---------------------------------------------------------------- Prayer for the terrorists http://jesusyouth.org/joynet/dec20.html ---------------------------------------------------------------- Hi friends
That was a beautiful sharing Josun, i almost cried when i read thru the mail. God bless u and bless us all. Meet u all at 6.pm IST in prayers. But there is a larger problem that is the root cause of all these problems which need special care and attention. May be what we see around, the disturbance and terrorism is just the symptom of a underlying sickness which very often is undermined. I will get back to u people on that issue soon. This is not a new issue and we all know just that we have to be reminded of it. Mean while we can thingk loudly on this (any guesses). And tailking about prayers today is a wonderful day for me. I've been praying for particularly two persons. One, one of my friend who caught up in love with a non christian. I never thought things would turn up so wonderful. But now the peoson is happily getting married according to the wishes of the family. The next one is of a scandolously broken home which god united. Friend these things have increased my faith in miracles and in prayer. So let us all kneel down and fight for the kingdom, Against all evil forces that dweleth in the heavenly, Let the heavens rejoice and the angels sing " The Battle belongs to the LORD". Any one Blessed enough to be with lord in eucharist "the physical presence of the lord" do not miss it. Prayers , Prayers and Prayers Vimal ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2002 12:55 PM Subject: [JOYnet] MY EXPERIENCE AT AN AIDS REHAB CENTRE Dear Brothers and sisters in Jesus, I honestly had never seen AIDS patients in person before . I've seen pictures of them but I haven't been with them at close quarters. Moreover I also had a number of prejudices and bias towards people with AIDS. A few months ago we had gone to a AIDS/HIV rehab centre for an outreach. My friend who took us there used to work as a volunteer with that Organisation sometime ago. This being a secular Organization, all those who visit are expected to be secular in their outlook when dealing with the inmates. He gave us strict instructions NOT to bring the name of Jesus into the scenario. He also told us not to read the bible to them, etc.. We had to be secular and that was it! On hearing this I was very upset. I was cribbing inside. I was feeling very much ill at ease. the only way of reaching out to people that I know of is by sharing the kerygma, testimony, inviting them to accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord and praying for them. Now if those fundamentals are scrapped I am stuck and in a terrible fix. I don't know anything else to share. I prayed about it and asked the Holy Spirit for guidance. I felt the Lord telling me. "Josun, I want you to be Jesus to them.. through your life witness in this short time I want them to see Me in you. Just Love them as I love you." With the mandate received I went forward. An idea just flashed across my mind. I went up to this friend who brought us there and I told him. "I won't tell them anything about Jesus on my own, I won't ask them to Invite Him into their lives, I won't preach to them anything. I will just be with them and talk to them and love them, but if they in turn ask me about my life then what will I do?" He told me to "go ahead, but keep a low profile. Don't attract unnecessary attention ok." I assured him, "don't worry about that" Eeeeiiiiiaaaahhhh! What a break thru. I was overjoyed. I cautioned myself two things. First is I will obey the instructions and NOT ask them to invite Jesus into their lives the conventional way, I will not tell them anything about Jesus on my own. Second is I will be careful as not to scandalize those who brought me here by attracting unnecessary attention. I prayed and asked the Lord to lead me on. I saw a group of kids spinning a top on the verandah. I went up to them, greeted them, and tried to win them over by playing with them, making a buffoon of my self in the process, much to their delight. I took the top and tried my hand at spinning it, but it was a flop. I took it again and gave it a throw it went far off in the lawn and just dropped. I ran to where the top and gone, with the kids following close behind me. I took the top and sat on the grass. I was flanked by the kids around me. Their names are Gaurav, Varsha, Anita and Gitanjali. All aged between 5 to 11. My friend came up and told me, these children are HIV positive and will live a total of about 6 months to an year more. After that they will be dead.... Their parents already died of this disease. But these kids are ignorant of the fact that their parents are no more and that they too are victims of this dreaded killer. I swallowed hard, feeling a heaviness in my heart With the kids all around me. I took my knapsack off my back and took out my notebook and tore off a page from it. I asked Gaurav if he liked aeroplanes, 'yes' he said. I made for him a paper jet, wrote his name on it and drew a funny face on it on it saying he was the pilot. He loved it. I tore off another page and made a paper puppet for Varsha, she too loved it. Off came another page and I transformed it into a paper boat for Gitanjali. And for little Anita I made a small paper camera, complete with small drawings of funny faces. The kids we thrilled with their new toys, they loved me and were playing around me. As I was enjoying the presence of being with these little angels a sad thought passed my mind. These beautiful children will very soon gasp for that one breath of precious oxygen.. but it will be denied to them. All this suffering, pain and death, for no fault of theirs.. My mind went back to my own siblings back at home. Gaurav the little boy aged 7 resembled my little brother Akku. My heart was feeling a terrible burden. I turned away from the kids, moved a bit away and started weeping. I pulled out my rosary and clutched the cross. All that was coming out of my mouth was "Thankyou Jesus, Thankyou Lord.. Thankyou Lord for everything." In the mean time, varsha's puppet started mal functioning and she ran up to me saying " bhaiya ye kharab hogaya" (this is spoilt, please make another one) She looked at me and saw me clutching the cross of my rosary with tears in my eyes. I tried to camouflage my grief by giving her a smile. I took her puppet and was repairing it. She was staring at my rosary and she put her hand on it and started feeling the beads. She asked me, "bhaiya yeh mala kya hai?" (what is this necklace that you are wearing) I told her that it was given to me by my mother. She asked me if I could give it to her, how is wished I could. But since we were told to be secular. I didn't. I just prayed and tears were streaming down my eyes. Touching my cheek she asked, "bhaiya aap kyo ro rahe ho?" (brother why are you crying?) I didn't know what to say. By now the other kids also came near me. Varsha was telling them. "bhaiya is crying" I just called them all together and held them close to me. I embraced them all and kept on kissing them. I whispered to them, "yeshu bhaiya aapko bahooth pyar kar tha hai" (brother Jesus loves you very much) they asked me who that was... I showed them the crucifix and told them about this 'bhaiya' who loves them so much. I told them that 'Yeshu bhaiya' cries when people fight and don't live in love. I told them that 'yesu bhaiya' also used to play like them when he was a small child. They were giggling and smiling at each other. I told them that yeshu bhaiya never told lies, he never fought with other children etc. They were listening to me with rapt attention. Varsha asked "will 'yeshu bhaiya' come and play with us?" this was the moment I was waiting for. I said, "bilkul ayega, kyo nahi?" (ofcourse he will, why not?) you should have seen the thrill on their faces. I prayed. "Lord Jesus I am in a fix over here, I want to share your love here with these angels, but I truly don't know how to. Lord I've come this far, now I'm stuck, Lord now its your time to move." I looked at the eager faces of these children. I saw Jesus in all of them. Squatting on the grass with two kids on my lap and the other two clinging on my shoulders, I told them to close their eyes and repeat this small prayer after me. It ws something like this. "my dear 'yeshu bhaiya' please come and play with us, come into our little lives, we want to be your friends. Come and give us your peace. Amen." While we were praying, I opened my eyes and looked at them, all four had closed their eyes, the sincerity with which they were folding their hands and praying really touched my heart. After the prayer was over I told them that 'yeshu bhaiya' loves them and will be their 'jigiri dost' (best friend). I told them whenever they are sad or feeling bad, to just close their eyes and ask 'yeshu bhaiya' to come and be with them. 'Yeshu bhaiya' loves little children and he has kept a beautiful place for them where they will play with him one day. Our time at the Center was nearly over so I got these kids around me and took a few photo graphs with them. By now I think one of those little angels may have died already. I treasure those photographs. We were called to assemble at the portico, we did an action song, and a skit, thanked each one of them for the wonderful experience we had being with them and we moved on to our vans to go back. My little children were all around me, holding my hand and urging me not to go. I carried each one of them and gave them all a kiss each. I sat in the van and off we went.back to our comfort zone. Josun Jose/New Delhi/India ----------------------------------------- This Advent Season our sponsors are selling goods and services you don't want to miss! Support our sponsors with your purchase by clicking here. http://www.catholic.org/clife/advent/specials.php This email was sent using FREE Catholic Online Webmail. Please tell your family, friends and children about COL Webmail! http://webmail.catholic.org/ ============================================================================ === This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. 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