India/Nepal Report #18 (really #19): Sun, Nov. 18, 2012 at 9 a.m. from Kathmandu, Nepal
Dear Family and Friends:
The power is off again but this computer battery will serve well to get a start on this before we leave for meeting in two hours. We have had our warm water to drink, warm shower and breakfast. Mary Alice has done a little laundry to hang in the sun and is watching the pressure pan hopefully cooking the dry garbanzos given us by the Lovitts who leave tomorrow for USA.
Cooking on the propane stove has its problems. We noticed that the flame is very inconsistent. Probably the gas is contaminated or is running very low. We enjoy our warm shower more since we learned that it does not use any propane to heat it—only solar panels, a gift from the sun not costing the Mission extra for fuel.
Newest information is that Lovitts (Jonathan and Karen) were expelled from India five months ago rather than two weeks as we had first thought. They moved into Nepal and rented a flat since then. To get their things to Nepal they hired six or more taxis in West Bengal to haul their things to the Nepal border and moved into a rented bus that brought them to Kathmandu. Their health was poor in Darjeeling but has improved in Nepal. They left for us to use their dry kidney beans, garbanzos, dahl, and rice. We shared with them some special power bars, tangerines, apples, dried apricots, and peanut butter, treats they especially appreciate. As it turns out, she is three months pregnant and having trouble with her food. These will be a rich blessing. We gave them without knowing the special need.
Jared Wright from Chicago worked with them at Darjeeling for five years and was expelled at the same time and has also been in Kathmandu. The SDA hospital is trying to work out something for him, but there are several challenges. A tourist visa would only let him be here five months at a time. The student visa costs $5000 a year. Yes, that is five THOUSAND and the Mission does not have much money. That is something to add to your prayer list.
Yesterday (Sabbath) we had our second meeting. The ride came late and Sabbath School was almost over when we got there. We had to set up the projector and computer while the lesson study was still in progress. Then with a little singing (I taped some of it) we were on with the health talk followed by the first sermon on Daniel 2 showing God’s knowledge of the future as well as His creative power we talked about the first day. We had them stand up and stretch and then Mary Alice gave another health talk and I preached on the Second Coming of Jesus. Of course, the power went out and we had to switch to the generator that worked well. But eventually the video projector gave warning of too much heat and we had to shut it off for a while, as the sermon continued without it. Then we turned it back on and went a while before getting the same signal of not sufficient cooling. It had been in use for about 2 ½ hours. Again we shut it off and prayed about it publically. It worked till the end that time and the meeting closed with people enthusiastic.
At our opening meeting on Friday at 12 Noon (more or less) there were about 30 there but it grew to about 50 before long. On Sabbath we had more than 115 and that made for real crowding. No one seemed to mind. Drinking water was provided by a closed pitcher with a spout that was passed around among those sitting on the floor, as is their custom. (The spout with a partial cover enabled one to pour water into their mouths without their lips touching the pitcher.) Some do understand English because we see their faces and responses to our questions in English. Many are taking notes and following in their Bibles.
The special Nepali Scripture slides we had prepared and planned to insert into my sermons, do not work. They were beautifully done but my computer does not import them right and leaves only nonsense symbols. We solved that by having the pastor stand and read from his Nepali Bible each verse pictured on the screen in Mizo. (Above the verse is the English reference .) I quote some of them in English while Pastor Umesh is looking for them in his Bible. I have to leave the texts in Mizo in the sermon (and they show on the screen) because they cue me to what verse we want to use at that time. Adaptability!
Yesterday we had a couple from Australia visiting the Gathagar Main church where we are serving. They are the Morgans, (Ken and Margaret) aged 71 and 60. His father was an administrator in the SDA church in Australia. Ken had a business that he sold along with his house when he retired. This is a second marriage for each of them and so presumably they now live in her house. They took “a sizeable portion of the proceeds” and are investing it in the Kingdom by doing many things to help in Nepal. They have bought motorbikes for pastors and others and fourwheel drive vehicles to enable travel to these remote places unreachable by other means. They help with an orphanage and other projects too. It was a pleasure visiting with them after church.
We marveled at the ability of most of the people to be in SS and Church from 10 a.m. through 2 p.m. without benefit of a restroom. I am thankful for the one on second floor that enables me to minister in the services at midday as we are. Our schedule is so uncertain that it is a challenge to get in the water we need and at the proper time.
We used three translators in the course of yesterday’s presentations. One is the pastor (Umesh), another is the layman, Bhaju Ram, we met yesterday, and the third is the speaker for Adventist World Radio in Nepal who also runs a school and safe house for girls rescued from the brothels. All the translators did very well. We have not seen again Kapilrajani, the treasurer who was supposed to be our translator. We heard from Bhaju Ram that there is no communication in Nepal. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing and sometimes not even the right hand knows what the right hand is doing. Everyone does his own thing and doesn’t share plans with others. We sometimes wonder if they even knew we were coming! The Lord is doing great things in spite of it all.
Nepal is in a state of confusion now with no constitution. They are presumably trying to write one but have lots of input that is contradictory. We get bits and pieces of history, ancient and current. Living without electric power a lot of the time both in our room and in the meetings at the Gathagar Main Church, makes us appreciate what we have at home. Our outages are fixed at home relatively quickly, but here they are just routine and expected happenings.
MONDAY at 4:30 pm.
We had no time to finish this and get it on its way when Internet service continued. The meeting Sunday afternoon had more than a hundred attending in spite of predictions of a smaller group. Today (Monday) we had a full house again. They announced a change in time to 3 p.m. to 4:30 so that the students from our school can also attend. The other people said they could come then too. We wonder where we will put another 25 or so, but they fit in somehow. They are very interested in the subjects, both health and Bible.
On Sunday we left after the meeting with Bahju as our guide to visit some of the historical sites in Kathmandu. I had to carry the computer but we were able to lock the projector at the church and save that weight in our travels. Bahju knows the history and also the mythology of both Buddhist and Hindu since he belonged to both in his spiritual journey to become SDA. He has keen insights into the Great Controversy between God and Satan. He says he is sure that Satan has made Nepal his headquarters because of how much the people are ruled by demons here. We have been able to buy a paperback edition of the book Festivals of Nepal that Mary Alice had seen among the books here at the office. It will give background for much of what is going on around us. It is fascinating to me to see how many of the Bible rituals are repeated in a perverted way here in the pagan temples and religions.
Nepal has had a severely violent past. That is one of the things Dr. Lakhey, Professor of Orthopedics and a surgeon at the Kathmandu Medical College, wrote about in an article March 19, 2012. He says there are only 50 psychiatrists in all of Nepal and they cannot keep up with the mental health problems. Those in the villages have almost no support for mental problems. Then there is severe poverty among some and when they see the disparity between the rich and themselves (aided by TV programs they may chance to see) they despair of any future for themselves. Bhaju quotes one survey that says one in four in Nepal are afflicted by depression and the suicide rate is very high and increasing.
Dr. Lakhey’s article notes that many of the people who are depressed and some with demon possession, go to the Christian churches for help they do not get from the Nepali government. Some have shown marked improvements and even cures. So he suggests that it might be good if the government encouraged Christianity rather than the current Hindu and Buddhist that have been so ineffective. Interesting thought, but not likely to happen!
At our first and second meetings we met Maya Tamang, a fifteen-year-old girl who has experienced demon possession right at the church. On October 8, (just after we left for this trip to India and Nepal) a woman was possessed by demons in the church sponsoring our meetings. Bhaju Ram has given us the details that are too many to share here, but we may do it later when back home. In the process of exorcizing the demons from this woman, the demons entered Maya and it took ninety minutes of focused prayer by the church to free her (temporarily) from those demons.
A later visit with Maya by Bhaju Ram and a visiting speaker from USA revealed her story. When she was five she was working in a store for a family in the same business as Maya’s relatives. This family did not prosper as well as Maya’s relatives and they were jealous. So they asked Maya to bring a hairpiece belonging to her relative. She brought a discarded cloth from near the water source. Then they gave Maya a handful of rice and asked her to sprinkle it around the house of her relatives. The lady relative became sick and learned from Maya what had happened. The village people wanted to run out of the village the offending business and had a police investigation into the matter. Then the offending business people cursed Maya for telling on them and said that after eight more years she would die. Six of those years have passed and Maya is very concerned about her future, especially with the current episodes of demon possession. Maya’s father died from just such a curse.
Bhaju tells us that many current members of the Gathagar Main Church have been demon possessed in the past and found deliverance when they became SDA. You see, our current Sabbath School lessons about Satan and his activity in our world are especially meaningful here right now. The above happenings are current and we are working with those people. After the meetings many come forward wanting special prayer for them and their illnesses. After each sermon I pray for the people that God will surround them with a hedge of powerful angels to keep Satan and his fallen angels from hurting them. This prayer means much to these people.
Maya has not returned for the past two meetings. She has transportation problems and her school schedule keeps her from coming at the noon-until-two time slot. Now that we are moving the time forward to three-until five, she may be able to come back. We solicit your special prayers for these dear people who suffer so much and are so eager for the help we can give. We will share more later as able.
With love,
Glenn and Mary Alice, (Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma)