Sun-Day

To be perfectly honest, I've never been a huge fan of the sun.  Usually it just feels like it's something that burns, gets in your eyes, makes you hotter than comfortable and signals the end of the beautiful, cool night-time that is filled with silence, sleep and a break from the busyness of the day.

But over here, I've been taught a really valuable lesson in loving and appreciating the sun in all it's glory, and for its array of vital and intricate life-sustaining functions.  Many of these are rather obvious, but be patient... it's only just really dawned on me! (Ha ha... ah.)

You can barely pass a hillside here in Nepal without noticing the terraced rice paddies, mustard fields, soybeans... the farming of so much wonderful, nourishing food.  The whole process relies so heavily on the sun and the rain in their days and seasons.  Without the sun, there would be no growth, no food, no livelihood for so many.

  

In Dadeldhura, it's been quite foggy and rainy... and although I still can't help but love this weather, even I find myself celebrating the sunny days.  We can do the laundry!  Our clothes are so capably and effortlessly cooked and dried by the sun, and once again we are clean and fresh.  

The roads dry up, and we can walk with ease.  

And of course, you only need watch a sunrise or sunset over the Himalayas to spontaneously and unavoidably whisper a prayer of praise and wonder to the God who created this sun and these mountains over which it hovers. 

But most of all, it's been the cold that's opened my eyes.  

There's something beautiful about wintertime.  Everything feels a little more still.  Cooking and eating stodgy, hot meals; drinking steaming cups of tea.  Rugging up in your winter woollies.  But sometimes the cold just seeps into your bones... and there seems to be nothing you can do to warm up, no matter how many layers you wear.  There's been days like that at the hospital.  It even becomes difficult to work, because your fingers are frozen out of usefulness for clinical work or writing notes.  Some poorer patients turn up without proper shoes or coats, and my heart just goes out to them.  But every now and then, even sometimes on the foggy, cloudy days... 

the sun comes out.

Suddenly, the central outdoors area at the hospital fills up with people just standing there, soaking up the rays.  Patients in the ward are wheeled or carried out by their relatives.  Staff carry out medical supplies to be sorted, rosters to be done... and settle to do them in the heat of the sun.  I join them, in the beautiful golden warmth.  The sunbeams filter through the clothing on my back... thawing my skin and warming my soul.  There's an instant lift in the atmosphere.  People seem cheerful.  Even the colours around us are brighter.  

What an incredible creation.  This star of the day around which our planet turns.

The God who imagined the sun, and gave source to it's light.  

Genesis 1:14-19

OK, I actually know lots of people who love the sun... especially some of my more summery, beach-loving Aussie friends back home.  But (to my shame), it's a new appreciation for me.  So, I'm joyfully and daily celebrating our amazing sun... and much more than that, the God who created it, and uses it to sustain us and our world.

Music Monday!

Wow, I only just thought of this idea literally 10 seconds ago, and am already bubbling with excitement!  (I wonder if this is a standard thing in BlogWorld already, and I'm just a bit clueless?  I've heard rumours of a Wordless Wednesday, where people just post a picture...  Maybe this is a similar deal.  No matter.  Whether or not this is an original idea, I think maybe Music Monday is here to stay!)

Today, the topic of Music Monday requires absolutely no thought whatsoever.  

It's Hanson.

Yep, Hanson. 

(Remember MMMBop??  I know you do.  Don't pretend you missed it.  Classic.)

How did this come about?  Well, I'm a long-term Hanson fan.  Middle of Nowhere was my second ever album (the first beingThe Spice Girls' first album, Spice.  Hush, you.  My taste is impeccable), and I honestly still think it's chock-full of beautifully-crafted, catchy pop songs, and very real songwriting and performing talent...  And the middle brother (Taylor, for those playing at home ;) ) sang the entire record through the breaking of his voice. (Tricky in itself (I imagine) and it shows their insanely young age!)  

So.  Two days ago on Facebook, a status update from Hanson popped up in my newsfeed.  I can't for the life of me remember now what it was about but, as it was around midnight, I didn't have a lot else going on... and not having really heard much about the Hanson boys in a long time, I decided it was high time to check their page and see what they were up to.

Best decision ever.

All three boys are all grown up (which tends to happen), and married.  They've released a couple of albums since Middle of Nowhere, their most recent being 2010's Shout It Out.  The entire album is bright, Blues-Brothersy, and brilliant.  They're highly talented, look like they're having buckets of fun with their music... and they've added some seriously cool sax and trumpet parts.  Love 'em.

If you're not still too biased against MMMBop (or maybe even more so if you are...), check these out!  In particular, I just cannot get "Thinkin' Bout Somethin'" out of my head.  I absolutely challenge anyone to listen to it even once without starting to tap, dance around the room or start air-saxophoning.

Thinkin' Bout Somethin'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmG0DqhfDbY

Give A Little

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56VPiS8dPDE&feature=relmfu

Enjoy!

P.S.  I feel the need to acknowledge that I have already failed in my one week of daily blog-posting.  Eek.  Sorry.  Maybe it's a good thing it was, by definition, a "loosely-held resolution"... ;) 

Besides, I was too busy air-saxophoning to Hanson.

A Toilet Tale

Today, just thought I'd share another reason I love this country!

This series of pictures are taken from a little roadside place where we stopped for our lunchtime dal bhat on our journey to Dadeldhura... 

So, here we have the male and female toilets.

Whilst I didn't get a chance to suss out the male one, the following pictures are taken from inside the female toilet...

Honestly, one of my top bathroom experiences.

After all, it's not every day a toilet promotes love and care for one another...
then thanks you for using it.

A Sad Day

At the moment, Team Hospital in Dadeldhura, Nepal is my workplace and home.  It's a beautiful place to be.  It's now the middle of winter, and whilst the chill in the foggy air sometimes seems to seep into your very bones, the winter here has a tangible, icy beauty; and every morning the mountains whisper a message of calm and constancy...  even when they're hiding under a blanket of fog and cloud.  The staff at the hospital were instantly welcoming, and the knowledge and lives of those around me continue to teach me new lessons everyday.  It's lovely here, God is good, and I'm happy.

Yet, today was a sad day.  As is my newly-established habit, I toddled after the small crowd of doctors and nurses for their daily morning ward round.  (Dental patients take a little while to show up, and it's been a real eye-opener to see what sort of medical conditions and circumstances turn people into patients.  I also love learning from the doctors, and watching their minds tick as they weigh up the medical evidence and work out what's wrong, and what they need to do...)  Anyway, a few days ago, a very little girl was admitted, a couple of years old, at the most.  She'd sustained some nasty burns across her back...  it was awful to see her the first time, with these red, raw areas etched across her beautiful, coffee-coloured, young Nepali skin.  She'd been re-hydrated, her burns carefully redressed daily...  She'd been generally improving, even in demeanour and energy levels.  But yet, our ward round this morning commenced with the news that she'd died during the night.  It was totally unexpected, and everyone was shocked and saddened by it.  There's something about an empty hospital bed in the morning that gives your heart such a heaviness.

Things like this are always hard.  She was so little.  Born into a remote part of Nepal into a poor family.  The burn probably only happened because her family were trying to keep her warm in the cold of winter...  I guess there are a few things rolling around in my head after today.  Firstly, I just can't help sparing a thought and prayer for this child, and the family now grieving the loss of their precious little girl.  Also, I must continue to pray that the word of Jesus might go out in this place, and that the hospital staff can show the love of Jesus in their medical work, and all they do and say. 

And I guess finally, it's been a reminder for me that none of us know what tomorrow has in store.  Like a flower of the grass, we will all pass away.  There'll be a day when I will have to say goodbye to this life - and so will you, and your best friend, and your mum and dad.  Abandoning yourself to a vague sense of fatalism and despair certainly isn't the answer...  indeed, we have life, and life in abundance!  And loving and caring for "the least of these" (however that might look) is one beautiful thing we can do, and in which we can find real joy.   But...  actually, maybe that should be "therefore"... I'm becoming more and more aware of living with a View Eternal.  We can't be sure of what our days on earth contain, or how many there'll be.  But I know that, thanks to Jesus, there is great hope... for eternity, and for now.

Sorry, a bit of a sobering post!  If you get a spare sec, spare a thought and prayer in remembrance of our beautiful little Nepali sister - and her family left behind.

A Resolution Of Sorts.

It's definitely not a New Year's Resolution.  And since it's 9:58pm on a Tuesday, it's not really the resolution of a new week, or even a new day.  All the better, maybe...  Anyway.  I've realised that this blogging thing frightens me a little.  Not that I'm surprised, to be honest.  I think I always knew I'd struggle with only wanting to post things that are profound, stimulating, moving, funny or beautifully-crafted.  Preferably all of the above.  But I also definitely knew that that isn't going to happen.  In fact, I'm growing more and more certain that this blog is going to be filled with pretty ordinary stuff.  But I think that's OK.  God sometimes chooses to work in brilliance and lightning bolts, but so often He often teaches us through our little struggles, joys and observations of the world.

(And, as for the "beautifully-crafted" bit...  well, here's my first confession:  I've already used thesaurus.com in writing this blog post.  I'm a little embarrassed by this, but yet feel it's worth mentioning, because I learnt a new word as soon as I opened the website!  Pretty cool.  So, here's the challenge for today:  who knows what "paregmenon" means?  No Googling or dictionary-ing allowed!)

So, the point of all of this is this: my little Tuesday night resolution is that I'm going to try to blog every day for a week.  An impulsive resolution, and to be honest, one that I'm going to hold lightly, for two reasons:
a) because I'm still a bit scared of blogging; and (more significantly),
b) I'm not sure about the internet's cooperation with this!
But I'm gonna give it a go.  We'll see what the week brings...

So, I'm going to start simply with my top 5 things I've learnt or loved this week.
In no particular order.
1.  The beauty of hospitality.
Not really a new realisation (some of my Aussie friends also demonstrate this vividly to me), but it's one that I'm growing to appreciate and value more and more.  I started at Dadeldhura Hospital less than a week ago, and tonight, my room-mate and I were invited to dinner by one of the nurses at the hospital.  Like us (in the guesthouse), she lives on the hospital grounds, and has a little quarter near the office.  We gathered with a few of her other friends, sat on her living room floor on cushions, spread out some newspapers like a tablecloth on the ground, and had a delicious meal of dal bhat and some fellowship.  We chatted and laughed a bit, ate, and headed home pretty early.  It doesn't have to be high-stress, the food and repartee doesn't have to be spectacular, and your house doesn't have to be perfect.  It's just sharing what we have, and loving each other.

2.  My new room-mate.
At the end of last week, I acquired a room-mate a couple of days after I arrived.  She's a beautiful (inside and out!) young woman from Germany, a doctor, and here for 2.5 months as part of her Masters in International Health.  She's gentle, unceasingly generous and sweet.  I already love her and am sorry that I'm not staying here longer with her!

3.  Cooking your own bread is a mixed blessing.
It's super fun, it tastes amazing (especially just out of the oven!), and it's lovely to share it for brekky.  The big downside is that it insists on just sitting there on the bench, begging me to eat it.  I've had three slices just sitting here!!  And that's after our yummy big dal bhat dinner.  Hmm.  (Is self-control a virtue?? :S)

4.  My Shower Tonight.
Yeah, I know.  Ground-breaking.  But seriously, it was brilliant.  The internet told us that tonight it's "-2C;  feels like -6C", and whilst bucket showers with freshly boiled water has been great for the last few months, tonight we had showers with a real hot water service and fantastic water pressure.  Sitting here with super clean hair, a cuppa and listening to the tapping of light hail on the roof, I feel warm and fuzzy inside and out.

5.  Redemption.
As a child, I didn't think a whole lot about the word "redeem".  Bit of a Christiany word that seemed to pop up in hymns that were always way too high for me to sing properly.  But, amongst many wonderful truths that God continues to teach me, "being redeemed" has shot right up to the top of my list.  I was reminded again this week that I'm not my own, for I was bought with a price. (1 Cor 6:19-20) And how expensive the price that was paid.  What a great reminder of the undeserved, unfathomable love of God, and how I pray that I can grab this truth with all my strength, to the destruction of my tendency to believe that my life is mine. 

Well, for better or worse, that was today!  I hope that you're also loving and learning many things everyday - even though they may seem small or insignificant.
See you tomorrow... x

A Nepali Christmas Tale

"I wonder what Christmas is like in Nepal?", I hear you ask.  Well, funny you should say that...!
I know, I know, you're probably full of ham, salad, roast chicken and sticky date pudding from yesterday, and not really thinking anything of the sort...  But I'm still going to tell you!  Mainly because it's been such a lovely, different Christmas to anything I've really experienced before.

Really, it started on Christmas Eve.  One really cool thing about short-term mission has been learning a whole lot more about other cultures...  Obviously learning about Nepali culture has been fascinating and wonderful.  But living amongst expats from around the world means there's all sorts of other little things you learn.  What a wonderful kaleidoscope we are!  In Jumla, I've been living with a lovely German Christian woman.  And, in Germany, Christmas Eve is actually bigger than Christmas Day...  they have a big meal, and usually exchange gifts on Christmas Eve.  I never knew that!  But there you go.  So, we had a fabulous, big dinner together on Christmas Eve, with roast chicken and vegetables, home-made German noodles, a few different salads, and custard and cake for dessert.  Beautiful food, beautiful company.

Then... Christmas Day!!  Church happens on Saturdays in Nepal, so we'd had church the day before.  At that service, we'd been told we'd sing some songs to the patients at the hospital nearby at around 7 or 8am, then head back to the church for a short service and a 10am-ish meal  (the usual time for the first meal of the day in Nepal)...  just bring 100 rupees, a pint of rice and a handful of lentils.  Sounded just gorgeous.  Anyway...  at 8am, nothing was really happening at the hospital.  So I headed back to the church to see what was happening.  Turns out we were now singing at 9am.  No big deal - we all live quite closeby!  Anyway, in the end, I think the singing at the church happened at 10am, with church starting at around 11:30am and finishing at 2:30pm.  Honestly, I found this hilarious!  Time is a little more flexible in Nepali culture.  It's something I actually find rather beautiful and different.  (Although sometimes having a very time-focused Western mindset can be a challenge at times).  The church service was just lovely.  Bible readings, lots of joyful singing and praying, a few dramas (including the Christmas story), and pressies for the Sunday school kids.  One big celebration of Jesus.

Oh, and this is how the church looked:

Just one of the reasons I love this country.

After this, two of my friends and I wandered up to the local orphange - to which we'd been invited for Christmas Dinner.  There's currently 17 children at the orphanage (all of whom have lost both parents), but are cared for by a faithful family, originally from India.  So, our Christmas dinner was just fabulous abundant food...  a special salad of carrot, onion and yoghurt; a delicately-spiced pork dish, and chicken biriyani - a South Indian speciality.  The hospitality of this family was precious, and it was lovely spending a few hours playing games with the kids (including the chocolate game where you roll a dice, dress up and eat the choccy with a knife and fork...  highly popular!), singing some songs and praying; as well as just spending time together, chatting, preparing food... really, just doing ordinary things.

All in all, I've had a wonderful couple of days.  Not spectacular, but what a privilege celebrate Christmas in another culture which in some ways looks so different, but yet still basically doing the same things, and united by the same loving Father.

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas, wherever you are... whether it was warmly filled with familiarity, or excitingly different.  Much love at Christmas, and heading towards 2012!

P.S.  Oh, and this was a bit before Christmas (the night we put up decorations in our house, to be exact, but I just had to share our amazing vegetable soup with flatbread Christmas stars...  Our very own invention!  Was quite excited about this.)

 

Christmas Is Coming

Oh yes it is!  I do so love Christmas.  

It does seem that, with our growing a little older every year, a certain Christmas-related cynicism tends to also grow within us... It may well be justified.  After all, as one who has grown up in an Australian capital city, I've witnessed the ever-growing materialism that surrounds this time of year...  the Christmas carols and decorations which appear around Octoberish; the incredible pressure to find a gift which adequately expresses our love to all those around us (and just what sort of $ sign is attached to it); children throwing tantrums in the sardine-packed, local super-mega-shopping complexes, attached to (or running away from) weary, frustrated-looking mums uttering a variety of threats...  Then there's the hidden sadnesses around this time of year:  the lonely, the depressed, the homeless.  Those for whom Christmas is a constant, sharp reminder of what they don't have.  Suicides; hospital accident-and-emergency departments busy with alcohol- and who-knows-what-else-related incidents.

Positive, I know.  But it's real.

But you know what else is real?  Jesus.  His birth, in a smelly animal shed out the back of an overcrowded inn... Real.  That nativity play, featured in churches and Christmas Carol services each year...  cheeky, freckled kids with tea-towels around their heads;  the best-behaved Sunday school boy and girl dressed up as Joseph and Mary; someone's recently-born bub lying in a little crib, nestled into something more comfy than real hay...  Sort of real.  But based on something as real as you and me.

But it's a true story which is not understood or remembered by many; and even for Christians it can become blurred around the edges in the fog of familiarity.

This year, for me, is different.  This year, I'm in Nepal.  I'm here for six months on a short-term mission trip, which includes Christmas.  So really, there's all sorts of reasons it's different... including the beautiful wintery-ness of it!  We've only recently started singing Christmas carols.  They have regained a beautiful freshness and a real joy.  Also, because the other expats here are from Germany, America and a different part of Australia, I've been learning Christmas songs I don't even know, and cracking out some of the more obscure ones.

The bazaar (main shopping area!) here is limited, basic, and sells mainly essential clothing items, food, household items, as well as a few more "luxury" items.  Many people are poor, and have trouble even keeping their families well-nourished.  There's no option for a widespread gospel of materialism.  With the dominant religion being Hinduism, Christmas isn't even widely celebrated. (Although this is also very sobering.  To see how few people here know and love Jesus, and see His birth as something to celebrate... I guess it's not that different to the religion of materialism.  It's just more obvious.  Perhaps...  But a topic for another day!)

So, what am I trying to say?  Really, it's a long-winded way of saying that, this year, with the smog of all that "other stuff" removed, the truth that Christmas is all about Jesus has been as clear as a crisp, blue, Jumla morning sky. 

That God Himself left His rightful place of glory to enter our imperfect world - entered humanity, with its struggles, temptation, pain, loneliness.  In such an unspectacular way.  The same Jesus who went on to suffer and die on an instrument of torture on our behalf.  What unfathomable love.

I think I needn't go on.  I won't be the first, last or most eloquent maker of this point!  But what a truth.  And how wonderful that we can go on being re-amazed by it.  I can't possibly describe how thrilled and thankful I am to be here - free of all the extra Christmas decorations we try to hang on Jesus at this time of year... which only serve to distract us from the real source of light and beauty. Him.

If you have big Christmas plans, and have just stumbled in the door from your Christmas shopping expeditions in desperate need of a cuppa, please don't feel judged!  I've sure been there, and chances are I will be again...  Christmas still IS a celebration!  It's about our hearts and attitudes much more than what we "do", and there are many ways of loving God and loving those around us.

But whoever you are, wherever you're at, whatever your Christmas schedule... think of Jesus.  Not as a sort of guilt-saturated, side-obligation, but as the centre and foundation of it all.  Indeed, of our whole lives.  If you don't know Jesus, take advantage of the season - ask a friend about Him and what it all really means.  Or email me!  That'd be really cool.

So, happy Christmas to you all.  Despite struggles and circumstance, frustrated plans and burnt turkeys.  May the world be filled with the joy and peace of Jesus.  Come, let's really adore Him.

* * *

Isaiah 7:14

¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah 9:6 

⁶ For to us a child is born,
   to us a son is given;
 and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
   and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Luke 2:10-14

¹⁰And the angel said to [the shepherds], "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹²And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
 ¹⁴"Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"