Some of you know that our brother Mario Cheng headed off to Nepal recently for a short term mission. Here’s his latest update for our prayers:
Sorry for taking so long to get back to you guys :p where does the time go? Finally an evening free. In our time at Surkhet we have had the opportunity to visit with a long term missionaries and see their lives as it is day to day. It’s safe to say healthcare here is minimal and there is an abundance of room for improvement. However for expats it’s a careful balance between pushing for change and managing relationships with Nepali staff. So it takes time to build the relationships and trust before change can start. The missionaries here are emergency nurses, pharmacists, gps and aviation logistics? There ministries are not interwoven with their jobs but in their lifestyles.
In truth day to day their lives are no different to those in Australia. They have jobs, families and church. They have their struggles like we do, just on top of that they have the Nepali struggles as well. These are quite often small yet frustrating, and horribly consistent, enough to wear anyone down. Yet they take it in stride, all the frustrations that come with there place of ministry. One example is a rather older British lady went on a house call which was suppose to be a one hour walk in became a 7hr walk and back again, in the rain. Yet she is not deterred, merely laughing off the tribulations.
The long termers here, in their spare time, encourage the local churches through visiting, teaching and supporting one of the local bible college. It houses approximately 20 students and I believe last year they had 12 students graduate from their one year program. During this time the student boards at the college in very minimal housing for a year. Many will have travelled from different parts of Nepal to learn more of God’s word and will return once they graduate.
Today we visited the local yf group. It was one of the first churches in surkhet area, now one of 50. The church itself has 12 branches many in the hills. One thing about Nepal is flexibility and going with the flow. Originally we thought we were to plan the yf evening but things didn’t happen that way. Nepali worship is very refreshing, it revolves around singing and prayer (Korean all together style). So although we had plans, we worshipped with them for a good 40 minutes before they gave us the floor. We were able to share some testimonies but had to abandon the games we had planned as we were having dinner with the long termers. Our time with them was short but encouraging. It’s not hard to see that God is moving in Nepal and the church has been growing rapidly although it is still a clear minority. Although, the media and government aren’t a big fan of Christians, it seems the attitudes are changing due to witness of Nepali Christians and the clinics put in place by Inf.
Please pray for more opportunities to meet Nepali Christians and encourage them, and also be encouraged by them. In their yf, they have seen diminishing numbers due to some external pressures such as family or job. Please pray that they can continue to encourage each other and persevere for those with are being choked by thorns.
Our time in surkhet has come to an end, tomorrow we have church together and we will begin a 14? 20? hour travel to pokhara where … who knows what we will do exactly :p thanks for your prayers already, no one has been subjected to Delhi belly yet although my roomy caught my cold. It’s annoying but we are surviving 🙂 unfortunately, I cannot post photos here or I could give you a better idea of how things are here…
See you guys soon 🙂
Mario