First Days in Nepal
We arrived in Nepal after 26 hrs of flying and several layovers. Our first day was spent planning for the week and visiting the old Palace. The city of Kathmandu has about 2.5 million people, a bit bigger then Houston. For reference, Houston covers 600 sq miles but Kathmandu is squashed into 200. Although Bangalore, where we spent 3 months in 2012 had 10 million people it was very similar to Kathmandu in many ways. Kathmandu has few paved roads so it is very dusty but not as much garbage as Bangalore (this was a major problem there). There are no lines on the roads, stop lights or stop signs in Kathmandu so driving is crazy!
The second day, Saturday, is the day they hold church services here as it is the day off from work. After the services we had a great meeting with the leaders of Bethlehem Church in Kathmandu. The people are just lovely! On the topic of foster care, there are three ladies in the church who are caring for children in their homes already and the pastor has what we would call a small group home in his house. This is important as it means it is a concept they are open to and interested in. We also spoke with them about a livelihood project, which, in our previous communications with them, they had expressed an interest in. On the topic of business development, they were very excited about the thought of starting a revolving loan in their church and full of lots of great ideas. A number own their own businesses but are struggling to sustain them. From this information we learned what is important to them and how to best partner to assist the Nepali people.
Nepal has been in the process of developing a constitution since the civil war ended in 2006. They are holding elections for what will be the third attempt at a constitutional congress (this is a first in history, no other country has taken three congresses to come up with a constitution). These elections were scheduled after we bought our tickets or we wouldn't have come at this time. We were worried that the elections would cause us not to be able to accomplish our work. There were some marches for the various political candidates and strikes scheduled. Several Nepalis advised us to change our plans but that just wasn't possible. We asked for prayer about this and spent a lot of prayer time on it ourselves. Praise the Lord he answered all these prayers. The strikes came to nothing and the only effect we saw of the elections was that there was less traffic in the capital for a few days before. All parties signed an agreement not to interfere with tourist as that is the countries main income source.
Days 3-5 in Nepal.
On Sunday, we met with about 40 representatives from 20 non-denominational churches around Kathmandu. We shared information on foster care and on revolving loan/business coaching programs. We also divided them into groups and had them answer questions to give us a better idea of their thoughts on both ideas and how they see their church participating. All the pastors were enthusiastic and had some wonderful ideas to share. We provided lunch for them and enjoyed a time of worship and prayer as well.
During these three days we also visited the church free meal program, two small group homes in the city, and with Prison Fellowship Nepal's director. The group homes each had ten children living with a family. These family-like settings are a step in the right direction and the host families really love the kids. Prison Fellowship has a foster care program for prisoner's children (who otherwise would be living with their parents in the prison). The director shared information about their program such as the contracts they have with the families, how they select the families, and how they select the children. He also discribed other wonderful activities the group is doing to change the life of prisoners in Nepal.
On election day we stayed in the house transcribing the information we gathered from the churches from Nepali to English. We had the groups of 3-4 pastors answer questions in writing so these were translated and put into a spread sheet for later. We also worked with our fantastic host, Mahadev, on plans for our trip to the village and how we would modify our presentation for this group.
Village tour
We spent the last four days seeing "the real Nepal". This trip was not for the faint of heart. We should have know it would be difficult travel. While looking at a map and asking our host about the roads, when we got to this end part, he said, "No road brother, no road." It took 12 hours driving to travel 150 miles because of the condition and windiness of the roads. The last four hours of travel was only 25 miles which was not actually classified as a road. The sides were very steep and it was a scarey ride. I was thankful we were caring three pastors in the car. Although not theologically correct, I felt like I had a better chance of surviving with these men of God in the car! We then walked a goat trail on the side of a very steep hill as the village did not have a road going all the way. Luckily, it was dark by then so it wasn't until the next morning that I knew there was a 900 ft drop on the sides. Actually, the region we went to, Ramechhap, was only 60 miles from Kathmandu as the crow flies but since we don't have a helicopter it took us all day.
Kathmandu has been very similar to India but a few steps down on the development scale. The rural area was like nothing we've seen. Unbelievably beautiful, literally the foothills of the Himalayas, but a very difficult life. Living on the side of a mountain, carving out terraces, sometimes only 3 - 5 feet wide, to farm on. A bit of electricity from small (notebook paper size) solar panels. Growing just enough to live on and no way to make money to buy the things you can't make yourself. People survive on millet or rice. Some have banana or orange trees, and some have cows or water buffalo for milk. There are no doctors or pharmacies. There is a very poor quality government school 2-4 hours walk one way. These government schools have very high teacher student ratios (one in India had 2 teachers for 250 students), just a few books to share, no sanitation facilities, and the teaching methods would be considered emotional abuse in the US.
In the village we met with thirty-three pastors from sixteen mountain churches to discuss a family strengthening and livelihood project. These men had walked from mountain tops all around some for up to four hours to meet with us. How humbling! It was fantastic to hear their ideas and learn from them about the needs of the community. We talked about what they felt children needed to be safe and healthy and how we could help the poverty level in the area. After this discussion, God gave me a model for a family strengthening program in this rural area which includes training someone to do assessment of families at risk in six key indicators, monitoring them regularly and providing resources when needed, and to provide the community with training in the areas the pastors felt were weak such as child development, nutrition, and the importance of education. By far the most important need to everyone at the meeting was a good school for their children. They are very distressed by the effect living there has on their children's lack of education. We have been discussing then best way to meet this need probably by training locals in education practices with the help of US volunteers (be praying about this any teachers out there) and providing scholarships to youth who want to pursue a degree in teaching.
The second day we hiked to another mountain village, Priti (pronounced pretty) where we were the first foreigners ever to visit. To get there we hike down "our" mountain, starting at 4947 ft elevation (that's a bit less then Denver at 5280 and for you SC peeps it is more then 2x Table Rock). We hiked down the mountain to the bottom of the valley at 4012 ft. Then we ascended to 6630 feet to the top of the next mountain. That is a 2600 ft elevation gain! (hiking Table Rock you hike at 850 ft elevation gain). It was very difficult because we were already so high up and the air is thinner. It took a bit to learn how to breath deep enough. We spent four hours at the top and then repeated the process in reverse. The entire trip was 12 miles and it took us almost seven hours. Our total elevation gain was 3500 feet. That's like climbing Table Rock over 4x in one day!
It was so worth the trouble! Of course the view of Everest was amazing. More then that though, the people were so grateful to us. As I said, no foreigners had ever been there before. Another group was supposed to come a month ago for the dedication of their church but couldn't make it up the mountain and they had been so disappointed. They know it is hard to get to them and were so pleased we made the effort. They repeatedly thanked us and we participated in a ceremony at the church to make up for their loss of visitors last month. They were excited and all wanted their picture taken. Even a week later, the pastor in Kathmandu said the people of Priti were still talking about how wonderful it was that we were able to visit them. A funny note - Jimmy Carter was in the country monitoring the elections and several people not with the church asked us if we were with Jimmy.
During the time in Ramechhap, we visited about half of the twelve Bethlehem churches in the region. At each one we prayed for the pastor and the body of the church. Most of these little villages have 100 - 300 residents. The pastors hike up and down mountains to visit their churches. They live in such poverty. What a blessing to see the faith of these people. Such dedication!
On the way back to Kathmandu we were able to give a ride to two very sick people and their family members who needed to get to the city hospital. It's so hard for them with no doctor nearby. There is a clinic in Jiri four hours away but if they have difficult illnesses they must travel the 13 hours to Kathmandu. It was great they could get a ride from us as otherwise they would have to be carried a great distance and then ride a bus for all those hours. I felt sorry for them. They had never ridden in a car before and were sick until I dug out some Dramamine.
Last two days in Nepal
Our last days were very good meeting with various NGO and government officials. One day we visited World Vision, Terre des Hommes, United Missionaries in Nepal, and the Department of Social Welfare. The last day we visited Higher Ground. From these organizations we got some great insight into livelihood and alternative childcare programs already in practice, where the gaps are, and learned the process for becoming recognized by the government. We have been able to get more information and insight then I ever thought possible on such a short trip and have a great foundation to begin the next steps of this project. It is really wonderful how God put all the pieces together!
Coming home took 70 hours due to our first flight out to Kathmandu being 3 hours late. We missed our flight from Istanbul to the US and had to stay there overnight. This made us miss our Chicago flight so we stayed there overnight. Finally arrived in SC Friday evening. The difficulty of returning made us realize how amazing our trip had been as far as logistics. We accomplished so much in so little time with no problems at all. What a God thing!
Check out the gallery for tons of pics!
We arrived in Nepal after 26 hrs of flying and several layovers. Our first day was spent planning for the week and visiting the old Palace. The city of Kathmandu has about 2.5 million people, a bit bigger then Houston. For reference, Houston covers 600 sq miles but Kathmandu is squashed into 200. Although Bangalore, where we spent 3 months in 2012 had 10 million people it was very similar to Kathmandu in many ways. Kathmandu has few paved roads so it is very dusty but not as much garbage as Bangalore (this was a major problem there). There are no lines on the roads, stop lights or stop signs in Kathmandu so driving is crazy!
The second day, Saturday, is the day they hold church services here as it is the day off from work. After the services we had a great meeting with the leaders of Bethlehem Church in Kathmandu. The people are just lovely! On the topic of foster care, there are three ladies in the church who are caring for children in their homes already and the pastor has what we would call a small group home in his house. This is important as it means it is a concept they are open to and interested in. We also spoke with them about a livelihood project, which, in our previous communications with them, they had expressed an interest in. On the topic of business development, they were very excited about the thought of starting a revolving loan in their church and full of lots of great ideas. A number own their own businesses but are struggling to sustain them. From this information we learned what is important to them and how to best partner to assist the Nepali people.
Nepal has been in the process of developing a constitution since the civil war ended in 2006. They are holding elections for what will be the third attempt at a constitutional congress (this is a first in history, no other country has taken three congresses to come up with a constitution). These elections were scheduled after we bought our tickets or we wouldn't have come at this time. We were worried that the elections would cause us not to be able to accomplish our work. There were some marches for the various political candidates and strikes scheduled. Several Nepalis advised us to change our plans but that just wasn't possible. We asked for prayer about this and spent a lot of prayer time on it ourselves. Praise the Lord he answered all these prayers. The strikes came to nothing and the only effect we saw of the elections was that there was less traffic in the capital for a few days before. All parties signed an agreement not to interfere with tourist as that is the countries main income source.
Days 3-5 in Nepal.
On Sunday, we met with about 40 representatives from 20 non-denominational churches around Kathmandu. We shared information on foster care and on revolving loan/business coaching programs. We also divided them into groups and had them answer questions to give us a better idea of their thoughts on both ideas and how they see their church participating. All the pastors were enthusiastic and had some wonderful ideas to share. We provided lunch for them and enjoyed a time of worship and prayer as well.
During these three days we also visited the church free meal program, two small group homes in the city, and with Prison Fellowship Nepal's director. The group homes each had ten children living with a family. These family-like settings are a step in the right direction and the host families really love the kids. Prison Fellowship has a foster care program for prisoner's children (who otherwise would be living with their parents in the prison). The director shared information about their program such as the contracts they have with the families, how they select the families, and how they select the children. He also discribed other wonderful activities the group is doing to change the life of prisoners in Nepal.
On election day we stayed in the house transcribing the information we gathered from the churches from Nepali to English. We had the groups of 3-4 pastors answer questions in writing so these were translated and put into a spread sheet for later. We also worked with our fantastic host, Mahadev, on plans for our trip to the village and how we would modify our presentation for this group.
Village tour
We spent the last four days seeing "the real Nepal". This trip was not for the faint of heart. We should have know it would be difficult travel. While looking at a map and asking our host about the roads, when we got to this end part, he said, "No road brother, no road." It took 12 hours driving to travel 150 miles because of the condition and windiness of the roads. The last four hours of travel was only 25 miles which was not actually classified as a road. The sides were very steep and it was a scarey ride. I was thankful we were caring three pastors in the car. Although not theologically correct, I felt like I had a better chance of surviving with these men of God in the car! We then walked a goat trail on the side of a very steep hill as the village did not have a road going all the way. Luckily, it was dark by then so it wasn't until the next morning that I knew there was a 900 ft drop on the sides. Actually, the region we went to, Ramechhap, was only 60 miles from Kathmandu as the crow flies but since we don't have a helicopter it took us all day.
Kathmandu has been very similar to India but a few steps down on the development scale. The rural area was like nothing we've seen. Unbelievably beautiful, literally the foothills of the Himalayas, but a very difficult life. Living on the side of a mountain, carving out terraces, sometimes only 3 - 5 feet wide, to farm on. A bit of electricity from small (notebook paper size) solar panels. Growing just enough to live on and no way to make money to buy the things you can't make yourself. People survive on millet or rice. Some have banana or orange trees, and some have cows or water buffalo for milk. There are no doctors or pharmacies. There is a very poor quality government school 2-4 hours walk one way. These government schools have very high teacher student ratios (one in India had 2 teachers for 250 students), just a few books to share, no sanitation facilities, and the teaching methods would be considered emotional abuse in the US.
In the village we met with thirty-three pastors from sixteen mountain churches to discuss a family strengthening and livelihood project. These men had walked from mountain tops all around some for up to four hours to meet with us. How humbling! It was fantastic to hear their ideas and learn from them about the needs of the community. We talked about what they felt children needed to be safe and healthy and how we could help the poverty level in the area. After this discussion, God gave me a model for a family strengthening program in this rural area which includes training someone to do assessment of families at risk in six key indicators, monitoring them regularly and providing resources when needed, and to provide the community with training in the areas the pastors felt were weak such as child development, nutrition, and the importance of education. By far the most important need to everyone at the meeting was a good school for their children. They are very distressed by the effect living there has on their children's lack of education. We have been discussing then best way to meet this need probably by training locals in education practices with the help of US volunteers (be praying about this any teachers out there) and providing scholarships to youth who want to pursue a degree in teaching.
The second day we hiked to another mountain village, Priti (pronounced pretty) where we were the first foreigners ever to visit. To get there we hike down "our" mountain, starting at 4947 ft elevation (that's a bit less then Denver at 5280 and for you SC peeps it is more then 2x Table Rock). We hiked down the mountain to the bottom of the valley at 4012 ft. Then we ascended to 6630 feet to the top of the next mountain. That is a 2600 ft elevation gain! (hiking Table Rock you hike at 850 ft elevation gain). It was very difficult because we were already so high up and the air is thinner. It took a bit to learn how to breath deep enough. We spent four hours at the top and then repeated the process in reverse. The entire trip was 12 miles and it took us almost seven hours. Our total elevation gain was 3500 feet. That's like climbing Table Rock over 4x in one day!
It was so worth the trouble! Of course the view of Everest was amazing. More then that though, the people were so grateful to us. As I said, no foreigners had ever been there before. Another group was supposed to come a month ago for the dedication of their church but couldn't make it up the mountain and they had been so disappointed. They know it is hard to get to them and were so pleased we made the effort. They repeatedly thanked us and we participated in a ceremony at the church to make up for their loss of visitors last month. They were excited and all wanted their picture taken. Even a week later, the pastor in Kathmandu said the people of Priti were still talking about how wonderful it was that we were able to visit them. A funny note - Jimmy Carter was in the country monitoring the elections and several people not with the church asked us if we were with Jimmy.
During the time in Ramechhap, we visited about half of the twelve Bethlehem churches in the region. At each one we prayed for the pastor and the body of the church. Most of these little villages have 100 - 300 residents. The pastors hike up and down mountains to visit their churches. They live in such poverty. What a blessing to see the faith of these people. Such dedication!
On the way back to Kathmandu we were able to give a ride to two very sick people and their family members who needed to get to the city hospital. It's so hard for them with no doctor nearby. There is a clinic in Jiri four hours away but if they have difficult illnesses they must travel the 13 hours to Kathmandu. It was great they could get a ride from us as otherwise they would have to be carried a great distance and then ride a bus for all those hours. I felt sorry for them. They had never ridden in a car before and were sick until I dug out some Dramamine.
Last two days in Nepal
Our last days were very good meeting with various NGO and government officials. One day we visited World Vision, Terre des Hommes, United Missionaries in Nepal, and the Department of Social Welfare. The last day we visited Higher Ground. From these organizations we got some great insight into livelihood and alternative childcare programs already in practice, where the gaps are, and learned the process for becoming recognized by the government. We have been able to get more information and insight then I ever thought possible on such a short trip and have a great foundation to begin the next steps of this project. It is really wonderful how God put all the pieces together!
Coming home took 70 hours due to our first flight out to Kathmandu being 3 hours late. We missed our flight from Istanbul to the US and had to stay there overnight. This made us miss our Chicago flight so we stayed there overnight. Finally arrived in SC Friday evening. The difficulty of returning made us realize how amazing our trip had been as far as logistics. We accomplished so much in so little time with no problems at all. What a God thing!
Check out the gallery for tons of pics!
