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?!