A Little Bit Louder : Sunday

Sunday

Posted by James Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:51:00 GMT

Sunday was a pretty cool day. We went to one of the slum areas by the river to give some food and found there was a church setup there already. We didn’t feel like going… The morning hadn’t gone well while we were trying to buy supplies, and I was pretty tired having stayed up the night before to prep for speaking at the english service. Mark, Joshua, Bishwas, and I spent some time praying and then decided to go anyway.

They were appreciative of the food we brought for the children. Parents would come running with their kids to get whatever they could. They were all really friendly and surprisingly organized. Each family had their own little plot of land marked out with some makeshift fences and they took pride in keeping the area clean. In fact the street looked cleaner and in much better shape than the streets around the church that is in one of the nicer parts of town.

I can’t say anything spectacular happened, other than me feeling better about going. I felt that we should go, even though I was tired and wanted to prepare for speaking. Then it occurred to me that perhaps going was God’s way of preparing me to speak…. and it definitely was. I was speaking on obedience, and I realized that I could not have spoken with a clear conscious if I hadn’t gone.

Speaking at a church where you’ve never been is a bit intimidating. It didn’t help that there were about 25 bible school students there…. and 2 pastors, one of which had been working in the country for 34 years… though I felt completely calm and at peace as I started speaking and it went well… or so people told me. I’m feeling much more relaxed now… It was one of the bigger areas of stress coming here. Mark told me a few days before I left Calgary that I would be speaking, and between then and saturday night, I had no idea what I should be speaking on. It all came together nicely….

We went for mexican food afterwards. My first trip here, we ate mostly Nepali food. This time around, there’s been a good mix. I’m starting to get a feel of what it would be like here long term. I’m getting used to the traffic, the confusing streets, the money that’s all different sizes and smells like poo… the only thing that gets to me is the pollution… and the cold…. buildings aren’t heated and i didn’t bring much in terms of warmer clothing, hoping to buy more in Thamel, but I haven’t had a chance to go there yet.

Being on a trip like this with not much on the schedule is a bit more relaxed, but the schedule still seems busy and I found myself pretty tired last night, so today I didn’t do much. After tech training this morning, i just hung out, with Bishwas and then went up to a viewpoint overlooking kathmandu. The same hill was used for the Asian Mountain Bike Championships that I just missed by a day. Riding on the back of Bishwas’ motorcycle on rocky paths was pretty interesting… at one point he bent some part of his bike, and he got off to fix it … by bashing it with a rock… oh, and riding a motorcycle across a pedestrian suspension bridge over a gorge gets your blood pumping…

I’ve been sleeping well though. Nights are quite cold, and I seem to be awake at 7am… when I spend some time praying and reflecting. Then try to get another hour of sleep or so before starting the day. I’m thinking about taking some basic Nepali lessons in the time that I have left here. I’m finding it difficult to fully engage with people when I constantly need a translator.