Merry Christmas 2020

 The last three years was such an honor to be able to celebrate Christmas with my family in the US. This year's Christmas was different for the whole world. Many are celebrating with less people than last year due to Covid. Then of course the restrictions prevented travel, making it difficult for loved ones to connect.

Despite all the craziness this last year brought, we were still able to have a wonderful Christmas in Nepal and I hope you all did as well. 

Our Christmas:

Normally our Nepal Christmas' consists of a full day at the Nepali church and then a feast with all our brothers and sisters in Christ. But with Covid restrictions including the churches not opened back up yet, we were not able to do that this year. Instead on Christmas eve we joined with about 20 other missionaries and local Christians to worship quietly the birth of our Savior. It was absolutely lovely. After we read through scripture together and sang worship songs, we stayed and ate/ fellowshipped together. It was a wonderful afternoon. 

We came home from that and the girls and I baked some "Christmas cookies" I say this in quotes as baking in Nepal is only for the advanced levels in baking. Our oven doesn't have a thermostat and so there is a lot of guessing and hoping! Thankfully, they were edible. :-) My parents were able to "give" some gifts to the girls through a video call that evening.

On Christmas morning, I gave he girls a few second hand items that people had handed down to me (two bikes (broken now but we will fix them), some warm clothes, books, and other toys. The girls did not care at all that they were secondhand! They were ecstatic and had a grand time. 

We left our house soon after and went to Simon's parents house and had a feast of Nepali food! We prayed together, praised God for His birth and celebrated such a joyous occasion with them. 

When we got back to our house that evening, we "celebrated" one last time through a Zoom call with my whole family, including my brother who is in Germany! 

Other fun facts:

-It is around 40 degrees here at night and in the mornings and around 55 during the day. Our house is freezing, but Simon's parents house was super warm because they get a lot of sun. So it was so great to get a break from the cold!

-No one in Nepal celebrates Christmas so everything is opened and it looks like a normal day on Christmas day. 

I pray everyone had a very wonderful Christmas, even if this year brought hardship. 

Lastly, thank you for those who have donated toward our scooter, we finally got it and we are so happy as the timing was perfect since the borrowed one was recently sold to someone else! God is so good!

Innocence and Curiosity

This post is about Jyoti. 

My curious, kind, and oh so innocent 4-year-old daughter. Her heart and intentions are pure, yet within that sweet innocence, the hard questions are being asked and thus opening the door for the gospel to be shared. 

Within the last 5 weeks, since our arrival back to Nepal, there have been two major Hindu holidays. The first one was Dashain (a celebration of good winning over evil)  during which we were stuck inside our place for quarantining. 

The other major Hindu festival is called the Tihar festival. This one is just now ending and Jyoti has been so intrigued by the newness of all of it. On one of the days of this festival, "Laxmi puja," Hindus make a way for their god Laxmi to bless their wealth. It starts with this beautiful art on the ground by their front gate, then they make a path to a place inside their homes (usually where they keep their money) for Laxmi to bless.

 Jyoti was in awe. At first she was convinced everyone was doing "arts and crafts"  but knew there had to be more to it. She had to know more and so she started asking the hard questions to our landlord's daughter. Here is a snapshot of her conversation:

J: Why are you doing that? 

 girl: I don't know

J: But... I'm only 4... so I don't know. But if you are doing it and you are bigger than me, shouldn't you know?

Initially I had a pretty big "face palm" moment right about now. But after watching the girl, her brother, and their mom smile at her cuteness but also feel a little awkward that they don't really have all the answers, I began praising God for the path my little one is paving. 

As many religious people in the world, Hindus in Nepal do most of their religious customs just because that is what their parents did and their parents before them. Most of them really cannot answer the cute child's question of..."but why?" 

And sometimes is is the difficult questions that force us to rethink all of the things we do. 

Jyoti. My sweet Jyoti.

She asks a lot of questions and each one is intended only from the curiosity of a child. But each time the recipient of these questions digs deep inside to search for an answer. 

 This is the same girl that has been asking questions about Jesus and is wondering more about Christianity. 

Please continue to pray for this lovely family we are staying with, please pray that we will be light and that God will open their hearts and minds to receive the love of Jesus.  We have already grown very fond of this wonderful family!

And they have really grown fond of our sweet little innocent Jyoti too.

 Every morning our landlady does her morning chores with Jyoti clinging to her back. Jyoti (light) has really been true to her name here in Nepal. 

To practice love

is to disrupt the status quo which is masquerading 
as peace. ~Austin Channing Brown

Other updates:

-Karina has been enjoying teaching, but still online due to strict government restrictions. This has been a blessing as it is so nice to get to know this sweet Nepali family we now live with as well as being home with Jyoti and Prasansa at the same time. (To help them adjust to life in Nepal.) She is currently searching for a Nepali teacher, as the self learning program is not working as well as hoped.

-Simon is still on the lookout for a moped to use to get to the children's homes. Please pray for us as we search for a good priced second hand one. He is also enjoying his online class but has a paper and exam coming and would appreciate prayers for this. A huge praise is that LJI was able to rescue 5 young women being trafficked to India as well as find their traffickers who were arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison!

-Prasansa loves her Nepali family here but is pretty shy with everyone else. She is growing big and has been really enjoying eating Nepali food! It is a bit hard with her food allergies though. We can't ever take her out to eat and most items don't even have all the ingredients listed. Please pray for us as we navigate this and as it is His will, please pray for her body to heal and be able to eat dairy and gluten. 

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For your viewing pleasure: The girls playing hide and seek! 

 

No Purpose of His will ever be Thwarted

Here is the spoiler before you even begin to read this post: 

We *do* make it into Nepal.

 Now take a deep breath as I finally share the beauty and brokenness that lead up to this point. I remember at one point when things were looking especially grim saying to someone, "When I get to Nepal, I will take particular joy in writing about this journey." I also want to stress in the most sincere way possible, we are only here because it is God's will for us to be here and "no purpose of His will ever be thwarted." -Job

After we knew that our season in the USA had come to a close, we began praying about when we should return back to Nepal. We were excited but were not sure if we should come this year or wait one more year. We prayed hard and finally came to the decision that this is the year we will return. At first it seems that everything supernaturally aligned for our return. Karina's position as a teacher at the same school was available and Simon would be working with the same organization only doing something more aligned with his personal convictions this time. 

We began raising support, in faith, as the borders of Nepal remained closed and though Karina and Jyoti's passports needed renewing, the passport services had suspended all non-emergency services. Those two small yet unbelievably significant aspects of our leaving, were what broke us down to completely surrender our hearts to God and would pray daily, "We trust you God." We knew that we serve an all-powerful God and so if He did not want us to come here, then we wouldn't. So we continued raising support, praying our friends and family would have faith with us as we were honest about the border and our passport situation. 

It was a busy season for all of us. The school Karina would serve at in Nepal asked her to begin teaching from online in the USA starting July 28th. As we met with our friends and family to share about what God had placed on our hearts, Karina was also teaching kids from across the world. All the while, Karina's passport had been sent to passport services (we could not send Jyoti's because they would not take a minors passport) and we were still patiently awaiting Nepal to officially open the borders. At this point in time, they were barely even allowing Nepali citizens back into the country, much less a foreigner. 

We continued to pray and surrender these plans to God as we waited and waited for answers. One day, Nepal made an official release statement that all Nepalese could come back in as well as their children (Jyoti and Prasansa) but no foreign spouses. We were excited for the development but also sad that it would mean Karina still cannot come back into the country.  We continued to pray and praise God as we raised support and waited for more news. Meanwhile, God's perfect graces gave us some real hope with different people we are connected with. They shared with us the only way for Karina to get back into Nepal. We needed permission from the foreign minister in Nepal. Well, Karina...me...I am not anyone special. Why in the world would the foreign minister of Nepal grant -me- permission to enter his country?We shared our situation of me being married to a Nepali man and having family in Nepal and were honest about all of our health and we sent in our application for approval, then we waited. 

While we waited and prayed/ praised God continually, we got Karina's renewed passport back! We were so excited but without that approval it meant nothing. So with slight disappointment, I (Karina) gave my concerns to God and remembered that no purpose of His will ever be thwarted and trusted God as we continued waiting with joy. 

Our original leave date of October 1st came and my heart felt a bit heavy but we praised God for the opportunity to finish getting some things done and were grateful for the extra week. On October 2nd, 2020 we woke up to an email that our application had been approved. The foreign minister had approved my case by God's grace, He had used some of our prior connections and softened this man's heart and he said yes!

Now we had a little less than one week to get ready and leave and a part of the criteria of allowing us to come back in was that we had already have visas in our passports. Since the embassy of Nepal in the USA is in Washington DC, we were again having faith and being hopeful that we would get our passports back in time for our coming Thursday (Oct. 8th) leave date. We also had to show negative Covid-19 tests and after calling so many places (many of them refusing to test our girls or demanding payment of $275/ person) we finally found a place that did all of us for free! The only caveat was that in order to get our results back in time before our leave date, we had to go pick them up ourselves. A small price to pay in the grand scheme of things! 

Wednesday, October 7th rolled around and we still did not have our test results (but we did have our passports with visas!) We continued packing, in faith that we would receive them. The doctor from the clinic, did something she never does and gave us a call to let us know we could come pick them up! 

If you made it this far, congratulations! We are finally going to the airport now. :)

It had been a challenging 3 months but we really grew closer to God through it all. Now it was time to fly into Nepal. With all the craziness, we did forget quite a few things but we did remember our passports/ visas, approval letter, and negative covid-19 tests. 

Our first flight was seamless. They gave us no trouble and though one suitcase was a couple pounds too heavy, he didn't charge us for it. We looked forward to our 3 hour layover to come when we arrive in New York. We planned to walk through the airport and find a nice meal to eat. 

This is not what happened. 

We found where our gate (should) be and instead of going through normal international security again, we were questioned and vetted thoroughly. They needed to see all of our paperwork and then proceeded to check its validity three separate times. They also were concerned with Jyoti's passport and were giving us trouble about that. During all of this, both girls were screaming as they impatiently waited. I honestly don't blame them. It was crowded, loud, and we were all very hungry. By the time all the vetting was over we had to literally run to our gate to catch our plane. The entire three hour layover had been used up! 

The next plane/ layover was smooth and easy. We all slept, watched a few movies, and with just a 1 hour layover we walked straight to our next gate after arriving in Doha, Qatar. 

The last plane was completely booked. I was the only person on the entire plane that did not have Nepali blood running through my veins. We arrived in Nepal and after waiting in a non-ventilated hallway for about 45 minutes with the other passengers on the plane we gave our passports to immigration. This took another 25 minutes. We were all tired, hungry, and thirsty but I believe that if it was just me and Simon it would have been easy. The girls were so done and were doing ridiculous things in their tiredness (like touching the floor and then licking their fingers!!) 

But alas, all of our baggage made it and I would say that the actual flights (minus our time in New York and cranky children) was really great and easy.

So, we are here and feeling the joy of jet lag!

 We give all the glory to God for getting us here and are so thankful for the entire journey as well. 

We are also thankful for all our friends and family for having faith with us, praying for us, and supporting us. 

So far, none of us have had any symptoms of Covid-19. But we are quarantining ourselves nonetheless. Please pray this continues!

Please keep in touch and let us know how you are doing. 

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