Rest, weary son of God…

You have run your race with honour…

It is very hard for me to say goodbye to this son of the Ashram. Kunjappenachayen was one of the first members of the Ashram. To say he lived and breathed his total commitment to the Church and the Ashram is to say less. 

Kunjappenachyan has been in my life since I was born. Every month Daddy and Mummy would go to Sihora over a weekend. Daddy would live in Darshini with the brothers and Mummy would go to the ladies ashram in Sihora. As babies and little ones, we would stay with Mummy. During the day, when Daddy would be in Retreat in the Chapel, and Mummy worked in the Clinic in Darshini, it was Kunjappenachayen who looked after me. He was a part of my life. Years later when he met me, he told the Ashram members how he would take care of me, feeding me, making me sleep, and even on occasion cleaning me up!!! It was the same when my brother was born… he looked after both of us.

Through the years he worked tirelessly in the villages surrounding the Sihora-Darshini area - literally the heart of India. He knew the land and the people so well that he was as one of them, one with the land. His work and his influence will never be in vain as long as the earth exists. 

Rest in peace dear dear Kunjappenachayen, rest in your Maker. We are all the poorer for your having left us, but you remain in the very soil and air of Sihora-Darshini, and I believe that you will continue to bless us and look after your flock…

Rest In Peace

Sister Annamma Abraham (Pennamma Kochamma)

She was the last of the first band of Sisters to come to Sihora, the heart of India. What trials and tribulations they experienced, these first Sisters, and yet what a sense of Divine Purpose they had. What compassion, what kindness, what love.....as they walked from home to home, village to village helping the villagers understand that they could lead a better life, a more hygienic life and an educated life. They lit the flame of literacy in these villages and through their work and their behavior drew many a soul to Christ.

Sister Annamma was bedridden for three years. I was blessed to have been close to her for three months earlier this year and then again for a short time just last month. Her eyes never lost their sparkle as she lay on her bed looking out at the sky, listening to life going on all around her....very much a part of the life of the Sevika Ashram. The local people who remember her from the days when she used to be actively at work often came to pay their respects to her. The weaving center was her baby and how she brought it up! What dedication to Christ and to His cause....And, how she was loved!

For me, she was the last of the Sisters under whose wings I grew up from babyhood to adulthood.....

Your work on earth is done, Kochamma, but you will always remain with us....always...As you join the other Sisters, your bright stars will always remain in the sky over Sihora...looking down on the people and the land you loved so well.

Ashram Day

As you see, it is prayer and retreat that is at the core of Ashram life and which is what the Ashramites want to share with us.

Seven decades on they are still vibrant and offer a rewarding way of life...

Badi Apa's home

Sister Lily took me to visit Badi Apa. Nothing had prepared me for the elegance and graciousness of this lady. Her home was utterly charming. She and the Sisters of the Ashram go way, way, way back to the very early days...

She had me utterly enthralled with her stories about the visits of the first sisters, how she taught them how to sew and knit so that they could use these skills in their work with women; their long discourses on village life and the Scriptures; how they dug the well in the center of her courtyard; the rooms where the Sisters tentatively took the first lessons for the local children (the seed of the balwadis was sown here)......

This is Badi Apa's courtyard:

The Heart of India - the absolute center of the country

From the train to Sihora

In and around Pan Umariya