We woke up this morning about 7 a.m. after sleeping about 9 hours! The rest of the team seems to be having some trouble with jet lag as most talked about being awake off and on the majority of the night. Sam & I walked around the outside of the hotel for a few minutes before breakfast. The hotel grounds are very nice.
Breakfast was a nice buffet at 8:30. Then we just visited and talked about the JF and what some of the social and religious views were here in this country. Dr. Hermann G. is the field director for the COTN over the SE Asia region. He is here with us today and is a very learned and experienced person in this area of ministry. We were also joined by D, a “tentmaker” from another denomination. He is here working with multi-media but he and his wife rescue young women. He has lived here for several years. The insight from both of these men was very informative and interesting. We know that this is an area where churches are officially outlawed but unofficially accepted. We also spent a little time introducing ourselves and finding out a little about the other team members. There are just 6 of us, not counting Dr. G and D. Darrell is our team leader and works for JFHP. Mike goes to the same church as Darrell in Washington State. Gordan runs a company founded by his father-in-law and lives in South Texas. He was here in Nepal 2 yrs ago. The company he runs puts a portion of their proceeds into a fund called “Investments Eternal” which they use to build churches, etc. They have funded the Ministry Center we will be visiting today for its dedication. The last member of our team is Davina. She is a nurse from California. Our morning meeting lasted until noon.
After lunch we were all told to get ready for a visit to the ministry center. But, although the small bus was ready to take us and we were all ready to go by 1 p.m. it was closer to 2:30 before we left. No problem…..they were just not ready for us to be there at that time! But, soon enough we were in the bus and taken across the city to the site of the ministry center. It is located right in the middle of a residential area and is a building that really looks quite like the houses all around it. It is 4 story and not quite finished. There was a nice turnout of local people with probably half of them being children. There was a little speech by Darrell and one by Gordon and then Gordon cut the red ribbon officially opening the center. The room we were led to on the third floor was nearly completed. It was quite large. There were chairs along the front of the room facing the “congregation.” Of course, those chairs were for all of the team to sit in. There was a little speaking from the COTN District Superintendent, Dilli, plus speaking from Dr. G, Gordon and Darrell. The rest of us were just introduced and thankfully didn’t have to speak! A couple of songs were sung, presentations of flower bouquets to all the team members and beautiful long pashima scarves to Davina and myself and short ones to all the men were made. A prayer was given and then refreshments passed out. There was a hot tea that resembled chai and a small box of a variety of snacks with a samosa that was quite spicy, a couple of “cookies,” some spiced crackers and a very sweet sugary sticky candy. We toured the rest of the building and then made our way across the field to the bus (it couldn’t maneuver the “road” to the ministry center). We did get to see just a little bit of the low mountains surrounding the Kathmandu Valley as the clouds thinned enough to see them.
After we left there around 5 p.m. we came back to the hotel. Supper was at 6:30 where we all just ate lightly. I had a wonderful soup called Thukpa which was a traditional Sherpa noodle soup with bits of chicken and vegetables. Sam had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Too much to eat today!
There were at least two different receptions at the hotel tonight. There was a large one outside the dining room in the hotel gardens. I believe it was probably a wedding. We never saw the honored guests as they sat hidden from our view but there was a huge tent, music, a big buffet and lots and lots of guests.
Tonight we need to pack up our suitcases as we leave in the morning for the far west side of Nepal. More experiences to come in the next few days.
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