Reaching Nepal

Today was a day of Divine appointments. Jenn and I headed out to visit some of her old “projects”. We were able to share bits and pieces? of our faith with three different people. One of the conversations was with the owner of a local hotel. He was telling use about learning languages. He told us that he was learning German and was motivated because it was a western language and could be used in business. At one point he made the statement that? it might be harder for us to learn Nepali because it was not a western language and could not be used to benefit us, that English would do. There was the door I needed. I told him that our motivation was even greater profit. We came to teach the Truth of Jesus to the Nepali people. I went on to explain that our passion to share the hope of Christ was the greatest passion we or anyone could have. Pray that God opens more doors with this man.

This evening we were coming home from the home of some of ours friends and God gave us the chance to share a good portion of the Gospel with a Hindu man. Our taxi driver was from a very remote area of Nepal and knew very little of Christ. We talk with him for about 20 minutes,? prayed that God would open his eyes to Himself,? and finally left a gospel booklet for him to read. This was such an amazing gift from God to share our faith. Pray for this man. Pray that God brings him across my path again.

Well it’s about time to update you all on the last several days of my life. My classes at the Bible college are going very well. It seems like my students are finally beginning to relax around me and enjoy the class. I am not the normal Bible teacher (as most of you know) and I am praying they see my passion for the Bible, love for them, and wild personality all mingle together well. I am teaching a class with all seniors and one with all freshman. So far I feel more liberty and freedom with the seniors than I do the freshman. The main reason is that the older students have a better grasp of English and laugh at my strange American jokes. Yesterday I went over to the college and played three games of volleyball with them. Nepali people may be short, but man can they spike a volleyball. Several times I thought I might lose my head. It was great to see them laugh and joke about my poor ball skills.

Jenn arrived on Sunday and we have had a wonderful time since. Last night we went to visit some of her friends that are here in Kathmandu. We walked into a “house fellowship” and were able to partake in worship and communion. Man, what a blessing. There were about 15 “workers” in the home who were all so committed to the cause. I really hope that I will be able to build some solid friendship within this group.

Friday night Jenn and I are planning a big party for her old friends and my new ones. I am excited to say the least. It will be my first big tool for outreach. Pray that God will open doors for many believers to come and enjoy fellowship and for many unbelievers to come and experience the love of the Body.

Here is Jenn falling in love with our pastor’s little baby.

Ranjeeta and Asha (2 of my girls)

Well hello everyone! I am headed off to class, but I wanted to show you a picture of my growing puppy.

Jenn got here safe and sound yesterday afternoon. We had a great time catching up and then we went over to see some of her friends form this summer. Continue to pray that God blesses her trip

“Following Jesus means complete abandonment- it’s all or nothing…. Jesus is looking for more than just warm bodies, He desires disciples” This was one of the many statements I made during my first sermon to our chapel here at the college. I will admit that i find it hard to preach through a translator. When I preach, I preach with the passion that burns within me and it’s hard to communicate that through someone else. One thing is has done, is that it has made me be completely depended on HIM. I know that if anything happens through my preaching it’s Him. The truth is that any time something happens through me it’s all Him, but this is a great reminder. God blessed during our chapel time and I am excited to see in years to come if the message of abandoning all to Christ really sank in. Pray for my students. They are simple men and women of God, but in them lies the hope of a nation.

Some of you have asked me why I haven’t been posting pictures lately. Well, my nice big camera that takes great pictures broke. What a pain. I sent the camera back with Dave and now all I can do is paint pictures with words. The good thing is Jenn is on her way with a new camera. Lord willing I will post some new pictures next week.

As far as language study goes, I now know just enough to get really frustrated. When someone talks to me I can make out some words, but it takes me 10 min. to translate them in my head. O well, I keep reminding myself that if I can just learn a little each day I am doing ok. With that in mind…. pheri bheTowlaa l

These last several days I have been dealing with an inward conflict. I have now been here for a month and all my initial setup is complete. During this time I had five different people from the states here helping me. Now that everyone is gone and the ?honeymoon? is behind me, I find my heart in a strain. I know that for at least a solid year I will be engaged in hardcore language study?.which is ok. What I have been struggling with is the lack of personal involvement. Now before you start feeling bad for me, hear all I have to say. I am a defiant people person. Now I love my personal time, but I was made to help and encourage other people. Last night I was still dealing with this when a friend gave me a bit of encouragement. The Lord also reminded me that I am going though all this for a purpose. My great longing in life is to be at one with God?.for my heart to beat in harmony with His heart. I am willing to go through whatever it takes for that to happen. How amazing would it be to look back on me life and say, ?He was my first love? and really mean it. That is my desire. My life at times has been hard, but as I look back, I wouldn?t trade those times for anything else?they have prepared me for the days to come. As you pray for me, don?t pray that my struggles would go away. Pray that my Father draws me closer to Himself.

With all that said, today was a awesome day. I had a language lesson in the morning that went very well. My teacher drilled me on characters, writing sentences, and responding to him in Nepali. Although I made mistakes, I did well enough to be encouraged. When a lesson goes bad it stinks, but when one goes good it?s great!

Right before lunch S***m and I had a planning session on some of our future goals. Actually, we just bounced some ideas off each other while his two year old son chased my dog around. We came up with a rough idea about locating unreached people groups and assisting Nepalis in planting churches in these areas?what a blessing. It was for this reason I came to Nepal. Pray for our vision to grow in this area. I am finding out that there are many good Christian works in the Kathmandu Valley, but because of war and isolation, a great deal of Nepal is in dire need for the Truth.

This last week has been a good reminder to me of how much I love to teach the Word of God. I have always loved to preach. Something about it gives me such joy and excitement. When I began teaching at Fairview Christain Academy, I realized how much I enjoyed teaching the Word in a classroom. The joy in teaching His Word comes from three things: 1. Knowing that I am giving the living Word to hungery hearts? 2. Experiancing the passion that the Word brings out in me.? 3. Seeing the lives of my students change for God’s glory.

One of the nice things about where I am now is that I am able to teach a class at our Bible college. While I was walking to my class this morning, I was stopped by the man who runs the college and asked if I would teach Bible Study methods to the incoming freshmen. Without even thinking I accepted. What a great God we serve who gives us such joy is serving Him. Pray that I will be faithful to the Word and passionate in the classroom. Pray that my students will catch a vision for reaching the forgotten people of their land.

Nepal’s top Maoist rebel leader has said the only future he can envisage for King Gyanendra is exile or trial. Prachanda made his remarks in a rare BBC interview to mark the 10th anniversary of the Maoist revolt. He said a trial of the king might take place in a “people’s court”, leading to possible execution. However, elsewhere in the interview Prachanda also said he could envisage Nepal remaining a monarchy if the people wanted it.

‘People’s verdict’

This was the first face-to-face broadcast interview given by the Maoist’s reclusive chairman, Prachanda, who has been living an underground existence for 25 years. His rebels now control much of the countryside, but this is a conflict most observers believe neither side can win militarily. The Maoists are pressing for an elected assembly to write a new Nepalese constitution. Prachanda said he believed such an assembly would make Nepal into a republic. But he said his party would accept “the people’s verdict”. “Whatever decision the people should give, we will be ready to accept this,” he told the BBC. Asked if that meant he would theoretically be able to accept a people’s verdict of keeping the monarchy, he said: “Yes, theoretically it is like that.” But asked later what place the king might have in Nepal five years from now, Prachanda said: “I think he’ll either be executed by the people’s court or maybe exiled.He said the king, who took direct political power a year ago, had left no room for compromise. Nepal does not allow capital punishment and Prachanda’s comments will shock many Nepalis and probably cause discomfort to a group of opposition parties which recently signed a political agreement with the Maoists.

‘Pragmatic’

Prachanda said he was “saddened” by the number of deaths in the conflict - some 13,000 - and by what he called accidents such as the death of children in bomb blasts. But he was unrepentant about using violence against those he described as informers. Asked if the Maoists aimed to conquer the capital, Kathmandu, militarily, he said that foreign help to the government had made that difficult, and that such an action would “cause a lot of harm to the Nepali people”. Analysts say the Maoists are nowadays a pragmatic party, and for much of this interview the 52-year-old Maoist reflected this. But at other times he spoke with what seemed like rage against those he repeatedly described as feudalists.

By Charles Haviland
BBC Nepal correspondent
For the full interview click here

Nothing great or all to exciting has taken place the last few days. What I do have are a few little bits of Nathan’s life to keep you coming back for more. So here they go…

1. Yesterday I decided I would go down to the big football (soccer) field in our neighborhood and? play a game with a few guys. Man was I out matched. Thankfully I am much bigger than the average Nepali so my size and speed keeped me in the game…what little I touched the ball. Toward the end of the game two young guys (early twenties) lost their tempers and started swinging. It was broken up twice and I thought it was over, but all of a sudden one of the guys came rushing on the field with a long metal pole. I thought “man, this has to stop”. As he came running, I “gently” took him down to the ground until he could calm himself a bit. To be honest this whole thing was a shock. I have never seen a Nepali get angry before. I didn’t know what the right action to take culturally was, but since another man was about to get hit with a big metal pole I took an educated guess.

2. My dog Asha is starting to act like a really puppy. For the first week or so all she did was sleep. I could not get her to eat and I knew it didn’t look good. Finally I found some steak at a foreign market and feed her that for a few days. Now she is up and running around. She chews everything and loves to play with her master (me).

3. All of my friends are now gone and I have two more weeks until the next one comes. Please pray for two things during this time. 1) That God will draw me close to Himself? and? 2) That I can focus hard on learning the language.

That’s it for today. Please be praying for a family from my sending church- the Fridleys.? The father, David Fridley, fell and died while working on a cell phone tower. Mr. Fridley was one of the most giving men I have ever met. Though he is now in heaven, he is leaving behind a wife and son.

God gave me great encouragement from His Word today. I was preparing to walk over to my Bible class at the college and I happened to open the Bible to Psalm 27. As I read this amazing passage I was struck by two things:

27:1-3
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked came against me
To eat up my flesh,
My enemies and foes,
They stumbled and fell.
Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,
In this I will be confident.

First I see that David placed His confidence in three things: the Lord being his salvation, his guiding light, and his strength in everyday life. All of David’s hopes were placed in the hands of God.

27:4
One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.

The second thing I see is that David’s single greatest desire in life was to be in the presence of God. David was a king and general. He had money along with power and knew what fame and success were all about. With all this, David’s passion was for His presence.

Jesus, may my life long desire be to walk with You and enjoy Your love. I want to be used to change the hearts of men, but I want to be consumed with you even more. Never let me forget that You are my first love.

Here are a few pictures from the last several days. Enjoy!