This past week has been a very exciting one. Each day I leave Shawna and the kids and walk to work about 1 hour each way. The walk is great because I feel like it is the best way to start acclimating to this new culture. I walk past buddhists burning incense, beggars asking for money, garbage burning, butchers cutting on a goat, and armed soldiers. The sights and smells are almost overwhelming.
Several times throughout my day I am struck with the reality that I am starting all over again. I know hardly anyone here. I am learning a new job. I cannot even speak the language. I feel like I am a child again.
A few nights ago I struck up a conversation with a 12 year old named Om that I met on my walk home. He is from a very low caste and he was hoping to persuade me to give him some money. I started asking for help with my Nepali and after about 30 minutes I picked up a few more words. It seems ironic that I am asking a 12 year old who has already dropped out of school for help learning something.
At the end of our conversation I asked Om if I could buy him a Coke. He was excited and eagerly followed me to the nearest restaurant. My heart broke as I opened the door to the restaurant. I had accidentally chosen a restaurant that he was not allowed to go in because of his poor caste. He looked terrified when I asked him to go in and have a seat.
The caste system is something else that I am learning about. A persons caste is chosen at birth and one cannot upgrade to another caste in this lifetime. Hindus and Buddhists believe that the more they suffer in this life the better chance they have of being reincarnated into a better caste in the next life. Please pray for freedom for these wonderful people like Om.
This week is a busy week as we pack everything we can into 12 suitcases and fly out on November 8th. The stress is mounting and it is even worse as we say goodbye to everyone. Yesterday we went to the River Oaks Community Church for the last time. We lingered in the parking lot not wanting it to be over. Our life will never be the same.
The stress of leaving is further aggravated by a statement from the Department of the State issuing a travel warning to US citizens wanting to travel to Nepal. The warning stated that US citizens should not travel to Nepal right now due to increased terrorist activity and kidnapping of US citizens.
The increased hostility toward Americans is due to the US blocking assets to the Maoists by barring any transactions or dealings with the organization. "Destroying infastructure, attacking government offices, and intimidating villagers through torture, and murders, the CPN-M has disrupted normal government operations and economic development efforts throughout the country," according to the statement.
We still believe that this is what God has called us to do and we are still leaving on the 8th unless we are denied access into the country. We leave brandishing the full armor of God and have faith that this is His Will. Please join us in prayer for this war torn country.
November 8th at 6am we will fly from the airport on a one way ticket to the other side of the world. It will be an emotional time as we say our goodbyes and leave life behind as we know it. This is never easy for me.
"I pray that you will begin to understand why I am doing this. I know it makes no sense to you right now but it is something that I have to do. You will always be my hero and I am so sorry to put you through this sorrow.".............. I wrote these words to my 93 year old grandfather this week. His health is failing him and he has just recently been hospitalized with pneumonia. When I leave on the 8th it is likely that I will never see him again on this Earth. He does not understand why God would take me away from him when he is so old and sick.
Kody spent the first year of his life in an orphange in western Siberia. His birth mother abandoned him shortly after he was born. He had no family to speak of. He was an orphan.
When we adopted him he clung to us. We were the first stable relationship in his life. When we arrived in the U.S. he immediately bonded with one of the first girls he met named Ella Evans. Ever since then he has called her his best friend. Now I have to explain to him that she will be taken away. That it will be a long time before he sees her again. Needless to say, he is having a hard time with this.
How do you say goodbye in situations like these? How do you help your kids understand why we are leaving?
We wrestled with these kinds of questions this summer as part of our training at MTI. It is important that we take the time to say goodbye. Not to say "I will see you later," or "I will see you soon." The truth is that I will not see most of you very soon. We must take the time to say "Goodbye." We must say goodbye to our family, our friends, our home, our car, and even my most loyal friend Toby, (the family pet).
Please take the time to say goodbye to us before we leave. Fight the temptation to avoid it, like I would normally. This is going to be a hard time for us.
Each of us has some completely irrational fear. It may be a fear of snakes or a fear of spiders. Some of us will always take the stairs because of a fear of being locked in an elevator. Some are terrified of heights. Everyone is scared of something and that fear is completely irrational, except to us.
Aerophobia is defined as the irrational fear of flying. It combines three irrational fears that combine in different levels to make this completely debilitating, horrible, controling fear. A fear of being completely out of control, a fear of heights, and a fear of being in a confined space combine to make aerophobia. I don't have any of these three fears, but apparently when you combine all three of them I do become aerophobic.
I am not alone. Millions of Americans suffer from this terrible fear. Mine started with a bad experience on a plane just after the crash of TWA Flight 800 over New York. The thought of a plane breaking into pieces and its passengers falling thousands of feet to their death horrified me and I swore that I would never again set foot on a plane.
Ordinarily, I would recommend a person with a phobia to face their fear. If you are afraid of snakes, go to the zoo and spend some time with the reptiles or buy a pet snake. If you are scared of confined spaces, try and slowly get on an elevator. The problem came when I was so scared that I could not watch a plane take off at the airport or watch a movie with a plane on it. The thought of getting onto a plane was completely out of the question.
The sum of all my fears came to a reality two years ago when our adoption of Kody was being finalized. I would have to fly overseas to Siberia to bring my son home. I would have to face my greatest fear to complete what God had called me to do. I slowly tried to acclimate to what I was going to have to face. Tom Tate gave me a tour of the Air Traffic Control Tower and Matt McNeilly showed me how planes are so strickly maintained. Then came D-Day. I could not sleep for days prior to our departure. In the end, I did it. I faced my fear and with a lot of prayers and help from God I again flew on a plane.
Now, two years later, I am having to face that fear again to finish what God has called me to do. I don't think that God takes delight in watching me squirm. I do think that he hates to see me controled by my fears. Part of faith is facing those fears with the confidence of what He has called us to do. The only difference with this flight is that I am going to have two small children with me. This raises a new fear........... Achildonaplaneaphobia is what I call it. It combines the fear of flying with the fear of losing your mind because your kids cannot sit still for the 42 hours of flying that it takes to get you to your destination.
With all that said....... We are rejoicing in the completion of our VISA to Nepal and are excited about taking steps in the direction of what God has called us to do. Walking with God is always an adventure and it is never safe. Please keep our flight in your prayers. I am already getting nervous so I can beat the rush at the last minute.
The problem with waiting is that it goes against our very nature. As an American we are very punctual. It is part of our culture. If I tell you that I will be there at 9 AM, I will be there at 8:55. This causes problems when we travel cross culturally. The Nepali culture does not have the same sense of time that we do. If they tell you they will sign a VISA next week, it may be two weeks, three weeks, or three months before they sign it. As an American this drives me crazy.
There is something to be learned in this time of waiting, it is called flexibility. This is something that every missionary needs to take with them when they travel overseas. God is using this time of waiting to strengthen my flexibility and my patience. I know that God has chosen to allow this delay. I just pray that it will not be wasted. Please join us in praying for our VISA to be approved and that God will use this time to better prepare us for the challenge that is ahead of us.
Sometimes when we are completely out of control we find ourselves at the mercy of God. It is a good place to be because we sometimes fall into a false sense that we are in control. The truth is that we are at God's mercy always. I need to be reminded of this often.
Today I heard from the personnel director at the United Mission to Nepal. The Nepali government is so busy with the war that they have yet to approve my work VISA. What does this mean?????? It means that we will not be leaving for Nepal on September 30th as planned. It means that I am reminded yet again that I am not in control and that God is.
I am tempted to get frustrated, but an e-mail from a friend this morning reminded me that this is not my plan, its Gods. This was not my idea, it is Gods.
Sometimes I feel like Noah must have. The ark is built......Where is the rain????
Please keep our VISA in your prayers and I will keep you updated on any changes.
Many of you have asked me if we have a departure date from the US. The reason that we have been so uncertain up to this point is because of our VISA situation. The Nepali government did not want to issue two work VISAs for the same job. This is a problem because the current VISA holder for my position, Alan, is scheduled to leave Nepal in December. We were hoping to overlap for a few months so that I could learn the job prior to his departure. This was explained to the Nepali government and they have tentatively agreed to allow my VISA on October 1st.
Alan is a retired British police officer. He has been serving in Nepal for over a year and has been a huge asset to the United Mission to Nepal. Following the break down of the cease fire Alan has been very busy. Much of the fighting has moved from rural areas to urban areas and the capital city of Kathmandu has seen the worst fighting since the wars inception in 2001. Please pray that our VISA will be approved on October 1st as planned. Please pray for peace in a country that has already experienced so many hardships.
In the past, when I requested prayer for a Visa situation it usually meant that I was having trouble paying my bills. Now my VISA prayers are of a different nature........
Before we leave for Nepal we need to have our work VISA approved by the Nepali government. Please join us in prayer that it will be approved by October 1st. The personnel director at the UMN headquarters is confident that it will be approved, but the Nepali government did not want to issue two work VISAs for the position of Emergency Management Contingency Coordinator. The current VISA holder is a retired British Police Officer who is leaving the country in December. We are hoping to overlap from October to December so that I can receive on the job training before he leaves.