In our busy daily schedules, it can become all too easy to forget about (and sometimes ignore) "peripheral issues" — all those unexpected interrupts that call for our immediate attention, action and concern. THINK: disaster relief in Haiti, or a hostage crisis on a small town college campus, or a train wreck in northern India, or a starving family standing on a street corner in Mumbai. Dealing with local struggles — at a community level or within a family — often provides more than enough stress in our compressed and hectic lives. And so we tend to NOT LOOK too far outside our comfort zone .... for fear of swallowing more than we can handle, and digest.

But when we study long and hard the Good News [Gospel] of Jesus, we see a message that challenges our conventional way of thinking. Jesus focussed his ministry on reaching-out to others. He devoted his time, and energy, to healing, and teaching .... and helping, and restoring people in need. People in need of the love of God. People ... forgotten, lost, broken, and abandoned.  People searching for hope.  People searching for answers ... and for love.

Author Henri Nouwen [in his book 'Bread for the Journey'] writes:

Is everybody finally going to be all right? Are all people ultimately going to be free from misery and all their needs fulfilled? Yes and no! Yes, because God wants to bring us home into God's Kingdom. No, because nothing happens without our choosing it. The realisation of the Kingdom of God is God's work, but for God to make God's love fully visible in us, we must respond to God's love with our love."

Bringing the message of God's love to the people of India — ... of Kerala and Anantapur — is at the heart of our mission.  We respond to God's love — and His call to love fully —  ... with a deeply personal love of our own.  A love that extends beyond our comfort zone.  A love that stands in front of our fears ... to say 'Yes' to God.  A love that says "even though I do not know you, even though you live thousands of miles away, you are my friend.  And I care about you."

A famous John Maxwell quote says:

People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care."  ... Or, to put in slightly different words: "People don't care what you know;  they want to know that you care."

The Malabar Mission Society exists because people care about one another.  We care about our brothers and sisters in India.  We care if they have (or do not have .. but should have) a church for worship, a Reading Room for studying God's Word, a nursery school for nurturing and learning, or a hospital (or Christian Welfare Centre) with beds for healing .. and with hands giving hope. 

What began as an extension of the compassionate care, and love, and mission of Rev. and Mrs. Roland Miller (from 1953 to 1976, along the Malabar coast) .... continues today, 20+ years later.  It is daily reminder that .... "

The realisation of the Kingdom of God is God's work, but for God to make God's love
fully visible in us, we must respond to God's love with our love".

And this is WHY we care!