Leaving Sierra Leone and Mercy Ships

We leave Freetown and the Africa Mercy today. It has been a fulfilling time of serving on the ship, seeing what Alyssa has been experiencing and meeting her friends. We are turning over the cleaning of Decks 2,3 and 4 over to nurses who are sailing with the ship to Ghana for the holidays and then on to Togo for the next outreach.

Sunset over Freetown from dock

Abdul posing in a bombed out building

Alyssa saying goodbye to good friends

Trip Up Country to Bo

Fixing dinner.

Fixing dinner is a family affair

Market in Bo

Interesting quote on the bathrooms!

Saturday we left the ship at 8 am and took a hired to taxi 3.5 hours to Bo. This is the hometown of Alyssa's friend Lamarana. She had not been home to visit her family for over 2 years. The drive through the countryside was beautiful. Sierra Leone has lush vegetation and rolling hills. The roads are in amazingly good condition.

It was fun to see Lamarana's reunion with her family...her father, mother, her two step-mothers and 9 brothers and sisters. We also met Emily, her son's other grandmother, who is raising her son. Her sister-in law also lived with them and is working as a seamstress. We saw her complete at least 3 dresses while we were there.

There was a sudden rainstorm that turned the dirt roads into temporary rivers. But life goes on and the girls continued to wash dishes in the rain. Lamarana's mother cooked us fry fry. It was steak and potatoes fried and served in a wheat bun.

Local home in Bo

Visits to a Local Family in Freetown and Thanksgiving

On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we worked all day. Alyssa had an invitation from Titus, a Day Worker from A Ward, to go to have African food. Titus is from Liberia and worked as a translator on the ward. So we took two poda podas and walked a bit to the neighborhood where he lived. Every transportation takes forever as there is so much traffic in Freetown. We get to the restaurant and find that they are out of food! So we go to plan B and find another restaurant. Their African dish of the night is Potato Leaves. Which means it is a sauce made with potato leaves, spices and chicken and you eat it over rice. Everything here is pretty spicy!

Friday was a big day as the ship said Thank You to the Day Workers. Here is a picture of our crew on the dock. Tim is behind the camera...so unseen.

We left the ship at around 4 pm and traveled with one of Alyssa's best friends among the day workers. She led us to the home of a family that Alyssa has visited several times as a former patient lives there. It is amazing that so many people live in one small house. Elizabeth is the head of this household that includes 13 children. Some are her grandchildren and some are just neighbors or children that need a home.

All the cooking is done outdoors as is the washing of clothes with soap and a washboard. The children are being bathed outside also. There is no running water, so it is hauled from some local source for everything. There is also no electricity to most of these homes. We sat outside on their porch by the light of a battery powered LED light and the lights from their cellphones. The children are all so sweet and fascinate

d by us white people. Some

of the older ones played music on their cellphone and the little ones danced!

More Cleaning and a Soccer Game

We have been busy all week cleaning the ship! Here are a few photos of scenes from the upper deck as we watch the colorful boats go by. It is quite fun.

Mercy Ships hires many local people to work on the ship. This was the last week for these Day Workers and many good-byes and festivities were held. Alyssa has developed good friendships with these workers. One of the activities was on Wednesday after work. It was a Soccer Game between crew and the Day Workers. The first two photos are of the local people coming to watch the game at a local field.

First Day of Work

We have no pictures for you today, however, I thought about showing images of the bathrooms, hallway floors, and stairways! Those items pretty much filled up our day today.

Kathy was on Deck 2 and 3 and I worked Deck 4. We were each paired with a long term day worker to show us the ropes. Mondays and Thursdays involve a little higher volume of work. Kathy swept, by hand, the stairwells that went from decks 3 to 7. My floor has 12 public bathrooms and miles and miles of hallways. All the touchable surfaces must be disinfected to keep everything as germ free as possible. It is all a well thought out system and is very efficient. For tomorrow, I think we will work on the same floor, but with different items on the list.

After dinner we had several more orientation meetings on security, safety, policies, etc. All very interesting and well presented. We connected up with Alyssa again and she escorted us to the patient wards where she works. It was very neat to meet those who she has been working with. The nursing staff builds such great relationships with the patients and family members who are staying with them.

We are off to bed early, so we are fresh for work tomorrow.

We love you all,

Tim and Kathy

Weekend Off!

We have arrived in Sierra Leone and our work schedule does not begin until Monday morning. This has allowed us to get settled in and do a few things with Alyssa before we start our duties in the Crew Services department. As it turns out the greatest current need was in the Crew Services so both Kathy and I will be working together to keep the public areas clean. We will each be assigned to a particular deck and will work initially with someone else to learn the ropes. Our first full day (Friday) we were committed to meetings with the Mercy Ships staff to get oriented. We will have additional meetings on Monday. Alyssa was off on Friday and traveled inland to the home of one of the patients. She came home with food they had taught her to make.

On Saturday Alyssa set us up with the local day workers to travel with them to the beach. This meant a number of hours on a bus that kept getting fuller and fuller as they added people, supplies, and sound equipment. Once we arrived is was a great to enjoy the beautiful beach with the local people. The children that live in that beach area are very friendly and love to get acquainted. It was also great to meet more of the friends that Alyssa has made while here.

We left earlier than the rest with the goal of getting back in time for dinner on board the ship. Transportation was not available at the beach spot, so about a dozen or so of us walked a couple miles to the junction to catch a van to get us back. Great walk along the highway followed by a typical overly packed van ride!

Sunday (today) Kathy, Alyssa and I traveled with Simeon, another of the local day workers to worship with him at his church. This meant a short walk, a drive in another overly packed van and a climb up a long hill weaving through the villiage to where the church was located. A wonderful experience with these wonderful and very colorful people. We met with the pastor for a short time after the service to get acquainted and share a cold drink. They speak the Creo language which is basically English with different pronounciations. With lots of concentration, we could follow. The pastor was very complimentary of Mercy Ships and delighted that we made the effort to come. It is such a joy to see how Alyssa has built these relationships with the local people. It seems that wherever we go, people recognize her and come up to greet us. When they discover we are her parents, they simply light up and speak so highly of her. What a blessing for us parents!!This afternoon after lunch, we ventured back to town on foot to purchase some fabric. This will be washed tonight and we will take it to a tailor the first part of the week. Kathy will end up with a new skirt and I, a new shirt. Very fun and very inexpensive.

Thank you to all of you who are praying for us. We appreaciate it so much.

Tim and Kathy

Mercy Ships Preparation

Here we are again preparing for another adventure! We leave next Wednesday to fly to Sierra Leone, West Africa to join Alyssa on the Africa Mercy. Tim will be working with Crew Services, which we understand is housekeeping oriented. I will be in Hospitality and I don't really know what that entails, except that I need to wear a white shirt, black pants or skirt and black dress shoes. If you are interested in finding more about Mercy Ships go to their website or Alyssa's blogsite:

www.mercyships.org

http://myadventureswithmercyships.blogspot.com

We are excited to be on the ship and be a small part of their work with the people of Sierra Leone. Seeing Alyssa will also be a joy.

Busy Sunday and Monday

Sunday begins with Tim getting ready for the Funeral Seminar at 11 am. Nothing seems to start on time here in Nepal...so it actually gets started closer to 11:30. The church is full of Pastors, students and others who help when there is a death. Tim does a wonderful job speaking about the Christian view of burial. He also covers how to respectfully treat the body in the home and how the pastors can handle various situations taking safety precautions. He holds their attention for 2 hours! Sunil, the young man who has lead the Christians in their talks with the government to find a burial place, updates everyone on the progress. It is all in Nepali, so we ask him afterwards what he said. They still have no place to bury, but they seem to be making progress.

We have an hour to clean up and get a bite to eat before we are back in the church for the meeting of WOW: Women of Worth. Tim and I are the speakers with the topic of Successful Parenting. It is also translated into Nepali. The talk seems to go well with several women sharing their struggles with us afterwards. Ching said that this is unusual for them to open up like this. I think it is because we shared some of our hard times and how the Lord helped us through it. An outcome of this talk is a vision of a couple of the women to begin meeting to pray for their children and families regularly.

We have breakfast Monday morning with Steve and Anju. He is an American who is married to a Nepali. It is fun to get to know them better. Time is too short and we need to finish packing and get on to the airport. We wish we could stay longer, yet also want to come home. Those interested in the funeral side of things really want Tim to come back and do seminars across the country and help them set up a funeral facility. We will see what God has in store for us in the future!

Final Weekend in Nepal

We have a very busy Friday as Tim is getting ready for his Funeral Seminar to be presented on Sunday to Pastors in the Kathmandu area. We shop at a pharmacy, a grocery store and a fabric store for supplies for an example of an in-home preparation kit. The man helping us with fabric is asking what we are wanting the supplies for...Ching just smiles.

We are invited to the upstairs neighbors, John and Diane, to dinner for homemade Momo's. These are half moon shaped steamed dumplings. They are filling theirs with a secret ingredient pork mixture. John shows us how to shape the dough around the filling. They are served with "pickle" which is similar to salsa with varying degrees of spiciness. It is a fun evening of eating and visiting.

Saturday we attend the Himalayan Evangelical Church where Vijay is the pastor. Tim is preaching the sermon with Ramila translating for him. He does an excellent job using 2 Corinthians 5 and speaking of our Eternal Hope. He shared from his personal experience in funeral service and had people in tears! Ramila did a wonderful job translating.

We went out for Indian fast food at a local mall with Vijay, Ching and family and Bishwa, Ramila and family. It was fun to taste even more different food and be told how to eat it. We then went to a larger mall to have coffee and tea at a very modern coffee shop. We felt like we were back in the Pacific Northwest! I had an interesting talk with Ching and Ramila and the lack of rights for the women in Nepal. They are very passionate about it and both want to pursue PhD's in order to gain credibility in the country in order to help the women.

Visit to Asha Nepal and Long Morning Walk

On The first image is of some children on the street near our neighborhood.

The next image is of Tim and I in Durbar Square in the middle of the Old Town Kathmandu.

Thursday I along with Ching were able to return to Asha Nepal (Nepal Hope) the home for women rescued from sex trafficking in Mumbai. Ching had some errands to do before so I was able to travel in some of the local public transportation. Such an experience squeezed into the back of these Tuk tuks!

The women were very gracious again and were happy to show me the bags and cards that they had made. When I found that they individually received the income from the bags they made, I felt I needed to support each one. It was a rewarding time. I was also able to meet one of their board members and found out how anyone in the States could support them also. Ching had a meaningful talk with Bimala, as she too is concerned about the issues of women in Nepal.

Tim was able to take a motorbike (major means of transportation here) ride with a young man, Sunil, who is involved in the Christian burial issue, to a local hospital to see the facilities at the morgue. I can only say that he was dismayed at the sanitary conditions. However he very much enjoyed the ride around the city!

Photos of Hindu and Buddhist Holy Sites

When blogging yesterday I did not have the photos nor the names of the shrines with me. We only have access to the internet when we are at the Himalayan Graduate School of Theology so I have to seize the opportunity as it arises.

The Hindu site we visited is called Pashupatinath and it is Nepal’s holiest Hindu site. Vijay explained that if you are cremated here that you are assured of going to heaven.

The Buddhist site is called Swayambhu. It is a stupa, which is a dome shaped shrine. The stupa is very large and dominates the hilltop. It is surrounded by many smaller shrines of both Buddha and the Hindu gods. The smell of incense pervades the area. We were able to sit and have tea at the Café de Stupa.

Visits to Hindu and Buddhist Holy Sites

We do most of our exploring of Kathmandu on our early morning walks. Just near us in the Sanepa district is a bridge across the Bagmati River. There is a path that goes down to the river. The river itself is disgusting. The homeless are living in makeshift housing and everyone dumps their garbage into, not to mention that the sewer system dumps into the river unsanitized! But along the river here are ghats. These are worship sites and platforms for Hindu cremation. The worship sites have statues of their many gods where the people come to do puja (worship).

Yesterday, Vijay took us to Pashupahti (sp?), one of the top pilgrimage and cremation sites of the Hindu religion. We saw 4 cremations taking place along with 2 being set up. All very interesting and very foreign to us Americans!

Today we walked to one of the most revered Buddhist sites. Many, many stairs to climb up the hill.

Randy's Class

Monday and Tuesday we have sat in on Randy's Theology class in the afternoon. We are very impressed with his gift of teaching and his ability to connect with the students of Nepal. We think of the sacrifice that his wife Cathy and son Andrew make in order for him to travel. Please remember them in your prayers as they hold down the home front in his absence.

Several interesting discussions arose in the class today as they discussed culture and how it affects the theology of the church. One issue is the Hindu tika that the

women wear on their forehead. As this symbolizes worship and honor to Hindu gods, should Nepali Christian women wear the tika because it is part of the culture and for beauty?

Another issue is Christian burial here in Kathmandu. Last week the Hindus have forbidden Christian burial at the sight where they are currently burying their dead. Now the Christians have no place to bury. Yesterday and today there were protests and riots at the government buildings pressuring them to provide a place for Christian burial. Some Christians have been forced to cremate like the Hindus against the will of the family, because there is no other options. This is a very urgent issue for the Christian pastors and families.

Vijay has called many pastors in the area to attend a seminar that Tim will present on Christian burial and preparation techniques. He will also set into motion putting together a committee to locate burial space with several churches involved. Please pray for the pastors as they handle most of the funeral arrangements and preparation. Pray for Tim also as he shares with them on Sunday. Also pray for quick resolution of this burial issue as several deaths have occurred in the last couple of days and there is no place to bury.

Commissioning of Leaders of Himalayan Church

Sunday we were honored to observe the commissioning of the pastor, elders and deacons of the Himalayan Evangelical Church. This was a powerful time of establishing the leaders of this four year old church here in Kathmandu. We were impressed with the biblical depth, quality and commitment of their leaders. The pastor Vijay, is a former student of Randy's at the seminary in Manila. We are also staying with he and his family while we are here. We are including photos of Randy with the family; Vijay and his brother, Bishwa and their proud mother, Rebekah; and a photo of Randy greeting the deacons and elders.

Here are some photos from our recent trip. We are now attending Randy's class today and are getting ready for Tim's funeral seminar this weekend and a parenting talk to WOW, Women of Worth.

Seeing More of Nepal

We have taken a few days just to travel around the country here. We left on Wednesday and took a bus to Chitwan National Park. The bus itself was an experience. Our first restroom stop was by the side of the road. No problem for the men, but us women had to fend for ourselves! It is a good thing I have experience from my hiking in the forests of Oregon!

When we got to Chitwan we had a ride on an elephant into the park. It wasn't the smoothest ride I have ever had, but we saw some amazing wildlife: Rhinoceros and young, crocodile and young, monkeys, peacocks, 3 types of deer. We also were treated to a cultural program of the Tharu people.

Thursday we took a local bus to Pokhara, near the Annapurna range of the Himalayan Mountain Range. The bus ride was again very interesting, but very long. It is amazing to see the village people doing all their everyday chores manually. Women and bathing in the local water fountain and men plowing fields behind two cows. Produce in abundance were oranges, cauliflower, lentils and rice.

The views from Pokhara are awesome. The mountains rise up so sharply. We took a taxi to Sarangkot, a village on a local hill before sunrise. As the sun rose it shone brightly on the peaks of the Annapurna Range. Our next adventure was to go to the Bat Cave. It was like walking into the many caves we have in the States with thousands of bats on the ceiling. As we began our exit we climbed up on some rocky path and then the young guide points up and says, "This is the exit, very difficult." I looked up and saw we were going to have to rock climb out. I made it with the guide and Tim's help from below!

We also visited an amazing resort with views of the Annapurnas, and went to the International Mountaineering Museum. The museum had exhibits on the different mountain peoples and the 15 highest mountains in the world and the teams that were the first to summit.

We are back in Kathmandu and everyone is getting ready for the ordination of Vijay, the pastor that we are staying with. We are honored to be able to be here for it.

Visit to Ahsa Nepal

Before we left, Shirley Gleason encouraged us to visit a ministry to women who have been sold into sex trafficking in India. I was able to find the ministry partner in the United States who then put me in touch with Bimala here near Kathmandu.

Bimala started this ministry 12 years ago after her children were grown. She became involved with Teen Challenge in Mumbai and was introduced to some of these girls. She now has property with three houses. We (Randy, Tim and I) were able to visit them today.

There are eight women and fifteen children living there. One house is for the children, one for the older boys and one for the women. We heard two of the women’s stories today. They were both sold into prostitution by their family members after their husbands had left them. They both found Jesus Christ through Teen Challenge and were brought to Nepal by Bimala. Their stories are heartbreaking, but now full of love and hope through this ministry.

Love,

Tim and Kathy

Nepal

Hello everyone!

We have spent our first day in Nepal. My goodness what an adventure. We are in the middle of the largest city, yet it feels very primative. I have not downloaded todays pictures, yet, so I can't show you what I mean. I will try to get that done tomorrow. Meanwhile we are having a ball!

We don't always have electricity so at times the home we are staying in uses battery power to keep everything going. There is no heat in the house accept for a space heater, so it gets quite cold at night. Everyone sits around in the evening with coats on!

Our host is a wonderful cook! Both she and her husband are former students of Randy and are wonderful people.

One of the things that was on the back burner for this trip was helping the Christian Pastors learn funeral service skills. As it has turned out, this little idea has been moved to the front burner and turned on high! In this culture the pastors are finding a very large evangelical outreach when they help care for the deceased with respect and loving care. They are very excited to get further training in how to handle these delicate situations. We are planning the funeral service training seminar for the weekend just before we return. Very exciting.

Kathy's back is doing great! Although I don't let her lift anything!! Randall's head cold is very active, but a trip to the pharmacy today is making things feel better!

I am at the school right now where there is wireless internet access. I should probably head back to the house. I will get some pictures out tomorrow.

Our love to you all, Tim and Kathy

Arrival in Nepal

We arrived in Kathmandu yesterday. Flights went well and we are just getting settled in with the family of Vijay and Ching. Will post more later. It is cold here and they have intermintent electricity and no central heating. We took a walk with Randy this morning and it is amazing the amount of people and garbage along the streets. It is quite an experience.

Vijay is quite excited about the possibility of a Christian funeral home to serve the Christian community here. They have no one to care for the bodies of the dead and no place to bury. This could be a very interesting ministry for Tim here. He will probably talk to some of the pastors and elders on Feb. 5 about caring for the deceased. Vijay thinks it will be a great Christian witness to the Hindus as they care for the dead with love and respect.

Friday

I woke up this morning with my back feeling much better. A healing balm (like Ben Gay) was given to us yesterday and today one of the students from Randy's class gave me a Sri Lankan ointment that he said had worked wonders on his back after a fall. We are very well taken care of here.

Both Tim and I went to class this morning, the last day of the class. It is afternoon now and they are taking their final exam. Three of the girls want to keep in touch and we exchanged e-mail addresses. This is very encouraging to me; that I can have an impact on them in this short of time.

(Tim) It has been so great to observe the girls connect with Kathy. I really think it helped make the comfortable in class and helped in the learning process.

I enjoyed several more interviews today with the administrator, as well as the head of the publishing department. This school has a very effective ministry through out much of Sri Lanka.

It is so much fun to interview the students and hear of their great respect for the college and for Randy in particular. Following class today, they all stood and presented him with a gift along with great words of appreciation. Wow!

We took a group photo at the student's request. And several wanted pictures with Randy and a couple of the girls wanted a picture with Kathy.

Tomorrow we leave the college at 2:00 am to catch our flight from Colombo to Kathmandu. It will be a long day, but I am very thankful that Kathy's back is doing better!

Thank you all again for your prayers and support!!

Thursday

I, Kathy, began the day doing laundry and I bent over in a way that my back went out. I was rather upset about it! I spent the entire day laying low and taking my trusty back spasm pills. Randy prayed for me and then had the class pray for me. Two of the female students came over on their tea break to express their concern and pray for me. This really meant a lot to me. By evening, I was doing better and got through the day without a back spasm. Thank you to all at home who were praying. I am sure all the prayers were effective!

While Kathy rested in the evening I (Tim) joined Randy and the overseer of Lanka Bible College, Ben and his wife Angela for dinner. It was great to learn more about the history of the college as well as his vision for the future. He was very encouraging to Randy and spoke very highly of him.

Wednesday

Wednesday - Royal Botanical Gardens

We enjoyed a beautiful morning exploring the Royal Botanical Gardens located within walking distance of Lanka Bible College. Randy was kind enough to let us skip class! Wednes

day was a Sri Lanka National Holiday celebrating the new moon. This meant that we found many young children and families enjoying the gardens with us.

The gardens are beautifully landscaped with many varieties of plants which attracted a number of birds. However, we were often as much an attraction

as the gardens. There are not to many Americans here!

We returned to the college in time to have lunch with the students to continue getting to know them better. The rest of the day was class work with Randall and student interviews.

Monday Class at Lanka Bible College

We spent the day attending Randy's class on The Doctrine of the Church. The class consists of students in the Bachelor of Theology program. About half of them are pastors or church workers. One man is a former policeman who has planted a church in Kandy with several daughter churches. One young lady is 19 years old and her goal is to eventually obtain her PhD and teach at a Bible College. One gal was raised in a Buddhist family. Her father was in an accident and seriously injured. A pastor came to visit and shared about Christ. He eventually believed in Jesus and so did his wife and children.

It has been great to become acquainted with the students as Randy has encouraged the students to eat with us and be available to pray for them. We enjoyed visiting with them today at lunch. I shared pictures of our family with the girls and one of them wants to stay in touch and would also like me to find a young woman that she can pen-pal with in the United States.

We skipped Class this afternoon and took a Tuk Tuk to Kandy (the school is actually in the neighboring town of Peradeniya) to see the Temple of the Tooth. This is a very sacred Buddhist site that houses the tooth of the Buddha. The cities here are dirty and chaotic and not at all what we are used to, but we are having fun experiencing it all. It is hard to know what is safe or good to eat or even what will be to hot and spicy for us! The administrator of the college, Selvarajah, is taking very good care of us.

Sunday Church Services

Tim spoke at the 7:30 am Tamil church service. Most of the Tamil in Sri Lanka are Hindu. In fact the administrator of the college, Selvaraj, is Tamil and converted from Hindu to Christianity as a young man. Tim did a great job and worked well with the pastor as he translated into the Tamil language. We stayed for the English service and Randy gave the sermon at that one.

We ate lunch in the college cafeteria. We are eating a lot of rice! This was served with dried fish (very, very salty) and daal (looks like lentils). I commented that the daal was spicy, Selvaraj looked at me funny and said it was very mild!

From Tim:

It is such so great to experience the Asian culture. Everyone has been so gracious and kind. We could never have known the impact that Randy has had and is having on these people. They have such a huge respect for him and speak often of the ongoing effect of his previous teaching.

Thank you so much for continuing to pray for Randy, Kathy and I as we travel. As I came closer to Sunday when I was to preach, the less prepared and confident I became. Yet, at the same time, there was the most amazing calm in my heart! Once in the pulpit I felt very much at home and comfortable. Working with the translator felt very natural and worked great. I learned later that he was translating both to the Tamil and to the Singlese. I wondered why he was taking longer to say what I had just said! I, again, could not have done this without your prayers!! I speak next on Friday to the students here in Kandy.

Our love and greetings to you all!!

Saturday trip to Kandy

We traveled in a van to Kandy where Randy will be teaching at Lanka Bible College. We passed many small villages with shops along the road. An interesting experience was a lady on the side of the road with her pet porcupines! We gave her 100 rupees ($1) to take some photos. We took a side jaunt to see the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage. It was a great experience to see them herded to the river for their baths. We especially enjoyed the wee baby and her mother. We finally arrived at the Bible College and are staying in a house that is used to house visiting professors.