“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Singapore Changi International airport where the local time is approximately 8.02pm, Saturday, the 23rd of January 2010”. To me, this is home, yet to the rest of the team, this is “home” in varying definitions of the word – A resting place / a place of refuge. Familiar surroundings, familiar food and communication in a familiar language.
Rewind a couple of hours back where we started our day over a bowl of spicy noodles for breakfast. After finishing the last bits of our packing, we gathered in Pastor Dhan’s bedroom with children ranging from 6 – 9 years old, Pastor Dhan, his family, Pastor Gopal, the 2 resident girls who had been toiling hard in the kitchen since the day we got there and our new friend, Krist all gathered cozily on the 13 x 9 ft carpet. After songs of “Jesus Loves Me This I know” and “Jesus Loves The Little Children”, we spent time praying for the Pastors, their families and their ministry there in Nepal. After which, we were treated to a Nepali Christian song and dance Krist had taught the children. Our short meeting closed with the team singing “The Doxology”.
After a quick lunch, we loaded up, got a couple of last minute “group pictures” and were on our way to Kathmandu International Airport for our flight back to Singapore. It was sad that we had to say our goodbyes to the Pastors, Krist and our faithful driver prematurely as only passengers are allowed into the check-in terminal here in Kathmandu. However, we find excitement and joy in the fact that we know we will meet them again, if not on this earth, then at the feet of our Father’s throne. Checking in was a breeze, we couldn’t figure out why they wanted us to get to the airport so early as it’s a small airport. We understood the moment we got to immigration. While lining up for about 20mins to get past immigration, we met a nice American missionary couple who had been serving in Nepal for 4 years! Their fervor and love for the people and God was such an encouragement to us. Here we were, in Nepal for 11 days and looking forward to the likes of ice-cream, chocolate and cheese. These people had been here for 4 years and radiated God’s love and the joy they find in Christ during our short conversation with them. After immigration, it was time for security! THAT WAS AN EXPERIENCE. They have separate lines for men and women. The girls got through quick because their line was exceptionally short. After 30mins or so, the guys decided to look for the possibility of a quicker clearance. We then found out that we could have gone through the “ladies” line as it was also cleared for passengers of the flight we were on. By the time we switched lines, we were too late, another long line had formed. Upon reaching the scanning machines, we were then told that we were in the wrong line and should have been in the one we were originally in. ?!?!?!?!?! Thankfully, with the help of the nice Silkair agent who intervened on our behalf, we were allowed through. After collecting our bags for the scanner, the bags were manually searched again. By now, they were paging for all remaining passengers of our flight. We had started our check-in at the airport more than 2 hours ago! At the entrance to our gate, we were frisked again before allowed to get onto a bus of waiting passengers all ready to be transported to our plane. On our flight back to Singapore, we had time to reminisce memories made over the past 11 days and reflect on God’s faithfulness during our time there.
The team is now back in Singapore, where the journey of our mission to the Himalayan country of Nepal began. Thank you for praying for us faithfully. We definitely felt every bit of it.
This isn’t the end though. Our team will continue to pray faithfully for Pastor Dhan’s family, Pastor Gopal’s Family, their extended families who are all involved in ministry, the children, the youth and the people of Nepal. We ask that you join us too!
They are very excited to welcome another team in 2011. Will you heed the call?
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