Back to School!

Just as people in the U.S. and Canada are thinking about what to do for their summer vacation, we are putting away our suitcases and getting ready for the new school year to start. We had a wonderful time visiting our friends in Thailand and Nepal, but now it's time to get back to work. The new students are here!

.

The orientation for new students started last Monday. This is such a fun time of year! The students have arrived from all over Asia and they are all flying high right now. They all have stories of the miracles God did to bring them here, they are excited about meeting new friends . . . and they don't have any assignments yet. So they are happy.

.

And we are happy too. We look forward to telling you more about them. This year's group is from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Taiwan, China, Korea, Laos, and of course, the Philippines. My highlight last week was teaching a session to the new students about "Living in an International Community." I told them it is good practice for heaven.

The Second Story

I promised to tell you a few more stories, so here is the second installment. Another of our highlights in Nepal was spending time with Paul and Rita. Of course, meeting any of our graduates is encouraging for us, but the day we spent with Paul and Rita was especially so. As we talked, laughed and ate together, my mind kept flashing back to scene after scene of sadness and sickness.

Shortly after arriving at IGSL in 2003, Rita got pregnant and Paul got sick. This would be stressful for any family still going through culture shock and trying to adjust to graduate studies in a new country. But each time I brought Paul to the doctor for tests, my apprehension grew. This was more than your ordinary sickness. It started out with headaches and high blood pressure, but eventually he was diagnosed with Chronic Glumerelonephritis. Sounds like medical jargon to most – but not to me. One of my closest friends had died from this disease a few years earlier. I knew it all too well. Biopsies showed that Paul’s kidneys were already beginning to fail.

Our kidney specialist recommended an aggressive treatment plan which included heavy doses of steroids. Paul was no longer able to study, but we kept him at IGSL because he was too weak to travel back to Nepal. I asked God “Why?” often during those days. I remember many tearful prayer times as Rita imagined the worst – Paul would die and she would be left alone in a strange country with a four-year old and a newborn. When she gave birth, Paul could not even be with her because he had been admitted to the hospital himself.

Eventually, the kidney disease was arrested, but Paul nearly died in the process. The steroids made his immune system weak, and as a result he developed tuberculosis and pneumonia. I can still remember Paul lying in the hospital bed, weak, emaciated, and no longer able to recognize us. Our IGSL family doctor pulled me aside and said, “I’ve done everything I can do and he is not responding. Get your people to pray. It’s Paul’s only hope.”

Everyone prayed, and slowly, very slowly, Paul recovered. He was able to study again, and graduated in 2007 with a Master of Divinity degree. I was cheering (with tears) when he marched across that stage! More than that, he learned about suffering. Paul and Rita both came from Hindu backgrounds, where suffering equals bad karma. If bad things are happening to you, you must have done something bad. Usually, in their culture, even among Christians, if someone is suffering, you go to them and try to help them figure out what they have done wrong. I am convinced Job’s friends came from a Hindu background—because they talked exactly like our Hindu background students. Paul had many such “helpful visits” during his months of sickness.

I had to bring Paul to the doctor every week for check-ups, and we would talk about these things as we sat in the waiting room. After his medical appointments, Paul and Rita and I would sit in their apartment and drink tea, and talk about pain and suffering. I watched them hammer out a biblical theology of suffering in response to a Hindu worldview. It’s one of my most precious IGSL memories. They clung to the belief that God had a purpose for their suffering, and that He would make it beautiful in His own time.

During this visit to Nepal, we met them for the first time since their graduation. Paul still takes daily medication to manage his kidney disease, but he is doing well. They are a wise and compassionate couple who are having many opportunities to minister to others. We are so proud of them!

They are working with an organization that promotes Bible Storytelling. I was really excited about this, because several major missions organizations (including Campus Crusade for Christ and Wycliffe Bible Translators) are spearheading efforts to use Bible Storytelling as a method to bring the Gospel to many of the last unreached people groups. Most of the remaining unreached people groups in the world are “oral cultures” – people who are not necessarily illiterate, but who learn and communicate by talking, not reading. You can read about this approach at OneStory. Listening to Paul’s adventures and his excitement about using this method made my heart overflow with joy. What could be more fun than hearing one of my favorite students exuding passion about one of my favorite subjects?!

The First Story

Here is the first of my promised stories about our Nepali graduates. I want to introduce you to Lazarus and Martha. They graduated nine years ago. My struggle here is choosing which of their many stories to write about.

.

Option #1—Their second son Abhishek was born while they were at ISOT-Asia. He was born with severe schizencephaly, which has resulted in profound disabilities. Just remembering the pain of those early months, back in 2001, as we discovered the seriousness of his condition, still brings tears to my eyes. During those days, Lazarus started studying the topic of suffering, and when he went back to Nepal he wrote a book in Nepali called “Where Is God in My Suffering?” Very few books have ever been written by Nepali Christian authors. This one met a real need, and the first several printings sold out immediately. Lazarus went on to write seven more books, and is now working on the eighth. I am overwhelmed with thankfulness when I see Lazarus’ writing ministry. It’s a fascinating story, but I am not going to write about that story.

.Option #2—Two years ago, while Lazarus was conducting a series of training seminars for church planters in Eastern Nepal, he met a woman living in an extremely difficult situation. She had a five-year old daughter that she could no longer take care of. Lazarus felt God nudging him to take the child home. He pushed the feelings aside, and went ahead to the next city on his training schedule. That night he had a dream where he saw the child crying. When he woke up, he cancelled his schedule for that day, rode a bus back to the first city, and asked the mother if she would like him to adopt the child. She said yes, and the little girl, whose name is Simran, willingly came back to Kathmandu and became Lazarus and Martha’s daughter. She is such a sweet and funny little girl, and I loved every minute of staying in their house. It’s a fascinating story, but I am not going to write about that story. .

Option #3—About five years ago, two Nepali men living in Manila became Christians through the witness of our students. I told you the story of one of them back when it happened. The other one, Paul (at left in the photo), was a much more difficult case, and to be honest, I didn’t think he had really become a genuine believer, and I didn’t have much hope for him. When Paul went back to Kathmandu he started attending Lazarus’ church. There were many ups and downs, and the average pastor would have given up. I don’t know of ANYONE who would have enough grace to give to a man like Paul, who kept falling back into his old habits. But Lazarus and Martha believed in Paul. When we visited their church, we saw that Paul had become a strong, committed, faithful leader. While James was out trekking, Paul and his wife invited me to breakfast at their home one day, and I stood amazed. Absolutely amazed. It’s a fascinating story, but I am not going to write about that story.

.

Option #4—About five years ago, Lazarus and Martha planted a new church. In the beginning the church met in their home. It grew steadily, and they moved to a bigger space. It kept growing, and they wanted to move again. They found a good location, but the rent was $100 a month and the church couldn’t afford that. That is the story I am going to tell you.

The church is called Jyoti Great Commission Fellowship Church (jyoti means “light” in Nepali). Their dream is to be a light in their community. The church was getting crowded as more and more new believers came in, but they just felt that $100 a month was too much. Finally, a blessing came in the form of a Korean supporter. One of the Jyoti Church members is Jun, a missionary from Korea. He has a fulltime job as a Bible translator for one of the Nepali tribes, but he and his family attend the church on weekends. Jun told the Jyoti Church members that there was a lady in Korea who would give $50 each month if they could cover the rest. They talked it over, and agreed that they could manage their share. So, they rented the new building and the church kept growing. At Christmas time, the church members told Jun that they wanted to send a card and thank-you letter to the Korean lady who was helping them. So they asked Jun, “Can you tell us more about that lady?”

Jun was scheduled to preach that Sunday, so he promised to include her story in his sermon. When the time came, he shared this story:

There was a homeless lady in Korea. She slept on the streets, and she managed to earn enough for food by collecting glass and plastic bottles and turning them in at the recycling center. One day, a Korean Christian shared the gospel with this lady. She was deeply touched as she heard of Jesus’ love for her. She gave her heart to Jesus. The Christian who had shared the gospel with her brought her back to their church and asked the pastor if the lady could live in the church’s empty storage room. He agreed, so the woman began living there and attending the church. She grew spiritually and got very excited about world missions. She still supported herself by collecting bottles for recycling. So she worked harder to collect more bottles. And each month she was able to give $50 for missions in Nepal. That $50 was being sent each month to Jyoti Church to help pay the rent.

As Jun shared the story during his sermon, the Jyoti Church members sat in stunned silence, and then began to weep. They turned to each other and said, “We’re poor, but we aren’t that poor! We have homes and jobs. Why are we not that serious about giving???” So they asked Jun to express their deep thanks to the Korean lady, and asked that she direct her giving to a more needy church. They began to support their own church. Since then, Jyoti Church has continued to pay their own rent AND has planted two daughter churches.
.

One of our highlights during our time in Nepal was attending the fifth anniversary of Jyoti Church. That’s where I took the photo in my last post about the dancing deaconess. All the times we spent with Jyoti Church were great fun for us. This is the church family that has helped Paul grow into a spiritual leader. This is the church family that welcomed Simran when she joined Lazarus and Martha’s family. This is the church family that loves Abhishek the way he is. The books that Lazarus writes come out of the trials and joys of this church family. When Lazarus and Martha were struggling students at ISOT –Asia I did not envision all of this. But God did.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, to all you moms out there! Mothering is a high calling, and is not limited to those who have given birth physically. I've been blessed and challenged lately by Nurturing the Nations, by Darrow Miller. I haven't finished the book yet, but I highly recommend it. I am so glad that God made me a woman!

.(pictured here: the girl who made me a mom, and the boy who made her a mom)

Happy First Mother's Day, Michelle!

Home Again

Ah, Nepal. The country that always keeps us guessing. We scheduled our IGSL Alumni Reunion from May 1-3. That's when the Maoist Party scheduled their nationwide strike. In Nepal, strike really means strike. As in, NO STORES OF ANY KIND were open, not even the food market. As in, NO VEHICLES OF ANY KIND were allowed on the streets. So, we walked. A lot. Everyone who attended the meetings walked one, two, or three hours, just to be there. Sometimes we rode bicycles. One couple who hoped to talk with me about studying at IGSL next year walked six hours to meet me! In order to save them from further walking, when I learned about it, I biked to where they were and conducted an interview sitting on a step beside the road. This was not in a remote village, but in the capital city of Kathmandu!

.

The day we left, the only vehicles allowed on the road were ambulances, and tourist buses bringing foreigners to the airport. So we walked for thirty minutes with our suitcases, with a few IGSL graduates helping us to carry them, to a place where we could meet the tourist bus. Some of our colleagues had missed the same bus a few days earlier and ended up walking, with their luggage, three hours to the airport. You can be sure that we got there early and caught that bus! Heading to the airport, the bus had to weave its way through groups of Maoists lying in the street to prevent vehicles from passing. We all breathed a collective sigh of relief when we turned onto the airport road, where we started a 22-hour journey that brought us home to Manila.

.

Would we do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat! We love Nepal! Christianity is growing faster there than in any other country in the world. There is a desperate need for trained leaders to shepherd the new believers. We are so privileged to help supply that need, not only with the dozens of leaders we have trained, but with the thousands of leaders THEY have trained as they returned.

.

We are so proud of our graduates. I want to introduce a few of them to you, so I will spread their stories over the next few days. In the meantime, a few random photos to give you a feel for our trip:

.

Buddhist monks at the famous Boudhanath Stupa.

.The top of the Boudhanath Stupa.

.

A Hindu funeral beside the Bagmati River, near the Pashupatinath Temple (laying the body on the pyre for cremation).

. Toward the end of the ceremony.

.

A Christian baby dedication. The sweet old great-grandmother at the right kept everyone in line.

.

One of my favorite memories, in which a deaconess (in the pink sari) who had seemed like a sedate middle-aged woman, decided that she felt like dancing during the church anniversary service. Once she got going, several of the young people joined her. I loved it.

Shopping for new clothes, before the Maoists closed the shop.

Meeting a new student, Menuka, who will join us this year at IGSL.

.
Buddhist prayer flags. Prayers are printed on the flag. They believe that as long as the flag keeps flapping in the breeze, the prayers keep going up to heaven.

Feeling tired after a day of sightseeing.

We happened to run into a parade! The school administration was promoting their school, hoping to gain some new students.
.
James enjoying the trek below the Annapurna Base Camp.
.
View from the trek.

Deeply Troubled

Acts 17:16-34 tells of a day that the Apostle Paul spent walking around Athens, which was a city full of idols. Verse 16 (NLT) says he was deeply troubled as he saw what the people were worshiping. It’s hard to understand that passage . . . until you spend a day walking around a city full of idols. James and I spent last Friday doing just that. “Deeply troubled” describes the feeling. Our hearts ached.

I didn’t get these photos from the internet. I took them myself, one by one, with my own camera, and these are only a handful of the hundreds of idols we saw that day. I grieved as I watched people bowing to the ground in front of fearful images. We were with some of our Nepali graduates who came from Hindu backgrounds. I asked one of them, “How do you feel, watching this?” He answered, “My people are dead, but they don’t know they are dead. And it makes me so sad.”

I’ve spent the last eight days with our graduates who work in this city full of idols. We’ve spent hours talking, praying, and working together. In the midst of the oppressiveness, I keep coming back to Acts 17:16-34. I’m so glad that we serve a God not made by human hands, the Lord of heaven and earth, the one who made the world and everything in it. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and He satisfies every need. What an awesome God we serve!