Little is Much

I had promised the fifth graders that I would show them pictures from Nepal, if they would work really good these last weeks and we would get through with our topics. They had been just great and so today it was the day: stories and pictures from Ms Ehring in Nepal. Peter* kept asking for the story I had told while overseeing those put in detention (at the end they all planed to forget their homework to be put in detention...).
Besides all the adventure pics and adventure story I wanted them to know why we are doing what we are doing. That God loves each and every single human being so much, that He does everything, to show this one human being His love. And that this is the reason for me to save money and try to get as often to Nepal as I can. To give this love further to the people there.
When class was finished, Miriam* stood up. She is a small, tiny girl where you can't be sure if she always gets what you're saying. But today she was very attentive and asked many questions. There she was standing in front of me, looking at me with big eyes behind thick glasses, stretching out her hand towards me. "You got something for me?" I asked her and she nodded and put what she held in her hand into mine. "Oh", I said, "is this for Nepal?" And Miriam just nodded. I would have loved to hug her, but something like that she doesn't like so much. Can you imagine, that this girl gave me all the change she had with her in school for the people in Nepal?! That blew my mind. I put the 3x 50 cent in my Nepal box and I can't help it, I have to think the whole day about 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes... it was enough for all and they even had leftovers...
God bless little Miriam!

*names changed

current infos and development of the project (click on picture to enlarge)

Another surgery to be done tomorrow

Tomorrow, Thursday 10th Nov, Mendok will have another surgery on the nose. After that they will start travelling back home to Mustang.
In April she has to have a last finishing surgery. If you like, we are happy to be further on supported with this!

As long as rice needs for the harvest...

We had been gone only for one harvest of rice. 

This was in my head while driving the way from Kathmandu to Pokhara along the rice fields, where the sheaves were standing. Now we are back in a sunny Germany, where the green before we left has changed in the golden colors of fall.

Working routine got us back, and so the update of this blog will need a while. Thank you for your patience! If you want to know more, you can subscribe for the newsletter.

God is still greater

Though sometimes I had my doubts – it is just a lot of compacted work left to do for most of us from the team before the departure – it’s more and more clear to see that it is absolutely right to fly to Nepal next Friday.

1. In the meantime our friend Phil had to go to Katmandu to the hospital, his wife Manju accompanies him. He writes that he is really weak and suffers a severe weight loss. When I read the last time from him, the results of the tests weren’t already there. Please, continue to pray for him!

2. The Schmieg family. I haven’t written about them yet, I don’t know them personal. They had been to Nepal with the Wiedenest mission to minister in an out of the way village to the Sherpas there. In April we heard, that one of her little boys is sick all the time. Now they had to go back to Germany in a rush, because the son suffers a severe illness. They had to leave most of their things in Nepal, although they are looking for somebody to continue their work with the Sherpas.

3. We don’t have contact to Mustang right now and it seems as if we have to organize many things when we arrive in Katmandu. Due to Phil’s illness it will get quite adventurous with our tickets and permits.

Everything that has to do with this country seems to be so attacked!

Each morning when I pull into the parking lot at my school I see this big poster on the window side: “God is still greater”. It is supposed to continue with “…as cancer”; God healed one of our colleagues in a miraculous way from cancer and his students wrote this poster and hang it outside the window from their class room in first floor. The second part got washed away by the rain. This is a picture for me that I can fill out this spare place with everything that afflicts me, that gets in the way, that seems to be difficult. GOD IS STILL GREATER!

Prayer request for this week

Please, pray with us for our friend, Phil, who is not doing good at all. His doctor couldn't find out what's wrong with him, so he has to go to Katmandu for further tests. If you would like to recieve the newsletter with more information, just send us an email.

A little more than a month

- and we will be in the plane heading for Doha and further on to Katmandu.
At the moment travel preparations are getting more intense. We need permits, tickets and accommodation in the land. Our friend in Pokhara is about to call Mendok's familiy in the next days to inform them about the details for the second surgery. The weather is quite bad and the connection to Jomsom is not available every day. Please also pray for our friend, he is not doing well with his health.
If you want to get the latest newsletter or the newsletters at all, just send an email.
We feel every time again how God spins little small threads for this Nepal trip. We are curious about the things He will do!
Please also pray for our American friends, right now we are not sure if they can meet us in Nepal.
For people in the Siegen area: there will be prayer for our trip at church on Sunday, October 9th (Calvary Chapel Siegen). There you will get also more detailed information and specific prayer requests.

We get started...

Last week we booked the tickets for the outreach this fall. With a small team of 5 we wil follow the invitation of our friends and be two weeks in Nepal. Mostly in Lupra where Mendok's school is located, but also at the Shushma Koirala Hospital in Sankhu.
We also hope that some friends from the US will be added to our team.
So far we start with the preparations: setting a date for Mendoks surgery, to plan travels in Nepal, check for places to stay... we are thankful for all kinds of support!

Danyabat!

That means "thank you" in Nepali - thank you to everyone, that helped with the cake fundraising on Sunday at CC Siegen. Either by baking or buying a cake. It was a great encouragement for our small team. You sponsered almost a whole flight on Sunday. :-) This week we are going to book the flights, again we are a little late for that. We will get the last available flights, but everything fits: 5 flights left for booking and 5 people going to Nepal
What's next: getting in contact with interplast because of the second surgery date for Mendok, the detailed travel plans and preparing for the time at Mendok's school. 
We still need financial support. The flights in fall are more expensive, because it is one of the main travel seaosons to Nepal. The economic crisis also reached Nepal, namely with a little delay, but together with some political quarrels it is reason enough for the gas prices to rise. This makes travelling in the country more expensive, also.
But: if God opens a door, nothing and no one will be able to close it.

News from Jomsom

From an email a friend send to us who is in Jomsom right now:
"I got to meet Mendok's mother. She told me Mendok has joined school, and she is doing well. Her teeth have started growing and there are times wehn it hurts. But other then that there is no problem."
Bina, Mendok's mother, sends many greetings. This Sunday we will met with interested people to pray about the trip this coming fall and to plan more detailed.

Please pray for Nepal!

Compass direct, an organisation that's informing about persecution of Christians around the world, spreaded news, that Nepal is working on a new criminal code that will forbid evangelism. Please pray with us that this criminal code won't become a written law!
Pray with us, that we will redeem the time and be able to go to Nepal this fall. Right now we are praying for wisdom in getting the team together, for the finances and the schedule for the second surgery for Mendok.


Mendok and her family are doing good, by the way. Her headmaster wrote an email confirming his invitation for this coming fall. Please continue to pray for Mendok and her family!

An Evening in Nepal

We want to invite you to an evening in Nepal at the House of Hope, Hagener Straße 78, 57072 Siegen - if you are living in Germany. If not, please pray for this evening! We will give a report from our travel, show some great pictures and more than that inform about the ongoing of the Mendok Project.

Back in Germany

... and a little late with the update of this blog.
The first (main) surgery was last Monday; on Sunday there was a follow up surgery done. Today I got news from a Nepali friend that everything seemed to have gone well. He will contact me again if he knows if Mendok will need another follow up surgery tomorrow or not.
It is for sure that she will need a second surgery. And it is for sure as well, that we didn't go for her to Nepal the last time. The Mendok Project will be continued! If you received our newsletter, you got a climpse of our adventerous trip. Adventerous for the main reason that God opened a door for us widely. We got an invitation from Mendok's school to come back in fall and do some lessons there. We are so thankful for everything that God had done! The story is to be continued...

Two more days...

...and we are all excited! I just packed 40 bars of chocolate flight- and melting prooved together with all the other small presents for the Wiedenest missionaries. And while working on this, I just finished everything and packed my stuff also.
This picture is from last year; Roland on the left helped a lot initiating the Mendok Project. Sam and me (Dameria) have the great privilege to help to get it into practice.
We will try to keep this Blog updated. You still have the possibility till Friday morning to sign up for the email newsletter.

Only 4 more days!

This weekend I passed the Frankfurt airport twice and there was this prickeling feeling in my stomach... Now it is not long anymore till the trip starts! These last days it got more and more important for us to really prepare this trip in prayer. Tonight we met with friends and prayed, it was both good and encouraging. Now we are really excited and full of expectations what God will do... What He already did: do you remember the story with the chocolate for this children's home? We not only got 40, but one hundred bars of chocolate! I love these simple littel side stories where God schows His greatness through small little things. And this great God is on our side!

Half of the Team...

Mendok's school in Lupra

... struggles really bad with their health and the other half is filled up with work until their head. This sentence of course is put into a different perspective if one is aware that the team only consists of two people :-) But anyhow we are thankful for every single prayer.
Until we can post new pics there is one again from Mendok's school in Lupra, more than 9.800 feet high. We are so looking forward to meet our friends there. Only 12 more days till the plane leaves...

German Chocolate and other things

Only 15 more days... and by now we start to think about such things as packing lists, what dates we have to confirm, what we have to get done. For example to buy toothpaste. Because we don't take a lot of things, we told the people of the Wiedenest Mission that we could take smaller items to Nepal for them. One of the young women, who works in a children's home in Nepal, asked us to bring 40 bars of Ritter Sport chocolate as farewell gift for her kids. Ritter Sport is a famous German brand. And because this company is located in South Germany (where I am from) I called there to ask. Thankfully they donate the 40 bars to us.
Please pray for health for us - at the school where I work almost everybody seems to be sick and I don't feel well at all today.

If you want to get more detailed information we will send you the newsletter. Just send a mail to dameria@projekt-mendok.org

Our Travel Route

to Nepal leads us via Oman - but we are not worried by the news you here these days about this little desert state next to the Arabic Sea. We will have a layover in Muscat, the capital city, both at the trip to and back from Nepal. Right now there are no demonstrations there. But to be so close and directly connected to this part of the world makes me not only think twice but also pray for the situation in the Arabic World right now.
Yesterday a friend of mine pointed out, that all the countries where the people raise against oppression and for democracy these days are all located in the 10/40 window. This summarizes countries - except Northern America - who are not reached with the Gospel and where Christians most of the time suffer prosecution.

Grafik: Word for the World Radio, April 2006

The term "10/40 window" is applied to the location of these countries between the 10th and 40th northern latitude. About 97 % of all unreached people groups live there and 82 % of the poorest of the poor as well as the main part of all Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists (source: Velberter Mission e.V.). Not only Oman, but also Nepal is located in the 10/40 window. For me this is a new challenge to pray for the people and the Christians there!

Travel Nerves

Is this the right English word? I'm not sure... there is a similar one in German that means that you can't wait to start your trip... and it starts in 42 days. The preparation for the travel gets more into detail. We booked the flights in Nepal. There is a Christian family in Pokhara who owns a small hotel and a travel agency. Phil, the owner, is a friend of a family from our church and also of Herbert from Forum Wiedenest. Phil does all the travel issues for us; we will also stay with them when we are in Pokhara. Herbert will be in Nepal ahead of us and he will get in contact with Mendok's family again so they know for sure the dates when we will pick them up.
"Real" news will be posted here at April. Which doesn't mean we stop posting, to check the blog is worth it anyways.

Update

After the "cash chek" yesterday we found out that we have an overage at the finances for the project. That means we have more money than we calculated for all the costs and expenses. Good news indeed!
Anyhow people keep asking: "Can we still donate something?" This results in the question: what happens with the money that will be left after April? The answer: we for sure will spend it on the people of Mustang. Maybe through another outreach, another help project or through whatever God puts on our hearts.

We are totally overwhelmed and thankful and very, very excited what God has in store! And we will re-name this blog into "the adventure called Mendok Project" :-)
At the moment we are busy with travel preparations and arrangements - booking lodging and inland flights - and we are thankful for each prayer (see right side).

Thank you so much -

- to all who baked a cake, who bought cake or supported us in any other way! Together with a collection for the project about more than 300 Euro we got more than 1.000 Euros today with the cake donation event. I am really overwhelmed - overwhelmed by what God is doing and overwhelmed by all of you, how you get behind us. Thank you

Getting down to business

Today we got a reservation on the flights from April 8th-22nd. And got a little miracle going with this. April is main season for travelling to Nepal, what means the flights are more expensive and by now almost all booked up already. But we got the last two seats for both flights on a flight that is even cheaper than the one we got last year in off season...
After a lot of calculating, phone calls and checking last year's travel diary we got the finances straight. The result of all the calculating is that we will need 4500 Euro all together. This includes all travel expenses, lodiging, provisions and all kinds of fees for all people involved. We already have 3100 Euro, which means we need another 1400 Euros until April.

Before we did all the planning today we first sat down and prayed. And we experienced once more how God opened ond door after another (for example the flights). To know that He prepared every step is not only very soothing, but it also gives us great confidence.
And I myself just love it, when many people together (with Him) make things like The Mendok Project happen!

We got the surgery scheduled!

And exactly in that time frame that makes it due to our jobs possible for us to go to Nepal. After some kind of stop and go we ended up with Interplast-Germany e.V., a German organization that runs a hospital near to Kathmandu. In April there will be a team of German specialist to do mainly cleft-palate-surgery.
For us this means to fix travel arrangements and to work on the fundraising. The treatment is free for Mendok, we just have to pay a small registraiton fee. That leaves us with the travel costs for all persons involved. If you want to learn more about it, just send a short email to dameria@projekt-mendok.org

By the way, there is another cake fundraiser on Sunday, January 30th at Calvary Chapel Siegen after the morning services.

Not many news...

- but a blessed New Year to all who stop by here once in a while to read the news, to join us in prayer or who donate for Mendok. On the right side you find the current prayer requests and a touching video from the British missions organization Asia Link.
On January, 30th we will have another cake-fundraiser at CC Siegen. Cakes and helpers for that Sunday are more than welcomed!
If you would like to receive the extented newsletter in English and German just email to dameria@projekt-mendok.org