They came, they saw, they conquered…with love

Indu Eisenberg was with us as we began New Year 2018. Indu

sold her house in Lucknow to us for less than the market value in
1997, allowing us to take possession of the house with just a
down payment and then waited a whole year to get the full price.
It was because she did that, we were able to sell that house at
the much appreciated value and have the money to buy our new
home in Trivandrum. Our debt to Indu and husband Jürgen and
children goes on…

Indian Evangelical Mission

workers Bijoy and Jaisy, arrived in Lucknow just
when we were packing up to leave and so I
couldn’t give them time to meet me. They joined
Grace Bible Church after we left, but still came
to visit us.

Jenny had to stay with us in the parsonage at Lalbagh

for about three weeks and we got her married to Roy
Ramble. Ever since, Jenny has introduced us as her
parents to the Assembly of God Church School,
Rupaidiah, that she founded and heads. Jenny and Roy
came with their youngest, Lulu.

Next, our young friend Miriam nee Koshy,

aka Chippi, came and stayed with us after
visiting her parents in Tiruvella. Chippi used
to attend Sunday School in Lalbagh Methodist Church
and later on attended services at Grace Bible Church. She and
Elishba were schoolmates and close friends, as her family lived
next door to us in the Nur Manzil Psychiatric Centre, run by the Methodist
Church. After that I was the one who led her and Jack through the marriage
vows according to Syrian Christian rites, and that too at the Roman Catholic
Basilica of Bom [Good] Jesus.

Roshini’s cousin Roshini and husband Raju brought

cousin Bijoy married to my cousin Sarasu over, while
they were visiting from the US. Earlier Bijoy had
brought me a portable communion set for my
ministry.
 Cousin Georchayan’s eldest Laila and her
daughter Susan and Susan’s husband Deepak
were brought over by Satish who is always
there for us making life in Trivandrum easy
because he gives us rides to social events and
even does some errands for us.

We met my nephew Alex’s wife Sharon for the

first time when her parents brought her to meet
us, while she was visiting them from the US.

Melissa got to know us when she stayed with us

to do her summer training at
an NGO in 2006. After that
she would come to Lucknow to see us at least once a year.
She came to see us for the second time in Trivandrum
resuming the pattern of seeing us once a year.

Roshini’s sister Chachy’s sister-in-

law Cissy and husband Ani came to see us and later on
we were able to visit their home in Virginia when we
visited Chachy there.

Neelam Pereira got to know about me reading my

articles in Light of Life. When her husband Abhijeet
got a job in Lucknow, she got in touch with me and
they came to see us there. Abhijeet’s research work
brought them to Kerala and so they came to Trivandrum to see us.

Subi and Jo Verghese, who joined Grace Bible Church during

our last year there, were the ones who told us about the
availability of the house we now have in
Trivandrum, and negotiated the terms of the
sale with their friends, came again during
Chris and Liz’s summer vacation from school
and we spent time doing some fun stuff like
going to the zoo (and getting caught in the
rain and getting wet—something I hadn’t
experienced since schooldays)