The Ends of the Earth and the Cold Cement Floors of Kathmandu, Nepal - Tales from the Mountain Tops and Valleys Below - #1

Mount Everest, Nepal

Missionaries are supposed to go to the ends of the world, right? And who gets to choose where those ends end? It was all in Father's plan book. We had asked for an assignment to Russia since Bill had studied Russian (which he had tried, unsuccessfully, to teach me on our honeymoon!). But Russia, as a country, was not open to linguists or Bible translators and the relationship between the US and Russia was not overly friendly. 

So Wycliffe assigned us to Nepal. It sounded like a great assignment with the Himalayas and Mt. Everest. But this country also had a challenging political climate, one that did not allow citizens to "change religions." Our job there was to be linguistic technicians. Our group planned to analyze the more than 30 unwritten languages in Nepal (not counting dialects) and to provide written works of "high moral value." We would get one of those 30 people groups to work among and come to love.

Before Bill and I met, and I was hoping to go to the ends of the earth, I told the Lord I would go anywhere.....but please don't send me to India. I'm not sure why, just seemed like a harder place to live. So the Lord, in His kindness, sent me to a country just north of India, a country that shared many cultural similarities and challenges.

After Bill finished his final linguistic courses in Norman, Oklahoma, we began to pack up all we thought we would need for the next five years in Nepal. Five years was a normal term  in those days before the team got time back home. Back then you didn't fly home every year. It was a lifetime commitment to go and stay where He sent you. 

We also needed to spend time on the road around the west coast sharing the work we would be doing with friends and family and then trust the Lord for financial provision. We found many friends who committed to pray for us and some who were able to give. We, as yet, didn't know how greatly we would need and depend on those prayers and the God who answered in many mysterious and wonderful way.

We had loving friends and family send us off at the LA Airport. You can see us all here. I’m not sure who took the picture, but I’m glad we have it. Jonathan was 8 months old when we left. He began walking at 7 months (he's always been precocious), and he entertained the stewardesses by walking up and down the aisle. The flight wasn't even half full so they had time to play with him and we had time to rest.

From the left moving towards the back: Bill and Jonathan, me, my sister Nancy, her husband Orv, our good friend Marilyn Pendleton, Bill's Dad, and John and Kathy Watters. In the front is my mother, Bill's mother, and another Wycliffe single lady named Becca travelling with us to Nepal (she later married a Nepali named Hari who was our first language teacher).

We flew from LA to Tokyo and stayed there a couple of days; the father of our travelling companion Becca wanted us to have a good time on the trip and sponsored the stay in Tokyo. Then on to Kathmandu through Calcutta. By the time we arrived we were exhausted. We also weren't prepared for the cold weather with cold cement floors and no central heating. There was only one kerosene heater for the whole small apartment. So many things were different. I wrote about the differences three days after arrival and then again three weeks later. At the end of this blog is what what I wrote, a bit dog-eared with age but still fresh. So read them if you want to learn more about Nepal over 40 years ago and the difference three weeks can make in perspective...at least in mine!

In our packing, we included a trunk of Gerber baby food. I’m not sure what we thought Nepalese babies lived on, but we wanted to be sure Jonathan had what he was used to while he transitioned to local food. As it turned out, he adjusted well to the Nepalese rice and lentils and dahi (yogurt) and didn't need all that Gerber baby food! Good thing since the trunk didn't arrive for several weeks. Lost in airspace.

Here are a couple photos from those first days.

Jonathan is "helping" us unpack (!) and Bill is cooking on the kerosene burners in our apartment kitchen. We were grateful someone loaned us a high chair.

And so our years of life in Nepal had begun. We were excited for this new adventure with Him, and full of hope and trust. Little did we know that He had brought us here to change us and our hearts more than just to work with the people we would come to love. We thought we were there to translate the Bible into an unwritten language and help these indigenous people come to love and trust Him. Well, that's what happened too, but it turned our lives upside down and inside out in the process, as you will read in the upcoming Tales from the Mountain Tops.