PEC Freshers Program, 18th September, 2018

It's a privilege indeed to get back to your alma mater (PEC - Pondicherry Engineering College) and interact with the freshers who have just begun their journey.

Such a privilege was given to me on September 18, 2018.

First, I thank God Almighty for the oppotunity.
Secondly I thank Prof Dr Elanseralathan and the organizing committee at Pondicherry Engineering College EU.

EU is the Evangelical Union in the college.

Invitation for Freshers Program 2018

As an alumnus, this was something very special to me. Called to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the freshers at PEC.

The morning of Sep 18, 2018 - A Funeral

The day before, there was a demise in the family. My wife's grandmother passed away and grief had gripped the loved ones. It was a tough time for the children and the grandchildren.

Next day is the Freshers Program at PEC and I tell my wife that I cannot miss this program as it is well planned in advance.

But yes, I was disturbed too because the funeral was planned on the date of the program.

I did pray for things to go on smooth.

Left after paying my last respects to the eldest member in the family, who had just gone to be with the Lord.


Lunch and rest at Petra House!

As soon as I landed in Pondy (Chinna Kalapet), I just strolled into Petra House :-)

Peter Anna and Sally Akka are very good family friends, in fact mentors.

They are doing God's work in the area of marriage and parenting.

In spite of their hectic schedule, they had time to host me at their place and I thank God for the time well spent.

Preparation for the evening Freshers Program:

PEC always has excellent students who practice servant leadership, may be a trait learnt by experience from Elan sir, who practices what he preaches.

It was around 3PM when the organizers reached the venue - terrace of Petra House.

They swept the terrace, arranged the chairs, ensured the lighting is appropriate, also had a round of singing practice!

Mughil, Elan Sir's eldest son was roped in to play the keyboard for the evening! 

Such a joy to see Mughil grown up to be an adolescent. I remember him as a baby during my UG days at PEC.

Some hiccups for the evening....awaited us

As with any evangelistic program, hiccups are always expected.

The first year students had already started coming in for the program. More than 50 definitely.

So much so, it started raining heavily and we had to shift all the chairs to the hall at PETRA House.

Shifting was swiftly done by the organizers led by Laxman, current batch MTech student.

Once all the students settled and the program was about to start, the power went off !!

There were only a couple of tube lights and two fans operational (thanks to the inverter) but time was flying.

Laxman (M.Tech) and his team started off with the prayer and singing.

They had to take out the Group Discussion from the agenda planned for the evening.

Opening Prayer by Laxman

Message for the evening

Without much ado, I was invited to share my experience during my time at PEC and also share God's word to the freshers gathered out there.

I started with my experience at PEC. How I landed up in PEC when I had the opportunity to join College of Engineering, Anna University Chennai and also had an admit to REC Jalandhar.

Went on to share my experience as a first year student and how I got introduced to the PEC EU fellowship.

I shared my experiences of being involved in various forums which built many skills required for corporate life.

Since the audience was freshers and they were here in the campus only for 2 weeks in total, I shared only what they could connect with.

I shared about life at Hostel A and B :-) The guys were interested to hear more about hostel experience, which was a very memorable one for me. 

Due to time constraints I quickly jumped on to the share the God's word for the day.

I said, although I have come here as an alumnus, I  am an ambassador for Jesus Christ carrying the good news about reconciliation.

The Bible says in

2 Cor 5:20 "We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors"

I moved on to talk about 2 characters from the Bible. One was a real life character, Zaccheus, the tax collector and the other was a fictional character - The rich fool described by Jesus in a parable (story).

Zaccheus was a tax collector in the area of Jericho. Now Jericho was a very important toll collection center for goods passing east and west. Basically, Zaccheus was a customs officer who used to collect more tax than he was supposed to.

What he was doing was OK with everyone around him although everyone know it was wrong.

It was a way of life. Tax collectors are corrupt and it's OK.

The society accepted the unfair tax collection but in his heart Zaccheus knew he was wrong. 

He wanted to meet Jesus so he went on to climb a sycamore tree.

Jesus, noticed Zaccheus who was on the tree,  looking to catch a glimpse. But what followed, probably Zaccheus did not expect!

Jesus said, "Zaccheus get down  from the tree", I am going to dine with you today. Zaccheus was more than happy to welcome Jesus to his house.

Jesus, Zaccheus, his family and friends are gathered in the dining table.

Zaccheus stood up and declared publicly that he will repay the amount taken illegally from those who payed taxes, four times of what he took initially. Also, he declared he would give half of his wealth to the poor.

Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house." - Luke 19:9

What can we learn from this passage? From this incident?

Why did Zaccheus even come forward to repent? What made him do that?

It is Jesus, my dear brothers and sisters.

Jesus was willing to meet Zaccheus at the point of his need. 

He knows that we humans need a Saviour and that's the reason He died for us on the cross and was raised again. Jesus is the only way to attain salvation.

How is this relevant in a students life?

It could be a very common thing to be addicted to pornography, smoking, drinking, groupism, foul language etc. Believe me I thought that's a way of life and never thought those were sins. But once I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour, I knew what I have been doing is wrong and it was Jesus who helped me come out of all of it. Thank God!

2 Cor 5:17 - Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!

This is the ministry of reconciliation!

This is something what I learnt in  PEC EU Fellowship, when we used to meet every Thursday at Elan Sir's house.

I urge you to be a part of the fellowship too for life transformation.

The second character was a fictional one "The Rich Fool"

Luke Chapter 12

vs 16
And Jesus told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

18“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’

20“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

21“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

We read in the Bible.

Mar 8:36 - For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

So my dear brothers and sisters, you are here in this institution for a purpose.

So make the best use of your time while you are here.

I would like to leave you with few habits that can make you a highly effective person.

I thank God for this opportunity once again.

God bless you all in the 4 years out here in PEC!

With Deiva Prasad and Ratna Prasad - PECEU

With Befy, Tony - Final Years, Ramakrishnan - First Year and Laxman - MTech 

The Boys Gang! - Including Mughil and Ashrayan :-)

JOSHUA EDWARD: A miracle pack from Jesus

After a long time, I'm sitting down to pen one of the spectacular miracles in our life. Yes, just a few weeks back , Wednesday, Mar 28th, 1:36 PM to be precise, God blessed us with a baby boy - we named him  JOSHUA EDWARD.

Now,  you may be wondering what's the miracle in this :-) It is as normal as any baby born.

Please allow me to explain.

Note, the purpose of the blog is to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ, the true God who loves us more than we do, ourselves.

In my previous blog, 3 years back, we enjoyed God's blessing  - HOSANNA, our first child who was gifted by God in a miraculous fashion.

I hope sharing this experience helps you increase your faith - not letting go even in hopeless situations!


First trimester experience 

Unlike the previous pregnancy, this was a turbulent experience for Gracia. Nausea and morning sickness at it's worst. The second trimester was no different - the nausea continued. But God was gracious, she was able to go through it.

Isaiah 40 (Bible) says

29 He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength

Sure enough, God gave Gracia the strength to undergo the experience for close to 6 months.

Let's fast forward to third trimester....

32nd week Story

The scans taken so far were normal and days were going by slowly and steadily. The baby was doing excellent except for two issues.

The first one, the baby was breech presentation. Remember this was the 32nd week and the weight of the baby is approx 2.7 kg.

The second issue was the baby had a mild renal pelviectasis, a condition where the central area of the kidneys is enlarged. At this point, the doctors were not too much bothered about this issue and said this would be treated normally once the baby is discharged. I will explain what happened at a later point in this blog. Stay tuned.

36th week Scan

The doctor advised scan yet again to see if the baby had turned.

Not so good news.

The baby was now in extended breech presentation or Frank breech.

Courtesy: https://www.smallandunique.com

The doctors' opinion was that babies in Extended Breech presentation generally don't return to the normal "Head Down" position.

Since the first baby was delivered normally, the doctors were even contemplating if a "breech" normal delivery can be attempted. But there is a 1-2% chance that the baby may not survive, so that option was dropped.

37th week Scan

The doctor advised scan yet again to see if the baby had turned.

A ray of hope!

The baby had put one leg down but retained the other leg in the same extended breech presentation.

This presentation is called "incomplete breech presentation".

Courtesy: https://www.slideshare.net/mahmoudlazek/breech-54680738

Again not a good sign that it would return to "Head Down" position suitable for normal delivery.

38th week - Visit to the doctor

The doctors at Apollo First Med, PH Road, Kilpauk were really patient and did not advise for C-Section immediately although the change in situation (breech baby turning by itself) was next to impossible.

But as a last ditch effort, the senior doctors wanted to try a manual procedure called ECV.

Copy pasted from wiki:

ECV or External cephalic version is a process by which a breech baby can sometimes be turned from buttocks or foot first to head first. External cephalic version (ECV) is a manual procedure that is advocated by national guidelines for breech presentation singleton pregnancy, in order to enable vaginal delivery.^[1] It is usually performed after about 37 weeks

This did not work too!

The baby remained in breech presentation.

The doctors advised us to  go for elective C-Section - Any date of our choice for the surgery to be done.

We chose March 27th since Hosanna was also born on a 27th (May 27th 2015) :-)

We left the hospital disappointed because we prayed a lot for a miracle.

We were at this stage where we accepted the C-Section was now a reality.

The verse which kept us going:

Psalm 27:14

Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.


Monday, Mar 26th - Getting admitted for Caesarean Section

We got admitted on Mar 26th around 8:30 PM.

By the grace of Jesus, we got a room of our choice - a private room so that our toddler, Hosanna, can stay with us during this time.

The baby's heartbeat was monitored regularly.

Gracia had to undergo some blood tests to ensure she's fit to be administered anesthesia. The regular pre-operative procedures, basically.

Cardiotocography (CTG) is a technical means of recording the fetal heartbeat and the uterine contractions during pregnancy.

CTG was done for Gracia every 30 min.

Now around 10 PM, the duty nurse who was taking the CTG was able to detect the heartbeat from the upper part of the abdomen. This is OK since the baby is in breech position.


Our prayer at this time was:

Dear God,
If you wish, you can turn the baby right now so that Gracia can have a normal delivery.
If you could heal the Centurion's servant just by your word, you can make the baby turn too.
Amen.

The faith of the centurion


Around 10:30 PM, there was an increase in heartbeat and movements were also unusual, so we called the nurse on duty to again check the CTG.

This time the nurse was able to detect the heartbeat from the lower part of the abdomen.

This raised our suspicion that the baby might have turned since the heartbeat was felt in the lower abdomen.

The duty doctor was called.

A portable Ultrasound Scan machine was brought to the  room.

The duty doctor was surprised to see the baby's head in the "normal" position - just as we had prayed for!

We were awe struck. Not only us but the duty nurses and the doctor on call.

A miracle indeed! No words to thank Jesus.

The senior doctor who had to perform the surgery the next day, was briefed of the situation. She immediately said - C-Section can be cancelled.


In Matt 19:26 Jesus says,

"With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."


Remember the baby is not yet born and I was already sharing the news of the miracle to my friends and family - I was overwhelmed.


Tuesday, Mar 27th - Labour Day

Gracia was in labour the entire day.

The doctors did not want to rush things up.

Technically, this was Gracia's 3rd pregnancy and the uterus walls might get ruptured if labour is induced through IV.

Nothing happened. In fact Gracia had a good night's rest.


Wednesday, Mar 28th - The moment of Truth

Gracia was taken to the labour ward around 11 AM.

Labor was further induced through IV.

Acute pains for another 2.5 hours and then Joshua,  a miracle pack from Jesus was born!!

Smiles all around :-)

You might be aware that the first pregnancy was a miscarriage and we lost a baby boy. Read more

This was God's way of giving him back to us.

JOSHUA EDWARD - miracle package from Jesus

Hosanna holding her little brother 

As the Psalmist in the Bible says in Psalms 9:1,

"I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done."


Thursday, Mar 29th - The miracle continues!

As I mentioned earlier, Joshua had a  mild renal pelviectasis, a condition where the central area of the kidneys is enlarged.

Frankly, we were not sure what it meant until a pediatrician explained us.

I will try to explain in his words :-)

The baby's urinary system can be compared to an unused plumbing system while the baby is in the mother's womb.

As soon as the baby is born, the system is in use now, and that is when the leaks and the blocks, if any are detected.

This is confirmed only when the baby passes urine in 24 hours. If not, there is a potential issue.

God in his mercy, did not allow any more doubts - Joshua was perfectly fine and urinated thrice in 24 hours. This again, is a miracle, nullifying any doubts whatsoever on the condition detected.


That's the reason one my very dear brothers - quoted it saying - Joshua is a miracle pack :-) I loved the phrase to bits and hence named the blog rightly so!

I take this opportunity to THANK everyone who stood by us during the moments of uncertainties.

I thank my in-laws and parents who stood the test of faith. No words, really!

Thanks to dear cousins Gideon and Nikhil - sought their help numerous times. Thank you guys. Means a lot.

I thank Tarang, my best friend and Bharathi for all the encouragement and prayers.

I'd like to thank our church Annanagar Methodist Church, for all the prayer support.

I thank Young Adult Fellowship members specially for standing by.

I thank friends from ASCENDAS Fellowship  group who prayed along with me almost every Tuesday!

Special thanks to Arun Isaac Annan for His prayers along with EC Group 4pm prayer team.

I thank our neighbours at Pentavistas apartment, who were more than family, many times!

I thank our maid, Sumathi akka, for helping us with the cooking and stuff.

I thank God for Hosanna, who had to stay with her grandparents not knowing why the mother was in the hospital.

A wonderful child indeed, never created any kind of commotion.

Both mother and child were discharged on Mar 30th and we returned home.

Courtesy: https://www.commentsyard.com/as-much-as-you-want-to-plan-your-life/





Psalm 100:5 says

For the LORD is good. His unfailing love continues forever, 
and his faithfulness continues to each generation.

Amen.

Ignacy and Hoover – What goes around comes around

Sea is common for all… Some take pearls,

Some take fishes, while others come out with just wet legs! :-)

World is common to all; what we get, is what we try for!

This is a true story that had happened in 1892 at Stanford 

University.  It's moral is still relevant today.

A young, 18 year old student was struggling to pay his fees. He was  an orphan, and not knowing where to turn for money, he came up with  a bright idea. A friend and he decided to host a musical concert on  campus to raise money for their education.

They reached out to the great pianist Ignacy J. Paderewski. His manager demanded a guaranteed fee of $2,000 for the piano recital. A deal was struck. And the boys began to work to make the concert a success.

The big day arrived. Paderewski performed at Stanford. But 

unfortunately, they had not managed to sell enough tickets. The total collection was only $1,600. Disappointed, they went to Paderewski and explained their plight. They gave him the entire $1,600, plus a cheque for the balance of $400. They promised to  honour the cheque soonest possible.

"No" said Paderewski. "This is not acceptable" He tore up the cheque, returned the $1,600 and told the boys "Here's the $1,600.  Please deduct whatever expenses you have incurred. Keep the money you need for your fees. And just give me whatever is left" The boys  were surprised, and thanked him profusely.

It was a small act of kindness. But it clearly marked out Paderewski as a great human being. Why should he help two people he did not even know? 

We all come across situations like these in our lives. 

And most of us only think "If I help them, what would happen to me?"

The truly great people think, "If I don't help them, what will 

happen to them?" They don't do it expecting something in return. 

They do it because they feel it's the right thing to do.

Paderewski later went on to become the Prime Minister of Poland. He was a great leader, but unfortunately when the World War began, Poland was ravaged. There were over 1.5 million people starving in his country, and no money to feed them.

Paderewski did not know where to turn for help. He reached out to the US Food and Relief Administration for help.

The head was a man called Herbert Hoover - who later went on to become the US President. Hoover agreed to help and quickly shipped tons of food grains to fee the starving Polish people. A calamity was averted.

Paderewski was relieved. He decided to go across to meet Hoover and personally thank him. When Paderewski began to thank Hoover for his noble gesture, Hoover quickly interjected and said, "You shouldn't be thanking me, Mr. Prime Minister. You may not remember this, but several years ago, you helped two young students go through college in the US. I was one of them."

The world is a wonderful place. What goes around usually comes around.

Lessons from the Ant!

I happened to read this story shared by a friend of mine. It's about yet another of God's creation, the ant, with whatever it has - gives a story to reflect and ponder.

One morning I watched nearly for an hour a tiny ant carry a huge feather. Several times it was confronted by obstacles in its path and after a momentary pause it would make the necessary detour. At one point the ant had to negotiate a crack in the concrete about 10mm 
wide!

                                                                       

After brief contemplation the ant laid the feather over the crack, walked across it and picked up the feather on the other side then continued on its way. I was fascinated by the ingenuity of this ant - it served to reinforce the miracle of creation. Here was a minute insect, lacking in size yet equipped with a brain to reason, explore, discover and overcome. But these ants, like the two-legged co-residents of this planet, also share human failings.

After some time the ant finally reached its destination – a flower bed at the end of the terrace and a small hole that was the entrance to its underground home. And it was here that the ant finally met its match. How could that large feather possibly fit down small hole Of course it couldn't. so the ant, after all this trouble and exercising great ingenuity, overcoming problems all along the way, just abandoned the feather and went home. The ant had not thought the problem through before it began its epic journey and in the end the feather was nothing more than a burden.

Isn't life like that?!

As young adults, we are in the prime phase of our lives. Sometimes, we are troubled about our family, certain decisions taken, we worry about money or the lack of it, we worry about marriage; work, about all sorts of things. These are all burdens - the things we pick up along life's path and lug them around the obstacles and over the crevasses that life will bring, only to find that at the destination they are useless and we can't take them with us!

Yes, we children of God, need not carry the baggage around. We know we can rely on our redeemer and he will take care of our future.

Let’s enjoy the journey by placing God first in our lives.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

– Matt 6:25

IF - By Rudyard Kipling - A poem which never fails to inspire me

I recited this poem in front of the entire school when I was in my 5th Std. The school: C.S.I Jessie Moses MHSS, Annanagar. My mother was called as a surprise special audience. It scared her, to see her 10 year old son recite a lengthy poem. I think it was a proud moment for her. She would have at least made me practice this for over a 100 times.

Though I read it often, the last few words are etched on my memory forever,  from the entire poem : "you'll be a Man my son!"

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!