arko barsa - next year

Time flies and it is almost two weeks since we said goodbye at the school. One has to make travel plans with enough time for each journey, time you either spend in busses or at airports. Or, like this year, because everything went surprisingly smooth, you spend this time with friends
Arko barsa, next year - that was not only the question of children and teachers, this also was our promise. At school we were not only able to treat the kids and teachers with medical basics, we were also able to do a big part of the teaching due to a lack of teachers. For me, I left a part of  home there and looking forward to come back next year!

Last blog before the journey starts

To keep the blog updated while we are in Nepal is quiet difficult. Here are our travel plans, roughly speaken: We leave at Frankfurt Friday evening, March 22nd and will arrive Saturday evening, March 23rd at Kathmandu after a long delay in Doha. We will head to Pokhara pretty soon and then as soon as possible into the mountains, to Jomsom. We will spend about one week there, visiting the school and friends. After that we return to Pokhara, taking Kunsang with us for the yearly check up at the hospital. Also we want to visit Mendok of course and her new school. We're heading back Friday evening, leaving Kathmandu via Doha again and arrive Saturday morning April 6th in Frankfurt. You can get current news during our trip on  Facebook.

itinerary in Nepal

It makes a difference for this one

Reading K.P. Yohannan's "No Longer A Slumdog I stumble across the story of the starfish. I have heard it before, many times though, but this morning it really speaks to my heart. I was doubting a little bit, I have to admit. Doubting, if it's all worth it. But then there is that story...
...of a man walking by the sea after a storm. The tide's reciding leaving thousands of thousands of starfish on the sand to die. As the man walks along, he suddenly sees a young boy. The boy bends down, taking a starfish in his hands and throwing it back into the ocean. One by one he picks them up and throws them into the lifebringing water.
As the man comes closer, he addresses the boy. "Why are you doing this?" he asks. "Don't you realize there are miles and miles of shore with thousands of thousands of starfish? You are wasting your time. You will never make a difference."
The boy simply picks up another starfish, throwing it back into the waves. As it landed, he turns to the man saying: "I do. Just now it made a difference for this one."

short update for 2013

The new year is just 2 weeks old - and in a little more than 2 month we start for our next trip to Nepal. And the pleasant anticipation for it is growing continually! From the roughly two weeks we want to spent as much time as possible in Mustang, so the timeline in Pokhara and Kathmandu is quite tight.
What we need to get straight before is the procedure of money transfer for the sponsoring of Mendok and Kunsang. Both of them we want to enable to have their schooling in a place where they have access to the medical help they need. Kunsang we will take to Pokhara where she will have her at least yearly needed heart checkup. After that the decision can be made where would be the best place for her to go to school.
End of this month the team 2013 will meet for last preparations, before we head to Frankfurt on March 22nd for take off...
By the way, you can get the first newsletter 2013 here or at Facebook.

This is our new picture postcard - and this is also the one thing, that started with Christmas. When this little child was born, the happy ending of this world's (hi)story started. So many Christmas blessings and a good start into the new year!

Child of Heart

Kunsang is a  tiny, shy ten-year-old girl from Muktinath. She attends Lupra School. Her mother, who lives alone with her daughter, works in the kitchen there.
As an infant Kunsang had heart surgery. In fact she should have check up every 3, at least 6 month. All the documents and informations about it are still in the hospital in Kathmandu, where the surgery was done. This makes it difficult to give significant results after the check up is done. Besides this one fails because of the time and the costs for travelling to Pokhara, the nearest town with a hospital able to do these check ups. Not mentioning the costs for the treatment, which are low for us, but expensive for Nepali people. We could help her in April with one first check up. The result: the height she is living at is not good at all for her health condition.
Right now we try to figure out the best way to help Kunsang. If you want to know more details: info@projekt-mendok.org

back to German daily routine

To keep the blog updated during a journey is quite difficult du to the poor power and the computers one can or would like to use. But that is why we have travel reports afterwards!
So this is a heartly invitation for Sunday, May 13th, to come to Calvary Chapel Siegen. Starting at 2 pm Dameria will tell until about 3:30 pm about the last trip. Next to pictures, impressions and what God has done during the trip there will be a small missions bazar with felt trappings and fossiles.
You can find first pictures and short impressions on the Facebook page facebook.com/projektmendok

Itinerary for April

You can plan many things in Nepal - but since now everytime everything was almost within the plans. And this is the itinerary planned for April:
Starting in Frankfurt on Sun, April 1st and arriving in Kathmandu on Mon, April 2nd. I will have a brief meeting with our friends from Sangala church at the airport and then taking an inland flight to Pokhara. There I spend one day to confirm all the dates before taking off on Wed, April 4th for the mountains. There I will visit Lupra School and our friends in Muktinath and of course finish all preparation for travel and treatment with Mendok and Kunsang and their families. This is the weak point in the communication chain - we just hope that they got all the necessary information. Though there will be some time in Pokhara to check.
Going back to Pokhara and Kathmandu  will be around April 8th. We have to be at the hospital the latest on Wed, April 10th. I will have some time with Mendok and the friends from Sangala church before leaving late at night on Fri, April 13th for Frankfurt.
If you like to have - the planned -  news letter (you never know how the power supply will work): info@projekt-mendok.org

The next trip to Nepal...

...will start soon. One month ahead from today I will be on my way from Kathmandu to Pokhara.
This morning I called the hospital in Sankhu to confirm the appointment for Mendok. The dental treatment for Kunsang is also set. What still has to be done is to confirm that all the persons concerned will get the necessary information. This is every time an adventure of its own. But my feet are starting to itch now... :-)
Dameria for the Mendok Project

Wonderful video concerning Nepal

Nepal in Muenster

What?!
I wouldn't have thought to find a piece of Nepal the first time I visit Muenster, a German city. Last fall we met a young Tibetean guy in Pokhara who would like to come to the bible college in Siegen. We found out that his father lives and works in Muenster, 1 1/2 hour drive from Siegen.  So we visited him last Sunday. He was so happy that he said in the middle of our conversation to have us here with him is like having family for visit. And it was our first meeting with him! Once more we saw that relationships and friendship is so important for Nepali people. This is one of the goals for the next trip in April, besides the medical care.

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!