My Fifth Missionary Trip:

The fifth trip to Nepal was very interesting and filled with adventure (?)  My daughter Rebecca went with me on this trip which increased the cost substantially so we decided to travel with buddy passes to New Delhi, India and then ride the train to Nepal, crossing over at Raxaul, India.  Since we went in January, the weather was quite cold.  We arrived at the airport and later we went to the train station by taxi to begin our travels.  The first problem we faced was that the train station was mass confusion and we had a great difficulty finding out where we were to go to catch our train.  By the way, there are two main stations and we were at the wrong one.  We had to take a train just to get to our station.

Soon we learned that our train had been delayed by fog, a great problem in northern  India in the winter.  We thought it would be only a few hours, so I took a rickshaw and went to the market to buy my daughter two extra blankets for warmth.  It turned out the train was canceled so we had to go to a hotel and await the next day.  Finally we boarded our train and headed out.  The Raxaul Express took FORTY hours to reach the India – Nepal border because of the fog delay.

When we arrived, we crossed over into Nepal by donkey cart.  There we met with a friend, Tulsi Karki, and went to eat and get a place for the night.  There we studied with some of Tulsi’s friends.  On the next day we departed by bus for Kathmandu.

In Kathmandu we spent about a week or so, teaching classes in the morning and visiting during the day.  We also had meetings at night with those who wanted to talk and study.  We went and handed out tracts in the park and taught those who would gather.  We were occasionally dispersed by the security forces because public gatherings are forbidden due to the Maoist uprising.  During this effort in Kathmandu, two precious souls were added to the kingdom of Christ.

We next traveled to western Nepal where we spent several days holding meetings and study periods in Kohulpur while we waited for the weather to clear so we could continue our travels to Jumla, the place I call the Devil’s backyard.  Through our efforts in Kohulpur, we again baptized two into Christ.  When the weather permitted, I went with Ashok Bista and Sanjay Pradhan to Jumla by plane (the hike in is ten days so we flew).  When we boarded the plane, we had a stewardess who gave us candy and cotton.  It seemed to be a very strange custom – I took the candy but did not take the cotton.  As we prepared to take off I came to a realization why candy and cotton.  The candy was for motion sickness and the cotton was for our ears for the noise!!  In Jumla we located several denominations, a thing which surprised me.  We spent the next four days in constant studies, mainly considering what the Bible said about salvation, worship, modesty, and various other subjects.

Soon it was time to return to Kathmandu to prepare to travel home.  We went through Naurengarh and spent the night (the total trip is around eighteen hours).  There we studied with some that were interested in Christianity but had not been convinced it was the truth.  I went through the prophesies with them and after around a two hour study, they asked to be baptized into Christ.  This brought the total of conversions to six. After the man was baptized, he removed the tokens of Hinduism and threw them into the river where he had just been baptized and the water carried them away.  What a marvelous scene to witness and experience.

Finally we returned to Kathmandu and prepared to travel home.  There are so many stories I wished space would allow me to tell.  Teaching at schools, hiking in the Himalayas with only moccasins (I gave my new, warm boots to Ashok), even being stranded in India for a week on the return trip.  But space does not so permit such tales.  When all our travels this trip were concluded and we were safe at home, seven new souls had been added to the body of Christ.  May God richly bless these new Christians and may God richly bless the ones who financed this trip and made it possible.