Sheena's perspectives

Catching Up

Last night I began thinking; it has been quite a while since anyone back home has heard my perspective on South Asia and all that is new here. While I’ve been reminding Brian to keep up with the blogs as part of his schoolwork, I have neglected to report back myself. As you haven’t heard from me since May, we have some catching up to do.

Leaving KTM and the Himalaya of Npl was very difficult for me. For the first time during our entire duration in South Asia, I felt homesick. I hate to admit this, as I never want friends and family to be under the false impression that I don’t miss them or their companionship. However, we thrived in Npl, even though all the parasites thrived in us. It was very sad saying goodbye to our new close friends: our coworkers, national partners, and those we were working with. We went to my didi’s house the night before we left (we had gone once before we went to the mountains when our language was very poor) and enjoyed talking to her family in their own language this time. They were very impressed with our progress, and we promised to email and write. Friendships here in South Asia often are easier to form, and the one’s that become close, become very close – like family. These are people I already miss very much and desire to see again very soon.

However, after recognizing that I was feeling homesick for my home in Npl, we decided it was time to really get to work in our new location to the South East (but still in the North portion of the South Asia region working with our same PG). We have been helping our good friends and M supervisors move into their house (as Brian has already stated), and it’s a different process than in America. Here, we had to wash the walls first to make sure to kill all mold, and help them pick out their carpet and prime their bright orange walls to be neutralized to a light shade of brown. South Asians love bright colors, and it shows in all their décor.

Animals and Culture of South Asia

There are many things to adjust to in South Asia besides bright colors and loud noises. The other night at 4 A.M. we were awoken for half an hour by a cat fight. Once we discovered where the cats were from our window we took a candle from our room (the only thing we were willing to sacrifice) and broke the candle into pieces and threw the pieces out the window at the cats in an attempt to get them to stop. We were apparently the only ones concerned about this, but accidentally hit a house instead. Once we ran out of pieces of the candle, we had to retire in the hopelessness of the situation. Five minutes later, someone else decided to throw rocks at the cat (much more effective than a candle) and the fight ceased. People here also seem to have a fear of cats similar to our fear of mice. The other day when we went to a village, there were kittens running around. So I picked one up and pet it – and they all stared at me like I was crazy. I offered for them to pet it to, and they kept pointing out the fact that it has sharp claws and teeth. Once the kitten was trying to get away, I put it on the ground (to avoid those sharp claws), and it scurried away, but in the process it ran past one of the little girls. She began to panic and scream – exactly as we would do if a mouse of rat ran by. Suddenly, I realized the cultural equivalent of my actions, and how weird it must seem to them that I was affectionately holding their version of a rat. Scarier than the cats though, are the bugs. Here, spiders, mosquitoes, and cockroaches grow to about ten to twenty times their normal size! The cockroaches are the worst as they can fly – and are extremely hard to kill.

Arriving into a new town – and the work we did there.

After eating Domino’s for the first time in 6 months in a big city south of us, and meeting a brother from a neighboring country where no one from our company is working currently due to visa issues, we arranged time to head north to a restricted state. Very few tourists travel into this area, so as is normally the case, we got treated as if we were famous. By this, I mean we could not so much as come out of room without people standing around outside our door waiting to talk to us. They love that we know their language here (even though the dialect is like a Southern American talking to a British or maybe even a little more extreme). But regardless, we had friends waiting for us and following us wherever we went.

On Tuesday, we arrived from the 6 hour jeep ride. We arrived late because our jeep was broken for the first hour, and they had to fix it. However, we arrived and checked into our hotel. The hotel didn’t last long however, as the brother we were working with decided to move us into his house right away. We stayed with their family, avoiding the frog that liked to live in the bathroom outside our room. With us we brought 30 copies of the Good Book in their language, and 10 in English.

On Wednesday, we went around to do initial research for the M’s and were able to share our Father’s story and our story with about 30-45 people. We spent time learning about them, their pol. situations and their family structures. We learned about their PG divisions and worldviews. We gave out about 10 Books, and invited them to come see a film and to our Family meeting that night. That night, Brian spoke about the Samaritan woman and encouraged the new brothers and sisters. The room (normally about 10 people) was full with about 30 there that night. One man was requesting to be dunked, and others were all very encouraged by our presence. But the biggest blessing of the night as being able to distribute gifts. In the room, (besides the Books we distributed earlier in the day), there were only 2 Books that people owned before we arrived. We were able to give every new brother and sister a Book, which they received with such gratitude.

Our national partner’s wife told us later that evening that she had been yarping for Books just this Sunday, and claiming Mt 7:7 as a promise. She said that she was so encouraged, and told us all about her life story through tears. We yarped over her and her family that night. (As we also yarped for the food we ate pork that was still bloody…)

Over the next couple days, things were about the same. We traveled to 2 villages near the capital and interviewed 20-25 people each day, sharing the Story wherever we went. On Saturday however, we traveled to the West, expecting to be based in the city. Instead, we had to hike about half an hour down a mossy hill to get to our location. Brian wasn’t feeling well, and we soon discovered the amoebas were back. After yarping, and encouraging the group of brothers and sisters, we made a quick diagnosis, and hiked back up the hill to get to a doctor. Now this may sound easy, but don’t be deceived. The walk up the hill was steep and slippery. Brian’s stomach was in pain, and the only way out was up. As we were hiking up, it began to rain, and soon, the monsoon season presented its face again. Already drenched with sweat in 90-100 degree weather, the rains came pouring down. Refreshing, and discouraging at the same time. My heart was racing (as my family know is normal), so I just counted it as a good strong workout. When we got to the hospital, the entire building smelled strongly of urine. The nurse came, asked Brian some questions, and prescribed some medication with no real physical evaluation. Since antibiotics were prescribed however, we simply filled the prescription and stayed in a hotel for the night. The next day we returned back down to a city near home where we are helping to now find language teachers for future workers and other logistical stuff that might bore you.

While our time was cut short, we know that our Father’s purpose was still accomplished as we met together with brothers and sisters and shared with those who have literally never heard His name before! We challenged our brothers and sisters to tell others their story, and to overcome addictions such as alcoholism. About 100 people heard Hope offered and some believed – though how many we do not know.

The Harvest here is white, but the workers truly are few.

Yarp Ideas:

- Thank our Father for the experience that we had over the past week.

- Thank Him for keeping Brian safe during his illness in the village.

- Yarp that those who received the seed will receive it as good soil.

- Yarp for the new believers to become sharpened as a sickle for the field, ready to harvest new Brothers and sisters

- Yarp for them to be encouraged by their own brothers and sisters

- Yarp for supplies to be brought to them like the Good Book.

- Yarp for them to remain faithful through difficulty and hardship. These new brothers and sisters are being trained to go back out to their own village to work in the field to harvest new brothers and sisters as well. In the process, many face hardship, and are sometimes beaten or ostracized by family and friends.

- Yarp for those here struggling with alcohol addiction. Many, many struggle with this here. The enemy has his stronghold here. Please yarp for those trying to overcome to be perseverant and comforted by our Father’s strength.

- Yarp for us – we only have a little over two weeks left until we come home, and a busy time planned. We are doing a LOT of traveling during this time. Yarp for our safety in travel, and for a good debriefing time that is approaching.

- In this state that we went to, foreigners are only allowed in for 2 weeks every 3 months. The brothers are requesting a training soon, so please yarp this is possible for them.

Right now we are also really evaluating the work we did over the past 6-7 months and how it could have been done better and CPM methodology. Please yarp for us to have wisdom as we are considering how to better do this work in the future.

Recently, Sheena and I have discovered how busy we can become in a very short time. For those of you who do not know already, we have relocated to another area for this last month of our trip. This logistical and has nothing to do with security as many of you were aware that security issues were developing in the last country we stayed in. However we are still working with the same people group, just in a different area. While this transition has been a good one and allowed us to see a different part of the world, we have also had the opportunity in assisting our new supervisors as they are moving as well making life just a little bit busier around here.

Ware greatly enjoying our time here for it is alowing us to see a different part of the work that is being done on this side of the world. So far we have made a short trip with our supervisors to meet with a national partner that is doing great things for the Father in an area that has little to no gospel presentation and no foreign M's in their country from our company. Also during our time in our new city we have been involved in doing some ethnographic reasearch for the new team that we are working with. This means we are meeting with people in the city to find out what people groups live here.

Over the next few weeks we have many things planned and are going to be doing much traveling, meeting with other brothers and sisters, trying to do some reasearch (especially in villages) including trying to find where these people groups are and what would be the best way to present the Good News to them.