|
December 09
Dear family and friends,
Our aunt Joy recently came to Nepal for a five week visit. Nepal has become somewhat normal to us and it was really interesting to see Nepal through the eyes of someone who doesn't live here. Given that none of you live here, I thought I would share some of the thoughts and ideas that I heard from my aunt.
Nepali people are gracious: We arrived in a village three hours after dark, having made a miscalculation of sorts, and thus had walked for about 13 hours. After banging on doors in a tiny village in order to find a place to stay, and getting no response, I forced my way into someone's bedroom and proceeded to ask him if we could spend the night on his floor. Despite having been woken up by a stranger in his bedroom where he and his wife and daughter-in-law were sleeping, he was not hostile but gracious. Although complete strangers, he allowed us to sleep in his room with his family. If I picture this scenario in Canada, the daydream ends with me being either shot or taken to prison.
Nepali people are tough: Picture the three of us walking along with decent gear and nutritious food in our bellies up a steep hill. Now picture us with sweat pouring off our faces and then being passed by a Nepali grandma carrying 100 pounds on her forehead and not wearing any shoes (or maybe just flip-flops). This generally filled us with awe and made us feel a bit pathetic about ourselves.
Much of life is lived outside: At 4:30 or 5:00 AM life starts with clearing the phlegm from your throat and spitting on the ground outside of your house (this is a religious ritual concerning purity and pipe cleaning). This is loud enough that if you have neighbours it is very often the first sound you hear in the morning. As you lay in bed you can very soon hear pressure cookers hissing, people talking on cell phones, babies crying, dogs barking, etc all by 5:30 AM. In the afternoon people work in their gardens, oil their babies (blocks the pores from cold air), cook and chat with neighbours. The evening is a continuation of the day with chores and cooking (both are often outside) while the men drink tea and chat until time for the evening meal when everyone finally goes inside.
My aunt also saw what day to day life is like for us right now: We have moved about 10km outside of Kathmandu and we are really enjoying it. Our new place is a real blessing- it came with furnishings, solar hot water, a small plot to garden and a believing landlord. It has been good to get to know the neighbours in this much smaller, village type setting. We are also close to the land that is being developed into an agricultural training facility for pstors and evnglists that I am helping with. We have also had a chance to invite the employees over for a meal the other day which was a lot of fun. We are both continuing with language and that is moving along well. Colleen continues to volunteer at a clinic on Wednesdays and does a great job cooking amazing meals in an unheated house without a fridge/freezer or precooked/readymade items (it is about as superhuman as it sounds).
We ask you to remember in your pryers:
1. Momentum and strength for language. Some days we feel good about it and other days we wonder what we were thinking in coming here and attempting this. Yet overall we recognize His favour and are very thankful for the minds that He has given us and our progress so far.
2. Decisions regarding our future work in Jumla where we will be helping to build the local fellowships through agriculture and nursing. We ask for pryer as we try to understand what our work and involvement in the pre-existing network of believers, fellowships and organizations will be. We recognize our need for His wisdom and favour in entering that community.
3. The growth in both number and maturity of the believers here in Nepal and that His word would spread. In particular for my involvement with the non-believing employees that I interact with on the agricultural training site.
In Him,
Andrew and Colleen
Dear family and friends of Andrew and Colleen Burkinshaw,
My trip to Nepal was a success! Thanks to all of you, I was able to deliver a nice big box of Christmas cards, notes, and pictures to them on Christmas. You should have seen the look on their faces...for about three hours as they poured over them all! Thank you so much for your part in making their Christmas so special.
Beyond Christmas itself, we had such a good time working, playing, laughing, and praying together. It was an experience I will not soon forget. Both Andrew and Colleen have been working extremDear family and friends of Andrew and Colleen Burkinshaw,
My trip to Nepal was a success! Thanks to all of you, I was able to deliver a nice big box of Christmas cards, notes, and pictures to them on Christmas. You should have seen the look on their faces...for about three hours as they poured over them all! Thank you so much for your part in making their Christmas so special.
Beyond Christmas itself, we had such a good time working, playing, laughing, and praying together. It was an experience I will not soon forget. Both Andrew and Colleen have been working extremely hard at learning Nepali and can speak it like you would not believe! They can just strike up conversations with anybody and be serious or just joke around. It was fun to meet their neighbors and friends and see how well they've connected in just these few months. Already, they have been able to share Christ with many and it will be exciting to see how the Lord moves through them when they settle in the village.
Andrew and Colleen are doing really well, but they can always use more prayer. Pray that they would find awesome friends when they move to Jumla. They are excited to be going, but it won't be easy to leave their life in Kathmandu. Pray for the people they are ministering to. Sometimes coming to Christ would mean great personal sacrifice. Pray for whatever you like, just pray. Your support is invaluable to them. Its family and friends like you who make their ministry possible.
Sincerely,
Peter Sargent
ely hard at learning Nepali and can speak it like you would not believe! They can just strike up conversations with anybody and be serious or just joke around. It was fun to meet their neighbors and friends and see how well they've connected in just these few months. Already, they have been able to share Christ with many and it will be exciting to see how the Lord moves through them when they settle in the village.
Andrew and Colleen are doing really well, but they can always use more prayer. Pray that they would find awesome friends when they move to Jumla. They are excited to be going, but it won't be easy to leave their life in Kathmandu. Pray for the people they are ministering to. Sometimes coming to Christ would mean great personal sacrifice. Pray for whatever you like, just pray. Your support is invaluable to them. Its family and friends like you who make their ministry possible.
Sincerely,
Peter Sargent
Dear family and friends of Andrew and Colleen Burkinshaw,
My trip to Nepal was a success! Thanks to all of you, I was able to deliver a nice big box of Christmas cards, notes, and pictures to them on Christmas. You should have seen the look on their faces...for about three hours as they poured over them all! Thank you so much for your part in making their Christmas so special.
Beyond Christmas itself, we had such a good time working, playing, laughing, and praying together. It was an experience I will not soon forget. Both Andrew and Colleen have been working extremely hard at learning Nepali and can speak it like you would not believe! They can just strike up conversations with anybody and be serious or just joke around. It was fun to meet their neighbors and friends and see how well they've connected in just these few months. Already, they have been able to share Christ with many and it will be exciting to see how the Lord moves through them when they settle in the village.
Andrew and Colleen are doing really well, but they can always use more prayer. Pray that they would find awesome friends when they move to Jumla. They are excited to be going, but it won't be easy to leave their life in Kathmandu. Pray for the people they are ministering to. Sometimes coming to Christ would mean great personal sacrifice. Pray for whatever you like, just pray. Your support is invaluable to them. Its family and friends like you who make their ministry possible.
Sincerely,
Peter Sargent
Dear family and friends of Andrew and Colleen Burkinshaw,
My trip to Nepal was a success! Thanks to all of you, I was able to deliver a nice big box of Christmas cards, notes, and pictures to them on Christmas. You should have seen the look on their faces…for about three hours as they poured over them all! Thank you so much for your part in making their Christmas so special.
Beyond Christmas itself, we had such a good time working, playing, laughing, and praying together. It was an experience I will not soon forget. Both Andrew and Colleen have been working extremely hard at learning Nepali and can speak it like you would not believe! They can just strike up conversations with anybody and be serious or just joke around. It was fun to meet their neighbors and friends and see how well they’ve connected in just these few months. Already, they have been able to share Christ with many and it will be exciting to see how the Lord moves through them when they settle in the village.
Andrew and Colleen are doing really well, but they can always use more prayer. Pray that they would find awesome friends when they move to Jumla. They are excited to be going, but it won’t be easy to leave their life in Kathmandu. Pray for the people they are ministering to. Sometimes coming to Christ would mean great personal sacrifice. Pray for whatever you like, just pray. Your support is invaluable to them. Its family and friends like you who make their ministry possible.
Sincerely,
Peter Sargent
March 26 2010
A New Home“What about that one?” We were sitting on the side of the road eating digestive biscuits and looking down on a small village farm—the stone and mud house, a small apple orchard, and more than an acre of ground under vigorous and obviously productive cultivation.“Someone’s living there—it can’t be available to rent.”This was October when we were in Jumla with Aunt Joy and as we explored the Jumla area, we were keeping our eyes open for a place to live when we returned to live there. Fast-forward to February of this year when we again arrived in Jumla, this time with an earnest need to find a place to live and a place to farm. Our friend had told us there was a place for rent near her—the very place we had looked at in October but deemed “unavailable!” God has been very gracious—right down to small details like the house coming with beehives and my favorite kind of apple tree. Bees in SurkhetOver the past month, Andrew has been able to buy 8 beehives and give two trainings at a small Bible school and widow safe house in Surkhet, a town out west. This has been a long time in coming (we mentioned our desire to help our friend who works closely with village pastors and runs this widow home in our presentations before coming to Nepal) and bulla bulla (finally, finally) it has begun! Again, we see God’s hand in timing as a friend with a commercial honey business near Surkhet decided to sell off his hives just as Andrew started looking for places to buy the bees. The second part of the training ideally should take place at a certain stage in hive growth, but from Kathmandu (18 hours away) we had no way of knowing when the time would come. Andrew scheduled a second trip and the timing was great! He was also able to throw in a little mushroom growing training as well—a business they have tried and has been incredibly successful—so the students/widows now have means to keep their own mushroom spawn (seeds) and grow crop after crop of mushrooms without needing to wait for the spawn to come from Kathmandu.Winding DownWe have about 6 weeks left in Kathmandu which means only 6 weeks left of official language study. God has blessed our studies, and though we both feel we have a lot more to learn, we’ve both progressed in our ability and feel the time here has been successful that way. This also means we have a lot of goodbyes to say and a lot of logistical things to wrap up. We would really appreciate your prayers for us in these matters. As we look ahead to beginning life in Jumla, we are realizing that we are entering a community with polarizing loyalties regarding who works for who, who goes to which church, who receives money from who, etc. We desire to be a presence of God’s peace, unity, and joy, and we desperately need his wisdom to begin relationships in this context, especially as our ability to be naïve shrinks as we become residents in Jumla, not just visitors. We are excited about our ”jobs” in nursing and agriculture and are excited about joining the Nepalis and foreigners that are currently serving in Jumla. Grateful for you,Andrew and Colleen
|
|
