Taken from Dave’s Blog

“Well, it?s 8:15 and we?ve decided to go to bed. The time change is finally catching up to us. Let me walk you through our journey to this point. We left Knoxville at 2:30 on Wednesday. We had a slight luggage situation at the airport due to the weight of Nathan?s four trunks, but we got it taken care of and took off for DC with no problem. In DC we changed planes and left for Vienna, Austria. The eight and a half hour flight was really not bad at all. Austrian Airlines takes care of their customers. It seemed like every 15 minutes they were coming by and getting us food, drinks, hot towels, and all that good stuff. Actually, on the last leg of our trip I declined one of my meals because I was so full. Watching the sun come up over the mountains surrounding Vienna was my favorite moment of the flight here. It was unbelievably beautiful. From Vienna it was a seven and a half hour flight that put us on the ground in Kathmandu about midnight. Visas and customs were no problem except that we had to wait a long time.

We were met at the airport by Sham, a Nepali who went to school in the US and now heads up the work here, and Nathan?s regional administrator from Bangladesh. Once we got everything loaded up, Sham dropped the others off at their hotel and took us to the orphanage where we will be staying until we get Nathan?s apartment furnished.

Nathan is renting the third floor of a three (and a half, I guess) story house. Sham, his wife Paula, and their three kids rent the first floor. Paula?s parents who are retired and have lived here for the last four and a half years (if your gonna retire, that;s the way to go), rent the second floor, and Nathan has the third. There are some guest bedrooms above Nathan, but they only take up about a half of the floorspace, leaving the rest open as a balcony. Nathan?s apartment is amazing. Three bedrooms, two full baths, living room, dining room, and kitchen. The kitchen window faces the Himalayas and what a view it is! Truly, you have to see it to appreciate it.

We got up and walked around the area where Nathan lives. You can tell that you?re starting a little higher up because it doesn?t take too strenuous of a climb to take the wind out of your sails.

Other than that, the day was mostly spent at Sham?s house. Two other team members who are on pre-field right now arrived today for their survey trip. Tomorrow is church. Saturday is the holy day in Nepal, so the churches meet then.

I?m going to bed. ? Hopefully I will be able to post and check email daily. We?re using dialup, however, so I doubt that I?ll get any pictures up. Pray for us.”