Hello everybody, this is Sven and I cannot believe that it is almost the end of February. I just got back to perth, flying back after a failed attempt to drive a new van for the base back from Brisbane, failed due to the fact that the van still needs some work and I also need to do some work, so what was supposed to be a quick 5 day trip with a good friend ended up being a week and half ordeal, dealing with dealerships and staying with friends around the Brisbane area.
Other news, I recently got back from leading my school on outreach in Nepal, one of my favourite places on earth. All in all we spent around 1 month there. I shall share some really cool stories in a bit from our time there.
I arrived in Nepal on new years eve and met up straight away with our local friends, who are absolute legends, so legendary in fact that I will skip to end of my time in Nepal where I had a great BBQ, sausage and chicken, 3.5 kg worth with Umesh and Chandan, some of the YWAM Nepal staff, good memories. Anyway, we had a busy 4 days in Kathmandu, getting kitted for trekking, getting the teams India visas sorted out and of course helping the team adjust and get over culture shock, they were really good actually. A funny highlight was our Irish student not adjusting to the food, passing out in a micro bus, us getting him off, him realising that he had soiled his pants while passed out, getting on another bus, same student vomiting, then having to walk 500m back to our guesthouse, unforgettable outreach stories.
Fast forward now to the good stuff, we arrived in Dhading (a province) after leaving Kathmandu and immediately ascended a Nepali hill (we call them mountains) in the back of a 4x4 dump truck thing, there were of course 47 of (team and locals) in the back tray, going up a steep switch back trail for 1½ hours, not my idea of fun, but it finished. We then stayed 3 nights in a remote hill village and spent the days teaching lessons in the local school, walking to other nearby villages and communities to share the Gospel (many of these people are totally unreached and have never heard the Gospel). We also (after 2 hrs of training in Perth) dispensed prescribed glasses to people in need, we had an illiterate eye chart with us which we learnt to use, it was amazing seeing the locals faces when they tries the glasses, really cool. It was a great time there, we visited the same village last year, so good to see friends again.
Then we started our Nepali hill trek, going to more remote villages that only have walking access. The first day was quite the adjustment for the team, it was the first time many of them had seriously trekked with weighted packs, so the first day is always hard, but we pushed through and made it. We spent the next week going to different villages, retracing steps we took last year and making new ones. I don't have the space to tell you all now what happened, that would take a while but here goes a summary: we shared the Gospel with many people, saw many people make responses, got to encourage very isolated Nepali churches, saw people get healed when we prayed for them, stayed and lived as the locals did, visited friends from last year and can I say that my young team did amazing with the radical culture shock that comes with going to rural Nepal, they were champions. Pork curry was a highlight, especially as the pig was alive when we purchased it, no nicely wrapped meat in super markets out there, the real deal. All in all it was amazing and exhausting, hiking up those Nepal hills (oh yes, they are mountains in South Africa!!!).
We then spent just under a week with a local church planting team in town on Chitwan province. Here we helped build a church, literally with bamboo, as well as doing other strenuous activities like playing cricket with the locals and avoiding the local rhinos in the forest and after dark(serious). We had our own little house with 16 of us living in it, learnt to make local tea and food and played with 40 local kids at once, very very tiring, but awesome.
We then booked it back to Kathmandu, this via bus, via one night guesthouse in Hetauda, via 4x4 jeeps up steep tar roads(3-4 hours) and then back with our friends in Kathmandu. We then stayed in Thamel, the ex-hippie trail part of Kathmandu, which was really fun, we had a birthday party at the local Irish pub(serious), made some really good friends, the boys got big knives, the whole team got their India visas, I got them all on a bus and they departed for Darjeeling, while I spent another night in Kathmandu, spent time with friends, had that lovely BBQ and then boarded a flight to get back to my lovely wife whom I hadn't seen in a month....
Sven's School - Frontline DTS Facebook Page
Andrea's School - Art Evangelists School Facebook Page
Other news, I recently got back from leading my school on outreach in Nepal, one of my favourite places on earth. All in all we spent around 1 month there. I shall share some really cool stories in a bit from our time there.
I arrived in Nepal on new years eve and met up straight away with our local friends, who are absolute legends, so legendary in fact that I will skip to end of my time in Nepal where I had a great BBQ, sausage and chicken, 3.5 kg worth with Umesh and Chandan, some of the YWAM Nepal staff, good memories. Anyway, we had a busy 4 days in Kathmandu, getting kitted for trekking, getting the teams India visas sorted out and of course helping the team adjust and get over culture shock, they were really good actually. A funny highlight was our Irish student not adjusting to the food, passing out in a micro bus, us getting him off, him realising that he had soiled his pants while passed out, getting on another bus, same student vomiting, then having to walk 500m back to our guesthouse, unforgettable outreach stories.
Fast forward now to the good stuff, we arrived in Dhading (a province) after leaving Kathmandu and immediately ascended a Nepali hill (we call them mountains) in the back of a 4x4 dump truck thing, there were of course 47 of (team and locals) in the back tray, going up a steep switch back trail for 1½ hours, not my idea of fun, but it finished. We then stayed 3 nights in a remote hill village and spent the days teaching lessons in the local school, walking to other nearby villages and communities to share the Gospel (many of these people are totally unreached and have never heard the Gospel). We also (after 2 hrs of training in Perth) dispensed prescribed glasses to people in need, we had an illiterate eye chart with us which we learnt to use, it was amazing seeing the locals faces when they tries the glasses, really cool. It was a great time there, we visited the same village last year, so good to see friends again.
Then we started our Nepali hill trek, going to more remote villages that only have walking access. The first day was quite the adjustment for the team, it was the first time many of them had seriously trekked with weighted packs, so the first day is always hard, but we pushed through and made it. We spent the next week going to different villages, retracing steps we took last year and making new ones. I don't have the space to tell you all now what happened, that would take a while but here goes a summary: we shared the Gospel with many people, saw many people make responses, got to encourage very isolated Nepali churches, saw people get healed when we prayed for them, stayed and lived as the locals did, visited friends from last year and can I say that my young team did amazing with the radical culture shock that comes with going to rural Nepal, they were champions. Pork curry was a highlight, especially as the pig was alive when we purchased it, no nicely wrapped meat in super markets out there, the real deal. All in all it was amazing and exhausting, hiking up those Nepal hills (oh yes, they are mountains in South Africa!!!).
We then spent just under a week with a local church planting team in town on Chitwan province. Here we helped build a church, literally with bamboo, as well as doing other strenuous activities like playing cricket with the locals and avoiding the local rhinos in the forest and after dark(serious). We had our own little house with 16 of us living in it, learnt to make local tea and food and played with 40 local kids at once, very very tiring, but awesome.
We then booked it back to Kathmandu, this via bus, via one night guesthouse in Hetauda, via 4x4 jeeps up steep tar roads(3-4 hours) and then back with our friends in Kathmandu. We then stayed in Thamel, the ex-hippie trail part of Kathmandu, which was really fun, we had a birthday party at the local Irish pub(serious), made some really good friends, the boys got big knives, the whole team got their India visas, I got them all on a bus and they departed for Darjeeling, while I spent another night in Kathmandu, spent time with friends, had that lovely BBQ and then boarded a flight to get back to my lovely wife whom I hadn't seen in a month....
Sven's School - Frontline DTS Facebook Page
Andrea's School - Art Evangelists School Facebook Page