That’s our plane

Granny here on the Singapore/Kathmandu leg. Too cold apparently

Singapore airport and the massive tv screen surrounding the entry to Louis Vuitton

Had to share a bed with Caleb last night. Told him if her spooned me it would be on.

Crazy big coffee today. Helpful for the jet lag. Good time walking around Thamel.

Went shopping today and Caleb got to sit in the boss’ chair. They called him boss for the rest of the day.

Had dinner tonight with Narayan and Hemanta. It was the roadhouse restaurant with a western menu. Good to meet with them and chat in person.

David o Sullivan on a nepal motorbike version of Uber.

Classic Nepalese lunch at church with Dahl bot - Dahl and rice

Fun fact - if you want to say thank you Nepali you say doneyerbutt. Gold.

Thought it would be good to get a selfie in front of this shop.

Narayans car is very small. Think Toyota echo.

Here is an excerpt

Caleb speaking up a storm. Did really well.

And then was part of a discussion group helped with translation by hemanta

Preaching went better than I expected. Narayan is a good translator.

We had lunch and then had the second service. It was good too. After that we headed back to the hotel. Caleb went with the prospective church planter Hemanta on his motorbike.

Passengers don’t require helmets.

We had about an hour off at the hotel and then headed out to coffee with Narayan and Hemanta to talk planting and church vision stuff

It really felt like a divine appointment. Their heart for their city and country was big. It matched ours for them. There was a strong sense for an ongoing partnership.

When we arrived back at the hotel I gave Narayan and Hemanta a copy of becoming you. Almost straight away the attendant came over and asked about the book. Narayan gave him a copy, he started reading the forward for a while and then told me he wanted to read it. While he was reading Hemanta told me the topic of the book was a big concern here in Nepal. I gave him my last copy. He is probably Hindu. His name is bebas.

Delivered some training on power to leaders of message of the cross church. I was wondering how content we use in Australia would roll over here. It mapped on really well. At the end they announced they were going to celebrate the birthday of their prospective church planter Hemanta only to find out it was mine too. We had a cake together. Tradition is that on your birthday someone else needs to feed it to you. So Hemanta and Caleb fed me my piece.

We then found the only kfc in Nepal and had a zinger box. Pretty good.

We then walked past a shop which was strangely appropriate. Heading west tomorrow on Buddha air. Scenery awaits.

This is the safest domestic airline apparently.

We could see the Himalayas from the plane.

This view on approach to landing.

We took a walk through a badi village - the lowest caste in Nepal. 11 people live in the small room Caleb is looking into there. We are having dinner with some of them at the restaurant at our accomodation. We are shouting them.their kids have never been to a restaurant before.

We had a quick lunch and then headed out in a tuk tuk to see a boutique which rescues girls from prostitution by training then to do sewing and decoration.

We drove through tiger country.

They honoured us with flowers and a scarf.

And had a rest stop at a servo which was pretty questionable.

Stopped for lunch here.

We crossed over the mountains on our way to birendenagger - the capital of the state we are in.

Some beautiful scenery. Rice paddies cut into the hillside.

After settling into our hotel, our guide went and organised for our church to give a local hostel/orphanage of the lowest caste in Nepal $1000 worth of rice. This is the hostel. 124 kids.

He got a good deal and was able to purchase other food and school books.

And Caleb got his dance on later. It was a pretty impacting night.

They were all waiting for us when we arrived and clapped every time a bag of rice was brought in. It took a number of tuk tuks to get all the food.

One of the older girls said they had been praying for this. She said many people bring small gifts but. No one has brought a big gift like this.

They liked Caleb

The view from our hotel.

Drove up through the hill country - not mountains. Mountains have snow on them.

Went to see a badi village in dialekh.

They honoured us with scarves and formal hats

They have a pastor and are now almost all Christian

It was a long day - 2 hours each way on bumpy windy roads. Such amazing scenery.

Breakfast at the hotel before heading back to Kathmandu.

This was our hotel

Our smallish plane - Buddha air

Approaching landing at Kathmandu

And the inevitable shopping yesterday along with signing up to a vpn so we could watch the bledisloe cup live. Bad result for Australia.

This was the departure \240airport. Didn’t fill us with a great amount of confidence.

Day started with Caleb’s first cuthroat shave - in downtown Kathmandu nonetheless.

This is what the view would have been like.

We went up to 2500m (higher than koziuscko) on a cable car with hopes of seeing all the mountain ranges - Everest included. But alas, it was foggy.

So we went zip lining instead. Good stuff.

This was the view of Kathmandu on the way down.

Went to trinity cafe … best coffee I have had over here. Owned and run by Christians. A Tim Keller church meets out the back of it.

Saw buddhas tomb - the white dome.

This black goat is on death row. Due to be sacrificed for sins soon.

Dinner with the A29 church crew. Preaching in the morning then out to dulikehl for two days of training.

And a bunch of other Hindu sites. Some pretty wild stuff.

Off to preach at a penetecostal church in Lalitpur this morning.

Four of us in one of these taxis.

The church was right next to a bunch rice paddies.

Preached on coming to Jesus if you thirst.

This was the church - AOG

Best Nepali feed yet at the hostel. Amazing.

We visited the girls hostel in dhulikel tonight. Many orphaned badi girls here who are being cared for, educated, and taught about Jesus.

Spent a little while after church training the kids church teachers

Then they fed us. Almost ate that oval thing in the middle at the top. They call it a pickle. No one ever eats it whole. Blow your lid off. Hemanta stopped me just in time.

The inside of the church. The rest of the crew have left me to do the training and have gone to visit some villages.

This is the Main Street in Banepa - the place where the equip training is happening today.

The entrance to the church.

First session today was on shame. I was a little nervous given the prominence of the shame/honour culture over here. Wasn’t sure how it would land. It seemed to go really well. God seemed to be quite active. Thankful.

This is the guest house we have been staying in. Best accomodation yet. Three floors.

This is Shiva. The big dog god. We passed him on the way to the training. Not even 100m from the church.

Caleb hitched a ride with Narayan to the equipping training today.

And climbed the 1000 stairs with David o Sullivan. Caleb came second.

While I was working the rest of the team went zip lining. It was over 1km long and took more than a minute to travel down - superman style.

Caleb ripped on a statue.

We fly home tomorrow

This girl was rescued out of sex slavery when she was 12 years old! She was quite emotional as she shared her story.

We went to a garment factory which was started to provide work opportunities for low caste people who can’t get a job. The owner is an entrepreneur and pastor who uses his money for gospel work.