Happy Easter!

we found this (somewhat creepy) Easter bunny at the Int'l Floral Expo in Taiwan

Good Friday with the Tansen Mission Hospital Community: Stations of the Cross with readings and worship songs in English and Nepali

Easter (Saturday) Service at Tansen Church: 4 local churches combined to celebrate together!

a glimpse of some of the missionary kids from the community

the wall on the left is the mission hospital compound's North wall; this is looking back towards "shanty town"

from Shrinagar Hill looking East towards the town of Bagnas (on the distant hill); just last year, a Christian church was planted by one of the churches here in Tansen

from Shrinagar Hill looking down over the town of Tansen (stretches from the foreground down into the valley)

our first guest in our tiny room; it was the size of my hand! just kidding, it was only the size of my thumb :o)

We wish you all a very Happy Easter as we rejoice in our salvation through His risen Son, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior! Celebrating a holiday away from home was definitely a unique opportunity and experience for us. There was the expected heartache of not being with our family and our church family to celebrate such a joyous occasion. But there was an amazing blessing in celebrating here in Nepal with local believers and the international missions community at the Mission Hospital in Tansen. With the four local churches (two from Tansen, and two from two different towns within 5km from here) combining to worship together, one of the mission doctors giving the sermon in both Nepali and English, and a town clean-up organized by the churches to demonstrate their faith in a very practical way, it was one Easter service we will never forget! It was neat to worship with such a diverse group of people united in one faith. 


Following the morning service, the international mission community held a service (all in English) on the hospital compound for all of the "bideshi" (foreigners) in the town of Tansen. Yet another new experience, and a great opportunity to meet and fellowship with many people from around the world. Their stories of faith and the paths that God has put them and their families on are truly encouraging, and rather humbling. So far we've met people from the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Korea, and the Netherlands. It's only been a week, but we praise God for his answered prayer in providing a mission community with a strong and active faith in which we can continue to grow as believers. Thank you all for your faithful prayers. As we look to one last week of language training before we start work in the first week of May, we will certainly need your prayers to soak in as much of the language and settle our stomachs before we hit the ground running here at United Mission Hospital, Tansen! 


A note on the videos: hopefully these clips are working better than the ones on the last blog (our apologies!). We're still trying to figure out the best format to record and upload them so that they are easy to view. Thank you for your patience, and for your feedback to let us know if they are still not working well! The first clip is of Dr. John's two children accompanying worship in Nepali on Good Friday. We have no idea what the Nepali words mean (yet), but we were so impressed with how beautiful their worship songs are. The second clip is a panoramic view of Tansen and the surrounding villages/towns. It was taken from Shrinagar Hill which is behind the hospital compound. Just a couple hundred stairs up, and on a clear day, it is said that from this point, you can see the longest stretch of the Himalayan Mountain range, better than anywhere else in the country. Perhaps the locals just tell the bideshi's this because at this time of year, it is very rare to get a clear day! Thus far, we have been blessed with just one brief morning on which we could see the tops of these majestic mountains. We can't wait to see more! 


Dherai Din (have a great day), and wishing you all a very Happy Easter!