Merry Christmas to all

Christmas is the time when God communicated with man on man’s terms. He came as a baby. Our new baby underscores this lesson as we interact with him daily. God did not Twitter at us, nor did he post a Facebook post. He came to be with us. Emmanuel. Only those whose hearts were open to the baby saw Him for who He was. The rest of Bethlehem slept through the first Christmas. For as many as received Him, the Bible says, received what He came to give.

Wishing you all a blessed christmas, full of all that he came to us for.

Thoughts from Oswald Chambers

Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God is not after perfecting me to be a specimen in His showroom. He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He likes.

The abandonment of intent releases us from the captivity of productivity. Our lives are often measured by productivity. A lack of productivity is looked down upon. God is not really after productivity. That is a by product of character. He is after our character. Hence the forge, the fire, and the rod and staff. May His blows land well.

Thoughts

"My thoughts are not your thoughts". Isaiah the prophet speaks succint words on God's behalf to a world that did not pay heed, Despite a thousand years of the earth spinning on its axis, these words still dispel into the ether today, hardly heeded. (Isaiah 55:8).

Thoughts are the demonstration of the soul, the vignette of actions yet to be completed. We pay so much attention to our clothes, our job, our families, our bank balance. How much attention do we really pay to our thoughts.

The danger of not heeding Isaiah's warning is evidenced starkly in lives and stories of institutions gone awry, where a step sideways embarks them on a course that eventually heads tangentially away from a founding principle. Leaving them stranded on a desert island with no alternative recourse and wondering quizically how they got there in the first place. Like a set of rail tracks these thoughts carry our lives forward. All our industry remorselessly drives us headlong into the mist of our unclear destinations, unless we examine our thoughts.

All our sophistication and intelligent developement deludes us that thoughts originate in our minds. Jesus had raised a query when he asked the scribes and the Pharisees, the intelligentsia of that generation, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?" (Math 9:4). He was uncovering the key to the crucible of our mind, our heart attitude. In a way, our thoughts are a helpless mare, led by the bit and bridle of our attitudes, which actually originate from our heart condition. Guard your heart above all things, is another injunction that often falls by the wayside unheeded.

What do we do with all these injunctions. The key to all these was summed up by a very wise king, Solomon, who wrote that the the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In all our accounting, planning, deliberating, dreaming and industry, let us seek hard after our giver of Life, the Lord, our God. This is our only compass, lodestar of a charted course that has any guarantee of avoiding shipwreck, sailing between the Scylla and Charibdis of good intention and horrific disaster.

Mission Masala Library starts in Manali

Mission Masala library was inaugurated today by Ms Beulah, Principal of Daystar School, opening about four thousand books to the people of manali, making them available to borrow and read at leisure. This is thanks to Masala Ministries from Canada and Pastor Raj Sandhu and his team who donated these books to us. Thanks guys, for putting books in the hands of people half a world away.

Memorial service for Ms. Champa Rani

There was a memorial service for Ms. Champa Rani on the 31st of March 2011. Family was in attendance. It was a moving and emotional time for all. Champa was dearly loved and an exemplary person in all aspects of her life. The hospital will initiate an award in her memory called the Champa Rani memorial award for the ideal employee, so her memory is perpetuated for the person that she was. A fund will also be started to educate a girl every year in her memory.

Thanks for the equipement

A couple from Chennai brought their eleventh month girl child cyanosed. The child had been unwell for a few days and had not been feeding. They spoon fed her horlicks after which she became very sick. She had aspirated and was brought with severe respiratory distress. She had a background bilateral pneumonia. Initial improvement led to later deterioration and she had a respiratory arrest from which she was resuscitated and then ventilated. She was later transferred to CMC Ludhiana via our ventilated ambulance. This was a working run of all our recently donated equipment saving this girls life. Thanks all of you who played a part in this! The child is getting better now, from what we hear.

Vacations

Just back after a break for three weeks. This was welcome and refreshing. There has been quite a bit of snow this year and it is still cold. Hospital attendance has dropped, for which we are grateful! Look forward to more regular posts.