OK, this is going to be a rather lengthy post and you’ll see why.
I was met at the Kathmandu airport by my friends. For 5 days, no flights had been in or out of the airport due to the Turkish Airlines incident. I was originally ticketed to fly in on Saturday, but was delayed until Sunday, then, after a 2 or 3-hour delay, we finally departed. We circled the airport for an hour, as there were 3 flights ahead of us. This international airport has only one runway and a small terminal! After waiting in line to get an entrance visa, I waited another hour for my suitcase to reach the conveyer belt, surrounded by hundreds of others waiting. Finally, got the bag, went outside and was met by my friends, then driven to the hotel, about an hour from the airport through the crazy streets of Kathmandu. OK, that was Sunday night. Monday morning came and I waited to be picked up and taken to the conference site . . . and I waited . . . and I waited some more. Well, it was now time for lunch, so I had lunch. At about 1:30 or so, I received a call from Saji, wondering where I was. Apparently, a lack of communication led to the situation. The hotel had no taxis, so, after talking to the desk manager, who wrote down the address in Nepalese, I went to the road, flagged down a motorcyclist, asked if he could take me to the “micro van” stop, and hopped on the back of his motor bike. He dropped me off, and there was a Nepalese man who spoke a bit of English who said he’d flag down the van. After a few minutes, I got in this very old van, in which there were already 3 men and 4 women, aside from the driver. I showed him the paper, and we drove off . After about 10 minutes, he stopped and pointed to a building and said this is where I get off. I tried to reason with him, that it was not, but he was insistent. So I got off and began to walk. I showed a couple of people the address and they each pointed up the road. Fortunately, it was a beautiful, sunny day. I walked for about 30 minutes, and finally, after asking a few more people, arrived at the conference. It was very cool to get a feel for semi-rural life in this village as I walked by shops, schools, and homes on this one-lane road. It was a very unexpected adventure, but it was also kind of fun. It would have been nice to have had a traveling companion, but . . .
When I walked up to the meeting hall, I noticed Saji sitting at a table outside, head on the table, sound asleep. I had to yell to wake him up, and then I heard his story. He and Pastor Cherian, and a couple from Astoria, Oregon, Pastor Jason and his wife Regina (wonderful people!) arrived into Kathmandu on Sunday night and had to wait for their bags for 5 hours! It was much worse than when I arrived, hundreds of more people, no places to sit, no food, just everyone waiting. A couple of scuffles even broke out. Then they found a taxi service and they finally arrived at the conference site at 7 AM Monday. Now the conference was in session, and it was my turn to teach. What a crazy 48 hours!
After my first session, I decided that in the second session I would find out about these men. I see them each year but have no idea of what it means to be a pastor in the outer reaches of Nepal. So, I asked some of them to briefly tell their stories. A couple of highlights:
One pastor lives in a small village and it takes 9 hours to walk to the next town. There are times when he is walking outside of the village that he is assaulted because of his faith.
Another man lives on the southern border of Nepal, next to India. He regularly travels into the Indian state to help a couple of churches. One day, a reporter was doing a story and took a photo of this pastor. Eventually, the reporter, a Hindu, contacted this pastor and said that if he ever comes into that village again, he will be killed.
Another said that he has a small farm and that is how he supports his family.
Not one of them is fully supported by the church (HMU gives them each some support each month) and each has some sort of manual job. When I asked what is the biggest challenge for Nepalese pastors, I was told that because they have to work so many long hours , when their services are needed for a funeral, a wedding, or some other concern, it becomes difficult because they simply cannot take a day off from their everyday jobs. So, the challenge is to provide for their families, but also to fulfill their duties as pastors. We who are pastors in the US literally live in another world.
So, after that fantastic session, we had dinner, then Saji and I had to find transportation back. He was staying at a small hotel not far from mine. We called my hotel, and they now had a taxi available, so we were picked up and taken to our respective hotels. I was thinking that we may need to walk! There is no public transportation at night in this area, and there are no street lights. And, when the sun goes down, it becomes very cold!
So, it is now Tuesday morning, and I wonder what adventures await me today!!
More tomorrow. Thanks again for the prayers.