Kirkspire november 2006
St Andrew’s Church Village Project
our social worker
Murdoch MacKenzie
In April 1974 the following article appeared in the Kirkspire:
How would you like to live in a village? How would you like to move out of the 20th century and back into rural India? How would you like to have no ‘mod-cons’, no flush-out, no running water, no electricity, no fan, no bathroom? How, in other words, would you like to live in Pralayampakkam Panchayat? Probably when you visit the place you will feel that you would very much like to live there. There in the village there is peace and quiet. The smoke and the grime of pollution is unknown. The intense noise of incessant motorcars, racing their engines and honking their horns is completely absent. There in Pralayampakkam the telephone does not ring! There is peace.
Few of us have the opportunity of living there even if we wished to do so but we are fortunate that there is a young man who is living there on our behalf. His name is Mohamed Abdul Subhan. Extremely smart, soft-spoken, with a real sympathy for the village people, Mr Subhan has been working in our village project since 14th January. With a BSc. And a Diploma in Social Service Administration, Mr Subhan was engaged in research at the Madras School of Social Work when he heard the call to leave the supposed comfort of the city and work in a village. Even among professional social workers it is difficult to find those dedicated enough to work in villages.
A man of considerable talents, Mr Subhan is fluent in English, Tamil, Hindi, Urdu and Arabic. He is a good hockey and cricket player and while a student was editor of various magazines and periodicals. Now he is devoting his time and energy, on our behalf, to develop the potential of those living in Pralayampakkam Panchayat. He needs our support and our prayers. Please do try to go with him and visit the area and see what we, as a congregation, are doing there. Any Saturday anyone wishing to go will be welcome. Apart from this we will be making a special visit to the village on INDEPENDENCE DAY August 15th. Please book this in your diary NOW and make it a MUST.
Mr Subhan is a young Indian, who has a vision of the new India of which we all speak. But he is actually giving his life for this work. We, as a congregation, have a tremendous opportunity to make this project a success. But opportunity only knocks once. It is knocking NOW. You, dear reader, can help, for Christ’s Sake.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-
To learn what happened next we will have to wait till December. Suffice it to say that Mr Subhan, or Abdul, as he came to be known, wholly identified himself with the villagers. At first he had some difficulties in being accepted by them but things changed dramatically early one morning. He was squatting in a field, as there were no toilets, and he was badly bitten by a snake. The villagers took him by bullock-cart to hospital in Ponneri. There, by God’s grace, he recovered. The villagers had literally saved his life. They had ministered to him rather than him ministering to them. After that relationships changed from suspicion to acceptance. The Lord does move in mysterious ways and there is much that we can still learn from this for our relationship with the people of Pralayampakkam.
Murdoch MacKenzie
In April 1974 the following article appeared in the Kirkspire:
How would you like to live in a village? How would you like to move out of the 20th century and back into rural India? How would you like to have no ‘mod-cons’, no flush-out, no running water, no electricity, no fan, no bathroom? How, in other words, would you like to live in Pralayampakkam Panchayat? Probably when you visit the place you will feel that you would very much like to live there. There in the village there is peace and quiet. The smoke and the grime of pollution is unknown. The intense noise of incessant motorcars, racing their engines and honking their horns is completely absent. There in Pralayampakkam the telephone does not ring! There is peace.
Few of us have the opportunity of living there even if we wished to do so but we are fortunate that there is a young man who is living there on our behalf. His name is Mohamed Abdul Subhan. Extremely smart, soft-spoken, with a real sympathy for the village people, Mr Subhan has been working in our village project since 14th January. With a BSc. And a Diploma in Social Service Administration, Mr Subhan was engaged in research at the Madras School of Social Work when he heard the call to leave the supposed comfort of the city and work in a village. Even among professional social workers it is difficult to find those dedicated enough to work in villages.
A man of considerable talents, Mr Subhan is fluent in English, Tamil, Hindi, Urdu and Arabic. He is a good hockey and cricket player and while a student was editor of various magazines and periodicals. Now he is devoting his time and energy, on our behalf, to develop the potential of those living in Pralayampakkam Panchayat. He needs our support and our prayers. Please do try to go with him and visit the area and see what we, as a congregation, are doing there. Any Saturday anyone wishing to go will be welcome. Apart from this we will be making a special visit to the village on INDEPENDENCE DAY August 15th. Please book this in your diary NOW and make it a MUST.
Mr Subhan is a young Indian, who has a vision of the new India of which we all speak. But he is actually giving his life for this work. We, as a congregation, have a tremendous opportunity to make this project a success. But opportunity only knocks once. It is knocking NOW. You, dear reader, can help, for Christ’s Sake.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-
To learn what happened next we will have to wait till December. Suffice it to say that Mr Subhan, or Abdul, as he came to be known, wholly identified himself with the villagers. At first he had some difficulties in being accepted by them but things changed dramatically early one morning. He was squatting in a field, as there were no toilets, and he was badly bitten by a snake. The villagers took him by bullock-cart to hospital in Ponneri. There, by God’s grace, he recovered. The villagers had literally saved his life. They had ministered to him rather than him ministering to them. After that relationships changed from suspicion to acceptance. The Lord does move in mysterious ways and there is much that we can still learn from this for our relationship with the people of Pralayampakkam.
Murdoch MacKenzie
