TELC Deaconess Board (India) Christmas letter 2020

News from Sr Grace Padma, Deaconess Mother of the TELC Deaconess Sisters in India, Deaconess Homes in Thanjavur (Bethesda, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Lydia Deaconess Home and Bethania Deaconess Home).

Please pray for Sr Grace and the Deaconess Sisters, and the work they do with destitute women and orphan children. 

Greetings to you in the Holy Name of our Jesus Christ. 

Every month we experience your prayer blessings from the prayer letters we receive by email. 

‘I will be with you to protect you and keep you safe’. (Jeremiah 15.20)

God of Immanuel is with us, protected from all dangers and disasters, and provided the basic needs for our orphan children, destitute women physically, mentally handicapped, old age and all sick people, helpers, co-workers and sisters of our Deaconess Homes in these challenging and fearful and worried days. God cared for us in helpless situations. 

The fearful Corona virus pandemic affected casual lives of people and educational lives of children. God is with us, protects us and provides for our needs in all these difficult days. When we were unable to for Church programs for any income, no sale of products, God fed our people and more than enough for us. When we were unable to take our patients to hospitals and doctors, God gave health when sick, God strengthened when we became weak, God gave courage when we were fearful. God upheld us. 

As per the Government official instructions, all our residents from our Homes underwent Corona tests. We made face masks, and sold to all our churches and people in our area. 

Churches were closed. Our Witness Prayer House and Bethesda chapel were open for worship services and Friday fasting prayer. We interceded on many prayer points. Regular monthly communion services were held by our local pastor. 

We received very sad news that our former Administrative Mother of Deaconess Board, Sr Gunhild Stahle, went to God’s Kingdom on 6th October in Sweden. We conducted a thanksgiving prayer meeting in our TELC Holy Comforter Church Thanjavur, with a memorial stone and memorial souvenir. Our Home inmates, children, sisters, and her foster children and well known friends participated, and glorified God for her fruitful service. 

On 10th November, the Deaconess trainee Nagomi was consecrated as Deaconess Sister by our Bishop Rev Daniel Jeyaraj in the TELC Cathedral Church Trichy. 

The next day, on 11th November, the 123rd birthday of our founder Lydia Vedanayaham we offered prayers and reception thanks for our sister Nagomi. 

On 20th November, we arranged a marriage for Mercy Nazrin, who had been brought up at the Home since she was 6 months old. She studied graduate Nursing and served at Bethesda Home for two years with patients with mental and physical patients and those with old age. 

For all these program functions, our local Pastor, Pastorate Committee members, friends and donors, helped us and we thank them for it. 

We also provided food commodities for children who went to single parents and poor relations homes, as they have no income during this Corona pandemic. 

When the ‘Nivar’ and ‘Burevi’ cyclones were announced, we made candles and sold them in our area. It has been pouring with heavy rain, especially this month. All food crops and paddy fields have been ruined, and village huts were floating in water. We killed two snakes and caught a big snake which entered our compound through the drainage system. We sent it to the forest people. 

Medicine prices are high. We need to buy medicine for our sickly residents and elderly sisters.

God has sustained us when we were helpless during the pandemic, and also sustained for 82 years this faithful, prayerful, God concerned ministry through generous faithful supporters. 

With Jesus’ love, we thank our donor friends and convey our loving greetings with prayer for a happy Christmas and a blessed New Year 2021. 

 

Cyclones, Heat and Climate Change

(May 22) Super Cyclone Amphan with sustained winds of 170 km/h and gusts up to 190 km/h has left more than 80 dead in India (and Bangladesh) as a trail of destruction was left behind. Cyclone Amphan intensified from a category-1 cyclone to a category-5 cyclone in a span of only 18 hours. It has caused widespread flooding, and millions are without power. Coastal villages have been devastated, and mud houses knocked down. Roads were littered with uprooted trees and lamp posts, electricity and communication lines were down and centuries-old buildings were damaged. Hundreds of villages were flooded and shelters were unable to run at full capacity in many places due to the coronavirus. Some people were too scared about the risk of infection to go there. The pandemic also will affect relief efforts and the recovery. Damage from the storm is likely to have lasting repercussions for the poor, who are already stretched to the limit by the economic impact of the virus.

Meanwhile Chennai (Madras, Tamil Nadu) is bracing for a heatwave. The sudden change in weather is attributed to westerly winds bringing dry land breeze, and super cyclonic storm Amphan, which has taken away all the moisture from the region. Cyclones are fuelled by available heat. Warming seas can make cyclones more powerful, by increasing the potential energy available to them, effectively increasing their power ceiling or speed limit. Higher sea-surface temperatures mean that cyclone wind speeds can increase. The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology reported, "High ocean temperatures are conducive to rapid intensification of cyclones.  Some of the buoys in the Bay of Bengal have registered maximum surface temperatures of 32-34 degrees Celsius (~90 degrees F) consecutively for the first two weeks of May. These are record temperatures driven by climate change".

Three Deaconess associations in India are members of DIAKONIA World Federation.
* CSI Order of Women in the Church of South India, Women's House (Karnataka)
* TELC Bethania Deaconess Home (Andhra Pradesh)
* The Methodist Church in India, Deaconesses Order

Please remember them in your prayers.

A prayer in the aftermath of severe weather
Comfort your people who have been torn by the winds,
made homeless by the waters,
injured by falling buildings and debris,
the bridges washed away, coast ravaged,
roads blocked, trees ripped up by their roots.
Comfort those who grieve,
give strength to those who are rescuing
those not yet secured,
and searching for survivors.
Guide those who care for the injured,
and shelter the evacuated,
fearful of Covid-19,
which has already taken so many.
Lead those who try to bring in
food and medicine and relief supplies
where ways are impassible.
And as people emerge, seeking what is left of their lives,
connecting with family, hunting for home -
in the midst of the rains that continue,
give, O God, hope,
tenderness in loss,
companionship in rebuilding
and the compassion of the world. Amen.
(adapted, Maren Tirabassi, Gifts in Open Hands, 21 May 2020)