from Humla

Here are some thoughts we recorded while in Humla:

Saturday, April 26th

We arrived here yesterday, after an early morning, hazy flight from Nepalgunj, on which we were the only passengers, along with the flight attendant. Life here moves very slowly; suddenly being at a higher altitude makes everything seem to require more effort. The weather has been great, though still a bit hazy on the snow mountains. We took a walk in the afternoon, getting to see a bit more of the town and surrounding area. It is great to be eating the local food again, though after 3 weeks of it we may not be so excited about rice and beans. I had a talk with Sunita and Sarita, the staff that work with the nutrition program. They feel a bit uncertain as to how to proceed with things as the people in the villages are experiencing the “food gap” between the harvests, when food is scarce. Its hard to teach people how to be eating better when they don't have anything to eat. It is disheartening to think of the situation the humlis are in, and difficult to see creative ways of working with what they have. We truly need the Lord's direction in this.
Today is Saturday, a day off for the Staff at RIDS. It is nice to have another day to get used to the altitude and the pace of life here. We read our bibles in the sun this morning, took a shower, and shared communion together. It is hard to believe that there are seemingly no practicing believers in this place. The quiet from the lack of traffic here is a wonderful change after our time in loud, busy Kathmandu.
Tomorrow, we are scheduled to go to Dharapori, where RIDS has established a field office. Dharapori is a village which is scheduled to begin a nutrition program this year. We also plan to visit Hepka, which is a tibetan village 3 hours north of Dharapori.
Jodi

Friday, May 1st
We've now been in Humla one week. It actually feels like it's been a lot longer. I think it's because this place feels so far removed from my normal world and even the world of Kathmandu. It feels so surreal to be surrounded by huge snow-covered mountains wherever I look, to see no vehicles with wheels of any kind (except the occasional small airplane), to see yaks, horses and donkeys coming past the place we're staying carrying firewood, to see homes made of stone, mud, and rough-cut lumber. It's also hard to comprehend how very different the lives of the people here are than mine. Very few of them probably would have any idea what this computer is that I'm typing on, very few of them know how to read or write their own language, very few of them know what it's like to be healthy and well-nourished, and very few of them have ever heard the truth about their Creator and Savior. I realized this is the first place I've ever been where I couldn't go to a fellowship of believers if I wanted to unless I was willing to take a plane ride or walk for several days.

Our base during our time in Humla is the RIDS-Nepal office in Simicot village, the biggest of the villages in Humla. It's the village that has the little dirt airstrip that we flew in onto. Here people have seen a few more white people in their lives than in the other villages, so not everyone stares at us incessantly. :) Last Sunday we began our first “field trip” - a trip out to some of the smaller villages where RIDS does a lot of their work. Jodi, me, and Seona – an Australian who's doing her doctorate work on green houses – headed out on the 5 hour walk to Dharapori. Simikot is at about 3000 meters, and Dharapori is around 2300 meters, so it was mostly downhill, although it starts with a pretty big up hill. It was the most amazing hike as far as the surroundings I have ever experienced. We met up with Sunita and Sarita – two Humlis who work for RIDS – and Renate – a German lady who is working with RIDS' non-formal education program (NFE) in another village along the way. In Dharapori, we rested for a while. Jodi and I were quite sore. Then Sunita, Jodi, and I went into the village to talk to some people and see what needs they have for nutrition and see if we could find a CNM (Community Nutrition Motivator) to train. There are more flies in Dharapori than I have probably seen in my life. These people, especially the children, are all malnourished and want help. But in some ways their mind-set, way of life, and religion, prevent them from receiving that help.
On Tuesday, we went to a village about an hour walk away called Kholsi, where Jodi had spent some time on her former trips. We spent a little time and prayed with a girl who has Polio who says her whole family is believers after Jodi prayed for her and she was healed of some sickness last time Jodi was here. Please pray that God will teach them who He is and that they will grow in their faith.
On Tuesday, we hiked 3 hours to Hepka, a Tibetan village. In that village, as in most Tibetan villages, the people are much better off and we saw only one malnourished child. Renate was trying to figure out if this has something to do with the values of Buddhism versus Hinduism, but we didn't really know what the connection might be. Tuesday night, we slept in an upstairs room in one of the village houses and we got our first experience of bed bugs. We brought them back with us to Simikot and are currently trying to get them out of our sleeping bags and mattresses. We've probably got near 100 bites each. We hiked a little over 5 hours, mostly uphill back to Simikot on Wednesday and just about wore ourselves out totally. I think Jodi and I should have done some training since we weren't very ready for high altitude steep climbing, coming from Indiana.
Yesterday (Thursday) was a day mostly of relaxing at the office in Simikot. My love and I got to have some really good conversation over a wonderful treat of a cup of instant coffee with powdered milk. Stop cringing AWC coffee snobs. You'd enjoy it here too. We talked about how we might be able to share Jesus with the people here since that's really our main motivation. If our motivation isn't Jesus, it's kind of pointless to be trying to help people to go into eternity with a healthier physical body, but no hope of eternal life. Next week we'll be going back where Jodi, Sunita will be conducting training for the CNMs from several villages. Jodi and I were talking about how she can share the gospel clearly through the nutrition training. I trust God is bringing us to your mind to pray for us in this during next week (even though you won't read this until after it's happened).

I think I have started to get a much more accurate picture of what is involved in being a cross-cultural missionary during my time in Nepal so far. I see that if God calls us to live here in Humla or somewhere like it and join in His work of building His church here, it would be a task harder than I can imagine. The mind-set of the people here is just so different than mine and they view us as white people as so far above them. There would be a lot to overcome, but we have no doubt that God is able to equip and sustain those He calls. From spending time with several missionaries in Kathmandu, I've gotten to see a little more up close what would be involved in being a missionary in a large third-world city. When we get back to Kathmandu in about a week and a half, we plan to spend some time fasting and praying to see if God wants to show us anything we should be involved in during our last 3 weeks in Nepal and if He wants to give us any more clear direction about our future.

Praise God that He's answered your prayers and kept us very healthy in every way so far and He's allowed me to trust in Him and not be overwhelmed with culture shock and not knowing the language. God's also allowed us to be strength and kind of a haven of rest for each other and He's caused our love for each other to grow.

Well that was quite long, but I hope it is a good update on what's been going on with us here. Thank you for your prayers. We look forward to getting back to civilization and having the possibility of communication with our family in the rest of the world.
Daryl

Saturday, May 3
Today the skies are finally clear and I can see all of the mountains. It's incredible. -Daryl

It is gorgeous today- clear for 360 degrees all around us. We took a walk down past the Shiva temple and sat on a rock, admiring the panorama of snow peaks. We spent some time praying for Humla, during which time two boys walked up the hill and decided to sit on the same rock we were sitting on( regardless of the fact that there were rocks all around us). After finding us somewhat boring, they decided to go to the nearby temple and ring bells incessantly.
Today I have felt so tired. A few nights of being so itchy and not being able to sleep are taking their toll. Last night, it felt like my whole body was on fire with itchiness. It was all I could do to pray, “Lord have mercy”. Every night the number of bites increases. Today I counted 46 on one arm, from my elbow to my hand.
In spite of the itchiness, this has been a great experience so far. Our trip to the field last week was a good though not terribly eventful four days. When we got back to Simikot, we were so grateful to finally get showers after so much walking in the hot sun. Our time in Kholsi was encouraging- it was so good to see the girl with polio again. She is doing so much better than the last time I saw her. The others in the village were so excited to see us, and everyone wanted to give us tea and bread. There are several new babies born since I was there last year.
It is getting more and more difficult to be a white person here, and I find myself wishing often that I could just blend in and not have to deal with being a novelty. The kids and adults alike see no shame in staring open faced at us, yelling hello, asking for pens, sweets or medicine. The nepali word for white foreigner, “quidee” can be heard yelled from quite a distance when we are walking around. We wonder how different it will feel when we are back in a society that sees us the same as everyone else.
Even though its been a clear day, it is beginning to get cloudy and we can hear thunder echoing off the mountains. It looks like it might rain. We'll see if we should attempt a shower and if we might get some hot water.
-Jodi

Friday, May 9

We got back from our second trip to the field last evening. The 5 hour, mostly uphill walk didn't seem nearly as hard to me this time. This time we stayed in the Dharapori field office the whole 3 days. We got there Monday afternoon and left Thursday afternoon. The purpose of this trip was to conduct training for 4 current CNMs and 2 new ones. Sunita did most of the training with Jodi doing a little. During this time I didn't really have a whole lot to do other than lighting a few few fires to make some tea and a few other little things. So, I took advantage of the time by reading some of my favorite book (the Bible). While we've been in Nepal, Jodi and I have been reading a book called “Jesus for President” which has been very impactful and has caused much introspection, prayer, and conversations between the two of us. It addresses some ways of thinking that I've grown up with, mostly regarding America, politics, military, and my relation to my country. In a very humble way, and coming from authors who have thought through hard and lived it out, it shows some major differences between the way most Americans in the church have been brought up to view their county and the way Jesus and the early church related to their country. And it shows a lot of inconsistencies in the popular thought patterns of the American church. I'd highly recommend reading the book. There's more about it at their website – www.jesusforpresident.org. I'll probably blog some more about this book on my own blog – http://dbwinger.blogspot.com .

Anyway – back to my favorite book. Because of how my mind has been kinda stretched by “Jesus for President”, I wanted to re-read some parts of the Bible with these new thoughts in mind. So on Tuesday, I read all of the book of Romans. It was a very refreshing and exciting experience, reminding me of how much grace and mercy our God decided to give us. I'd recommend reading the whole book of Romans in one sitting, but you'll have to set apart 3-5 hours and read it slow and soak it in. Then on Wednesday, I read the book of Joshua because I've had a hard time understanding why God commanded so much violence in that book, yet when Jesus came He would not fight his enemies and rebuked his disciples for trying to do so. Joshua is a kind of exciting book about people who saw God doing amazing things among them, bringing them into a country of their own. All they had to do is obey God and He was the one who basically annihilated the people who had the land before them. It didn't really answer my questions very much, but it was still good. I know God's thoughts are much higher than mine and I don't expect to understand why He does everything He does. The book of Joshua does show very clearly though that when the Israelites decided they could handle fighting an enemy on their own when God hadn't commanded it, they would fail. And, if God commanded them to annihilate a certain city and they didn't do it - whether it was because they thought the people were too strong for them, or they thought they could benefit from those people – it always came back to bite them. I find a lot of analogies to the Christian life in this early history of the nation God formed to be a light to the world. I love the phrase Joshua uses several times. He reminds his nation to “cling to the Lord” which reminds me of a little kid clinging to his mom or dad when he's scared because he knows he can't overcome what's scaring him, but he has full confidence that mom or dad aren't scared and they can take care of it. Thursday I read some of Judges – the next book after Joshua in the Bible. Kind of a depressing book. After Joshua and all of the people who saw what God did to give them their own land died, the people basically rejected God and paid for it. God kept seeing the trouble the Israelites got themselves into and he sent “judges” who got them out of their situations and turned them back to God, but as soon as the judge died, the Israelites would turn to idols. This ties in with Romans quite a bit, where Paul talks about how the Israelites rejection of God's plan for them gives room for us Gentiles to be brought into God's kingdom, and how Paul hopes that the Israelites will see us coming into God's kingdom and get jealous and decide they want to come back to God – through faith in Jesus since they weren't able to keep their end of God's first covenant with them.

Sorry if you were hoping to mostly hear about Nepal in this post. But I hope this instead prompts you to get into God's Word some more. Last thought about Dharapori – I may never again complain about flies in my house in the USA. This last week I would have been happy to have had just 5 flies sitting on my constantly. Instead it was usually more like 50 – especially while eating in the kitchen. And they especially liked hanging out in my scabs from where I scratched open my bed bug bites (sorry to gross you out). Thankfully it's still too cold here in Simikot for flies so we have relief from that now. We're planning to leave Humla on Monday if the weather is good and the plane comes. It hasn't been as hard as I thought it might be here. If I knew God was calling us to be here for a longer time I don't think I would dread it. But, a few things make me ready to get back to civilization. I can't say I'm looking forward to going back to the city in Kathmandu, though. I've very much enjoyed the lack of vehicles and pollution here. And I'm pretty sure that I'll never be anywhere in the world where I find God's creation more amazing than here. By the time you read this, I think you should be able to see some pictures, too. God is so good and loving. I hope He gives us a chance to help some more people in Humla understand this before we leave.

- Daryl