Faith can move mountains

A small congregation in the foothills of the Great Smokies built a new sanctuary on a piece of land willed to them by a church member. Ten days before the new church was to open, the local building inspector informed the pastor that the parking lot was inadequate for the size of the building. Until the church doubled the size of the parking lot, they would not be able to use the new sanctuary.

Unfortunately, the church with its undersized lot had used every inch of their land except for the mountain against which it had been built. In order to build more parking spaces, they would have to move the mountain out of the back yard. Undaunted, the pastor announced the next Sunday morning that he would meet that evening with all members who had "mountain moving faith."

They would hold a prayer session asking God to remove the mountain from the back yard and to somehow provide enough money to have it paved and painted before the scheduled opening dedication service the following week.

At the appointed time, 24 of the congregation's 300 members assembled for prayer. They prayed for nearly three hours. At ten o'clock the pastor said the final "Amen." "We'll open next Sunday as scheduled," he assured everyone. "God has never let us down before, and I believe He will be faithful this time too."

The next morning as he was working in his study there came a loud knock at his door. When he called "come in," a rough looking construction foreman appeared, removing his hard hat as he entered. "Excuse me, Reverend. I'm from Acme Construction Company over in the next county. We're building a huge new shopping mall over there and we need some fill dirt. Would you be willing to sell us a chunk of that mountain behind the church? We'll pay you for the dirt we remove and pave all the exposed area free of charge, if we can have it right away. We can't do anything else until we get the dirt in and allow it to settle properly."

The little church was dedicated the next Sunday as originally planned and there were far more members with "mountain moving faith" on opening Sunday than there had been the previous week!

Would you have shown up for that prayer meeting? Some people say faith comes from miracles. But others know: MIRACLES COME FROM FAITH!

Indian boy tops Nasa examination

Saurabh came top of 200,000 students worldwide.
A 17-year-old boy from an obscure village in northern India's Uttar Pradesh state has topped an international exam run by Nasa.

Saurabh Singh beat 200,000 students worldwide to top the prestigious International Scientist Discovery exam conducted by the National Aeronautical and Space Administration.

The other two Indians who passed the exam are President APJ Kalam and the late Nasa astronaut, Kalpana Chawla.

President Kalam was seventh in 1960 and Chawla 21st in 1988.


Dingy study
Now politicians, administrators, social workers and teachers are all vying to fete the boy from Ballia district.

"All this attention is so funny," says reticent Saurabh.
His study is a dingy corner in a dilapidated house

Saurabh's feat is all the more impressive because he hails from a backward district, with few passable roads and irregular electricity, in one of India's poorest states.

His father is a teacher while his mother is a health worker with the local government.

His study is a dingy, poorly-lit corner in a dilapidated house in obscure Narhi village, 55km (35 miles) from Ballia town.

After scoring 72% in his school leaving exam, Saurabh left for Rajasthan state to prepare for his engineering school papers. He read about the Nasa examination in a newspaper and decided to take it.

"I had never even heard of Nasa before I saw the newspaper advertisement. I realised I was familiar with the subjects as they were part of my school syllabuses. So I decided to take a chance," says Saurabh.


Grit and determination

He says he studied up to 18 hours a day preparing for one of the world's toughest exams.

Father Ram Keshwar Singh and son attend many ceremonies

He was put on a 100-strong shortlist to appear for the final Papers.

When the results came in, the reticent young boy from Ballia had excelled in all five subjects - scoring A++ in four and A+ in one.

Saurabh has now met President Kalam and cannot wait to go to Nasa.

"After reaching Nasa there will be no looking back for me. I will devote all my time to science and would love to return to India and work for my country," he says.

For the moment, his father takes him from one ceremony to another in Uttar Pradesh.

"Everyone wants him to celebrate his success," says Ram Keshwar Singh.
Even the state's legislators have decided to donate a part of their wages this month to set up a prize fund for Saurabh.

Saurabh's recipe for success is simple - "Where there's a will, there's a way," he says.

"Of course, honesty and determination should never be lacking."

I've been Blessed indeed

Today, upon a bus, I saw a very beautiful woman
And wished I were as beautiful.
When suddenly she rose to leave, I
saw her hobble down the aisle.
She had one leg and wore a crutch.
But as she passed, she passed a smile.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I have two legs; the world is mine.

I stopped to buy some candy.
The lad who sold it had such charm.
I talked with him, he seemed so glad.
If I were late, it'd do no harm.
And as I left, he said to me,
"I thank you, you've been so kind.
It's nice to talk with folks like you.
You see," he said, "I'm blind."
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I have two eyes; the world is mine.

Later while walking down the street,
I saw a child I knew.
He stood and watched the others play,
but he did not know what to do.
I stopped a moment and then I said,
"Why don't you join them dear?"
He looked ahead without a word.
I forgot, he couldn't hear.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I have two ears; the world is mine.

With feet to take me where I'd go...
With eyes to see the sunset's glow.
With ears to hear what I'd know.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I've been blessed indeed, the world is mine.

Give the gift of love. It never comes back empty

Reality Bites

Just saw the movie "Page 3" and my head's still reeling. Stark facts of life, but yet one refuses to believe or should I say, does not want to believe that such things do happen in real life.

For those who haven't yet seen the movie, it's a must watch.

Tum Bin

Was browsing the musicindiaonline site which MW had recommended and came across one of my favorite songs. Falls neither in the old nor new category, the lyrics go something like this...

Tum Bin Jiya Jaaye Kaise
Kaise Jiya Jaaye Tum Bin
Sadiyon Se Lambi Hain Raatein
Sadiyon Se Lambe Hue Din
Aa Jaao Lautkar Tum, Yeh Dil Keh Raha Hai...

Life 

Selflessness 

The Resort 

Foggy Morning 

Shrouded in Mist-tery 

Delhi and Flight delays!

Egad, I've never had such a trying time in my life. Got back from Delhi late last night due to a flight delay, couldnt even sleep in late as had to rush to work for an early morning presentation. So glad to get back home and relaxxxxxxxx...

This Delhi trip was really trying (our head office being at Delhi). Monday morning had to take the 8.05am flight and to our amazement on reaching the airport, my colleague (Resh) and I were informed that we'd have to move to a later flight on account of our flight being overbooked. We took the option of moving to another airline but that too was overbooked. At the nth hour our original airline managed to get seats for us and heaving a sigh of relief we boarded. However our relief was short lived when on arriving at Delhi, due to traffic n fog, we ended up circling atop the airport, and guess what, the plane ran out of fuel, so we headed to Jaipur for refueling, and then back to Delhi again. My nerves were stretched to the limit as we reached Delhi airport a good 5 hours after having left Bombay.

If Bombay was cold, then Delhi was an ice box. It was 9 degrees celsius and I spent all 3 days in Delhi wrapped up in a sweater, swaddled with a thick shawl, stockings to boot. Only thing missing were the gloves. The first nite the heater didnt work, so Resh n I (who too like me cant handle the cold weather) spent the nite, teeth chattering trying to keep warm under thick blankets. And to top it, it was pouring hard with thunder and lightning (crazy weather!)

However, the morning's were beautiful as we were put up at a resort, the entire place was shrouded in fog, dew on the grass floor, and the most beautiful sight was that of a peacock dancing to celebrate the rain. The evenings and nights were however extremely cold and luckily we managed to get the heater working.

Headed off for home last evening and guess what, our flight was delayed again! A good one hour later we managed to board the flight and thankfully this time reached destination with no diversions. Thank God for small mercies! And the temperature is really fluctuating big time, coz I remember when I left home it was cool and now it's really warm!!!

Selflessness

You give but little
when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself
that you truly give.

Heaven's store

As I was walking down Life's highway many years ago, I came upon a sign that read "Heavens Grocery Store".

When I got a little closer the doors swung open wide, And when I came to myself, I was standing inside. I saw a host of angels. They were standing everywhere, One handed me a basket and said "My child shop with care". EVERYTHING a human needed was in that grocery store. And what you could not carry you could come back for more. FIRST I got some Patience. Love was in that same row. Further down was Understanding, you need that everywhere you go. I GOT a box or two of Wisdom and Faith a bag or two. And Charity of course I would need some of that too. I COULDN'T MISS the Holy Ghost. It was all over the place. And then some Strength and Courage to help me run this race.

MY basket was getting full but I remembered I needed Grace. And then I chose Salvation, for Salvation was for free, So I tried to get enough of that to do for you and me. THEN I started to the counter to pay my grocery bill, For I thought I had everything to do the Masters will. AS I went up the aisle I saw Prayer and put that in, For I knew when I stepped outside I would run into Sin. PEACE and Joy were plentiful, the last things on the shelf, Song and Praise were hanging near so I just helped myself.

THEN I said to the angel, "Now how much do I owe?"
He smiled and said "Just take them everywhere you go."
AGAIN I asked "Really now, How much do I owe?".
"My child" he said, "God paid your bill a long long time ago."