Travelogue

“Pulling on the heartstrings“

Dr. Heinz-Horst Deichmann visits the wortundtat projects in Andhra Pradesh

14 days in South India Andhra Pradesh at 30 degrees in the shade during the day and at least 20 at night with the humidity of the tropical greenhouse of the nearby zoo. In addition: wherever one is, a mixture of smells: exhaust fumes, smoky fires, faeces, rotting, waste. In between: children, old people, sick people, insured, hungry and dirty people, who nevertheless smile when the group from far away Germany comes to visit them, because all of them know the founder of wortundtat Dr. Heinz-Horst Deichmann, who has been visiting the region regularly for many years. 14 days with the poorest of the poor to inform himself about the progress of the work of the aid organisation, to see where more aid is needed, to meet the needy and – last not least – to bring to the people the Good News of God’s Love. A travel report of Dr. Heinz-Horst Deichmann (further information in the travel report):

“Having returned from my India trip in good health I am full of gratitude for what I was able to experience, the people I was able to meet and God’s gracious protection on all paths and roads of India. I was accompanied by Dr. Raimund Utsch, who is a board member of wortundtat and of Thomas Brand, who in his capacity as a journalist reports about the work of wortundtat.

Shortly before embarking on my journey, a friend (theological professor) wrote me a short essay about a Greek word, which is often mentioned in the New Testament: “splagchnizomai”. Splagchnizomai comes from the Greek word for entrails, the vital inner organs of a person - the stomach, heart, lungs, spleen, liver, and kidneys. To say that Jesus had pity on the people – that he felt splagchnizomai – is really to say that he had a feeling deep in his gut, the deepest of all human emotions, that kind of feeling that is physical as much as intellectual. Jesus felt so deeply connected to these people, and he felt so deeply disturbed by where they were being led that he had to do something. In other words “Filled with compassion”. My friends commented: “That is the Gospel (the good news in the Bible) in one sentence.”

I have seen it many times in India, the feeling that someone is pulling at one’s heartstrings, when one is confronted with so much poverty. Here are only two quotations from the wealth of Biblical texts, which concentrate exactly on these feelings: „Moved with pity, he (Jesus) stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, "I will; be clean.” (Mark 1.41 or Matthew 9.36). “When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion form them; because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” During my travels in India, I was always reminded of these passages from the Bible. I have marked them in my travel report.

Embraced and not scorned

How many leprosy sufferers have I seen once again? I have visited them and their families in the leprosy villages and even celebrated Holy Communion with them.

“And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him: “If you will, you can make me clean!”

Jesus reaches out to him, touches him and his heart urges him to do so, because he loves him, because he gives his life for him, later on Golgotha, to clean him too from his sins. For me that means: We don’t desert these poor suffering people, but we become one with them by touching them, because we too life of the God’s love in Jesus and have been called upon as witnesses. Meeting these sick people also at the Communion Service is an extremely moving and exiting experience for me, and I realize: “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory “ (Colossians 1.27).

Deeds and words

“Jesus walked through all towns and villages, spread the Gospel (the Good News) of the Kingdom and cured every disease and each infirmity.”

To take mercy and to cure people of their diseases is only one aspect of the Son of God, but he also spreads God’s word of the Kingdom, which has come to him with all the love and mercy of God. He is the incarnation of God’s word, which has come to the world. He is the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10.11). He wants those who have heard and accepted the redemptive words of his searching love to also go out into the world to spread the word of life, of God’s atonement with the people and all their doings, of word and deed of the love of and mercy of Jesus.

A large congregation

About 4,000 people had gathered on the large schoolyard in Chilakaluripet: children, whose fathers took their own lives because of their poverty and despair as small farmers, with their mothers, leprosy sufferers, blind people, Tuberculosis sufferers, who receive treatment, HIV and Aids sufferers, who are shunned by society have come to the school celebrations, but also children with their mothers or grandparents, whose fathers (mainly because of violent crimes) have to serve long prison sentences. There were those, who were excluded, left to their own devices, the sick and the needy. They received a warm meal, food rations for a month and clothing.

Individual fates

But I also think about individual people I have met on my journey: the Tuberculosis Clinic had to send the first patients home, who do no longer react to the normal Multidrug therapy (MDR) and who require a completely new therapy. They are treated in our TB Clinic. Any individual person, who was not treated, would otherwise infect 15 new people! Another 20 of our Polio children have had an operation accompanied by loving aftercare. We want to give each of them the chance to live a humane and normal life; if at all possible walking upright. I was so happy to see 3,000 children at the school celebrations in Chilakaluripet talking to each other.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”(John 3.16).

Love and freedom

Love is always returned – one cannot describe the love of the children, of the people we meet and who shake our hands. We feel the freedom; we experience the feeling to be there for one another, to share with them our life and what God has given to us and to rejoice together in God’s forgiving love. Being free of worries, of idols, including the ones we created ourselves – selfishness and greed (God Mammon), of Karma and other powers of destiny. Thank the Lord; “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthian 3.17).

Finally a word from 2 Corinthian 4, 5 – 6:

“For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

Christ, the crucified, the risen, who has been given all power in heaven and on earth, might govern in our hearts as the light of God and make us to serve each other, in the freedom of God’s children and all we have been given!

The true India

On one of the last days in India I was reading a quote in a renowned newspaper, allegedly from a speech of a cabinet member of the Central Indian Government. “India is prospering, Indians are not.” In other words: India is enjoying a great economic success on the world stage, but poverty and the Indian Caste hierarchy are unchanged to this day. It takes a long time for poverty in its current form to be eradicated and to make the economic growth to be felt in the lower levels of society too. But it also needs energy and education to make it possible to overcome traditional barriers.

We all can and must play our part to achieve this.

Kind regards to you all

Yours,

Dr. Heinz-Horst Deichmann