The sail- back home!

Daddy is retiring! Just that he is completing his official tenure of service as he completes his 67years, the journey is all set to continue! He began in the year 1985 as a passionate young man, who was all set to serve the Lord. Born to parents in a small village down South Tamilnadu, little did he know that he would be instrumental in changing the lives of many!

From his dear hairdresser to his favourite doctor, we have interacted with all those who were/are a part of his life till date. I remember, a few years back an ironman who lived close by came to our house one fine morning with his daughter who had just completed her 12^th standard exams with a heart full of gratitude. It was just a month since he was deployed in that church then. The puzzled look on our faces (Mom and Me) continued until he started after a few minutes of silence, seems the previous day dad had accompanied the father and the daughter to a college which was some 25 kilometres away from our locality in bus and has done all that was required to get her a seat for a UG degree. We were so happy, but he did never talk about it at all the previous day or thereafter, as if it was not a big thing at all! It indeed was a big thing for me, for I knew how busy his schedule used to be then! He always lived on what he preached about!

We had lived in parsonages big and small, but we have never heard him complain, not once! He had never been after any man for any favour at all!  We did learn from him to appreciate every little thing in our lives! He is no super human, he does lose his temper quickly at times, and has a fragile heart, but just that he was faithful to his calling, to put on with the most difficult of times, to stay calm during storms and to walk away from situations that threatened his peace of mind!

It was during the year 2000, when he was diagnosed with glaucoma, which led to his partial loss of vision, all that he prayed was to have enough light in his eyes until he completed his service! His master has always been faithful to him, for there is still light in his eyes! There is light all around him! Faith does work miracles, and we have seen it all through thick and thin! Whenever we fall ill, the first thing we do is to ring him for prayer, and only then the doctor! We certainly owe all the blessings in our lives today to his prayers!

Thank you for being always there for us! Thank you for standing by the choices we made! We owe all that we are today to you daddy! We cannot repay even half of whatever you’ve done for us! If there is one thing that we could do, it would be to walk the path that you had shown us; to always look out for the difficulties faced by the people around us, to volunteer whenever possible for social work,  to give beyond what we think we could afford, to love unconditionally, to be honest in all circumstances, to help without any expectations, to always stand up for the right, to take it all to the Lord, to be humble and to be just us, no matter what!

Your momma would be very happy for you daddy as her dream is complete today! The standards that you had set for us are always high and we still aspire to meet them hundred percent! The values that your parents had passed on to you is what we always try to instil in our little sons too! When it comes to talking about our sons, I certainly want to tell something. Dad had never been upset about not having a son, though it was an endless point of concern for many, the good Lord has blessed him with two sons and four grandsons today!

Thank you for reading, please do remember him in your prayers! He is fondly known as Iyya by all and his Momma and Pappa chose to name him Asir Joseph. He is now Reverend M. Asir Joseph.