Category: Latest Updates

Today, Thursday, was the final day of the conference in Nepal. I taught a total of 5 or 6 sessions during the conference and enjoyed spending time with the pastors and students. Here is a photo of the attendees and visiting speakers:

The student girls are wearing their colorful school uniforms.

On Tuesday we drove by a large, barren, dusty lot that had about 15-20 “tents” made from tarps. We discovered that it was a group of refugees/gypsies from India. They have no status in India, nor Nepal. Long story short, a few of us chipped in to buy some food for them, each family getting a 10-pound bag containing rice, lentiles, and salt. Today at lunch, we took the food and distributed it. We also had candy for the children. They gladly received all we gave them, which admittedly was not much. It was pretty crazy but I am glad we did it.

It is late, and I’m tired, so I’ll post more tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the prayers!

David

I

This is a photo of me with a young man named RK. He has served as my tramslator during the first 2 days of the Pastors Conference in Chitwan. He is an outstanding translator! But that is not what inspires me about him. He assists his grandfather, a pastor, in a number of villages. Every Saturday, which is the day of worship in Nepal, he hikes up into the mountains, a hike of 5 hours each way, in order to meet with a group of Christians from a small village. He conducts a worship service and spends the day with them. Then he makes the 5 hour trek back to his home. He said that every week about halfway home, he feels tired and weary, but thinks about the time he had with that group and is then re-energized and makes it home. The trails and “roads” are so bad that he cannot even take a motor bike, thus, he walks. Wow. What an inspiration. He is 29, is married, and has an 8-year old son and a 2-month old daughter. God bless this guy. Through the week he visits a number of other villages as well. It’s a different life here, folks. Mountainous, difficult, without most of the comforts we take for granted. In fact, our flight here was 22 minutes in length, but would have taken 8 hours by car, due to the winding, clogged, dangerous mountain roads.

There are also probably 20 Bible college students in attendance as well. It is all going well and I am thankful to be here.

Thanks for the prayers.

dav

We were picked up at 9 AM on Saturday for the drive up to the orphanage, perched on a hillside in Kathmandu. Churches meet on Saturday, so when we arrived, after being greeted by the children and getting a tour of the new building, we joined everyone for the weekly worship. Dev, the orphanage director, is also the pastor of a church that meets in the old building they occupied. Besides the children of the orphanage, there are local residents that attend as well.

It was an energetic time of singing, which lasted for about 40 minutes. I was then invited up to give the morning’s message. When I finished, I was told by Dev, who did the translating, that they wanted more! So, I went for about another 15 minutes. After the service, we took some photos and then met with Dev and his wife, Maya. It was then that we presented them with the gifts that were sent with me. They received them with humility and thankfulness. They told us about the plan they have to raise goats in order to fund the orphanage: where the grazing land is, how many they hope to have, where they will sell the meat, who will tend the goats, and more. They do have a very good business plan.

I want to thank all who contributed to the “goat fund”. You are making a huge difference for this wonderful orphanage. Not all of the funds donated were designated for goats, so some of the funds will be used for general purposes and expenses of the orphanage.

In a few hours we will fly to Chitwan in Nepal for the coming pastors conference. It is about a 30 minute flight, or over 6 hours driving! I will report on the conference in a day or 2.

Blessings to you all. I am having trouble uploading the photos, but I will keep working on it.

David