Nepal Schools

Consider this the report for the first quarter of the year.

I received a shipment of Yak wool blankets from Nepal that Nam Raj had purchased when he landed in Kathmandu.  I decided to sell them, and, if successful, send him the moneyt to send us some more blankets.  I posted a listing on etsy, and, after a few weeks, I was disappointed that no one showed any interest.  Instead, I took them to church and during a semi-regular update to the body of Christ on goings on, I presented them to everyone, and they sold out in what seemed to be one minute.  In fact, one person asked for another 10 blankets, and I have asked Nam Raj to send out another 20 blankets, next time he is in Kathmandu.  As of yesterday, he plans to go to Kathmandu as soon as I get him the money.

On a second note, I took Pastor Naina, his daughter, and her friend up to Liberty to meet with the provost.  Naina has an idea of taking current curriculum and getting it published in Nepali, to facilitate the spread of Christianity in Nepal. Altough the provost presented a pathway to achieve this that looked grim, it was a doable pathway.  We need to find somone who is skilled and capable of taking a current curriculum and getting it into Nepali, and this person needs to have credentials to accomplish this.  Then, once we do that, we need to get this accredited by a third party.  This requires a champion with a heart to do the legwork to get the accreditition process moving.  He shared that Liberty had done this with Spanish related curriculum, so he knew it was possible. 

On a third note, I presented the two girls to him and asked him for guidance to help them attend school.  As you know, a refugee doesn't have a nationality nor a passort.  The girls have greencards, but no country that they can call home.  He suggested that he could help with tuition for the girls, but they would need to come up with $ for their food.  The provost then introduced me to a woman who leads a committee that helped raised money for special cases like these refugees.  She was familiar enough with Nepal to know of a current LU student who was studying nursing who was from Nepal.  She went to her office and gave her a call; unfortunately, she was unavailable.  The two girls won't be starting college for another year and a half, so their is ample time for either us (you and me) to find $ for their meals or for her to make contact with people that she knows to help raise $ for some meal plans.  My wife and I have already committed to help out Naina's daughter. 

On a fourth note, in about three months, I am going to start the process of getting our 2nd Nepali guy to come to the US to get training.  In June, it is my intention to prepare the documents needed for Khopi Ram to get a VISA to come to the US to study US construction techniques and methods.  He will shadow current tradesman and craftsmen, following them around while they work.  Although he is ineligible to be paid for his efforts, he should go home a wealthier man from his learnings.  If you know anyone who is in construction trades and is willing let a smart man in his thirties work with him for a few days, please let them know about this, as I am in need of help.  Before I can get a VISA, I will need to create a thoughtful training program that includes what Khopi Ram will be doing, and who he will be doing it with.  Preferrably, I need an engineer, an electrician, a framer, a plumber, a roofer, a concrete guy, a painter and an excavator.  They don't "do" HVAC in Nepal, so don't send those guys my way!

As the time nears, I will begin to tell Khopi Ram's story to you all, as I have known his since he was 12 years old.  It is a tear jerker.  We will need to raise $4000 for his round trip airfare and expenses to come to the US for three months.  Just so you know, in advance....

It is my intent to bring the Nepali community in Charlotte out to my house in a few weeks to have a picnic.  If you want to volunteer to help out, please let me know.  We need drivers who can pick people up and take them back home, once we are done.  Dates are TBD. 

Prayer requests:

1) We find $ for the girls for their food at Liberty beginning in the fall of 2013.

2) Khopi Ram find supporters for both expenses and for tradesman willing to let him learn by shadowing them. 

3) Someone capable of translating a English Bible curriculum into Nepali step up.

Thanks, again, for your prayers and help.  We are making a difference.

2011 was a successful year in the lives of those we touched.  Since many of you have only been able to read fractions of the blog, I am going to start over with a summary and share with you what we've done.

1) Jeff and Marty went to Nepal and met with leaders to explore building a new school and fix some of the older ones.

2) We met with architects and villiage leaders.  We found several plots that local vaillage leaders were willing to donate to the Nepal Project.  All were workable and we tentatively selected an 8 acre parcel east of Ghorahi to be where we put up our showcase school.

3) We visited Saudiyar School, where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1987-1989.  The facility had more than doubled in size and enrollment, but it was in need of renovations.

4) You helped me raise money to fix the school.

5)  We got a donation of equipment to send to the school that included 20 PCs, wireless and wired networking equipment.

6) We helped get a a visa for Nav Raj Adhikari, to come study in the US at Liberty University.  After prayer and meetings, Liberty University agreed to put Nav Raj on a full ride.  We came up with money for room and board, and a plane ticket.

7) His eyes were opened as to how education can work, and now has a HUGE bag of strategies to take back with him to Nepal about how to teach that he will demonstrate to the people at the school he works at.

8) During his time in the US, Nav Raj embraced Jesus Christ.

9) We wired money to Khopi Ram Chaudhary, a man whom I have known for 25 years and can trust with money.  We fixed Saudiyar school.  The photo above shows some of the upgrades.  There are two other photos in the gallery  that show the school in different areas of reconstruction.  If you haven't taken the time to review the photo gallery, please do.

10)  We ended the year cash flow positive.

Most ministries lack the comfort or freedom to exclaim to the world that $ is good with us.  We get caught up so much in the "what is next" that we fail to get a thank you out the door without concurrently asking for the next chunk of change.  No money requests today!

Yet, we do have some setbacks that require prayer.  Through the Nepali Embassy, I have learned just last week that the Nepal Ministry of Finance doesn't allow any used electronic equipment into the country, for what is labelled, "environmental reasons."  As such, I have a lot of gear that I will either need to find an alternative way of importing (please, don't ask me for details or I will have to shoot you) or I will have to sell it all and purchase new equipment in its stead.  That would dilute the size of the donation, but at least, it would be able to enter the country.

Nav Raj will also need some prayer as he returns and attempts to reconcile his beliefs both about teaching and Jesus.  His world has been changed tremendously, and he is going back to a place where some people still think the world is flat. 

Nav Raj flies back to Nepal in one week.

Again, thanks for making a difference.  Please add anything above that touches your heart to your prayer list.

I am going to approach this entry chronologically. I have two events that have justified a long delay since my last update. To begin, this website was up, but I couldn't upload photos to it, nor could I log in and create any new entries. We moved to a different server, and all those issues seem to have disappeared. The second point was that P*a*y*p*a*l froze my account, so all future money will have to be sent directly to the church, to stay legal.

Nab Raj came to our house in Monroe for the Thanksgiving holiday. He rode home with Michael late on Sunday. They arrived and had a good dinner. He again expressed the difficulties he is having in his apartment, as the girl he is sharing rent with lives an alternative lifestyle that has her up late at night, and their apartment is frequently filled with guests. He isn't sleeping on a normal schedule, and his studies are impacted by this. We encouraged him to tough it out for the last three weeks of the semester.

Thanksgiving morning, we participated in the annual South Park Turkey Trot race, and Nab Raj ran the 5K race with Alex. Alex beat him by about 10 minutes though! My 86 year of father did the 1 mile fun walk, and I think he both won the race and lost the race in his age category, as he was the only participant who was over age 85. Nab Raj couldn't believe that my father was strong enough at his age to compete in an event that revolved around physical activity.

Over the course of Thanksgiving, I decided to take him to visit a Nepali pastor who emigrated from Bhutan to Nepal to the US, over the course of many years. Naina paid a dear price for his Christianity, as Nepal frowns on and ostracizes Christians. I sent Naina a text message, in advance of our visit, letting him know that Nab Raj was coming with me, and he wasn't a Christian. Naina and Nab Raj talked for about 30 minutes, and Naina told Nam Raj his justification for his adoption of Jesus as his Savior. Nab Raj had several stories to tell as well as several messages to relay about what he had experienced during his time as a member of the Brahman caste, the highest caste in Nepali society. We discussed throughout the evening what it meant to be a Christian, and I made it perfectly clear that my highest hope for him is that he understands the human condition of sin and the value of Jesus as our savior.

On Saturday, we went to Wilmington, NC, so he could see and photograph the ocean. Nepal is a land-locked country, with no access to any port cities, in any direction. Very few Nepali citizens ever see the ocean, let alone step a foot in one. He said it was like visiting heaven. On the ride home, we discussed the horrible state of marriage both in Nepal and the United States, and this turned out to be of some importance the next morning.

On Sunday am, I took him to Hope Christian Church, so he could meet the people that pretty much have been helping pay for his American experience. He got lots of handshakes and hugs, and fortunately, our Pastor’s message was about marriage, the very topic that Nab Raj and I had been talking about during our car ride home. He loved the message, and it made inherent sense to him as Pastor Bruce outlined what is OK and what is not OK, in God’s eyes. Near the end of service, our church “does” the sacrament of communion. As the bread and grape juice were passed around, I had to quick tell him, in Nepali, that our religious culture says that if you believe in Jesus, then you take the bread and grape juice. I didn’t go into the why and how of this-I only had a few seconds. He said, “Yes, it is the truth,” and he took them.

After church, there were lots of people hanging out, talking to one another. However, within the hour, I was driving Nab Raj to meet Brent Vinson, a friend of Michael’s who had agreed to drive Nab Raj back to Liberty that afternoon. I asked him about his choice. He said that he decided the right thing to do was to follow Jesus.

I feel like I could stop typing right now and send this message. All of our joint efforts are formally “worth it.” He now is a part of the Kingdom of God. He chose to discard the fraud that abounds in our culture that “coexistence” with other religions is in everyone’s best interest, and that all paths lead to wisdom. He finally understood that Jesus is the way, and all else is bogus.

But reality remains. He had fears about his community’s reaction to his choice NOT to be a Hindu but instead to be a Christian. He had first-hand experience about how Christians are treated in Nepal, and he was concerned for his family. I gave him guidance that his top priority with his faith, in the short term, should be to read the Bible and learn what it says. Second, he needs to teach his wife. Third, he needs to teach his children. Lastly, he needs to pray about how to handle his community and the inevitable rejection he will face from his father and brothers. He is about to experience a persecution that few, if any, Americans can understand. I can’t even write about it from a position of experience, despite living there for multiple years during one of the worst times in that country’s history. For us, as Christians in America, there is no real social consequence for accepting Jesus as your savior. He will have consequences. Please pray for him.

He finishes his first semester at Liberty on December 14th, and his return ticket is for January 10th, and we don’t have any money to pay for his flight. He can’t get a job teaching at a university or high school until about March, so he will be on his own until then. We will need to support him until then. My wife and I are packing up two duffle bags of stuff that we know he can use. We have donations of 50 access points and 20 computers that we need to pay to get shipped to Kathmandu, as well. If anyone wants to step up and fund some of this, please don’t hesitate. The time is right now, and we need about $1400 to get all of this done.

In addition, Khopi Ram has been given $2000 to rebuild the first half of Saudiyar school, and we need another $2000 to finish that project. If it sounds like I am asking for money, you are good at reading between the lines. We are no longer just changing the educational system of people who need the help. We now have one of their leaders on board with the Christian message, and he needs our help, perhaps more than ever. Please pray about helping us achieve our goal.