In sickness, in health
Or as another song about opposition puts it, “you’ve got to be sick to be grateful for your health!”
I think once or twice, maybe, is quite enough. I am continually grateful for the general good health I enjoy, and Taunya too. We express gratitude in our prayers every day for that great blessing.
So not since a mild bout with COVID during the first week of our mission has good health gone missing. As a probable side effect of the shot I got last week, though no doubt exacerbated by my overindulgence in Indian food Tuesday night, the next day I started experiencing some stomach and intestinal distress, which laid me low and sapped all my energy. It happened more mildly to Sister Baird, but thankfully not to Taunya or Elder Baird.
Well, there’s physical sickness, but then there’s heart sickness which in many ways is harder to bear.
In poverty’s vale
After getting enough rest Wednesday and Thursday to feel up to going out, I rejoined the ranks of humanity and our little band of humanitarians.
Early Friday morning we went to an appointment that was set up by a woman who used to work for an orphanage that Josh and Jawan are working with. She now consults with NGOs and through her we met the founder/leader of an impressive NGO that is operating in 19 states throughout India and has been around for 28 years. We had a conversation at this gentleman’s office, which Josh gave me the opportunity to lead (but very graciously stepped in when I was getting tongue-tied or off track — practically guaranteed by my not feeling 100%)!
We talked about what they do, and what we and they could collaborate on to further help the poor and needy. They provide shelters and food for the homeless, educational and vocational training, and medicine and other medical help. The founder and a couple of his staff took the consultant and us to visit some of their homeless shelters, so we could see firsthand what they are like.
The first two were surprising enough, located adjacently in a somewhat isolated setting. These are not permanent, but portable structures, on government-owned land, barely adequate for their purpose. Then they took us to a similar shelter but in a vastly different setting.
Words fail to describe what we saw while walking to this one. Frankly I’m still trying to process it. “Heartbreaking” doesn’t begin to capture our feelings. This shelter is in the middle of a shanty town — for those who don’t even have a shanty, or a family. There are 2,000 men, women and children, desperately poor, without proper water or toilets, with so little food and shelter, living in squalor worse than anything Josh and Jawan have seen in their 5.5 months here. We were told these were migrants who came to New Delhi seeking employment, and the opportunity for a better life. So much need and want!
Taunya said she was amazed to see how the little kids were happily playing with sticks or whatever, who as we passed would flash their smiles, some big, some shy, some curious. A goat wearing a sweater caught her eye, but was unconcerned about being watched.
Then there was the small boy who came to the shelter door seeking a handout, and was so polite and patient as some of the leftovers from feeding the shelter residents were scooped onto his plate. He likely was there on behalf of his family, and what he was given might have been his family’s entire food supply for that day.
Or abounding in wealth
“You’ve got to need money to appreciate wealth.”
We are so blessed! Here I just want to plug the opportunity you have to generously donate some of your abundance to the cause. That line on the donation slip labeled Humanitarian Aid is calling you! 100% of your donations go to help lift and bless the poor and needy.
At home or abroad, on the land or the sea
“You’ve got to have some problems to rise above, you’ve got to be lonely so that you can know love.”
Halfway around the world is as abroad as we can be. We feel the love and support of all of you at home, and of course the love and care of Heavenly Father and Jesus. We are grateful to you all. Thank you so much for your prayers and good wishes as we grapple with the enormity of our tasks, for which we feel so inadequate.
As thy days may demand so thy succor shall be
“It’s called opposition […] A necessary condition in this world of ours.”
We know that the Lord, our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ, will be our perfect succor, as long and as far as our days may demand. We are humbled at the blessing it is to follow Him, in trying to do some good in the world, to lift lives through work and effort and collaboration with other disciples of Christ, whose passion for their mission is so evident. These native Indians have the long view and game plan, and will be around long after we go home. It is a privilege and blessing to help in our small way while we can.
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