Greetings and Namaste to you from NCBS at Kathmandu, Nepal. We would like to briefly write some words from our three weeks on the short vacation trip. We made this trip from our graduates’ village Dev, Jet, Suka and Sonam. Brother Surya, Sonam, and Arun joined me for 14 days of our trip. We visited local the congregations of Dev, Chandra Prakash, Sonam and other surrounding areas of Makwanpur, Tanahu, Dhading and Rasuwa districts. Graduates, their local congregations and many other congregations were encouraged with our visit.
April 3rd – Wednesday - we began our journey from the NCBS building toward Dev's home by a local Tata sumo van. We reached brother Ezekiel's home at 2 PM. We took a river bath. Brother Abraham and Chandra Prakash joined us from their home. We had an evening family Bible study with their family and other neighborhoods.
April 4th - Thursday - we woke up at 6 AM. We began to walk toward Dev's local congregation after having a light breakfast. It was taken 2 and a half hours from brother Ezekiel's home to reach the Maishirang Church where Dev preaches every Sunday. This is in the Makwanpr district. We had a whole day Bible study with almost 75 Christian brothers and sisters. We stayed that night in that village.
April 5th - Friday - Today is a free travel day. We went to the Chitwan National Park where we had spent half a day. We enjoyed our day by seeing natural beauty, rivers, elephant, rhinoceros and the animal museum. We came back to brother Chandra Prakash's home by late evening. His village is in the Tanahu district. We had a short evening devotional of Bible study with their family.
April 6th - Saturday - We had a day of Bible study at Kota, Kalikatar. Brother Chandra Prakash is our present student. He is the preacher of that local congregation.
April 7th - Sunday - We did morning worship service at Kota, Kaliktar village. We did not make any travel due to Nepal Bandh (one day all shops, transportations are closed). We went near villages to visit and have Bible study with the believers' houses.
April 8th - Monday - We left Chandra Prakash's family and came back toward Pokhara Bus Park at Narayanghat. We reached Malekhu Bazar about three and half hours by highway bus. We had lunch and took another local van to reach Dhading Besi. This is the headquarter for the Dhading district. This is 580 meters above sea level. It was a one hour travel journey from Malekhy Bazar. After getting down at Dhading Besi we changed another van to go to Gyangsang village. It is four hours up and down hilly roads. We arrived at 8 PM in Gyangsang. This is 2350 meters above sea level. We stayed at a hotel and had dinner. This was a long traveling day for us, but we enjoyed our day. We were traveling toward the Dhading district of Bagmati
zone. Brother Sonam and other Tamang brothers and sisters live in this area. Dhading is a tourist area for trekking, Ganesh Himal and other natural beauties.
April 9th - Tuesday – After having breakfast we began to walk from Gyansang village toward brother Sonam's village. We started our hill and mountain walking journey about 6 AM. We reached one village called Shertung at 6 PM. This is 1920 meters above sea level. We stayed at the Lodge and took rest. We did not reach our destination. We were unable to walk more than this. This is really a tiresome journey.
April -10th - Wednesday - We woke up little late this morning due to yesterday's walking, but we did start our walking about 7 AM after breakfast. We reached Tipling village at 11:30 AM. This is 1819 meters above sea level. We had lunch and an hour rest. Again we walked 3 hours toward brother Sonam's home. Finally we reached his home in Puru village. This is around 1900 meters above sea level. We took a bath and some time for rest. Then we had an evening Bible study.
April 11th - Thursday – We did a half day Bible study at Puru where brother Sonam works locally. We walked toward Linjo village which took one and half hours for us. This is 2020 meters above sea level. We had an evening Bible study with brother B. Bahadur and Linjo’s congregations.
April 12th - Friday - We left Linjo village at 7 AM. We climbed 4303 meters on a high mountain called Marsyong pass of Pangsang Dada. We enjoyed some time in the snow. Then we reached one lodge and a hotel at Somdang village. We reached Somdang at 7:30 PM. Somdang is 3270 meters above sea level.
April 13th - Saturday - This is another whole day walking from Somdang villge to Shyabru Besi village. We did this journey through Gatlang which is 2238 meter above sea level. We have Lord's congregation at Gatlang. We arrived at Shyabru Besi at 7 PM. We had night Bible study at here. We were encouraged by the Brothers and sisters from Shyabru Besi. This is 1503 meters above sea level.
April 14th - Sunday - We had a short Bible study with few Christian brothers and sisters at one of the brothers house. We didn't wait for the evening worship service. We did worship service at one of the hotels. We left Shabru Besi for visiting Gosaikunda Lake, Langtang National Park. We stayed one night at Goshaikunda. It is 4000-4700 meters above sea level.
April 15th - Monday - We returned back to Dhunche. This is the headquarters for Rasuwa district. It is 1830 meters above sea level. We stayed at hotel and got ready for the return back to Kathmandu.
April 16th - Tuesday - We took a bus at 7 Am. We reached at NCBS at 4 PM.
Benefits of the trip:
1. To encourage our past and present students.
2. To provide and get spiritual nourishment from the word of God by studying together with new audiences.
3. To get some new students for our next batch.
4. To build close relationship within the school and different congregations.
Thanks
Servant of Christ
Gajendra Deshar
Nepal Center for Biblical Study
Kathmandu, Nepal