rangi-changi!

at the top of the hillside village of Bagnas

"Rangi-changi" is one of those phrases in the Nepali language that seems to perfectly describe its meaning through the way it sounds as it rolls off your tongue. In English, it means "colorful." Aside from becoming one of our favorite things to say ("bango-tingo" describing a winding/curvy road, is a close second), we felt the term would be fitting to sum up the miscellaneous nature of this blog post.

As I'm sure you can all imagine from the photos and posts thus far, God has been growing us, stretching us, and teaching us countless lessons in our time here. One of which, and perhaps the most valuable, has come from our time in the hospital. Because we are both in the medical field, we are professionally trained to quantify information, obtain objective measures, and document tangible results. When a patient comes in, we obtain information, create a problem list, consider all possible causes of said problems, determine the most likely candidate for the problems, discern the course of treatment to resolve said problems, and finally, re-assess to see if what you did actually helped resolve the problems. 

In the mission field, we're finding how tempting it is to approach ministry in much the same way we approach our professions. The danger there is we identify "the problems" (i.e. what are the needs), think of all the ways we can help fill the need, attempt to implement the necessary changes, and then in the end, want to quantify "the results." Where in all of those steps did we recognize that only God is sovereign, and only God can provide the result He has already planned for? And where do we leave room to trust in His results and His timing, and be okay with the knowledge that we may not see "the end result" of His works?

Probably one of the biggest blessings of combining our professional skills with ministry work is that we see "our work" in a much different light. Instead of being focused on productivity and patient outcomes, we realize that every patient and family we interact with is purely an opportunity to love people the way God loved us first. As Christians, we find our strength and desire to love people because God first loved us. He loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer His wrath and judgement for all of our sins in our place. Then, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are given all the grace and mercy of a relationship with the Father through the Son so that we may live new lives with eternal promise. In light of the Gospel and such a sacrificial love on our behalf, we clearly see now that the very least we can do is in fact the very best we can do for these patients and their families. And that is to demonstrate God's love through the way we love them. 

"that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith -- that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God."

~ Ephesians 3:16-19 ~

We praise God for revealing His truth in such a powerful and tangible way. And it is our prayer to continue to seek the good of others through the way we love them wherever God has us in this great world of His. We thank you all for loving us and demonstrating the blessing of being loved by others. Through your white board messages, your emails, your blog comments, your Facebook comments/messages, your care packages, and your prayers, God truly is using each of you in a unique way to sustain and encourage us so we may be the part of the Body of Christ that serves the patient population of Tansen Mission Hospital with love. Your love and prayers may feel like the least you can do, but we've seen and experienced quite clearly that it truly is the best you can do on behalf of others!

And now for some more photos! Warning: towards the end of the photos, there are a few "creepy crawly critters" we've encountered thus far, so if you're squeamish, please disregard the last few photos. Enjoy! 

The Physio Department (back row, left to right): Niraj, Rajendra, Simon Wetzig (Dr. Graham's son from Australia visited for two weeks for vacation/volunteering); (front row, left to right): Paras, Pratima, Kim

this was the little guy both of us had the blessing to know for a couple of weeks; Tom worked with the family to put on some weight (he is in fact 11 months old), and Kim worked with the family to get him caught up on his gross motor skills; after a lot of prayer and care, he left the hospital a little bit heavier and a lot more active!

he is such a cute little peanut and a joy to play with

with a lot of prayer and support from Dr. Joan (Jame Shu's sister), Tom now feels quite comfortable in pediatrics

what else would you do on a Saturday afternoon?

take the goats out for a walk of course!

the big hill on the right is Shrinagar Hill, and hospital compound where we live and work is just where the trees end on the left side of the hill

a rare blessing to see the HIMALAYAS this time of year! this is Annapurna viewed from Shrinagar Hill... don't worry, once we get all of Tom's photos uploaded, there will be more magnificent views of these majestic mountains to share

part of the Himalayan range we can see from Shrinagar: Annapurna I is the big peak on the left, then the sharply pointed one just to the right of center is Machhapuchre (from another angle, it's split in two and looks like a fish-tail), and finally to the far right is Annapurna II

okay, here's the warm and fuzzy "buffer" photo before we get into the creepy crawly stuff... proceed with caution!

the tarantula who visited our bathroom at Annex 4; fearing it would make a huge mess if he squashed it, Tom was able to use a fly swatter and his newly honed salu (court hockey) skills to usher the hairy thing out the front door

Abishek learned there are definite disadvantages to being a resident in a Nepalese hospital. One of the missionary docs took this photo one night in the Emergency Department when a patient came in with a snake bite injury AND the snake that did it! 

fortunately, this snake did not match any of the venomous  reference specimens in the ED, and the patient went home with no further issues

welcome to the new "home"

For those of you who were concerned about how we would be living out here in Nepal, here is some visual evidence of a clear answer to your prayers! In spite of the challenges we may face, we are continually amazed by God's faithfulness, and how He provides in such great abundance. This home was the very first one built on the hospital compound back in the 1960's, and we are blessed to have the privilege of occupying it for the remainder of our time here. Perhaps these photos will entice some of you to come visit or even to serve in Tansen!

the front of the house: the window on the left is on the 3rd floor, and the open window up top is the 4th floor master bedroom window

the side yard

one of the kitchen windows and the front door

1st floor: the kitchen

looking up to the second floor

2nd floor: sitting and dining room

a peaceful view out to the side yard

3rd floor: the flushing toilet room!

3rd floor: the study

4th floor: room for three of you to come visit!

4th floor: master bedroom (not pictured: a mosquito net recently installed over the bed!)

view from the 3rd floor window: the day after we took this picture, these beautiful passion fruits and the vines were cut down due to their encroachment on the home's electrical wires (see first photo) and their hiding of a rather large hornets' nest; thankfully, the main passion fruit vine is still alive and well on the side of the house!

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

~1 Timothy 6:17-19

We pray to be joyful stewards of all His blessings so that those around us may see Him in all that we say and all that we do wherever He has us.

How Great is Our God!

O Lord, how manifold are your works!

In wisdom have you made them all;

the earth is full of your creatures.

~Psalm 104:24

Tom caught this little guy "looking guilty" with his stolen goods at Swayambunath (Monkey Temple) in Kathmandu.

kid's play

a mother's concern

at one point, she had all four of her chicks on her back!

the rice fields are all ready for the monsoon to come

"You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth" ~Psalm 104:14

walking home from school on a sunny day

enjoying a day off from school

at the end of a long day at school

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this scenario: first the boys would line up for their photo, then they would run over to see what it looked liked, then another boy would jump into the photo line up, and then they would run over to see the result. I watched this swarm of boys run back and forth for about 5 photos. I think we had just as much fun as they did!

a typical farm house in the area (the grass roof lasts about 1-2 years with need for patch repairs every now and again; the beauty of the grass roof, as opposed to a tin roof, is that the home is nice and quiet during a rainstorm)

I couldn't help it, he looked like a National Geographic photographer!

Ranighat, Nepal's famed "Taj Mahal." It is a mansion built over 100 years ago by a king who wanted to remember the place where his son was born.

While Tom was taking his sibling's photo, I caught this boy patiently waiting his turn to have his picture taken.

We just wanted to share a few photos that remind us of how great is our God, and His majesty revealed in all of the earth. As you can imagine, just a simple walk to and from the market around here lends to tons of photo opportunities. Partly it's because there are so many differences here in Nepal as compared to home, but mostly it's because God is transforming how we view His creation. Once you look for Him in every person, animal, or vast view, it's quite the experience of marveling at our amazing God through His creation.

around the hospital compound...

We woke up on our first morning and stepped out of our room to be greeted by these flowers... Praise God for just the right encouragement for our first full day in Tansen!

Tom's "commute" to and from work takes about 3 minutes by foot... with the gas prices the way they are back home, we are most grateful for such an "eco-friendly" and short commute to work!

One of the main hallways in the hospital. To the left is the orthopedic ward, and to the right is the hospital laundry facilities.

As the hospital is not yet equipped with oxygen lines in the rooms, these guys have to pick up empty O2 tanks and deliver new ones almost weekly! This is the back of the hospital where most of the deliveries (including precious mail from home carried on the "Buck") are made.

A quiet day in the Emergency Department... just the way we like it!

Visual reference in the ED. If bitten by a snake, the key is to remember what it looked like. This way you can point it out to the ED staff and they can determine if it is a venomous snake and if so, which antivenom to administer. There are actually about 7 of these "specimens" available for reference. (P.S. we did see our first snake on one of the local trails the other evening... from the panicked glance I gave it, it did not look like any of the venomous snakes pictured here!)

This young "biraami" (patient) enjoys sitting outside in the afternoon, so one day we asked if we could take a picture of him and his custom fit bamboo crutches. The hospital shop makes these crutches on-site using the bamboo on the compound. Now every time we walk by him to say "Namaste," he proudly shows off his crutches.

Tom caught this precious little one peering out over his Mom during ward rounds one morning.

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God." ~Mark 10:27

Life in Tansen... a quick glimpse!

Thank you to ALL who have faithfully visited this blog and for leaving us such warm and encouraging comments! We've only been in Tansen for 2 weeks now, but God has truly blessed us in that time.  Once you know what to look for and how to appreciate it, it's amazing just how many blessings He brings into each moment of every day. We praise Him for His sovereign plan and continue to pray that we may humbly, obediently, and joyfully walk in the footsteps He has laid before us!

To give you an idea of what our lives may look like while we are out here, we'll tell you a bit about our schedules and then of course, show you some photos! But first, here are a few things to keep in mind about daily life out here:
- The Nepali work week starts on Sunday, and it is a 6 day work week. Saturday is their only "weekend" day off, so that is the day we will be worshipping in a church service.
- The Nepali calendar is rather different than ours. For example, today is May 1st 2011 on our calendar, but out here, today is in fact January 20-something 2068. Needless to say, it gets a bit confusing when reading charts in the hospital as they are dated by the Nepali calendar, versus keeping track of birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and family back home on the more universal calendar.
- The language still seems just as foreign to us as it was a month ago. But the people are very gracious and patient in trying to understand what we are attempting to convey. We have learned there are some important distinctions to be made between very similar-sounding words. For example, the word for chicken is "kukhuraa" but the word for dog is "kukkur."So when buying chicken meat to eat, it is very important to ask for "kukhuraako maasu" (meat of chicken) and NOT "kukkurko maasu" (dog meat)! Fortunately, they don't eat or sell dog meat, but they would look at us quite funny and think we are from some strange country in which we do eat dog meat.

Tom is working in the hospital 5 days a week. The "bideshi" (foreign) missionaries are granted the understanding that where we come from, we do not work 6 days per week. So he will have Saturdays off plus one other day during the week that changes from week to week. The morning devotional and "hand-over" meeting before rounds begins at 7:45am, then they round on the wards. The afternoons are committed to staffing the various outpatient clinics. Then the work day should end around 5:15pm. But as with most places in the world, they never really finish the work day on time.

Kim is working in the "Physio Department" on Tuesdays and Fridays from 9am to 5pm. Sunday afternoons she will be spending a couple of hours with the 3rd Year Nursing students in fellowship, to help them with their English, and to practice her Nepali. Monday afternoons she will be serving in the Children's Library for a few hours. It is an after-school program for the local children to come do their homework, learn English, learn music, and have a safe and supervised place to play. It is run by one amazing Christian Korean woman, Sonya, and her two Nepali staff members. Some days they have up to 70 children, so having more hands on deck is rather helpful for them! Thursdays will be devoted to taking care of the home. As the daily chores of cooking, cleaning, shopping, and laundry take MUCH longer without cars, washing machines, dishwashers, and microwaves, Kim is most grateful to have some time during the week to take care of the home and to make sure Tom gets to eat after a long day in the hospital!

We will be moving into a larger "apartment" later today in which there is a kitchen with a counter top gas burner on which we can boil our own water, a large toaster oven of sorts in which you can bake bread, and an actual table at which we can sit to eat our meals. There is even a wall-mounted water purifier that we can use for drinking water (if the electricity is on). It will be quite a blessing to have a kitchen sink so that we don't have to wash our dishes, our laundry, and ourselves all in one tiny bathroom!

Now on to the photos... Enjoy!

our humble abode(s)...

This is the annex building in which we live. Our first room was the door by the blue bucket (we lived there for 2 weeks). Now we live in the last unit by the green bucket (we'll be here until May 25th or so). The silver garbage cans on the roof are the rain water/solar heated shower systems, so a "hot" shower is dependent upon 2 things: rain to fill the buckets, then sun to warm them!

This was our first room... talk about re-living college days! Tom had to sit on his bed to use his side of the desk.

Ahhh, the bathroom: the water heater tank mounted in the corner heated water for a shower when the solar rain water system was lacking in either of the crucial components; but that was just in theory... we never could get it to work! Then the blue pitcher hanging on the tank hose is the toilet flushing mechanism (fill with water, then pour down toilet). The red bucket was our laundry machine. And finally, the blue basin on the floor was our dishwashing machine. In the end, we found that we had everything we needed to do our chores as long as we had the time to them!

Our new place has a kitchen!!! And the white box mounted on the wall (on the right side of this picture) is our very own water purifier. In our last room, we had to take our bottles and jars up to the main guesthouse to get safe drinking water. But when you see women and children lugging 5 gallon jars, sometimes more than a mile, just to get water, then to have to take it home, cut branches from a nearby tree (out of which a lot of them fall and break arms and legs), build a fire, and boil the water before they can drink it, it made us feel like our grumbling on the way to and from the guesthouse seem really trivial and quite unnecessary!

The living room with plenty of seats to welcome guests as well as an extra bed (aka the couch).

The bathroom (much like the last one except I can actually wash dishes in the kitchen sink now), and the bedroom. The bedroom has an awesome view out across the valley to the neighboring town of Bagnas. When lightning storms roll in, it's quite the place to watch the amazing show!

We must say that God really has blessed us with a very comfortable and safe place to stay during our time here in Tansen. As difficult as it has been to adjust to the absence of modern convenience, seeing and learning how the people in this area live and take care of their daily chores has definitely put things into perspective! We are grateful to have this opportunity to live in a manner that allows us to appreciate ALL of God's blessings (like wearing a clean shirt after hand washing it, or enjoying a cucumber after "sterilizing" it and then peeling it, or even just watching a lightning storm for an evening instead of the television). Praise God for all of His many blessings!