Welkom

It's never been about visiting a western country but more about meeting friends who wholeheartedly welcome me into their homes . 

Strange enough, my phone usage drops to an all time low when I am in The Netherlands. The open conversations revolve around life, faith and our well being. It moves me to visit friends and even the elderly in their 80's over a cup of coffee and conversations over dinner.

There is always something to learn during my visit - whether it is Arjen who taught me that he was supposed to be cleaning the toilets on saturday's in his mom's home since he was staying there (as his own home was under renovation) or his wife who took all the clothes from the washing machine  (including mine) and kept them neatly folded  in front of each room. Their 2+ year old son taught me on the very first day of my visit last year, that I should keep my message notification very low (mama - deze meneer heeft zijn telefoon hard op gezet) translated as this "This gentleman has kept his phone on high volume". It was a gentle reminder that I need to adapt to respect privacy, walk gently, smile and say hello to passersby.

The conversations generally revolve around practical life, struggles and how we cope up. There are friends who have had health issues over the years and it's a blessing to see them face life positively despite their limitations. Gert, for instance has been on a wheelchair for the past 8 years and his wife has been an tremendous support for him. It was a blessing to witness his emotional 25 year anniversary speech where he burst into tears and credited his wife for being his strength.

It's the small details of discomfort in cultural norms which I elaborate for them to understand which they find fascinating along with the arranged marriage, the joint family structure or our culinary food habits.

Relationships blossom over a period of time and deepen rust. The friendships are held very dear and never taken for granted. I find it difficult to keep in touch with friends in Netherlands since I am busy at work, my different abled project and the Hindi church but I do treasure great memories of love expressed in action. 

When I told my host family Nagtegaal where I would be staying that I am visiting them this year end, the response was a beautiful "welkom". 

My accident story adds emotions to  the visit. Since I was taken care by them during my accident with great love, I take additional care of myself both in my character and life to show that I am doing well and that their effort invested in me have not gone in vain. 

If such is the joy of showing yourself to your friends, how much more the joy of longing to hear the words of Jesus, if he finds us victorious in this worldly life and to hear the words - "Well done thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee a ruler over many things: enter into the joy of the lord" Matthew 25:23 and to embrace his welcome.

The sail

About 4 years back, during covid, unvaccinated by dodging the system who wanted to inject me, I set out to the most populous slum displacement housing board of Kannagi nagar to give some work for the differently abled. 

The vision was  purely to help set up a livelihood for them. I was scared - would they accept me or would they end up beating me up ? It is usual to see a lot of fights and screaming in the neighbourhood. Along with a friend, Manvannan we set up the first centre which we rented there - no opening ceremony, no advertisements and with no one knowing about our work (one sewing machine which I bought online which eventually broke down) 

I decided to ride my bicycle daily to the centre since I don't own a motorbike and that brought in a lot of curious onlookers and people  linked me always with the bicycle. 

This Monday, a middle aged women enquired - "Pastor, you used to come in your bicyle to the centre but I don't see you anymore". Some of the women call me a Pastor but I don't pay much attention to it. 

Many people think that I dont have a corporate job too (who wouldn't if you ride a bicyle every where and look crazy that people tend to think you don't have money for petrol)

However this lifestyle helped me to get inroads to serve the people better. 

I was called up last Tuesday to help the differently abled give the jute project demo to another NGO but I politely refused since I am focussed day and night on this big jute bag order. It's heartening to know that many NGO's are amazed about how this project is running. The rotary leadership who were very active in the area even before I came in, told me once that I wouldn't be able to sustain this project for more than a year. But God is helping me thus far.

I was reminded to keep sailing ⛵️ even though the sea 🌊 is rough. That helped to be still on track even through the disappointment. I was able to give 600 bags for printing to another differently abled organization who contacted me this week. The idea is to make the differently abled get as much work as possible and give the remaining work to be commercially completed.

I had to pack the fabric in big bags and deliver them for stitching which also meant that I had to unfortunately deliver the bags by car on the way to office.

The car was smelling paint and how I disliked driving 🚗 in Chennai traffic. Oh how I missed my bicycle.

Galatians 6:9

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

The disappointment

I love to sweat no doubt, whether it is on the way to office or while screen printing on jute. The former is because I need to grind with the bicycle in the sun and the latter is because I need to switch off the fan to avoid the paint getting dry and unusable. The bicycle sweat is for my physical and mental health and the screen print sweat is to give work to the differently abled.

The 10,000 bag project makes me work until 2 AM in the mornings on a Saturday and Sunday however today was a bitter realization that we will not be able to complete the project on time and would need to invoke a commercial organization to complete the pending work.

As I am pondering on what went wrong, I want to be first thankful for what went right. The women who dint have any job until back, got an opportunity to work on a big project albeit in a slow pace 🐌. It was joyful to see them working on the machine when I visited them. It was a strong reminder that they can take up work and be skilled in stitching.

About 10 days back when I went to visit them I saw a big banner that they are making jute bags which was having names of their differently abled organization along with different jute bag pictures welcoming delegates. It appeared to be that they were receiving a visitor from another nation along with the director of an NGO. When I saw it, they privately acknowledged that I had helped set up this jute making project, however I felt that they were being set up for people to see, applaud and donate. I wanted their full dedication to be focussed on finishing this project or at least give their very best which appeared lacking. 

Before we got the project sadly there was infighting between the women and each one was claiming responsiblity for getting the project leading to a lack of cooperation within the team. It was sad that I had to intervene at times and make peace.

The NGO's mainly focus on taking pictures with them and in return give donations in terms of infrastructures, wheelchairs, sewing machines or groceries. I got the idea of using their sewing machines (which otherwise remains unused) and rusted to make the jute bags. However asking me for donations in between the project makes me sad, since my focus is on wanting them to be dedicated to complete the project and use the salary that comes with making the bags. I restrict my giving only for medical emergencies during this period but there is a cultural problem here when you give someone for an emergency and another person feels entitled to the same amount from you without any concern for the giver. There are other occasions like christmas where I joyfully get them clothes.

As I move on, I think of the parable of talents (Matthew 25: 14-30) where Jesus gave one 5 and another 2 and the last person, 1 talent. The expectation was for each one to multiply their God given talents. If it is not multiplied, God is OK to take the talent of the person who hasn't multiplied and give it to the person who has multiplied their talents.

Irrespective of our limitations and our weakness, God expects us to have faith in Hin and keep pushing amidst pain, amidst temptations, amidst poverty and amidst disability. I wrote this on my 50 km bicyle ride this evening and was happy to see Annai stores have my jute bags sold out. It was another happy reminder to keep pushing.