Letter from Orissa -- what have we done wrong?

Excerpts from the Letter

Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 3:37 PM

On Monday, our Church was broken into and furniture, fittings etc destroyed. The Hospital was threatened but not entered. Since then all of us have been on all-night vigils, both at the church and the hospital.

What was most disconcerting for me was that the mob specifically also shouted slogans against our community health unit and me. We were quite surprised, because we didn't expect this. We had to move in all our field staff and close down the health centres. At our Kachapaju School, we asked the parents and community leaders to decide, and they decided to take the children home for a week, and take turns in batches of 30 men per day to stay and guard the School campus. Lots of rumours of impending attacks have been coming to us, but nothing has happened there so far. In the meantime, we have been trying to decipher who hates us so much and why. In the meantime, I was advised to keep a low profile and stay out of public sight for some time. So I have mostly been working from home.

Today, the Police called for a Peace Meeting at 4 pm, with 30 invitees of whom 5 represent the Church and 5 were from the Hospital. They were apprehensive about my inclusion in the delegation, but we insisted. The Police conducted the meeting very well ; we have a really good Inspector here. They said that the meeting is called to ask only for suggestions on how to prevent communal violence from recurring in our town. The discussion started negatively with a couple of people saying that health and education services are being used as a cover for converting people to Christianity, and that there will be no peace till this stops. They also said they have nothing against the Hospital or the English Medium School. So it was obviously against me and our community health unit . After a while, I asked for permission to speak, and the police unprecedentedly allowed me to speak for over ten minutes. I took time to explain that they had totally misunderstood our work. " In the 20 years since I came to Bissamcuttack, I have not ever asked even one person to become a Christian or to change religions. I do not do this. I believe God is love, and our job is only to love and serve. In fact, over 90 % of my community health team is Hindu and not Christian. We do not work with a village unless we are invited in writing. Panchayath leaders are always involved. Tribal leaders evaluate and guide our work. Most of our education centres actually open with a small puja or breaking of a coconut. So tell me – what have we done wrong? Is it wrong to help a lady deliver safely in a hill village ? Is it wrong to help parents run a school where the teacher never comes, so that their children can get primary education? If any of you has a doubt, why didn't you ask me ? You are welcome to come with us on our clinic trips and see for yourselves." And so on.

I can only thank God for this opportunity he gave me to speak like this to an audience of 30 leaders of Bissamcuttack town. They had no answers or questions at the end. I just hope they see the truth and understand. In the meantime, we have to get back to the village community and let them decide how we go about the work in the future.