Nepal

In yesterday’s morning musing I mentioned the gift that the young are to the church and the elderly too. I have been thinking a great deal concerning the breakdown between age groups in contemporary society along with the disrespect that is endemic to that breakdown. Surely the church should be different? Should we not be deeply appreciating and honoring each other? The family of God must learn to dwell together in unity and this includes all the age groups. Certain memories came flooding back to me today linked with these things. I was looking at psalm seventy-two, part of my readings for the day. There is a beautiful prayerful picture in verse sixteen. “May there be abundance of grain in the land, on the tops of the mountains may it wave….” Reading this verse again reminded me of my first trip to the Indian sub continent, it was late in 1974.

I traveled to many parts of India during a period of six months. Those months began with several weeks in Nepal. Obviously Kathmandu was my first stopping place. I met Roy and Alma Hagen for the first time and stayed with them whilst I was there. They were from the United States and I guess about ten to fifteen years older than me, but as you know, that gap of years makes the older seem ancient to the younger! People from another planet! When you are in your teens you think the thirty year olds are ancient and so on, throughout life, it seems! Roy and Alma were among the godly folk who had a great burden for the Nepali people. In those days Nepal was a Hindu kingdom and had only recently opened its doors to the presence of Christian missionaries. For a number of years prior to this much prayer had been made to God that He would open the doors so that the word of God could be brought into Nepal and bear fruit. During that time missionaries were living in India, particularly in places that surround Nepal, places like Darjeeling in West Bengal where there were Nepali people too. Roy and Alma were among those praying people and a Bible College had come into being through their ministry in that hill town.

Continued...