Nepal Spring 2020 – Crossroads Mission Trip
Submitted by: Don Ireland
Hello everyone,
I wanted to give everyone at Crossroads a report on the Spring 2020 Nepal trip.
Floyd Dugger, Dave and Glenda Shaw, and Don and Ferrol Ireland represented Crossroads on this trip. Mark Barret from Snohomish, WA and Bob Bayne from Cookeville,TN also joined us.
Everyone arrived in Katmandu on Feb 27th. Everyone was lodged at the RTDC training center. Everyone had an opportunity to visit the Tamil area of Katmandu, visiting some shops and meeting Krishna, the bagman. Krishna is a Christian living in the Tamil district making his living sewing bags. This evening we had a traditional Nepali dinner with old friends Khila and Luxmi Sopkota and their family.
On Saturday, Feb 29th we attended Pishon River church together where Floyd Dugger delivered the message. Following the service, the church was turned around and set up for the RTDC graduation. Our ten students graduated. Mark Barrett gave the commencement address. Later in the
evening we got to spend some time with the students getting to know them a bit and giving them a chance to ask us questions. While the school is technically a “secular” school, the directors, Meenu, Vijay, and Shanta are Christians and do share their faith. This is the first class out of 23 classes where every student went home having accepted Christ. Please pray for them as they begin their new life in Christ and as they put their new sewing skills to work.
March 1st was a travel day to Shaki church in the Gorka region. On the way to Gorka we stopped to visit a former RTDC graduate near Tursulli. The former student, Nisa now has her own sewing business. She shared her business with the group and took orders from Mark and Don for new shirts.
The Shaki church conference on March 2nd was attended by about 120 area church leaders and pastors. Pastor Hom asked that we address working together as church bodies rather than working against or in competition with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Dave Shaw, Mark Barrett, Floyd Dugger, Bob Bayne, and Don Ireland all delivered messages. We spent two nights in the village, our accommodations being the floor of the Sunday school building.
March 3rd was a travel day to Bharatpur. The sixth Himalayan pastor and leaders conference was held in Bharatpur. Between 150 and 180 pastors and leaders attended. The topic was “How we need to live as Pastors and Leaders”. Each of our team members participated in sharing on this topic. On day 2 Ferrol and Glenda led a women’s discussion group while Dave, Floyd and Don led the men’s discussion group. Both of these discussion groups were very well received. Our accommodations in Bharatpur were in an older colonial type hotel. At both conferences, the pastors and leaders were given a packet of material to help them in their ministries. The materials included a solar powered audio player which had “God’s Story” and the New Testament, both in Nepali language installed. The packets also included a number of tract and booklet materials, also in Nepali language, for the pastors to use in their communities.
Following the conference, we were invited by one of the attending pastors to take a jeep safari in the Chitwin National Park. Following this we proceeded to Pokhara.
On Saturday March 6, Dave Shaw and Floyd Dugger each had the opportunity to share God’s word in two different churches. Following their “preaching” everyone had the opportunity to explore Pokhara. Pokhara is a tourist city popular folks trekking in the Annapurna mountain range. On Sunday morning early, we drove to the ridge lookout to watch the sun rise over the Annapurna mountain range, with each peak over 20,000 ft. Once the sun had risen Floyd and Glenda started their flight home early, jumping off the ridge and paragliding back to Pokhara. And from there we all started our journey for home.