trees have shown signs of revival.

 

The first two trees lost only a few branches. The third tree lost the upper portion of its main stem. There are multiple shoots springing from the broken stems in the first two trees and a copious colourful foliage in the third tree. The new shoots are many more than what the trees lost. The loss was large, but the gains are larger. 

 

Dr Ida Sophia Scudder lost her boyfriend when she decided to return to India, but she left behind a history of service, which is legendary even after 120 years. Drs. Raj and Mabelle Arole lost an opportunity to be in the faculty of public health in the John Hopkin’s University, when they declined the offer of Professor Carl Taylor. But on returning to India they left behind a legacy of community-based health care, which since then has revolutionised the primary health care in India. I am aware of 24 consultants who currently work in mission hospitals, who were invited to stay in CMC Vellore or Ludhiana after their post graduate training because of their clinical and leadership abilities to be in the faculty. They suffered that loss because they felt a call to be in a mission hospital. Those mission hospitals had a resurgence after these consultants came to live and work there. There are losses to reckon with, when we pursue the call of a larger gain for others. The gains born from losses have a Judo-Christian tradition. Jesus of Nazareth said, ‘…he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it’ (Mat 10:39).

 

After sighting the above scenes in the trees, I was returning after the morning walk in the garden, when I heard this red whiskered Bulbul singing! It was not perched on a safe palm leaf and it was threatening to rain. But it still sang its bird song lustily. 

I have a sense that there is a state of anxiety about how the mission hospitals would go through this transition period and remain relevant and pursue its vocation of service. Many things about our mission hospitals might be tentative and uncertain at the present time. I remember the words of prophet, ‘A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick, He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring justice’ (Isa 43:3). They are words of immense comfort and affirmation.

 

Most of us might experience some loss during this difficult time. But the trees returning to life with multiple new shoots and Bulbul singing loudly while perched in a damaged palm leaf, remind us of the ‘life abundant’ we too are promised to experience and witness to!

 

Anna and I send you our love and good wishes and remember you and your good work you do in your communities.

 

M.C.Mathew, 5.7.2020