campaign and the DC

Ritsu and Ai-chan

Pre-convention


The beginning of this month all were busily involved in distributing the invitations to our 'adiivashan' (DC). 

Ritsu and I were able to experience some village witnessing as we joined up with Tahachal mandali for a day in the foothills NW of KTM. I really enjoyed the opportunity of getting to know brothers and sisters from another congregation who as per usual were very welcoming and interested (I was excited to recognise many of their faces later in the dramas too).  We were also blessed that day with a surprisingly clear view of the himal.  For the first time I was able to see Manaslu, Ganesh, Langtang and one of the Annapurnas from KTM itself.  

not just clouds!
ps...yes, that's a spider...

Tahachal-ites

a nice change from the city

mustard fields

The most memorable experience during the campaign, however, happened right here in Baneshwor's territory. 

The week before the 'adiivashan' Ai-chan and I were working one morning in a poorer neighbourhood called Til Ganga (where the ghettos meet Kathmandu - seriously, I felt like I had walked onto a Bollywood set for Dangerous Minds there was so much rap pouring out of these buildings...).  


We turned a corner uncertain exactly where we should start next, when as we started approaching this little shop, we saw an old man standing in its doorframe reading a book.  My first reaction was that the book looked serious, like perhaps a bible.  I asked him what he was reading but he was so engrossed he did not answer.  I peered over and saw he was reading from, get this, 'Galati' (Galations), and heard him read under his breathe something about 'su-samacha' (good news).  Seizing the chance, I started from there and said 'buwa, we are here to talk to you about some good news...'.  


I gave him the invitation, explaining we were not from the church, rather that we are two of JWs.  I asked if he had heard the name 'Yehova' before.  He replied he had, not from the Bible, but from another book.  He then took out a small book with a makeshift black paper cover.  As he flipped through the pages I did a double-take, recognising some of the pictures.  I asked him if I could see the book, and sure enough, the images burnt into my childhood memory were once again set before me, 'My Book of Bible Stories'!  He had salvaged most, but not all, of the stories from some neighbourhood kids, collated them together and covered it.  I COULD NOT believe it!!!!! 


In his version of the bible God's personal name is only found in the preface to the book of Joel.  Thus, having shown him 'Yehova' in his personal bible, we then promised to bring back the complete 'My Book of Bible Stories'.
  
The next day Ritsu and I returned in the afternoon and met his daughter who was manning the shop.  I asked her if her father was in but reluctantly she replied that he was sleeping.  I explained that we had spoken the previous day and promised to bring him 'the book'.  On recognising the book, she immediately called out to him and quickly went and woke him up.  


The father stumbled out sleepily to meet us.  When his daughter handed him the book, he took it with a smile, went out into the light to examine it, and asked her in Newari, 'how much?'  At this moment I felt honoured to be a 'fellow worker', replying, 'you cannot pay for it; it's free...' 


Ram, the father, Maya, the mother, Puspa, the daughter, and her younger sister, Mayasanti all are regular church-goers and have an honest love for the bible.  The mother is illiterate but started attending 13 years ago.  From what I grasped, Ram, Puspa and Mayasanti only started in the last couple of years, but their Bibles are well read.  Puspa loves the Psalms and Proverbs especially.  


I also gave them a copy of the BT book (although Ram was still transfixed on his new 'My Book').  Puspa picked out the question on page 6 about 'how we can we be sure that God will fulfill his promises for the future?', and so we discussed for a while how our faith needs to be based on evidence.  


After giving us tea, Puspa wanted to introduce us to her little girl and her younger sister, Mayasanti.  At Mayasanti's, the girls asked us to stay to meet Mayasanti's husband.  And so we were waiting and waiting for her husband to come, and finally, when he did arrive, his mother and another man also came in and sat down with us.  Seconds later I was startled to learn that the mystery man was their church deacon!!!  


I was really nervous at this point.  My Nepali is still very limited and I was not sure what kind of reception we would meet, but was relieved to find that the deacon was not confrontational at all.  He was a really nice man.  We spoke for about half an hour explaining we had not been sent but came to Nepal out of our own desire, with our own money, and he seemed impressed.  Ritsu, my little side-kick, whipped out an invitation to the DC, and he said he would try to come, and, I genuinely believe he meant what he said...


Thus we left our new friends eager to see if they would show the next weekend.  


The convention was a memorable experience for loads of reasons, several of which are: 

• Over 1,600 attended the Saturday session (combined total of over 3,000 attended in Nepal - 500 more than this years memorial attendance)
• I understood much more than the previous assembly in Nepali (woo-hoo something's going in!);
• 31 were baptised (including a bhai and bahini from Baneshwor);
• the new brochures were released in both Nepali AND Newari;
• the dramas - Potiphar's wife would make a great Bollywood actress, dancing around the stage one second, ripping his clothes off the next...
• afternoon chiya with Lynn
• bumping into bhais and bahinis I had not seen for months  
• um, new saris...

afternoon chiya

Roji's family

me, Sayara, Ritz and Chasty

Sister Laxmi and her daughter

my little pen-pal, 'Swarmi'

Post-convention


Today I returned to Til Ganga with a Nepali brother, Niranjan.  Ram as it turns out attended two of the three days of the DC!!!  


Much of the conversation between Niranjan and Ram I did not understand well, but what I did understand was that Ram had observed that there needs to be unity more between Christians.  There are several churches in Nepal teaching rather different doctrines, some of which Ram personally had noted, are not biblical.  At one point I thought he was giving Niranjan the 'fob-off'*, saying that he had come to the DC because we had invited him, but that he would not come to the meeting.  Niranjan persevered, and somehow in the conversation that followed, gently offered him a bible study.  Ram accepted, and they have arranged to start studying next Thursday!!!


Niranjan and I then parted ways, and I walked with Ram to where he had been resting earlier in the sun.  He was wearing the same shy smile he wore when we returned with his 'My Book'...I am praying that at least if I cannot understand his spoken language, I can read his body language...


Yet another testament to how valuable 'My Book of Bible Stories' is...


* 'fob-off' - to indirectly 'brush-off'^
^ 'brush-off' - dismiss or reject someone or something which is viewed as unimportant