Nepal Arrival

I arrived safely in Nepal after a five-hour flight from Malaysia. The flight was pleasant and uneventful – my favorite kind of flight!

I was able to meet up with Rev. Dr. Michael Lockwood Saturday evening. He was in another part of Nepal the previous week doing some teaching. He’s the reason I’m here – his previous relationship with the church body here that he’s suggesting the LCMS could partner with to provide theological training to them. Rev. Lockwood is with the Lutheran Church of Australia but is currently serving the LCMS as an Alliance Missionary. This means the LCMS Calls him and provides funding for him to serve as we direct. He’s based in Taiwan now and busy learning Mandarin in order to teach at a newly created seminary in the works there. He also travels around the region a bit like me doing teaching.

This morning (Sunday morning) we had a few hours to see some of the city. The sites here are amazing.

This photo was taken in a small alleyway in the old area of Kathmandu called Bhaktapur Square. Much of this area – and much of Nepal and Kathmandu in general were decimated by a massive earthquake in 2015. Many of the buildings even in the old city have been rebuilt. This particular temple survived. It is reputed to have been built with the lumber of a single tree a long, long time ago. Amazing.

Then we started on the journey to where we’ll be teaching, a small town about three hours north of Kathmandu and across a range of hills.

This is the view close to the summit, looking back over the mountain valley where Kathmandu is nestled.

After reaching our hotel we had a brief respite and then had dinner. Our hosts were excited to share with us a local hill-country Nepalese dish called dhindo.

As I understand it, the dhindo is the greyish blob in the middle of the plate, surrounded by various garnishes as well as a chapati – kind of like a tortilla chip but made out of chickpeas. Traditional food here!

The dhindo itself is made from millet. It’s quite warm, and has the consistency of partially cooked bread, or more accurately bread dough. Not at all flakey like bread, but more like stiff, slightly sticky hot dough. You tear off small pieces of this and dip them in the garnishes and then swallow them whole. Because if you try to chew the dough it becomes very sticky and is hard to get off your teeth or the roof of your mouth.

It was a fascinating experience!

Tomorrow morning we begin teaching the 25 or so church leaders who have been gathered in this town. Their church body is growing rapidly but many of their leaders have very little training, so this is an exciting opportunity for them. Rev. Lockwood and I will be teaching on the Apostles’ Creed for the next four days or so. I’m sure there will also be a lot of side discussions, topics, and questions. My favorite thing!

Please pray the Holy Spirit would encourage, strengthen and equip these men to shepherd God’s people. Pray that teaching with a translator goes well, and there is both intellectual understanding as well as spiritual growth. Please pray for Rev. Lockwood and myself that we would remain strong and healthy and able to carry out this task faithfully and energetically. And pray that, as in all things, the glory would be God’s alone!