WE HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE

C.E.M Hospital in Dowlaiswaram, India 

We always seem to arrive at the same intersection of life.  Faith vs. reason.  The spiritual vs. the practical.  The affliction we have as man is this:  from our perspective, the odds always look insurmountable.  If we could have asked Joseph when he sat in the darkness of prison or Moses when he stood on the shore of the Red Sea, what the future looked like, they surely would have said “not so good.”  But they had faith, and trusted in the promised God had made.  They stepped into the uncertainty and amazing things happened.  Time and time again throughout history, we see how faith trumped reason.

Our partnership with Jaya Sankar has been no different.  There have always been challenges along the way that made the future look not so good.  But as his partners, we have come to know that Jaya is a man of strong faith.  He has moved on faith so many times as to make the Board uncomfortable. Yet in the end, he has been an amazing steward of the resources that God has provided, and he continues to impact his community in extraordinary ways.

We are there again at the crossroads of faith and reason.  With Jaya’s vision and guidance, we have helped build a hospital in his community to provide medical care to the 80% of people who live below India’s poverty line in Jaya’s village.  With the building complete, we now face an uncertain future as to how to guide this aspect of Jaya’s ministry to self-sustainability.  The funds for caring for the poor have been slow to come and difficult to raise in this uncertain global economic environment.  I have the recurring tendency to look to “man” to solve the problem.  Jaya looks to God.  Recently, Jaya has had a clear vision that God will provide for the ministry.  While I think the odds look insurmountable, somehow I realize I will be having a future conversation with Jaya, questioning how he did it and marveling at what he accomplished.  For his part, he will have one simple answer – “faith and trust in God.” God seems to move only after we step into the mystery of it all.  Jaya knows this very well.  Yes, we are at a crossroads again, but Jaya is moving through the intersection and heading down the road called “Faith.” 

Written by Jeff Petherick

Treasurer, Impact India 360