Church Happenings

Recently the young people of our church hosted the First Annual Nepal Youth for Christ Conference, or NYC as it was commonly called.  They worked so hard and I'm happy to announce it was a rousing success!  The location was this lovely campus's Multi-Purpose Hall and some classrooms.  It's only a hop, skip, and a jump from our hospital's campus (five minute walk).

Preparations lasted for months, with everything falling into place at the right moment, and finally it was time to get the rooms ready.  This van was among the vehicles filled with books, flowers, blankets, and I'm not even sure what else that carried supplies to the site.

Here is one of the helpers eager to refill his box.

And he's off--so fast I almost missed him!

Here is the beautiful hall where the meetings were held.

The team worked hard to get it ready--and it was no small task!

Here's our helper again, running to tell me what he's been doing.  (Can you tell he's happy?!  :)

 

(The cute thing is that for days afterwords he (and actually several other children who were there also) would say to me, " 'Member when we were there?!"  :))

 Finally the big day came, 

 and with it, the young people!  What a blessing that so many youth from various locations around Nepal and N. India were able to come.  It wasn't easy for some of them--such as those who had to walk for days just to get to a bus stop, those with financial worries, and those who have difficulties just being a Christian.  However, despite all the obstacles, there were close to 350 registered attendees for the Wednesday - Sunday conference!  Praise the Lord!  Besides whole group meetings, there were break-out seminar classes with topics of interest and relevance to the situations young people face in this part of the world.

On Sabbath, the hall was packed as our church members were all invited to attend the church service.

Sabbath School had a panel discussion with the guest speakers (from India and America) along with our Nepali Field Director who came with his wife from Kathmandu.

Song service was next.  I loved hearing the large group all singing together:  Nepali, English, and even perhaps some other languages!

Our Pathfinders (similar to Boy & Girl Scouts) took up the offering.

Our divine service speaker was Jeffrey Rosario from America and the translator was one of "our boys."

Not everyone was able to stay awake during the sermon!  :)

However, everyone else was greatly blessed and inspired by the message.  At the end, young people who were willing to go home and be leaders in their communities were invited to stand.  We are continuing to pray for these brave young people willing to take a stand for the truth, often in difficult circumstances.

In other church news, Ramon recently gave the sermon in our church.  We all enjoyed listening about how Peter put his faith and trust in the Lord.  Translating was Ramon's good friend Sundar. 

Recently I was able to attend a birthday celebration at this nice church in a neighboring town.  (Ramon was working and unable to go.)  When there is a special program, some of their members visit our church, so I know some of them.  Many of the members of our church were also there.

There was a nice song service.

Here is a drummer in training.  The drum kept rolling out of his hands and he finally solved that problem by laying on it!  :)

Pastor spoke a few words.

During the sermonette, a friendship formed before our very eyes!

Too cute for words!!!

To end the program, we all lined up to give the birthday girl her presents and I learned a (new for me) Nepali custom.  Before giving her their gift, everyone fed her some cake.  It was nice. 

Well, that's all for now!  Stay tuned for more news soon!  Take care and God bless!