Beautiful India

(This was my first missionary trip to India...I should have shared this with you all sooner. I am planning on serving again very soon)

10/26/2011

A Short Walk

Dateline October 19, 2011
Cheebo
LaKishia D. McCain

One of my favorite scriptures is Jeremiah 22:16.  It simply says this:

“He defended the cause of the poor and needy,  and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the LORD”.  My entire outlook of traveling thousands of miles away from my family, friends and comfort of my own home has always been reassured by this scripture.  The Lord had brought us safely to India, pass the “Customs situation” and now we were finally on our way to our first village, Cheebo.

According to our itinerary, Cheebo was only a three mile drive away from Kalimpong.  Now, for most Americans three miles is a very short trip yet, I found out very quickly that three miles of driving on any road in India is more like taking a “joy ride” on a roller coaster while playing a game of “chicken”.  My Uncle Byron and fellow team member, Andy laughed at my nervous response to the constant swerving, loud horns, sudden stops and spontaneous lane changes.  To be honest, there are no lanes in India. The drivers blow their horns to signal or warn  that they are going to pass the other car and go for it.  The fact that most of the roads are either “washed out” from the previous Monsoon season or what many Americans would classify as a one lane road, has nothing to do with speed.  The vehicles are so close that it is quite possible to touch the passing cars.  After looking out the window and discovering just how high up we really were, I decided to try to force myself to go to sleep.  The view of the long descent down and missing guard rails was more than I could take at the moment.  I closed my eyes and prayed that we would arrive at Cheebo very soon.

We were told that the jeeps would not be able to make it up the hills that led into Cheebo.  This meant that we would have to take a “short walk” into the village.  As   I mentioned before, nothing is what it seems to be in India.  So, I braced myself for the short walk.  For brevity, the “short walk” included walking up and down washed out terrain.  I guess something was really funny because many people were laughing.  Our friend and translator, Anup asked me if he should carry me along with the luggage.  I had to remind myself of the scripture to keep from crying. 

The friendly people of Cheebo, greeted us with hot tea and warm smiles.   There were two Indian doctors who were working with us for the day.  Everyone was eager to set up our “make shift” medical facility.  The villagers had cleaned out a three room building for us.  They covered the outside area so that we could work in  the under the shade. Anu, Pastor Nandu’s wife and I were assigned to Wound Care and quickly began to unpack and set up the area. I was really surprised that there were not a lot of people who needed to have their wounds treated.  In retrospect of our entire time here, I have seen more cases of scabies, possible MRSA, psoriasis, and other types of dermal fungal infections.   
 
Mike and Byron were assigned to Triage.  Andy made sure the children were kept happy by offering them candy and balloons while Sarah and Charles “floated”.  One of the Indian doctors evaluated and the other worked in the Pharmacy.

Half way through our day the villagers offered the doctors and team a hot meal.  As, I said before....nothing is simple in India.  Anu had showed me where and how the meals are prepared.  No electricity was used to cook the meal.  The chicken, rice and potatoes were all cooked by fire.

Despite the rough time that I had walking up to Cheebo, I felt really honored to be able to take part in this mission.  In comparison to other medical teams, we are a very small team of  only six people.  But, somehow the Master Physician has handpicked each one of us and given us orders. Unsure and honestly a bit scared of the walk back, the unsteady roads we had to drive, I was determined to follow His orders. We were able to assess 68 people in Cheebo all in the name of God’s love and grace!   We had three more  villages to go! As we drove back to our home, I closed my eyes and smiled for a few seconds because... “all went well”. 

Never forget Palm Sunday Tears

A few years ago on Palm Sunday, our Pastor preached a message entitled, “Palm Sunday Tears.” Based on Luke 19:41 (New International Version) 41As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it. The sermon basically described the sorrow that Jesus felt over the city. This year's sermon was great but I will never forget, "Palm Sunday Tears". It is one of my favorite sermons because of a few reasons. One, it shows us that our Savior, Jesus Christ was human enough to shed tears. He had emotions. He saw something that troubled him and it moved him to tears. We all know that it takes a lot for a man to cry, so I am confident that my Lord was really disturbed by what he saw. Two, Jesus wept over the city because He saw not only something physically that troubled Him but, also he saw something spiritually disturbing. You don't have to be a believer to realize that something is going wrong in this world.
Just being a human being qualifies you. Its not about any religion or faith. It's about people helping other people. I am quite tired of rules and regulations that stop us from helping other people. (race, religion, gender, where you come from, what school you attended! blah blah blah who cares?!)
It is thought that more than one million people are living with HIV in the USA and that more than half a million have died after developing AIDS.
The divorce rate has been climbing in every industrialized country in the world.
According to UN's statistics, 141 million people all over the world take marijuana. This number is equal to 2,5 percent of people living in the world.
The statistics shows that 22-25 million people have already taken cocaine at least one time.
Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for 15- to 24-year-olds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), surpassed only by accidents and homicide
Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.00 a day.
29,000 children die per day because they have no safe water to drink, lack of medical services, and poverty.
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. Just too name of few.
“But if we are the body
Why aren’t His arms reaching?
Why aren’t His hands healing?
Why aren’t His Words teaching?”

Who in the world cares?
Most of us are guilty of this often overlooked crime towards humanity. I first realized that I was guilty after a drive down Albemarle Road one hot, muggy day in June 2007. I was running late. The a/c system in my vehicle had just gone out. According to the announcer on the radio, the temperature had just reached 101◦. As sweat raced down my face, I pulled up to the stop light. My kids were complaining about the heat, and why we had just passed McDonalds and Pizza Hut. As I glanced over to my left, I noticed a frail old man with a cardboard sign in his hand. “Oh no”, I thought. Although, it was hot, my first impulse was to quickly roll up my windows. I put my hand on the window control, as he started to approach me. “I don’t have anything,” I began to yell, trying to discourage him from coming any closer. “Mommy, we have money,” my daughter argued. “Can he go to McDonalds with us?” she innocently asked. “I feel sorry for him,” she concluded. “Yeah, I do to,” I said, as I drove off.
As I arrived home I began to think about the old man. We quickly entered the comfortableness of our nice cool house. I wondered if the man was still holding the sign in the 101 degree heat. Then my mind shifted, I began to think about my daughters. What life lessons had I just taught them with my reactions to this man? We all have witnessed some form of hunger, homelessness, violence, and war, either in our personal lives or through the media. These images have affected our way of thinking in many ways. As a result, we sometimes feel sympathy for the person but, fewer times are we empathetic. Empathy beckons us to move, or change. Empathy allows us to feel so deeply towards a person or a situation that we must do something.
There is a difference between sympathy and empathy. The definition of empathy is a total feeling of concern and understanding for another’s situation or feelings. Empathy means to literally “put yourself into someone else’s shoes.” The definition of sympathy is the sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish) There are many different situations that compel us to say, “I feel sorry for that person.” However, empathy compels us to take action. One may argue, that empathy has no place in this “Personal Success” driven world, (Rieke, Sillars p.117) However, we have to realize that our world is a society that relies on interrelatedness. Contrary to that opinion, we should in some form, or way be able to help someone else. Perhaps, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best:
“Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”
(Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963.)

The media has played detrimentally significant role in our empathy towards those in need. Its called -"DESENSITIZATION". Its when you are shown certain images over and over again that it desensitizes your emotions. Unfortunately, misfortune and violence has been aired out so much on television, that some of have become desensitized. We have become well acquainted and comfortable with seeing images of malnourished children staring at the lens, while flies swarm about their little mouths. On any given day, you can turn on the TV. and watch a homicide being reenacted. Some magazines focus more on the shade of lipstick than medicine for the poor. The change must begin within each individual.

Proverbs 31:8 8 "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. 9 Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."

Is prevention better than cure?

"Kishia, prevention is better than cure," is what my close friend would say to me anytime she felt I was doing something wrong. The confused expression on my face compelled her to explain .( I had never heard that one before) "It simply means that its better to prevent an accident or illness than to search for a cure," she said. "My mother used to tell us this as children, " she laughed. Makes sense to me, I thought. Little did the two of us know that her mother was on to something even back then.
As my classes get harder, and I get closer to my degree, my desire to pursue a career that will allow me to work towards humanitarian efforts are constantly brewing within me. I've been working with a few organizations here in the city for a while now. Prayerfully, in 2009 I will officially launch my own NPO which will focus on: child poverty. Which brings my reason for writing. As I continue to narrow down the details of the mission statement I am faced with the decision of selecting which direction to focus on: Prevention or Cure?
Worldwide,
2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized
15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom)
Shelter, safe water and health
For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:
640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)
400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)
270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
Is prevention better than cure? Should we focus preventable diseases? Or should we concentrate our efforts towards finding ways to educate people?
The poorest of the poor, around the world, have the worst health. Those at the bottom of the distribution of global and national wealth, those marginalized and excluded within countries, and countries themselves disadvantaged by historical exploitation and persistent inequity in global institutions of power and policy-making present an urgent moral and practical focus for action.
But what action? Prevention or Cure?

"Give me a fish and I'll eat for a day, teach me to fish and I'll eat for a lifetime."
--Chinese Proverb