Teenager leaders retreat

The leaders of the teenagers group met together last weekend at Begnas taal, a nearby lake for a time of team building, planning and division of roles etc. God really prepared it all. They asked me to speak on team building. I had one day to prepare it and it all had to be in nepali - a test I don't think I passed very well. However, I initially talked about how we are a team, what is a team, how we have different gifts etc and need to work together. However, if there are a problems what the bible instructs us to do so that we can be a good, functioning team again.
Binai, the team leader had also prepared talks, unbeknown to me, exactly along the same lines so it worked well. We had a lot of fun trying to plays games where we all had physical ailments and had to work as a team to achieve the goal!

 We then talked about how we can use our gifts to help the teenagers in the church...

 No nepali program is complete without khanna (food). The specialty out at this lake is deedo. I hate it. It has the consistency of cold porridge, tastes like the sauce you have to dip it in to make it palatable and looks like dog poo - interested??? I had rice but the rest had it and loved it....

 Give nepalis a camera and they will pose for photos for hours!

 The group - normally girls and boys would stay together but they wanted tallest at the back - I was the tallest so had to go at the back feeling very culturally uncomfortable!

We had to leave to walk the 15 mins along the lakefront back to the bazaar (you can see the dirt road along the lake in the above photos) to get the bus and get home before it got dark. By this stage it was raining but I had bought a small umbrella with me in case this might happen.

I, with the two nepali friends pictured above were ahead of the group, we just got on the bus and there was an almighty crack of thunder. I was terrified, the kid next to me on the bus screamed, the nepalis shuddered and then I prayed that the bus tyres weren’t bald. We left, came home to see most of Pokhara flooded – hailstones the size of giant jaffas hitting our roof, bouncing 1/2m back up, going into the chimney and coming into our dinner!

The next day I found out that lightening hit Christians that were in a boat on the lake, 3 died and one swam to shore and is in hospital with heart issues!Our team was fine.

Bragging rights

There are some really frustrating things about living in Nepal - the water (or lack of it), 14 hours of scheduled power cuts a day although often there are also unscheduled one etc. However, there are some good things and one our favorites is our deck.

This evening we sat outside and watched the sunset while Mark held his electric tennis racquet and sat in his chair waving it around like a Nintendo wii killing mosquito's with a  cracking sound with every swipe - great fun!

Another day we took these photos: While some of them are slightly underexposed (purposefully) the rest was the mood of the weather that day!

Looking up the valley to the west of the mountains - again, from our deck.

Dhanta Medical Camp

On the 12 March the alarm went off at 4.30am (I thought there was only one 4.30 in the day and that was in the afternoon!), Mark and I, blarely eyed got out of bed, dressed and walked around to church. Our nepali at 5am isn't flash! We met up with a group of people from the church. We waited an hour for the bus to come (could've been sleeping) and then finally all got on a bus and drove for about an hour to Bandipur. From here we got a jeep and went to one of our churches daughter churches to run a one day medical camp which also served as an outreach opportunity.

Don't we look warm and awake!

We had a walk through Bandipur while jeeps were arranged - this is where Mark and I, with Hazel spent Christmas morning before going to the same village for the medical camp.

The sign says 'Ke Garne' cafe - that means - what to do cafe!

We then climbed onto the jeeps and went down a very dusty (covered your whole shoes dusty) road...

and arrived to some of the best dahl bhaat that I have eaten in a long time.

The doctors eating dahl bhat before their day of work. Dr Prakash (left) works at Green Pastures and the other doctor works at a local private hospital in ED. He has just come off a night shift and now it was Saturday - their one day off!

We then arrived at the school where the camp was held... registrations were commenced - names taken, patients given as piece of paper for all the medical info to be written on and Rs10 (5cents NZD) was paid - all the money raised was given to the school at the end.

Everyone was welcomed, the reason for the service was made clear and then it was all on...

patients were registered....

the nurses taking blood pressure and body weight.......

people queued....

and then finally saw the doctor - again, both doctors in the same room - privacy isn't an issue here (see my visit to the hospital post)

After they saw the doctor the script was given to the pharmacy while the patients were prayed for and told about Jesus Christ by a group of counsellors - also from the church....

Other services were also available - physiotherapy....

And dentistry - 5 people had teeth pulled and others were referred to Pokhara to have repairs...

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Mark got the job of being photogrpaher which also made him a hit with the children...

We then had closing program and the presentation of the money. All in all, 257 patients were treated - some from up to four hours away. Nearly everyone took home bibles or information and had the opportunity to be prayed for and share their struggles. It was a tiring day but a good one.

Disclaimer: I am sorry this is soo much later than the actual date - I have had a lot of technical problems with this post!