You’ve Got a Friend

Jesus asks his beloved disciples to take care of the women who have followed him and to bring them to their homes. This concept of belonging is at the heart of the gospel message. We all want to belong - psychologists say this is the number one desire of the human race. Thus the work in India started with group homes and adoptions for lost children in a small village called Moinabad in the countryside beyond Hyderabad’s city limits. There a safe home with new parents was found for those who would never have had ones of their own. They could belong to a family and a community who would show that same care that Jesus spoke about. They would belong to the family of God. And they would have a home. The first groups of Moinabad children are now the core of the ecclesia in Hyderabad - grown up, working, families of their own, organising the day to day running of the church in this city. 

But let’s get back to the women. I'll tell you about my dearest friend in India. She and her two sisters were sent to a charity home when she was five years old. Their mother did not want girls. Three tiny girls came but she didn't soften and love them. And as soon as a boy was born she left her husband, took the baby son and moved hundreds of miles across India to start a new life. She left her daughters behind on a charity home doorstep without a backward glance. They grew up essentially as orphans, with their ne’er do well father showing up once or twice a year and frightening them. The girls had no personal possessions and walked to school barefoot. They were given a school uniform and one dress to change into after they got home. Until she was 15 she had never seen paper money, eaten an egg nor travelled anywhere apart from the journey from the compound to the school and back. She had never been in a car. More importantly she had never known real love or compassion or kindness and never had a friend. 

I told her she was my best friend in India and she welled with tears. Imagine never having had a friend. Not one. I value her so highly I cannot tell you. She is good and kind, she is a mother to her own children and all her adopted children. She has a good and kind husband. The story of how she came to be at the babies’ home at Moinabad is the work of the hand of God through the Galbraith family. Again if I reflect on how my character might have developed after such a gruelling start I see bitterness and anger and regret. She has none of these poor attributes. When her own children were born she tracked down her mother to show her family to her. There was no regret or apology from the now old lady but my friend is calm and clear that she bears no ill will. Always leaving the door open for contact and reconciliation. Forgiving and actively seeking her good. I’m sure I would have struggled to be so forgiving to someone who even now wants nothing to do with me. I see so much in my friend for me to learn, a true follower of the Lord Jesus shining in the world. Our blessed God has lifted her up. These familiar words come to mind, maybe easier to read than to practice sometimes. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ has forgiven you” Ephesians 4:32.