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A New Journey Begins

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Our 2018 Nepal Team is finally on the ground and rolling. When they wake up (shortly after this blog posts this Monday evening) they will begin their second day of ministry. As in previous years, the trip was a long one. Leaving FBC at 3:00 am, our missionaries headed to the airport and flew to Chicago, then to Abu Dhabi, and finally to Kathmandu, Nepal.

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From left to right: Pastor Michael of Wellsburg, Matt C., Andrea C., Rick H., Patty H., Pastor Darrin, Michael J., Andrea J., and Debbie S.

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Team members Andrea C., Debbie S., Andrea J., Patty H. pose in front of an intimidating poster in the Nepal airport. Our youngest team member, Andrea C. shares her first impressions of Kathmandu in her own words...

The multitude of Nepali's waiting outside the gate, the rush as we skirted past [airport] check-in. My panic on the plane when I didn't have my aggage receipt pass. God took care of that. Driving on the left side of the road, the dogs standing idly in the night traffic, the motorcycles trying to merge and waiting in the middle of the road, a lone soldier standing on the side of the street, machine gun in hand, alert, watching our van pass. [Our host's] southern drawl and the shops and businesses and street lights and markets of Kathmandu. Bright lights and disorder. Cars nearly driving over and into each other. The enormous shadow of the Himalayas in the evening dark. Motorists passing our vans on the pot-holed, down hill alley. A woman squatting in the dark, washing the outside concrete floor with her hands.

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Kathmandu from the rooftop of a home, Himalayas in the background.

After a night at the guest house everyone loaded into vans to head for breakfast and then back to the airport for the last leg of the first trip.

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PopTarts? Who needs PopTarts with this lovliness!

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After the short trip, the team landed in Pokhara, and made their way to the Raniban Retreat,  the "Lake Tahoe of Nepal". 

Here's a peek at the accomodations:

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The courtyard...

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the guest rooms...

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and the facilities.

After getting settled, the children's ministry arm of the mission team went to the slums to scout out a good place to conduct VBS the following morning....early. The pastors' training group studied and prepared to welcome their students. 

After a night in the resort, VBS began in the slums along with a painting project, and pastors' training began in the conference room of the hotel.

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There are more pictures to share with you FBC family. Please stay tuned to your email or check back here at the FBC blog for more details of day one of field work. (I am waiting for our reporters to awake on the other side of the globe to provide more words for the sweet pictures to come.)

In the meantime please pray:

  • for the interpreters strength and endurance
  • for the students that they would fully absorb the information given them
  • for our missionaries to work well, as unto the Lord
  • for the health of everyone involved especially as the heat seems to be an issue

Thank you for your faithful prayers, church family. This trip is impossible without our obedience to God as He calls us to watch and pray.

From the Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions:

O Lord,

In prayer I launch far out into the eternal world,

and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs

over all evils on the shores of mortality...

In prayer all things here below vanish,

and nothing seems important but 

holiness of heart and the salvation of others...

In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers,

sinners, the church, thy kingdom to come,

with greatest freedom, ardent hopes...

Help me to be all prayer and 

never to cease praying.