Jenny Turns One, Bill's Parents' Visit Us, Mt. Everest, and Our Village: MoreTales from the Mountaintops and Valleys Below Continued

This next half year was full of lots of good things and better health.

During this summer, Jenny began to sleep for more than a few hours and once she even slept the night! We were so blessed. Here's a picture of Jenny at 13 months old trying to comb her curly blond hair! She's standing in the bedroom of our home in Kathmandu.

After a summer in Kathmandu, doing language analysis work with Kissan and another Tharu friend named Hatana, we again planned to return to the village in September. We were also excited because Bill's parents were coming to visit and wanted to come to the village too. Bill's folks arrived October 13th, four days early--their telegram telling us of the date change never arrived. But how glad we were to see them and be together. "Bill's mom is so good with Jon and Jenny and I am learning from her example."

Before taking them to the village, we took them in our small JAARS plane for a tour of the Himalayas, to see Mt. Everest up front and real. Very impressive. That's Bill's dad on the right sitting next to pilot Wayne Aeschliman.

As soon as we returned to the village, the medical work did too. With Bill's parents help with the children, I was able to complete 24 literacy primer lessons and set out to test these. You can see me here working with two of the girls from the village.

Up until now, most of these dear people, especially women, didn't know how to read at all. We brought National Geographic magazines for them to see but they didn't know how to hold them or even look at pictures. We had to start from scratch in basic literacy before they were ready for primer lessons. So after laying a basic foundation, I began using the materials. The people were very enthusiastic about seeing their own language written down. I'll photocopy one of the first stories in the primer here. The word at the top is kai, meaning "eat": the story is about how the jackal is eating the pheasant.

A highlight of this time was celebrating Jenny's first birthday with Dad and Mom and our village family. We tried making ice cream to serve Kissan and his whole family, including Kissan's mom and dad (who was in his 80's--quite old for their normal lifespan). In the photo I took, below, you can see Jenny on Grandma Leal's lap. Look at those blond curls (she still has all the curls, but left the blond behind)! That's our village backyard we're in, with back door behind us all.

We returned to Kathmandu in mid November after a great time in the village. During the next few months we also began to meet for fellowship with several other Wycliffe friends, some British colleagues, and two Catholic Jesuit priests. We all hungered to know Him more and spent time worshiping together. It was also a time I began rereading Madame Guyon's works, seeing how completely she rested in every adverse circumstance. "Quiet acceptance, meeting God in the inner man while the world around rumbles."