in Switzerland - supposedly home...

so, we are now in that other place which is also home. it is good to reconnect with family and friends. we have been received at the trainstation by 4 generations of burgis, including daniels mum who has -surprisingly- already been discharched from hospital.

our two nepalese friends have also arrived safely. they are somewhat dazzled by all the stuff here, but i trust they will be a blessing and challenge to our friends here.

today we are heading to a church camp for the next four days. daniel and one of the nepalese guys will be speaking.

once more in transit...

there we go again. hanging out at kathmandu international airport for some 5 hours, waiting for a delayed flight. 5 hours flight to qatar. waiting in qatar 10 hours for the connection to frankfurt - 2 more hours and we should be on that flight. then a 6 hour train ride to switzerland. then facing the family :-) ... it sure is tiring. this is probably the worst connection we've ever had from nepal to switzerland - 30 hours, while it could be done in less than half of that. yet we are having an ok time, doing some window shopping in the qatar airport (need a car? ferrari? porsche?... or perhaps an omega watch?)

Some contrast to nepal...!!!

running out of time...

unbelievable: our time here in nepal is nearly over. 2 more days here in pokhara, one day of travelling to kathmandu, and a day in kathmandu - that's it. and there is so many friends, brothers and sisters whom we should have paid a visit; so many tasks left undone... and frankly, our own hearts are hardly in the place yet for saying goodby once again.

yet it has been a great time. on a personal note, (i) daniel have recovered pretty well from the salmonella infection i incurred over the last weekend. i felt strong enough this morning to do the scheduled teaching, but i can't properly eat yet. the whole thing, of course, is great news for my at times painful knees - i have lost some 10 to 12 pounds in just 3 days, and walking feels almost like flying at present...

here our schedule for the next few days:

Friday: wrapping up things in pokhara

Saturday: leaving pokhara 5am; 3 hours travel to dumre, where daniel preaches in a small church among lowcaste musicians - stay tuned for more infos! in the afternoon then transfer to kathmandu.

Sunday: wrapping up things in kathmandu. last minute shopping... international flight to doha (qatar) at 8pm

Monday: flight from doha to frankfurt, leaving doha at 7am. travelling then by train from frankfurt to zurich. arrival time 9pm...

peace to you all, and thanks for your continued prayer support.

crunch time...

just a short entry today: andi and steffi both got upset tummies over the weekend, and daniel thus canceled his visit to a church in the mountains. the kids are better now - still a bit achy though.

yesterday, the three day staff retreat of the himalayan outreach mission - of which we are co-founders and board members - kicked off. 22 of our field workers have come to pokhara for this time of refreshment, renewal and equipping. for some, the journey took 5 days on foot and two days by bus...
the first day went great. daniel is doing most of the teaching, and it was good to hear from the various fields - both the joyful news of new fellowships, transformed lives on the one hand, and set-backs on the other. more on the retreat later...

today, however, seems to be crunch time for daniel. he already felt somewhat crummy yesterday. in the night things took a turn to the worse - high fever, violently sick and a completely upset digestion system... by the morning a kind doctor friend diognosed a salmonella infection. so we need to see what this means for the next few days. we are scheduled to travel to kathmandu on saturday, with a stop half ways where daniel has a last preaching committment before we fly out on sunday night. thanks for praying with us for a speedy recovery.

weak eyes, crippled feet, and a wedding...

yesterday we have been invited to a wedding. and what a wedding it has been: the 18 year old boy has such poor eye vision that he wears glasses thick as coke bottles, and the girl has crooked feet. yet both are committed christians - image bearers of the creator. the families of botth the bride and the groom are very poor, and it was therefore only a small wedding. the families put the money together for the dresses and the picnic.

the wedding takes place under two huge trees in a rural setting, 2 hours drive away from pokhara. karina and i are the only foreigners present - in fact, we are the only ones who are not related to either bride or groom. yet we know the groom's family well, and the reason we have been invited is simply that they consider us part of the family. what a privilege.

it is hot (>100f) and sticky. as always, things are running late. the majority of the wedding party - including karina - has gone to the bride's home to fetch her according to the local custom. i (daniel) stay back with some others under the trees in front of the groom's 'house' - a single room about 100 square feet which the newly weds are going to share with the groom's parents and his 2 sisters. nepalese realities.

then the party arrives. a young man climbs monkey-like in the tree, produces a home-made flute and plays. the neighbors come out and receive the couple. my friend chanman weds the couple, and together we pray god's blessing on the pair.

just as we begin to eat the picnic (rice, chewy waterbuffalo meat and pickles) a drunken neighbor comes out and starts beating up his wife and child - more nepalese realities. poverty and marginalization has many - ugly - faces. unlike the people - they are beautiful.

Indreni-Ministry Leaders' Training

it is with a sense of immense gratitude that i am updating the blog today. over the past 5 days we've had an awesome time with the 50 leaders of the various groups of indreni-ministry which spezializes in holistic children and youth programs as they are apropriate here in the himalayas.

under the guidance of the 5 staff members (plus myself, daniel) we have developed some program moduls geared for slum kids in the squatter quarters. we've had some times of deep fellowship and there was this sense of the immediate presence of the Holy Spirit. Devotionally we have been thinking about what it menas to enter new land, and so we have learnt a great deal from Joshua.

it is almost funny that i had (at some level) hoped to get a break from the early-morning-theology-clinic-routine. the leaders insisted to continue the routine throughout the training, even though we had packed and long days anyways...

personally, i can't help some pretty strong emotional feelings when considering what is going on here. eight years ago, karina and i started with ONE nepalese leader who was to become both the director of indreni ministry and my best friend. now we have 50 committed leaders - keen to serve and give their all. hundreds of kids participate each week in the various programs across town and on the premises of the indreni youth center. god is doing an amazing thing here.

it slowly is dawning on karina and myself that for us, on the background of the years of service here in nepal, this type of short-term ministry is a fantastic and nearly ideal way of doing mission. we can pour in our all in a short period of time, without having to watch amd be concerned about dwindling energy levels, but with the benefit of being members of the community and knowing the language. we are thankful for that.

after a number of fairly 'cool' days - thanks to the rain and the thunderstorms - the past few days have marked the transition to the hot season. temperatures are now soaring up to 110 in the southern parts of the country, and a few degrees less here in pokhara - a bit of a contrast to the canadian climate...

Today is our seventh day in Pokhara, and things continue to go well. We’ve had some pretty severe thunderstorms here – awesome and fearsome! As the hot air of the tropical plains collides with the icy air of the Himalayan peaks, the cloud and energy build-up is astounding. For hours the storms rage with fierce winds, hail and incredible downpours…

Since Monday, Andi and Steffi have been going to their old school – and they are loving it. Both of them can’t wait in the morning to be off to school… they are both in small split level classes, together with both expatriate and Nepalese children.

The daily “theology clinic” continues to be stimulating and challenging. We have done a lot of thinking about creation, mankind and god, and about the relationship between the three. We will interrupt the clinic for the upcoming retreat (see below) – and Daniel is quite thankful for that break, as the daily-morning-five-o’clock-start turns out to be rather taxing…

Besides the ministry and teaching activities, it has been good to reconnect with many of our friends here in Pokhara. This included a visit in one of the Sukombasi-areas (=slums), where for several years we have had the privilege to help some folks with issues such as education for the kids, vocational training etc. It is good for us to be reminded of the fact that there are people on this globe who live in very hunble circumstances indeed. The friends we visited are a family of five, and they live in a makeshift shanty about 7 times the size of our fridge!!! We are thrilled though to see the change that has transpired in their lives: they had ended up in the slum because of the loss of the father's one arm in an accident. Alcohol and caste did the rest. Now both the father and the mother have gone through some vocational training, and we've helped them to start a little fruit and veggie 'shop'. They have worked incredibly hard - also to overcome their addiction and identity issues - and we very much feel that salvation has began to transform them.

Here is what we are scheduled to do over the next few days: together with the senior leadership we will be running a retreat for all the leaders of the indreni-youthcentre from Thursday until Sunday. We are very much under the impression that sports is going to play an increasingly important role for the further development of the youth center, in particular for the efforts of reaching the slum kids. The goal of the retreat is thus to impart this focus on the leaders. We are going to develop our own “Olympic games” with appropriate games, ceremonies, messages etc. On Sunday we will then take this package to the slum area for a trial run…

in pokhara...

hello everybody!
greetings from pokhara, nepal's second largest city (population: 200'000) - yet not really a city but a huge village with a 'downtown area' about the size of vancouver's canada place. we arrived here on tuesday - after a 8-hour and very hot (>40) bus journey.

please excuse the delay in updating the blog. i'm happy though that i can do it today - we've had electricity on a rather irregular basis, so that i simply didn't have a chance until now...

we stay in a simple but nice guesthouse at the south end of town, next to the leprocy hospital [check it out at http://www.bikashnepal.org.np/ ]. karina took the picture of fishtail mountain (to the right) just a few minutes ago, right from the door of our room - stunning.

the church and youth center, where most of our ministry here takes place, is just a stone throw away. our nepalese friends are taking wonderful care of us; we are being invited to meals every day.

daniel's teaching ministry has kicked off on thursday. at the request of the local church, daniel is running a daily "theology clinic", geared for the needs of those who want to explore some of the deeper questions of the christian faith. the clinic happens every morning from 5.00 to 7.30 (their choice - tough on daniel...) so that people can participate before going to work / school / college... we are so far about 25 participants, and we are having a great time.

it was awesome to go to our church here this morning (church happens on saturdays here). we were overwhelmed by the warm welcome and all the love of the dear brothers and sisters here. our preference would have been to just sit in and join in the worship, be blessed by the service as it was going to happen. however, daniel was asked to speak, and so we reflected once more on the easter story. what was jesus saying when crying out: it is finished? we had a truely blessed time as we celebrated the fact that the old order with the need for sacrifices is over and finished - an incredible achievement in the minds of the nepalese christians with their hindu background, where sacrifices continue to play a huge role. together we celebrated god's grace...

thanks for your continued prayers - we feel very much in need of your support. it is hot here, and we do struggle with fatigue due to the climate. other than that, we are doing ok healthwise (that is, apart from dozens of moskito bites which really irritate the kids. steffis left eye was swollen shut for a couple days...)

as a family, we are enjoying yhe opportunity to be here together this time. as of monday, andi and steffi will join their old school here in pokhara for a couple of weeks.

kathmandu

kathmandu, oriental city

2 million people

crowded

noisy

exotic

wonderfully foreign

bewildering

strange smells

narrow allies

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.

.

.

.

street vendors

crazy traffic

wierd vehicles

pulsating life

beggars

poverty

dire need

pain

only hours after we arrive in kathmandu, a motorbike stops in front of me with screetching tires. from underneath the helmet comes a voice: daniel - kahile aaunu bhayo - since when are you in nepal? it is a friend from our church in pokhara, and it turns out that he has moved to kathmandu a year ago. since it is friday evening, he asks me to come to his local church here in kathmandu the next day (church is here on saturdays). - coincidence or providence?!

saturday: while my family is still asleep, i am heading to my friend's church. it is a housechurch with some 35 people present. i am being warmly welcomed.

singing, prayer, praise and worship. then i am asked to speak - no real surprise there... it is a joy to me to share some reflections on easter and god's goodness in our lives.

arrival in kathmandu

welcome to kathmandu. it is good to be here! as always during the final approach to kathmandu, the nepalese passengers press their noses against the windows to catch the first glance of the beloved home country. lush green hills, mountains, little hamlets. then the kathmandu valley. i catch myself too, nose flat against the window, even a tear in the eyes - this is one of the three places on the planet we call home.

touch down - pilot slamming on the brakes - the runway is short! out into the warm morning sun. immigration - fill in a dozen or so forms. welcome to nepal.

outside the terminal: we spot some of our friends: welcome home.

then off to the swiss embassy. after filling in TWO dozen forms the visa application for our two friends for their visit to Switzerland is accepted - great.

more about kathmandu later.... i guess we do need to sleep some and get over that jet lag - some of the younger folk did manage to get some sleep on the plane though...

in transit

hello everybody from doha/qatar!
one more connection (7 hours flight) to kathmandu, but before we take off at 00.45h local time, we'll just have to hang out some more in this exotic place. a city in the midst of the desert. incredible wealth. you buy ferraris, aston-martins and bmws here in the duty-free area, where these cars are actually on display.... a bit of a contrast to where we are going.

well, karina is sleeping on our luggage next to me, the kids are playing in the huge go-bananas-type-of-playground. i'll sign off here... talk to you from kathamndu

getting ready - getting crazy...

last day - the bags probably need to be packed TODAY...

but we are getting there - hopefully...

friends,

two more days and we are off to the roof of the world. it will be good to reconnect with all our friends back in nepal.

in a way, we are heading home for a few months. nepal has in a real sense been our home for close to 10 years.

and yet, we realize that home is now north van. we've grown roots here. thanks to you people!!

well, as we head off we want to say THANK YOU for all the supporting words, gestures, prayers... we'll keep you posted on this blog as to how things go on this trip to the himalayas.

plan for the next 8 days:

monday: getting packed...
tuesday: getting packed
wednesday: flight 9.00 am vancouver - toronto - london
thursday flight 11.00 am london - doha (qatar)
friday: flight 02.15 am doha - kathmandu
saturday: kathmandu
sunday: kathmandu
monday: bus journey kathmandu - pokhara (10 hours)




...and here the 2 excited young travellers:

yeah, school's over for this year... but the principal said we would need to keep a journal - if dad is up to it, we'll share in this spot some of our journal entries...