Praise and Prayer Bulletin, March 2014

It's been quite a long time since I've put out a Praise and Prayer Bulletin. Do pass this around and encourage friends and relatives to be part of our work. 

The praise and prayer points . . . 

1. We had a blessed time of retreat couple of weeks back with Rev. Maxwell David and his wife, Mrs. Snehalatha David. We thank the Lord for all those who have dedicated/rededicate their lives to the Lord. Please pray for the ministry of Rev. Maxwell and his wife. We pray that they will continue to be a blessing to many.

2. There have been quite a lot of sick patients who got well over the last 2 months. We thank the Lord for each of them. Special praises for Munia Kumari and the umpteen high risk obstetric patients.

3. The CH team has been working overtime over the last 2 weeks. There has been couple of mass awareness programs for finger millet cultivation and usage in diet. We received invitation to be part of Agrotech, the state level agriculture fair organised by the State University for Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences. In addition, we’ve been acknowledged for our work in the field of care for the disabled.

4. We’ve received some generous gifts from our friends and well-wishers for upgrading the acute care unit. Plans have been made for the purchase of a full-fledged ventilator, few multipara monitors and syringe pumps. Please pray that we would make the right choices. We thank all those who helped. We need much more funds (only 25% of our plans can be met by the funds we have now) to make changes that we dream of.

5. The water tank construction is complete. The pipes are been now laid for the supply of water to the residences now. Supply to the hospital is partially complete. We thank the Lord and the Indian wing of Living Waters, Sampoorn Development India who were instrumental in constructing this tank in the campus. We had the dedication of the tank last week. Mr. Howard Searle, the first director of EHA visited us last month and it was such a joy to know about how Living Waters came to be associated with EHA. 

6. We thank the Lord for Dr Titus who served as Medical Officer with us for the last 2 years. Dr Titus has got selected for Diploma in ENT in the Christian Medical College, Vellore. We request prayer for Dr. Titus and his wife, Dr. Grace that they would stay in the will of God and the Lordship of Christ would be the priority in their lives. Titus' parents and brother visited us as Titus and Grace left NJH. 

In the foreground, from left to right - Dr. Grace, Dr. Titus, Titus' parents - Dr. Raju Jacob (Professor and Head of the Department of Anatomy, Medical College, Kottayam), Dr. Jaimol Zachariah (Professor, Department of Physiology, Medical College, Kottayam), Titus' brother - John Raju (Engineer with Bharat Gas, Mumbai). Also in the snap - Mr. Tapeswar (driver) on the left and Annoos, daughter of Sr. Dipti (staff nurse) and Mr. Benoy Jose. 

7. We thank the Lord for Sr. Wendy and Mr. Gerry of the Grace Babies Foundation who has visited us again this year. I'm sure that the number of babies who're going to live well because of their contribution to our hospital is quite a good number. Kindly pray for this wonderful couple as the Lord leads them for greater things. Please also pray that we would be able to get a Paediatrician who will be able to do much more. Especially training for the government, for which UNICEF has been asking us for some time. 

8. There are quite a few staff who have gone on training. Few of them are away on long periods of training. We thank the Lord that their travel and stay went off fine. Kindly pray for staff who are away on long term training. Especially, pray for their families.

9. We request specific prayers for Sr. Sushma Kujur who has a very bad Inter-Vertebral Disc Prolapse. She has been on bed rest for the last 6 weeks. Please pray for complete cure.

10. We’ve a new trainee Human Resources Manager who has joined us. Mr. Amit William. Kindly pray as he adjusts to life at NJH.

11. We thank the Lord for Sr. Bharati (Nursing Services), Mr. Sapan (Maintanence Department) and Mr. Alex (Administration - Billing Department) who has moved on after serving NJH. We request prayers for their further professional work.

12. There is quite a lot of money pending to be given from RNTCP and also from RSBY. The total amount is so high (about 1,200,000 – your read it right – more than a million Indian Rupees) that the financial situation of the hospital has taken a major hit. Please pray that the officials who are responsible would make arrangements to disburse the amounts at the earliest.

13. We had a break down of the X-Ray machine. The x-ray tube has run off steam - it had served us for almost 30 years. We need to purchase a new one. The total costs would be around 160,000. We request prayers as well as generous gifts from well-wishers to get the X-Ray back on track. 

14. General elections have been declared for the country. In Jharkhand we already had a political murder. Please pray for peace in the region and for peaceful elections. 

15. Please remember the Sarai construction in your prayers. We've almost completed it using our own funds. However, it would be extremely helpful if we could have someone to bear the costs of construction. 

Praise and Prayer Bulletin, November 2013

1. We thank the Lord for the 24 hours electricity supply we have since the last week. 

2. Almost all of our high risk patients survived and went home well. We thank the Lord that that we've been used to be a blessing in the lives of these patients. We specially thank the Lord for the baby whom we could save after a rupture uterus. However, we're very well also aware that we would do better with specialists in the areas of obstetrics and pediatrics. Please pray. 

3. We thank the Lord for the success we've had with the Finger Millet cultivation and the SRI Method of Rice Cultivation which we did as part of the project on Community Based Adaptation towards Climate Change. Please pray for the efforts we take to promote millet (rather, reintroduce) in the community. 

4. We thank the Lord for the Mr. Ashurosh (Pharmacist) and his wife Mrs. Tabitha (Staff Nurse) who joined us since last week. Please pray that the Lord will bless them and they would be a blessing to the hospital and the community. 

5. Duncan Hospital, Raxual has been kind enough to depute Mr. Shivnath, laboratory technician as we have a shortage of lab technicians. We thank the Lord for the Mr. Shivnath's life as well as pray that the Lord will bless him. 

6. We thank for the Lord for Dr. Titus and his wife, Dr. Grace. Kindly pray for them as they plan for the future, especially post-graduate studies. 

7. We thank the Lord for the smooth construction of the water tank. The contractors plan to complete the construction by the end of this year. 

8. There were 2 of our staff families who were blessed with babies over the last couple of weeks. Mrs. Sudha (staff nurse) was blessed with a baby boy. Mr. Rajeev (laboratory technician) was blessed with a baby girl. We thank the Lord that both the deliveries were uneventful. 

9. Please pray for the financial needs of the hospital. The new transformer and the high tension electricity connection has been a major financial burden for the hospital. In addition, we need to upgrade the Acute Care Unit, put in place a new Hospital Information System, construct the Sarai and at least couple of new residential apartments for our staff. 

10. We look forward for new consultants in the specialties of General Surgery, Obstetrics and Pediatrics to join us. Please pray and pass the message along. 

11. We appear to be heading into a very harsh winter. We already temperatures dipping to as low as 5 degree Celsius. Please pray for the health and protection of the staff.

12. Please pray for couple of our staff who are sick. 

24 Hours Electricity

By today evening, it will be 48 hours since we got connected to the government electricity supply which provides us with almost 24 hours of electricity. As in most parts of the country, we don't expect the supply to be there for the whole 24 hours. So far, there was a interruption of only about 2 hours. Otherwise the voltage has been very good. 

We praise God. 

And coincidentally, we got our connection on the 53rd Founder's Day (November 20th). 

There are few aspects for which we specifically want to specifically praise and thank the Lord. 

1. Not having regular electricity has been one of the reasons why quite a few staff did not stay on at NJH. Now, that is going to be old story. 

2. We have an exclusive connection to the hospital now. The village connection is separate. Earlier, the nearby village and the hospital had shared the same transformer and that caused a lot of problems. 

3. Along with the new connection, the electricity board was kind enough to remove all the high tension wires which crisscrossed the campus. 

4. Almost all of our voltage stabilizers are of no use. Because the voltage is too good. We praise God. 

5. The best of all . . . We did not pay any speed money for obtaining the exclusive High Tension Connection and our own transformer. So, we can get things here without bribes. We praise God that we found favor in the eyes of many an official of the Jharkhand Electricity Board. Of course, there were times, when there was quite a lot of pressure to make some payments to speed up the process. We thank the Lord that we could hold on to our principles. 

I thank the Lord for the maintenance department under the leadership of Dinesh who worked worked untiringly and generously in spite of many setbacks and challenges. 

We've ended up spending almost 700,000 INR to get the infrastructure that has facilitated the process of exclusive and seamless connection. So far, we've spend all this from funds generated from patient care. We pray that we would be able to receive gifts from friends and well-wishers to recover this spending so that we can spend more on patient care.

Praise and Prayer Bulletin, May 2013

Below are our praise and prayer points for the month. 

1. Dr. Roshine Mary Koshy, our new Internal Medicine consultant has passed her MD exams. We praise the Lord. And we request prayers as she makes the transition to NJH.

2. I was away for about 2 weeks. I thank Lord for the leadership given by Ms. Meghala and Dr. Shishir in my absence.

3. Please pray for Dr. Titus and Dr. Grace who’ll be getting married on May 20^th and Mr. Dinesh and Sr. Priscilla who gets married on May 30^th.

4. We are in the process of consolidating the achievements of the previous years. We thank the Lord that the auditing went about without much hitches.

5. We continue to remain empanelled under RSBY. However, there are major issues with compensations which is a major deterrant for the smooth functioning of the program. Please pray that all problems will be ironed out.

6. Drs. Nandamani and Ango plan to be with us at NJH from the 22^nd June to 2^nd July. Please pray for their travel and other arrangements.

7. There is a small window period in the first 2 weeks of June, when we are going to be really short of doctors. Kindly pray for this time. Please encourage doctors who can help out to contact us.

8. At EHA, we’ve making an effort to remind ourselves that we are primarily here as spiritual leaders. At NJH too, we are well aware of the need for us to lean more on the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We request you for prayers that we will grow in the Lord, our fellowship will be an offering of sweet fragrance to the Lord and we will be a blessing to each person whom we deal with, staff and patient.

9. Quite  a lot of our staff are on summer holidays. Kindly pray that they would have a good time of rest and refreshment. Do uphold the team who’s taking the extra burden in the absence of the staff.

10. There is need for more staff in the Community Health Projects. Kindly pray for the need.

11. We continue to dream about the presence of a Pediatrician, Surgeon, Orthopaedician and an Anesthetist in our team. Please pray. Specialists become all the more necessary because of laws like the Clinical Establishment Act and the continuing danger of litigations in this era.

12. We’re into a major phase of investing into our Hospital Information System. Kindly pray for Mr. Jonathan who’s giving the leadership. There is a need for quite a lot of funds. 

Rains . . . Hooray . . .

There have been quite a lot of news about the possibility of a weak monsoon this year. 

We praise God that it has been raining quite a lot since the last 4 days . . . Most of you know NJH as a dry place . . . So, below are the snaps with the rains . . . 

The first rain drops of the year . . .

Mud . . .

Roads becoming streams . . .

Water gushing down . . .

The road towards the church . . .

Stream starting to flow towards the pond . . .

Dinesh and Nandamani inspecting the flow of water from the campus towards the pond . . . We need all the water to go to the pond . . .

Again. . . Streams of water . . .

More streams . . .

And more . . .

Well . . . the pond has started to fill up . . .

The hospital team having a thanksgiving prayer beside the pond . . .

Yours truly in an adventurous mood . . .

Well, it's nowhere other than the pond in the campus . . .

Well . . . so, it looks like we would have a year without the fear of water scarcity. . . We thank the Lord for the blessing . . .

Praise and Prayers - 26 Nov, 2011

1. Today was Chain Prayer and Revival Meeting day for the hospital. Quite a lot of staff and students actively participated.

2. We've had quite a number of very sick patients over the weekend. We thank the Lord for KB, who had septicemia and a dead baby in her womb - she underwent a normal delivery. PD and SD had quite complicated pregnancies, - although they lost their babies, they made remarkable recoveries and were discharged.

3. The very preterm baby born to the eclamptic mother who died is doing quite good. Kindly continue to pray that he will put on weight and we would be able to discharge him soon.

4. FD who turned up quite late passed away couple of days back. It was sad that she did not know about the facilities we provide for burns patients. Kindly pray that the local communities would know more about the work we do and would come fast if there is a burn accident.

5. The construction of the burns unit is progressing well. Kindly pray for all the efforts going on to mobilise more funds.

6. Over the last year we have realised that there is a major gap in cancer care in the region. I wish the Lord would raise up people who would have a burden for involvement in this area of healthcare.

7. Since the last 2 months we have been witnessing a major epidemic of malaria and quite a few young lives being lost. We know that we can respond - but we need people with expertise. 

8. Yesterday, one case which was foisted against the hospital has come up again. There is no iota of truth in the case which has been filed. Kindly pray for the Lord's mercies on the people who have filed the case and the police officers who have raised it up again. We need wisdom and good guidance as we deal with it. 

9. SR, who came to us with a very severe case of pyopneumothorax has responded well to our intervention. Kindly pray that he would be fully healed. 

10. Over the last one week, we have not been having electricity. We end up spending almost 200 litres of diesel everyday to run the unit. Kindly pray that we would get regular electricity from the Electricity Board. 

11. The roads from NJH to Daltonganj continue to be in a very bad state. However, we've got news that the Chief Minister is visiting Daltonganj by road and therefore road repairs is being hurriedly carried out. Kindly pray that we would have good roads soon. 

12. Over the last 10 days, there were 3 days of bandhs/strikes which has affected the flow of patients to the hospital. A bandh has been called tomorrow also in response to the killing of a leader of the naxalite movement. 

Praise and Prayers . . .18 Nov . . .

I always hope that friends of NJH who keep us in prayers would benefit from my postings and would uphold us in their regular prayers.

Recently, one of my very close friends requested that I be very specific and put in the praise and prayer points regularly.

So, here is it. I hope to put it on once a week.

Praise Points . . .

1. Today morning, we had a sort of surprise inspection from the Income Tax Department. They were paying such a visit after quite a long time because of which there was a bit of anxiety at the administration level. But, the inspection went off quite smoothly and the officers were quite happy with our papers. They were so happy that they insisted on having a group photograph with all the doctors and office staff.

2. We have got one of my friends getting interested in further helping us with the construction of the burns unit. There is quite a lot of homework for us to do before it can be taken forward. We thank the Lord for this friend of mine who has shown interest in our work among burns patients.

3. The Daltonganj State Bank of India has promised to look into donating us medical equipment worth about 250,000 Indian Rupees. We thank the Lord for this initiative from the SBI authorities. The quotations have already been given to them. Kindly pray that the Lord will give us success.

4. We had some very sick patients come to us especially over the last week. KB, who had been in obstructed labour with a dead baby for about a week has done well and has been discharged. SD, who was quite a complicated case is slowly making a recovery although she has a long way to go. PD, whose baby had hydrocephalus in a breech presentation has also gone home well.

5. The baby born to KD is gaining weight quite well. The family is quite delighted to have a live baby after 2 intrauterine deaths. Please continue to remember this family who is quite poor.

Prayer points -

1. Dr. Srijit Pradhan, our ophthalmologist has left today for his daughter's wedding. Kindly pray for the family as they travel to Cuttack today, preparations for the wedding and the ceremony including the reception arranged at Nagercoil.

2. Sr. Rita Pradhan, our Nursing School Principal is on travel to various nursing schools as part of MIBE inspection. Kindly pray as she travels.

3. One of the social activitist nuns from the Catholic church, Sr. Valsa John who had been working for the upliftment of the tribal community has been murdered. in our state of Jharkhand. The funeral was yesterday at Dumka. Please pray that we would not be discouraged by incidents such as this.

4. Please pray for PD who had come to us about 4 days back with severe post-partum eclampsia. Her blood pressure is yet to be fully control. Kindly pray for her complete recovery.

5. We have a very preterm baby born to a mother with severe eclampsia. The mother died after couple of days of the delivery of  pulmonary edema and cardiac failure.

6. LO is a young boy with tetanus. He has done well so far. Kindly pray for his completely recovery.  

Please do share this post with friends who will spent one minute of prayer for us. I hope I shall be able to post 'Praise and Prayer' posts on a regular basis.