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With the tragedy of the Haiti earthquake still unfurling and the death-toll rising. The stories of hope and pain fluttering through the dust to our computer screens serve as a timely reminder to the world.

We must be prepared.

Here in Kathmandu the general tabloid consensus is this: use Haiti as a timely reminder, we have the chance to prepare for an impending earthquake. They didn’t. And so the earthquake training and preparations are being slowly put into action – by our company at least.

Whilst prayers for Haiti fill the heavens and echo around the world I am aware that there is also the ringing of the resounding question that follows every natural disaster:

‘Why does God let this happen?’

Isn’t it strange how things like this, the things the world feels the need to blame God for, are the very things that make us turn to him in desperation for help?

A new friend who experienced an earthquake at thirteen told me how she prepared herself to say her last prayer and then waited.  How many Haitians did the same thing?

Whilst one side of the world questions God the other side are on their knees praying for friends and family affected and still others are on their knees in the rubble of Haiti praying for help and aid to arrive.

Picture courtesy of bbc.co.uk their in-pictures collection

So why does God allow natural disasters?

The holy man dressed in Kodak-orange wanders past the iron clad houses. Silver bucket in hand he walks from house to house collecting offerings. His small hands creep over gates and mysteriously return filled with food or a few coins.

His white hair bedraggled, a pair of sandals his foot protection against the increasingly chilly Kathmandu air. He calls out a cheery ‘Hello!’ to my feeble ‘Namaste!’ A smile plays across my lips as I think about the reversal of the greeting.

The scrap-metal-man cycles up the road, shouting at the houses in the hope of a response, the reply comes in the rattle of gates and the appearance of woollen clad women hitching up their thick trousers, running along the road so as not to miss him.

The rubbish-man, whistle in mouth, does the same thing his heavily loaded bike brimming with a rat’s paradise.

The familiar feeling of eyes follows me to work, no one has gotten used to me yet.

The delivery-man, a band around his head, carts the attached sofa along the road, that man has one strong skull!

Young boys kick a football on the mud playing field, shouting hello and school-learnt English at the passing badeshi’s who pick their mood dependant responses.

Men open up shop for the day, a contrast to Saturdays when they sit and play cards in the sun. Bunched in a tight circle where anything of value is staked in the centre, all or nothing in the flip of a card.

Women busy themselves by the roadside selling herbs and spices; the sight of fresh greenery is a marked contrast to the brown dust clad streets.

A baby dressed like a mini Michelin man is attached to her mother’s back by a tight wrapped shawl.

A young boy pedals a bottle-laden bicycle down to collect water from the Dhobigat, with bottles as big as he is I wonder how he’ll carry them home.

A taxi stops, its driver looks hopefully in my direction as I cross the main street, the smallest shake of my head sends him on his way without a fare.

My shoes scuff on the bumpy road up to the office, no matter how many times I walk it there’s always something to trip on. The motorbikes beep their horn to let me know of their imminent passing, I’ve given up looking round.

I look over the ‘high’ office wall to see the chowkidar smiling and waving at me. He’s traded his usual beanie hat for a crop of gel fixed spikes in his hair today. The weather must be getting warmer.

Dressed, head to toe in blue like so many others of the same profession he creates a familiar morning sight as he opens up the heavy black gates that stand guard before the INF building.

Looking out of my office window I spy a man up a tree, shaking it so that the fruit falls. I imagine a suit wearing professional in London shimmying up a tree to get refreshment for the afternoon snacks in the office, it just wouldn’t happen!

Here amid the chaos there lies a world of endless possibility. There appears to be no method to the madness, but somehow each piece works perfectly alongside the other.

Like the contents of a kitchen cupboard splayed across the floor to collect water from a leaky roof, each distinct noise fulfils it’s purpose in a bigger picture.

The abstract picasso of the Nepali world begins on an ordinary front doorstep

Dear readers!

Christmas approaches! It’s time for the last minute dash to the shops to get the groceries, stocking fillers and last minute bits and bobs!

Well it might be that time for you, but it’s not here! We are living through a three day pre-Christmas bandh (or strike). No vehicles on the roads and all government offices and a lot of businesses are closed.

Whilst there is a holiday atmosphere where we are in some places there has been a shadow of  violence that has fallen amongst the Kathmandu streets. Please pray for a peaceful resolution to the striking in Nepal.

I’ll be taking a little holiday over Christmas, travelling to Pokhara for a Christmas filled with fun, food and trekking! So hopefully lots of pictures to follow!

It’d be great if you could pray or spare a couple of seconds just to think of me as it’s my first Christmas away from home and my family! Another big first, another big adventure.

I’ve been so blessed with the number of people praying for me, emailing me and just remembering me! It makes me feel so loved! So a HUGE thank-you!

Funny Fact: Did you know that Christmas was only declared a national holiday in Nepal for the first time last year!

I hope you guys have a beautiful Christmas and a snow filled new year! And if you don’t know it already, I hope you find the reason for the season. There’s something behind all the Christmas presents, decorations and hype, someone so obvious, almost too obvious that he tends to get lost amongst everything.

Find him and hold on!

GGF

If Jesus was born in Nepal

One dark night, a few years ago from now, there was a census taken in Nepal. The King had demanded that during the Tihar festival the head of each household and his family must return to their homeland and be counted.
A young family, Mary and Joseph, heard this and began their journey from Kathmandu to Joseph’s hometown, Pokhara. The eight hour bus journey with Mary soon to have her baby was a tough one. It seemed to last forever, they travelled through the night so that they could be in Pokhara on time to be counted.

 

 Hello you lovely lot!

Merry Christmas! Almost!

Firstly, thank you so much for all of my birthday messages, cards and gifts! I felt truly loved on Monday and Tuesday when I logged on to all my emails and Facebook messages!

I have had a very busy birthday weekend and a very eventful one. I went, with Ali, to visit a beautiful family who live just outside of Kathmandu on Saturday. They are the family of a guy that we work with at INF called Sandeep. They’ve just celebrated the birth of their second son and we went over to say hello and also to get out of the Kathmandu smog for a while. I also got the chance to hop on a local bus which took us into the city for the bargainous price of 8p.

I went to a craft fair on Friday where all of the local shops and businesses had gathered together to put on a Christmas fair alongside live music, some of it quite hilarious! I am now the proud owner of a new pair of fingerless gloves that magically change into mittens at the flip of my wrists, very handy for the increasingly cold Kathmandu climate!

Yesterday I picked up some more clothes from the tailor (yes more!) and then got my bike fixed, (nope no accidents just some dodgy pedals) in between working of course.

Quiche and Carols at the Embassy!

Last night I visited the British Embassy with just about every Brit in Kathmandu for their Christmas carol service. We belted out a few good classic Crimbo songs and had a great little Bible message before the stampede to the ambassador’s garden to fill up on rum punch and a selection of VERY English Christmas foods. The mince pies, sausage rolls and quiche made the rounds several times.

It’s all very English at the embassy don’t you know! Right down to the white picket fences and privet hedges. It was a great evening with plenty of mingling and munching and being introduced to BMS people too! I still can’t quite get used to walking over to people who already know my name, what I do and how long I’m here for!

I am working! Honest!

Before it looks like I have been doing no work at all I’d better tell you what I’ve been up to! Over the past few weeks I’ve been putting together stories for the March edition of Today in Nepal and writing a little bit for the website too.

I visited a place called Bible Yatra this week and last week. Bible Yatra or Bible Journey as it’s called is a course that is teaching Nepali students the way the Bible fits together from Genesis to Revelation. It’s amazing to see it being taught as none of the teachers have any notes at all!

I ended up interviewing five teachers simultaneously and this week we went back to take pictures and see some of the teacher training that happens.

I am also getting to brush up on my almost non-existent photo skills whilst I am here which is nice as Rowan (our in house photographer) is giving me some tutorials every now and again on working out what my SLR is thinking and how to trick it into taking great pictures!

INF gets tech!

I’ve also been getting INF tech savvy by introducing them to the wonderful world of Facebook and Twitter, so if you’re social come follow us! We’d love your support and input.

We’re listed as International Nepal Fellowship on Facebook and INFTweet on Twitter! (This is the first time I can actually say that checking Facebook is work! Woohoo!

We celebrated the launch of the INF Online Gift Catalogue  on Monday a very momentous occasion as the guys in the office have been working so so hard to get it up and running before Christmas! It was so great to hear stories from people who have bought things from the catalogue!

We hope to make a little money for some very needy people over the Christmas period and beyond! I’d love to hear stories of anyone who’s bought something from the website and who for, that’d be great! As you can tell I’m getting quite in to chatting about what INF do and their latest projects!

Bjouli takes a holiday and so do we!

The Bjouli (Electricity) and load shedding hours are getting more frequent.

This week was filled with two unique Nepali experiences, familiar things that I found it interesting and in some cases hilarious to compare with home.

Yesterday I went to the tailors to pick up my new clothes, my first trip to the tailor had been with my lovely friend Ali, who’d been firm with me and made me tackle the busiest roundabout in our area with the bike. (and with her of course!) If you’ve heard about the bus incident you’ll realise it’s become somewhat hazardous to let me cycle alone!

When we got there I was flung into the unfamiliar territory of clothes shopping, Nepali style.

You see here, you don’t wander in to your local TopShop, pick something, pay and then leave.. or even see the same thing in 15 sizes and then realise that none of them look nice.

Here you have the luxury of choosing your own material and the added embarrassment of being measured for your new outfits!

When shopping, I’m the sort of person who’ll find something she likes and get the same in five different colours then flee from the shop. In Nepal clothes shopping is an entirely different entity.

You purchase your material, then you pop along to the tailor where you’re poked and prodded and measured. You laugh at the ‘you’re so tall’ remarks and can’t keep a straight face when the tiny guy practically has to hug you to get a measurement.

When he takes your leg length in three measurements because he can’t reach from you’re hip to you’re ankle, you get the feeling that perhaps you are just abnormally large and that makes you laugh even more.

After taking about a zillion (perhaps I exaggerate…a little!) measurements, I become convinced that now the guy is just making these up and revelling in the fact that he’s got a giant to clothe.

So he finishes measuring and then asks what neckline I want, trust me these guys do amazing things with necklines, you can even dare to design your own!

So all done, I leave my precious material with the little man and scarper.

One week later I make the journey back to the tailor, with Ali absent, I figure it’ll be safer.. I mean nicer ^^.. to walk to the shop.

When I arrive I am greeted with the biggest smile ever and shown my finished product. The first words out of my mouth are ‘Can I try them on!!’

Anyone who’s been clothes shopping with me, knows this is entirely uncharacteristic! I put on my new Kurta Suruwal and feel so good. It’s the first time I’ve had clothes made to measure that actually feel like they’re made for me! You can tell this guy has put in so much care and the attention to detail is awesome.

They’re perfect. So perfect, I put in some more material and ask him to make me two more sets and some Badeshi (foreigner) trousers.

Job done.

When Ali told me she was going to get her hair cut I jumped at the chance to go with her and see, I can tell you now, expecting a grubby shop with a few people with scissors in, is not the attitude to have in Kathmandu. It seems, if you look hard enough, there is a little bit of luxury in the most unlikely places.

Take seven floors up in a slim tower block that for example. Ali and I got into this tiny elevator and pressed 7. I loved the fact that the air conditioning in the lift was a set of fan blades infront of a square hole in the ceiling that revealed the lift wires.

Getting out we entered a little salon. A couple of hours later we emerged hair-washed, head massaged, cut, blown dry and straightened. Ali had got highlights too.

The funny part? Having my hair straightened when half way through the hairdresser called for backup and suddenly there were two people straightening my hair with military precision. The genius part was they both wore wooly gloves to prevent burning their hands.

So Claire, this is a blog about God, how on earth are you going to relate this to the Bible, God, or to mission? I mean getting your haircut and some new clothes hardly constitutes as mission does it now.

Filling you in on the hilarity of my daily goings on has become something I love!

Being at the tailor, in reflection, does remind me of something God is teaching me.

He’s made to measure, he’s a perfect fit for our lives because he’s measured every inch of us. He knows our most intimate details. If he was making me a Kurta he wouldn’t have the tape measure out because he knows everything about me.

From the exact shade of my eyes to the size and shape of my pinkie toe he knows me physically. And from the everyday random thoughts of me to my deepest longings and desires, he knows them all.

Matthew 10 vs 29-31 says

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny[a]? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. 30And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

When God created you, he took the basic material, fair enough you didn’t pick it but trust me he chose the perfect things for you. When you came into the world he rejoiced at the sight of your wrinkled pink body, marvelling at his own creation and the love that burned in his heart for you.

When we choose to follow him he begins his work on making us beautiful in his eyes, he moulds us, fashions us, influences us, loves us completely and fills that space in our heart. The space we never quite new existed until it was filled and we realised that the feeling of emptiness we once felt was not normal.

When we return to heaven I like to think that he’ll have a smile so big that we can’t help but grin back. I can’t wait for the welcome as we enter his house.

And I still can’t quite believe that he’d let people like me have the chance to wander through his front yard and make myself at home in his kitchen.

So I’ll leave you with this verse, brownie points if you can tell me where it’s from without checking BibleGateway!

‘Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.’

Week six  brings with it new and perilous journeys  involving buses, bikes and the madness of Nepali traffic.

Imagine for a moment navigating your way through London at rush hour. There’s traffic everywhere but you’re on a bike and have the added advantage of being able to weave in and out of the cars. Now take every highway code rule and throw it completely out of your head and replace it with one rule. Ignore what’s behind you and swerve round the things in front, including pedestrians. Add a pinch of chaos and you get a road system that works surprisingly well despite its lack of organisation.

Why the vehicle led introduction? I’ve started cycling to work and round about with Ali. I am somewhat convinced that I will never cycle anywhere alone at the moment, but I am cycling and it’s surprisingly fun. Not to mention the security guy at the office can’t believe that the giant Badeshi can ride a bike.

In other news KFC and Pizza hut, the first western fast food places, have opened in Nepal. There was so much excitement that they got a front page story one of the Kathmandu city newspapers!

I spoke to Rowan the photographer from the office this week and he’s been telling me about all of the exciting places we plan to visit after Christmas. There’s some proper trekking involved too which should be challenging but a really amazing experience.

On the list so far is a place called Jumla and another called Mugu. These two remote towns are up there with some of the poorest places on earth. At the moment they are struggling with an increasing food shortage too. Please pray that this will ease up and food will be available.

At the moment my days consist of working in the office from nine ‘til five writing up stories and attempting to raise the profile of INF through adding them on Facebook and Twitter (Yes I couldn’t believe it either, my appearances on Facebook can actually be classed as work!)

You may have noticed me plugging the INF gift catalogue too, which allows people to buy gifts for poor and needy people in Nepal, a similar idea to the Tearfund gift cards. Well if you’re at LBC there should be some catalogues available for you to take a peek at pretty soon and if you’re not at LBC let me know if you’d like one and I’ll get one sorted for you.

I had an article for the magazine Today in Nepal accepted by my boss today – very exciting. This has also spurred me on to keep writing, it’s very easy to get distracted by so much time with a wireless connection. The upside of this is that I’m being kept in the loop with goings on at home and am able to keep a prayer list to remind me of you all.

Hmm.. not much else to say this week has been pretty normal, as far as being in Nepal goes!

I did almost get hit by a bus (don’t tell mum =P) I was cycling along and this big yellow school bus was coming towards me. Not really sure what to do, I decided I would head for the other side of the road where there was space for me to pass. Luckily Ali was behind me and got me to stay put as the yellow bus turned at the last minute! Whoever was praying for my safety in travel this week, THANK YOU!

Please pray for:

The food shortages in the remote West of Nepal

The plans and preparations for travel after Christmas, also for health and increased fitness levels so that I can keep up with it all.

Thank God for Ali, my housemate, who is taking good care of me and showing me the ropes whilst convincing me to be more and more independent. Pray that she will continue to have the patience she has whilst she’s orientating me and getting used to living with me.

My continued safety on the roads both on foot and on wheels!

Another person to pray for:

A friend of mine called Stuart who is currently working as a lawyer in Kenya, he’s had food poisoning over the last couple of days. Pray that God will restore him to full health and that he’ll be able to make a real difference to people suffering through injustice.

 

SORRY IF I SEEM TO BE pimping out my own company a lot over the next few days, it’s just very hard not to get excited about the work that INF is doing and the products it is launching!

The most recent addition to the INF family is the online gift catalogue! If you haven’t already seen it then click on over to the website as it should be up and running very soon!

Let’s face it, the idea for a gift catalogue where you can buy something for someone in another country isn’t majorly unique, however some of these gifts on offer certainly are!

Back in Kathmandu where the real work begins.Hello Everyone! Well it’s week five! Nope I can hardly believe it either. It seems so long ago that week one I was pottering around for the week in Kathmandu and getting used to crossing roads without getting squashed, week two having to eat goat entrails at a Diwali celebration, week three having my brain melted by language lessons and week four the same but the light relief of being taught to make Momo’s by my didi! Week five has been a week of learning and luxury.