It’s Christmastime
again. Not just any holiday, but one to celebrate the fact that the Lord Jesus
came into our world, lived as a human, gave Himself completely so that all people
could experience salvation from sin and be reconciled to God as their loving,
heavenly Father. And that is why Roshini and I want to wish you a Merry
Christmas of getting into a relationship with the Lord Jesus and staying
connected with Him through submission to His lordship.
It’s been a roller coaster year for Roshini and me. We did
start the year at the top and after plummeting down, we are ending the year on
a high.
The year began with a trip to Jaisalmer, a desert town in
Rajasthan. We’ve been to the hills, and down to the seaside, and for the first
time we went to a desert.
Jaisalmer is famous for its “living fort”. There are homes and shops and hotels.
We went there to
attend our “American granddaughter” Nicole’s wedding. (Our friend Dianne, mother
of our friend Michelle, had long ago designated us stand-in grandparents when
she saw that we got on famously with her grandchildren Nicole and Josiah).
The wedding was a theme event—set in the desert dunes,
with camels and maids and men as though from the pages of The Arabian Nights.
Bride’s dad Matt
bringing her to the
dune where the wedding took place
From Jaisalmer we
went to Udaipur for a month to teach at the Filadelfia Bible College. Both of
us enjoyed being among the students there. We had a really fantastic time.
When we finished at Udaipur, en route to Lucknow, we
spent a few hours with Aru (who adopted us as “second parents”), Prateek and
their daughter Alexis. The little one happily climbed into my lap when I told
her that I had seen her and carried her when she was just a baby.
In February, Geetu (another who has regarded me as her
father from the time she was a young schoolgirl) and Gary came with their twins
to Grace Bible Church and wanted me to dedicate Zoya and Noah.
Smrithi, who was
like our daughter while studying the National Law University in Lucknow, came
for her convocation.
In March Roshini’s dear college mates Bhagi and Madhu
came for a visit.
We went to see our
friends Jenny (who stayed with us as a bride-to-be), Roy and their daughter
Lulu
And then we plunged
from the heights of our rollercoaster ride into a big trough. First, friends
who were supposed to buy our house informed us that they wouldn’t be able to go
ahead because they couldn’t get a bank loan.
In March, I discovered a little painful hard lump behind
my right ear, which had to be removed surgically when it didn’t respond to
antibiotic medication. Within days a palpable lump came up on my neck and when
a needle biopsy was done it pointed to a cancerous condition. And so, in April
we went to Madras and stayed with Roshini’s brother Appu and his wife Usha to
continue investigations at the Apollo Speciality Hospital.
The doc asked me to return after six months to review my
condition. We despaired that with the sale of the house not having gone
through, whether we would be able to sell our house at its market value.
Incredibly, the Lord enabled us to sell the house for its market value, get all
the money in white, and move to Trivandrum in a matter of 48 days from the time
we connected with our prospective buyer.
Right after this high we plunged to the ultimate pit of
our roller coaster ride. After 42 years of life and work in Lucknow, we had to
leave. Worst of all we were leaving behind our church family of Grace BibleChurch—a small, intimate fellowship that we were part of for 19 years.
We were led to our new home by the Lord sending a family
from Trivandrum to worship and fellowship with us at Grace Bible Church. Suby
and Joe told us about the house and connected us with Rachel and Lyju who
wanted to sell it (http://kururoshini.blogspot.in/2016/10/for-last-time.html).
In Octaober, Appu and Usha came
to see our home and took us for a little holiday to a backwaters resort at
Poovar. 
After that Roshini’s
aunt Monichechy, Uncle Chachen and wife also came for a visit.
As the year ends we
have got back to the top of our roller coaster. Elishba, Joe, Sophie and Zach
arrived first and then Ishaaq, Jess, Priya, Alisha and Juliet. The last time we
were together as a complete family was at Christmastime in 2010 after Priya and
Sophie were born that year. Roshini and I have seen both families separately at
various times, and Ishaaq has seen Elishba and family when work took him from
Australia to Europe. All of us are meeting Zach for the very first time, while
Elishba and Jess and all the girls have not seen each other since 2010. So this
is a very special time for us as a family.
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