Winter clothing and gospel meeting in Rajiaya, Nepal

Recently, a donation was received from the Westbury church of Christ in Houston, TX to purchase clothing for the girls in Nepal.    Each year, Carole Booker, teacher from Westbury Christian has spearheaded this project to give winter clothing to our girls.   Many received sweaters and long-sleeved sweatshirts.  

Blankets were also distributed.    These gifts brought much joy to our girls.   It was a lot of work purchasing the many things and delivering them to the various 13 safe houses where we care for girls.  

A gospel meeting was held in one region this weekend and it was reported that 285 were in attendance.  I could not find this exact region to check the temperatures but nights in Katmandu are in the 40's now.  More mountainous areas will be much colder.    

How many of you reading this blog would attend a gospel meeting and sit on the ground or on the floor as these people are doing?   Speakers don't just speak for a little while but for hours at a time; perhaps days passed before this meeting ended with people coming from many other cities or villages to attend.  Where has our zeal gone when our members in the U.S. will not attend their own congregation's gospel meetings for one hour at a time in a heated building on padded seats and then go home to the comfort of their beautiful homes until the next evening?  Perhaps, you only attend one time and don't feel it is important to attend lectures that don't really add much to your busy life?  Many of these people were too far from home to go back after one session and they were eager to hear all of the gospel speakers and messages.  They didn't have ballgames to watch on TV or to attend.

Where did these people sleep?   I imagine many are used to sleeping on the ground with just a blanket to cover and this occasion was no different than being at home.  

How were they all fed?    These pictures made me think of the crowds following Christ and having no food.  Jesus was not here physically to provide loafs and fishes to feed the people.   Instead, they had to roast a pig and cut it up for people to have food.    

Most churches in Thailand have plain, wooden benches and no one brings a pillow (except Ron and me for our old backs).   Churches in the villages along the Mekong River in Laos sit on the floor.   Even in some villages where they live in shacks that look as if they fall down with a whiff of wind, they will have tile floor (or mats) in one room to be used for people to sit on the floor to worship God.   

Most of us old people say to ourselves before we sit on the floor, "How am I going to get up?" or "What else can I do while I am down here?"   When Ron has been in these situations, they give him a small stool to sit on and he says it is not any easier to get up from it sitting there.

Our worker in Nepal told me last week that our safe house girls attending this meeting have been preparing for a Bible quiz contest.  I don't have any information on how well they did but I do have these pictures of two girls being baptized at this meeting.    Can you imagine being baptized when it is about like ice water?   That alone would keep most American from accepting the invitation to come to Christ.   

Ron taught a friend of ours when she was a very young woman and when they got to the church building for her baptism, the heater in the baptistry was not working.    No heat was in the building, and it was in February.   Ruth chose to be baptized rather than wait for a "more convenient time as a certain ruler in the Bible" said he would do when he heard the good news of Christ.  Ruth always reminds Ron of how cold that water was when she was baptized.  That cold water surely made that event more memorable.    Maybe this cold water in Nepal will have the same impact on these two young girls.         

I don't think many people know much about Nepal.   You may have heard of Katmandu and Mt. Everest, but nothing else may stick out in your mind when you think of Nepal.    For those of you who have been supporting one or more of our girls in Nepal, I am sure you have learned a lot about this beautiful country.  I enjoy watching YouTube videos about Nepal to see how the people live and their cooking style in the mountainous regions.  I thought we could find anything on Google, but the name of this city/region did not come up with my search.    I think our safe houses are primarily in the center of Nepal.   I am sure many people do not know that Nepal borders China on the side of Mt. Everest and India on the opposite border.   A map is below and some facts about Nepal.   

Capital: Kathmandu.
Area: 56,956 sq mi (147,516 sq km).
Population: ~ 28,100,000.
Largest Cities: Kathmandu, Pokhara, Lalitpur, Bharatpur, Birgunj, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Ghorahi, Hetauda, Dhangadhi, Tulsipur, Itahari, Nepalgunj, Butwal, Dharan, Kalaiya, Jitpursimara, Mechinagar, Budhanilkantha, Gokarneshwar.
Official language: Nepali     Religion:    Hindu 

Currency: Nepalese rupee (Rs, रू) (NPR).