Tuesday, Feb 5, 2013

It’s a very rainy morning.  A storm came in during the night and we awaken to clouds and rain.  This morning was a free morning.  Our local hosts didn’t have anything planned for us until afternoon  so we had planned to walk around the neighborhood some as a team.  Of course, we never go anywhere alone, especially in a country in which none of us can speak the language.  There is some English spoken here but it is sometimes hard to understand.  Breakfast this morning was Dal and Nan.  Dal is a potato/vegetable curry and Nan is the flat tortilla style bread.  When we left the dining room after breakfast we saw that the hotel was setting up a buffet line in the hall outside the restaurant.  Also in that hallway were some police/military men with very serious looking guns strapped on their bodies.  We smiled and walked on….but Darrell decided he’d try to find out what was going on.  The rest of us left him to his questioning and walked away.  Because of the heavy rain we spent the morning in our rooms.  We met in the dining room for lunch at 11:15.  We needed to be finished and ready to leave at 12:00 according to S.  While waiting in the lobby for some of the rest of our team we noticed the parking lot full of very nice cars and many police/militia standing around on the ground floor of the hotel and near the conference room.  The dining room was empty as we entered but the restaurant personnel were extremely busy rushing around.  It took us from 11:15 to 1 p.m. to completely be served and to finish our meal.  Apparently the meeting was something concerned with the government and a very high profile important event.  As we ate the remainder of the tables were filled with meeting attendees.  I’m sure it took so long to serve us because their focus was on the main event.  But, by 1 p.m. we were out in the van ready to go and it was just lightly misting.

We drove out of town toward the north, I believe, through little villages and one fairly large town.  Then we started going up into the mountains.  Everyone was calling them the Lesser Himalayas.  We were trying to figure out how tall they were by looking for the tree line as we were approaching.  Maybe 6-10,000 ft.  We didn’t go very far up before we went over an old wooden trestle bridge over a river.  We drove just a short distance past the bridge and turned around and drove back to the bridge where we got out of the van.  We then walked across the bridge taking care to walk only on the car tracks.  We were warned by M and S that this bridge had a history of weak boards where people had fallen through.  Off to the side of this bridge there was a newer concrete bridge being built, some of it by hand.  We saw women on the bridge swinging hammers breaking up rock and under the bridge were many women and some men carrying river rocks.  Right past the bridge was an area with some old Buddhist shrines and prayer flags.  As we wandered among them we were met by a couple of men who then showed us that the building we were next to was a small Buddhist monastery.  He also explained that the multicolored flags were prayer requests for healing from the faithful who believed that when the wind blew them their prayers would go to heaven.  Across the road was a small hotel.  We went there looking for something to drink but basically all they had was alcohol, orange Fanta and Mountain Dew!  Pass on the drinks…we’ll wait until later.   I asked S what the significance of the location was where we were.  It was called Godawari Park.  The river was where the Hindus came to wash to cleanse their sins.  It was also a river where they cremated their dead and floated the death barges down the river.  He said that in Nepal the Buddhists and Hindus were essentially the same and that Buddha was born in Nepal.  By this time we were finished seeing the area so got back into the van and came back to town.

We got back just after 3:30 and had to have supper and be ready to leave for the evening JF showing at 5:30. Supper this evening was just a light meal as nobody really was very hungry.  We are really eating plenty and not doing much to wear it off.  I had some chicken momo’s  (similar to pot stickers) and Sam had a grilled cheese sandwich with finger chips (french fries).  While we were eating the rain started in again very heavy but it had slowed to just a misty sprinkle by the time we left.  We crowded the van full with our team and the JF team and headed off to the river that divides Nepal from India.  Just before crossing the bridge we had to stop at the “customs” gate.  We were just a little worried that we were illegally entering India but were told by S. that right after we crossed the bridge we would be turning to the right, which still was in Nepal.  If we continued straight we would be entering India.  Driving on this side of the river really put us in the midst of “the least of these”.  It was mostly rice fields with little clusters of houses or buildings that were barely houses, many with their little pole barns in front of the house and their cows (which are sacred), chickens and goats either wandering in the yard or tied to the barn post.  After riding in the van with no springs, on a washboard type of road with canyon deep potholes for approximately 2 miles we stopped to pick up a pastor who was in his 80’s who had been pastoring for over 30 years.  He was from a sister denomination who was excited to have the JF available.  He joined us for the final mile to our turnoff.  But, the road was so bad from the rain that the van couldn’t drive down it.  So we walked the last 1/2 mile to a small 2 or 3 room house.  The JF team set up the screen and started making the announcement about the film over the loudspeakers.  By that time it was dark and people started arriving.  The rain stayed away even with the lightning all around us until the very last bit of the film was finished.  Then the JF team was able to get the equipment all down and in the backpack just as the rain started coming down.  We were all ready to leave and we asked to step into one of the rooms to pray.  It seems that the “elderly man and woman” (they were each 70 years old) who lived there had just viewed the film for the first time and had just given their hearts to the Lord!  We were asked to pray for them and to also pray for healing from a painful ear for one of the young boys who lived there, which we did.  The room and porch were full of young children and younger adults.  I understand there were several generations who lived in that one house.  S had gone around during the film and counted approx 125 people there tonight!  I would have had a hard time counting as many were coming and going.  It was an area that was pitch black.  It was neat looking around and seeing flashlights bobbing up and down as people walked on the paths toward the house.

After we prayed we walked in the rain back to the van where we slipped and slid and bumped our way back to the bridge only to find that the gate into Nepal was locked and nobody was there to open it!!!  The driver got out and called out several times to the closed doors of the gate house and guard house.  Finally a man opened a door and told us the border closed at 10 p.m. But, it was 5 minutes until 10.  After some talking and S showing him a card the gatekeeper told us he would have to call the police and get permission to open the gate.  He wasn’t in his little house very long and came out with a big key to let us through.  Of course, during this time we were each quietly praying.  After we crossed the bridge S said “Praise God!”  S told us that the area was very corrupt.  The man asked for money but was given none.  The card S showed him was his Press ID.  Apparently S works as a journalist also and the man didn’t want him to write anything about him so he made a big pretense of needing to get authority to open the gate.   We then arrived back at the hotel ready to call it a night.