Dear All,
For those of you receiving these trip updates for the first time, I (Patty, Scott’s wife) usually write them three or four times a week. I give you the most important stuff first and ask that you please read the bottom line and prayer requests and, if at all possible, take a few moments right then to pray for those requests. We know from experience that God hears your prayers and they make a huge difference, especially during mission trips.
Then, if you have time and interest, I’ll include some details at the bottom, sometime with pictures. Feel free to read however much or little you want!
Warning: This first update is pretty long. I’m not very good at succinct, but I’ll try to keep them a bit shorter in the future.
Sunday’s Bottom Line:
Scott’s initial three flights went well, and some 26 hours after he left the airport in Springfield, he arrived—with all his luggage!—in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. For the next several days, he will be in another city attending an evangelical pastors conference that is not affiliated with TTC, but at which he will be speaking about raising disciple-makers in one or two sessions. He hopes to connect with a number of like-minded pastors there to introduce the disciple-making (DM) process in other areas of Nepal beyond the places we currently have DM groups meeting.
Sunday’s Prayer Requests:
1. The Holy Spirit to guide Scott’s presentations at the pastors conference; the attendees to have open hearts, and the translation to be smooth and accurately understood. Scott does not speak fluent Nepali!
2. Divine connections with the specific pastors God wants Scott to build relationships with. His seatmate to be saved (details below).
3. Grace for the physical challenges of international travel; jet lag to subside as quickly as possible and Scott to experience good sleep and great health throughout this trip.
Sunday’s Details:
During his long (14.5 hour) flight from Dallas to Doha, Qatar, Scott sent this message. “This flight is going so well. I have full Internet, so I have been talking with Pastor Wayne in Peru, interacting with Pastor Jesse in DRC … talking with Edwin in India about edits to create standardized PTM lessons… and finally, interacting with Samuel in Nepal about what video meeting tool works best for online DM meetings. All of this while I am flying over the Mediterranean Sea. 🤓 I also was able to sleep for several hours while sitting upright in my seat. God's mercy is heavy upon me!”
He had a seatmate who is Nepali and whose husband grew up in one of the cities he will be in next week. He said, “I actually found out that she and her 2.5 year old daughter are flying to D after we fly to Kathmandu. She invited me to visit her home just outside the city! Pray we will be able to do that when I go there next week and that she and her family can be saved. I… helped her and her daughter to navigate the Doha airport before I found out [we’d be in her city].”
So it sounds like divine connections are already beginning. And if you want to see 18 seconds of how the Kid Magnet had fun during his layover in Doha, click here.
Now, this particular three-and-a-half week trip has a lot of moving parts plus an extension, so I’ve been thinking about how to give you a big picture overview of the whole thing. Let’s break it into six parts – although we only need to be thinking about Part 1 right now. Here goes!
Oh, wait, first I must mention the climate; that is, the cultural climate, not the weather climate. Nepal has freedom of religion. Anybody can believe whatever they want, but it is illegal to proselytize, that is, to try to convert someone to a certain belief system. In laymen’s terms, let’s just say that it’s illegal to evangelize, and the penalties for doing so can be pretty intense. Therefore, for the consideration of Scott, our team, and the folks we are visiting in Nepal, we won’t use full names of locations and/or some people.
Part 1 – Pastors Conference in K. That’s where Scott is now, now being 4:30 PM Sunday in Missouri, which is 3:15 AM Monday in Nepal. Hopefully he’s sound asleep.
Part 2 – Team’s First Few Days in Nepal. Our “Go Nepal!” tourist team of five will arrive next week.
Part 3 – Youth Camp in D. Three days of fun, instruction, and growth, led by our team.
Part 4 – Disciple-Makers Summit in D. An encouraging, two-day gathering of all the Nepalese folks who are currently in DM groups.
Part 5 – Team’s Final Few Days in Nepal. Including some serving and some sight-seeing.
Part 6 – Tara’s Time. One of our team members will stay on for a number of days of immersion in Nepali life after the others return home.
Something else to be aware of is Yours Truly’s ongoing challenge of figuring out what the heck time it is in Nepal! Not only will the U.S. have its fall end of Daylight Saving Time during this trip to make things fun, Nepal is not a simple 13 hours ahead of us like Hong Kong is (that’s pretty easy math; our daughter’s family lives there ♡), or even a slightly more confusing 10 hours 30 minutes ahead of us like India is. No! Nepal is 10 hours 45 minutes ahead of us, which always makes my brain sweat. What I do know is that Scott will be at the pastors' conference sometime on Monday (local time), which will be sometime Sunday night MO time. ☺
Thankfully, God always knows what time it is everywhere, so you can pray for Scott right now or any time you want, and we will greatly appreciate it!
Blessings,
Patty