Santhosh's ramblings

Reflecting on life as a community..... One end of the spectrum is what i call the "Boiling Pot community." This is where there is outright conflict, each person lives for his own plans and desires. The end point is me, mine and no more. From this stage, because of various issues, the community might move to seeming peace. This is the "Simmering Fire community". Due to contextual pressures, there is a cohabitation, but an inner cold war. There is a hai, bye relationships but still the end point continues to be me. Some where down the line, due to a common agenda which needs to be fulfilled, people move into a "Lukewarm community" where there is peaceful coexistence for a common agenda. The end point of coming together is the common agenda, usually work, ministry or institution. From there, if guided well, one moves into a "Warming community". This stage is where members are protective of community, because the identity comes from...

Gentlemen, Whilst marching from Portugal to a position which commands the approach to Madrid and the French forces, my officers have been diligently complying with your requests which have been sent by His Majesty’s ship from London to Lisbon and thence by dispatch to our headquarters. We have enumerated our saddles, bridles, tents and tent poles, and all manner of sundry items for which His Majesty’s Government holds me accountable. I have dispatched reports on the character, wit and spleen of every officer. Each item and every farthing has been accounted for with two regrettable exceptions for which I beg your indulgence. Unfortunately the sum of one shilling and ninepence remains unaccounted for in one infantry battalion’s petty cash and there has been a hideous confusion as to the number of jars of raspberry jam issued to one cavalry regiment during a sandstorm in western Spain. This reprehensible carelessness may be related to the pressure of circumstance, since we are at...

No organization without a vision can flourish and grow. A vision, which might be more of a dream as of today, is what will motivate and keep the organization and its team to move ahead in the midst of various challenges one faces. Many a times, this vision, usually clarified at establishment of the institution or organization is more of a narrow vision . Narrow in terms the impact one wants to see happening, in terms of the model and even at times in terms of the scope of what one can or should do. This is based on the narrow understanding of issues before getting in to be involved in issues at the ground. Health care institutions established by mission organizations are a good example to study. In many locations, Missionaries has a vision of disease control, and curative services, as an entry point to preaching the gospel, and this has to be supported by generous donations from their parent churches so that free charity care can be provided. As one creates the structures t...

I am quoting from an article in Christianity Today of 2009. “The reasons Christians developed the world's first health care system—as opposed to simply medical practitioners—are as relevant today as they were 2,000 years ago. In Gary Ferngren's book Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity , Ferngren says, "Christians of the first five centuries held views regarding the use of medicine and the healing of disease that did not differ appreciably from those that were widely taken for granted in the Graeco-Roman world." Medicine, as developed by the Greeks, was a naturalistic field. Doctors studied the body, made observations, and practiced their art without appeal to Greek divinities. So Christians had no reason to oppose its practice. When an epidemic struck in the ancient world, pagan city officials offered gifts to the gods but nothing for their suffering citizens. Even in healthy times, those who had no one to care for them, or whose care placed too gr...

Christian Medical Comment: Changing Ireland’s abortion law will not save any mothers and could lead to 11,000 more abortions annually

“  Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb   3  and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” 4  But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. ”   Is this not the pattern of my life – I wake up each day asking – Who will roll the stone away….the entrance to the tomb, into which I want to enter – a potential site for crying and morning, situations which I fear to address each day, closed off by a large stone….echoes these women’s statements and sentiments each day! But when they reached there – as they came near the Tomb – they realize that  “the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away”….  Someone has been up much early, moving out the stone and getting the stage ready for the “turn around” which the women had not even imagined, (though this had been told to them by their master...

Santhosh's ramblings: Losing consciousnesses.... : Confusion is a lack of clarity in thinking with inattentiveness; delirium is used to describe as acute confusional state; stupor a state i...