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This is the new incoming class of 2010 at Grace Bible School in Kathmandu. This Bible Seminary, led by Pastor Raj Kumar, trains young men and women from remote areas of Nepal. At the school they are provided with solid biblical and pastoral training which will enable them, when finished, to return to their villages and lead their congregation, and shepherd their communities. Due to the incredible poverty of these remote areas, each student has been sponsored and supported as God opened the doors for these men and women to receive the much needed training that will bring His kingdom to the people in areas that are still unreached. This October i have the honor of spending some time with these students and teaching on the topics of leadership and evangelism. Pray for us as we learn together!
We have been working with Sanumaya and her family for many years. Sanumaya’s husband died in a construction accident and left her alone with 4 small children. Over the years we have helped her with housing, food, and education for her kids. This past May when i went to visit with her, i found that her two youngest daughters were no longer in school. When i inquired as to why this was, she responded by telling me that she could no longer afford their school fees. i told her that it would be an honor to help her and that i would take care of any school fees required in order for them to register for their classes. Her daughter became very excited, but i noticed that Sanumaya was silent. The next day i returned with my friend and pastor, Raj Kumar. i asked Sanumaya about the situation and found out that her youngest daughter (12 yrs.) works cleaning houses and makes about 1000 NRP per month. (about $13 USD) Her older daughter (15 yrs.) makes about 1500 NRP per month. She told me that if her two daughters go back to school she would no longer be able to pay her house rent and would have no place to live. The money her children make covers the rent while the money she makes at her little bamboo tea shop in her neighborhood by the river, provides for their food. i found myself in the midst of a moral quandary. If i send the girls back to school to receive their much needed education i would end up putting the family out on the street. The next morning i met with Raj Kumar and the elders from his church to figure out our options. i discovered that for about $75-$100 i could provide Sanumaya with the training and equipment to operate her own candle making business. With only 8 hours of electricity provided per day in Kathmandu, there is an enormous demand for high quality candles and the revenue would easily provide the money she would need to offset the incomes of her two daughters. The next day i went with Pastor Raj Kumar and two of the elders from the church to share our idea with Sanumaya. As you can see from the photo, they are now both elated. Sanumaya is looking forward to the added dimension of her shop, learning a new trade, and having a solid education for her kids. Raj Kumar is also meeting with Sanumaya at her tea shop a couple times a week. While drinking tea, he continues to share the love of Jesus with her and the people who frequent her shop. An amazing connection!
It always seems like the never ending day. Starts out great, is miserable in the middle, and ends in euphoria. My day started at the Original Pancake House with Mike at around 6:30 am. That's the part thats great...good friends, giood food, and the anticipation of being back in Nepal. Then it is 5 hours to LA (with a little In And Out intermission thanks to the Thompsons!!) an 11 hour layover followed by a 17 hour flight to Thailand, with a 5 hour lay over (this is the miserable part), followed by 4 hours to Kathmandu. But upon landing, taking in the unique smells as you walk down the stairs of the plains roll away jet way, you forget about the fact that every muscle in your body aches from the small, confined space you have existed in for the past 42 hours. We headed out of the airport and wasted no time getting to our guest house, getting cleaned up with fresh clothed, and heading out into the streets of Thamel. Amy and i walked around Thamel as Amy was reunited with all the memories of 5 years ago when she traveled here on her first Peak Performance team. She was noticing all the things that were different, as well as many of the things that remained the same. After getting reaquainted we headed down to Visit Sanumaya, the mother of three of the girls we have been working with and a family i have been supporting for several years. Her husband died several years ago and she now works at a tea shop made of a bamboo and tarp shelter on the corner down by the river. We had tea and spent some time getting caught up with all that has been happening over the past few month. She shared some big needs that they had that we will take care of in the coming days, and i let her know that she is deeply loved. We then headed into Thamel as evening came and were immediately acosted by many of the street kids that we work with. It was soo good to see them all and here a bit about their lives and just sit and listen to them laugh and share their hearts. Maya, Rupa, Shova, Dipa, Rita, Gita, and Sangita all were there. The ministry had begun, connections were being made, and we are excited about what God is doing and look forward to all that is in store. Pray for us as we invest deeply in these relationships. We have lots of stuff planned for this week and are excited to see what God has in store. i'll keep ya posted!
Today was a real good day of connecting with many of our Nepali friends that we have been pouring into for the past several years. It began with pastries and orange Fanta on the patio of Hot Breads. Kamal is an 19 year old boy who has been living on his own since his mother died when he was 8. His father had already left the family with another woman and no one knew where he'd gone leaving Kamal and his twin siblings Sagar and Nisha (who many of you know) on the streets to fare for themselves. i was able to get Nisha into Shanta's house several years ago and have been supporting her ever since, but it wasn't until two years ago that we were able to find her two brothers. Now we are trying to help them with housing and steady work. Tomorrow both Kamal and his brother will loose the housing they have had due to the house boss closing down the building. They have been living there free of charge in exchange for working some hours in a restaurant and now they have no place to go. We arranged a time to go look for some possible rooms nearby their work, and we will see what we can do to get them a place to stay. After we met with Kamal we all went to visit Sanumaya. i knew from yesterday, that she was in need of some food, so on our way i bought 35 kg of premium long grain rice and a couple dozen eggs. The rice will be enough to feed her and her two daughters for a couple months. (not a bad investment for a mere $20) They saw me as we were walking towards her tea shop. Sanumaya got a big grin on her face and her daughter just laughed. i think the grin was because i was carrying a huge sack of rice on my shoulders and she assumed it wasn't because i wanted Dahl Bhat, and the laugh was because you never see white people carrying bags of rice on this side of town and i guess i stand out a little bit. :-) As we sat and talked with Sanumaya and one of her daughters, Sapana, i learned that neither Sapana or her youngest daughter Sarmila were attending school. When i asked why they had stopped, she explained that she had lost her job caring for her house bosses 5 cows due to some of her physical difficulties, and that she has not been able to make enough money selling tea to pay for the house rent, food, and the school fees. We talked for a while, and i told her that i would take care of the school fees if the girls would want to go back to school. Sapana lit up with a smile, and Sanumaya said she wanted them to be able to go back to school but had a significant concern that really sheds light on the plight of so many children in this country, especially here in the Thamel area. You see, both her daughters work doing house cleaning during the week. The youngest one brings in 1500 NRP while the middle daughter 2500 NRP (equivalent to $55) each month. Without that income, they would end up loosing their home and could not afford any other room and still have enough money for food. So she asked what she could do? Educate her daughters or not eat seems to be a pretty big dilemma right? My heart broke. This little woman works at her tea shop from 6 am until 9 pm 7 days a week and still cannot make enough to pay for food and housing. She works very hard and loves her kids so much, but has no education and after her husband died has struggled to survive. On Sunday i will take her to church with me and introduce her to Pastor Raj Kumar and make the necessary arrangements to take care of her house rent as well as her kids school fees ($20 a month). Please pray that as we seek to eliminate the pressure of meeting some of these physical needs, that God would work through this local church community to meet some of the emotional and spiritual needs of this family. Their oldest daughter, Paraboti, who many of you know, is now married and living in her husbands village with their 4 month old baby daughter. Please keep them all in your prayers as we seek to be the hands of Jesus with those who need a bed to sleep in and food to eat, as well as those who just need a mom and dad to tuck them in at night instead of having to worry if they will have a place to be tucked in at all. And most of all that they would come to know the love of Christ, the one who provides.
This past January God put together a phenomenal team of students for the purpose of taking the message of the love of Christ to the people of Nepal, both in the remote areas of the Annapurna region, as well as in the big cities of Kathmandu and Pokhara. The team came from all over the US as well as our first international team member who came all the way from Bolivia. The team was very diverse in personality, but one thing was certain, they all were deeply in love with Jesus, had a desire to share that love with others, and as a team their diversity came shining through in a culmination of giftedness that made sharing Christ a powerful experience. When it came time to plan our outreach event for over 480 students at a remote mountain village school, Kelly’s creativity came to life, Claudia’s gift of evangelism was definitely loosed, and Kate kept us all focused, organized, and on track. The result was several days of clearly communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ with all of the students, the faculty, and many other members of the community. The relationships continued to deepen during our time there and God continued to lay the foundation for continued ministry in this village.
We have been going to Ghandruk for many years now and are beginning to see a powerful moving of the Holy Spirit there. Up until 2 years ago there were only 3 know Christians within a 6 hour walk of this village. Last year a home church was started about an hour away. This year there is a church that has been started a stones throw from the big buddhist monastery we have been praying over for many years. This church has about 25-30 regular attenders and just had a huge Christmas celebration where the entire village was invited. Many of the people we have been investing in attended this celebration and were asking more and more questions about what it means to be a follower of Christ. We are so very excited to be a part of what God is doing here. Our Peak Team did an amazing job of furthering the gospel in this community and i am so excited to be back there this coming May to do some teaching at the church, some discipleship with the villagers, and continued prayer with our brothers and sisters who call this place home.
We had a chance to sit down with one of the elders of the church on our last night in Ghandruk. As we sat around the bon fire behind our guest house we were able to pray for him and the church, pray over our friends who were there who do not yet know Christ, and continue to shine the light of the love of Jesus with them. One of the requests that was shared that night was for more biblical training and discipleship for the leaders of their church. They do not have any formal training or seminary degrees. No libraries or resources in their language. i will be working on getting them those resources through Desiring God ministries/Packing Hope, and will be planning some trips to help with ongoing training. Join me in praying as we seek to eliminate this need!
This past January i had something happen to me that i had never experienced before but anticipate will occur more and more in the future. It both breaks my heart and induces a bit of a holy rage within me. As many of you know, much of the work we do in Nepal is with many of the young girls who are at risk of being trafficked into the brothels both in Nepal as well as places like India. Many of these girls come from poor families and are working to help the family make enough money to pay house rent, buy food, and maybe someday have enough to enroll in school. One one of the last nights in Kathmandu, i had been spending some significant time with two young girls aged 13 and 14 who were selling small purses to tourists in the Thamel district. Earlier in the evening, one of them asked me if i could buy them some break to take home for their families. i said i would come back that evening before they went home and get them what they needed.
At about 9:30 pm i headed back into the busy streets of Thamel to take these girls to the bakery. On my way to the main intersection, where the girls would stand selling their bags, i was approached by a young boy in his late teens. assuming he was about to offer me "hashish" which is a very common occurrence in this area, i simply ignored him. As i walked, he matched my pace and whispered into my ear, "Would you like a nice Nepali girl?". Expecting something totally different, i was entirely caught off guard by the words he had uttered into my ear. i had been offered a lot of things during my time in Nepal, but no one had ever been so bold as to offer me this. i simply ignored the boy and kept walking. He continued walking beside me, and kept rephrasing his questions in hopes that i would accept his offer. The anger rose inside me as i thought of the girls on the streets who we work so hard to save from this very thing. Finally, i stopped, turned to face him, looked him in the eyes and told him i plain and simple language that i was not interested and that he needed to "go away". i then turned and continued walking. To my surprise, my "warning" was unheeded and he continued to hassle me. i stopped three times telling him i was not interested and that he needed to go away. Finally, on my last attempt to put an end to his badgering, he got close to my face and said to me, "...but they are very young, very beautiful, and very good Nepali girls.".
i have often imagined what Jesus was thinking after He left the temple courts enraged at what He saw. i have imagined what was going through the mind of our Lord when in John chapter 2 it tells us that He went and made a whip of cords, which takes a bit of time i would think, and went and "cleared the temple". Moved by a righteous anger, He responded with actions that sent a clear message that this was not the way His Father intended things to be, and that this would not be tolerated.
Now, i am not Jesus, and do not claim that my actions always line up exactly with how Jesus would do things, but i do know that the anger and rage in my heart over the fact that statistics now say that in the small tourist area of Kathmandu, knows simply as Thamel, now house more than 30,000 young women who work in brothels as prostitutes was and is a righteous anger. i know that the anger of knowing that one young lady we got off the streets a year ago and into school has now resorted to working in such a place in order to "help feed the family" is a holy anger. i know that as i was on my way to pour into the lives of 2 young lady's in an attempt to show them the love of Jesus and the hope of a different life that the anger i now felt rising up within me was both a holy anger and a righteous rage. Now whether the actions that came where like those of Jesus might be up for debate, but there was a clear message sent to this young boy that this was not the way things were supposed to be, nor will this type of activity be tolerated at least by this particular "tourist".
Over the course of the next 3 days not only did i have opportunity to talk with the girls about this situation, but also several shop owners who witnessed the "interaction". i also had a couple exchanges with that young boy and hope to have an ongoing conversation with him when i go back in a few months. What this did do is increase my awareness of how desperate this has become, and remind me of how very important the work is that we are doing on the streets of Nepal. Over the next few weeks i will share with you some specific stories of young women who are at risk. i will tell you their stories, their circumstances, and how you can be praying specifically for the work we are doing. In some cases there are very specific things you can do to help get them off the streets, into schools, and provide a better life for them and their families. But please know that your support and prayers are such a huge and much needed blessing to continue the work that we are doing.
With an "impressionable" memory left on the "minds" of all those involved in this unfortunate situation, lets remember to pray for both the boys and the girls that are being lured into this devastating and destructive stuff happening all over Nepal. If you want to know more regarding the trafficking taking place in Nepal, please visit our partnership in Nepal, www.peacerehab.org
God Bless, and thanks so much for your involvement in this ministry!
Thanks,
Your sometimes imperfect (or not) representation of Jesus
