War, peace and Hope

December 22 - 24, 1940, is known as the Christmas Blitz here in Manchester. For 17 hours, Nazi planes flew over the industrial city, dropping 443 bombs in commercial and residential areas alike, killing more than 650 people, many of whom were with family, having Christmas parties. More than 50,000 homes were destroyed -- just two days before Christmas (which seems especially cruel).

It must have seemed like the darkest, grimmest, most hopeless Christmas ever. So much for peace on earth.



The Imperial War Museum of the North today released this rare propaganda video of the destruction of Manchester, and how the city was beginning to defiantly rebuild: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/manchester-christmas-blitz-video-aftermath-10622423

I am reflecting this morning how strange it is for me, as an American, to have spent five years living in Germany, and now more than a year in England -- two fiercely opposed enemies who, just 70 years ago, slaughtered each other wholesale, one side to establish dominance over all of Europe; the other, to prevent that from happening. 

It's hard for me to comprehend, because we haven't seen all-out war on our own soil since the Civil War in the 1800s. We've had violence and terrorism, and the attack on Pearl Harbor. But not this kind of war. To stand in places in Germany, England, France, and even other nations in Europe, where major battles took place in modern times, is quite surreal.

St. Ann's Square, where I just explored a Christmas Market on Sunday.

Today, these nations live at relative peace together as part of the same European Union. They may snipe at one another in politics, but they are at peace. I dare to say they are even friends.

What a difference a few decades can make.

As I watched the footage in the above video, it was hard to imagine that where I live today, the second largest city in the UK, which is vibrant and busy and productive, was the scene of such carnage and destruction. I really don't recognize anything in the video. But the place names are familiar to me. I stroll regularly in the city center, particularly Piccadilly, and I've visited Manchester Cathedral. I can't even imagine walking among the smoking ruins of those places today.

Mancunians celebrating Christmas on the eve of the anniversary of the Christmas Blitz.

Probably inevitably, this video made me think of the pictures I've seen of Syria. Of major metropolitan areas that have been turned into skeletal, desolate ghost towns. I have thought more than once that no city could ever recover from such an onslaught.



Now, after viewing the destruction in the Manchester video, and comparing it to the lively place where I live today, I am seeing those ruined Syrian cities with a bit more hope. There is really only one Hope for such places.

Maybe someday, the war there really will end. Maybe peace really will come. Maybe people really will be able to bulldoze away the heaps of concrete and steel and start again. Maybe new, beautiful, vibrant cities really can spring up from the ashes.

Maybe. Someday.

 

All Is Well

By Michael W. Smith

All is well, all is well
Angels and men rejoice
For tonight darkness fell
Into the dawn of love's light
Sing A-le
Sing Alleluia

All is well, all is well
Let there be peace on earth
Christ is come; go and tell
That He is in the manger
Sing A-le
Sing Alleluia

All is well, all is well
Lift up your voice and sing
Born is now Emmanuel
Born is our Lord and Savior
Sing Alleluia
Sing Alleluia
All is well

Songwriters: SMITH, MICHAEL W. / KIRKPATRICK, WAYNE

© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

Love and fear

I have been to Paris. I have been to Beirut. I have been to Istanbul. I have shared German language classes with Syrian and Turkish immigrants. I have visited the tiny, unfurnished apartments of refugees from Syria. I have listened to stories of persecution, kidnapping and ultimately, flight.

After four all too brief trips to the Middle East (which of course makes me no expert) and living in Western Europe for nearly six years, I have fallen in love with people from some of the most war-ravaged parts of the world. I have had coffee, tea, breakfast, dinner and even spent the night at the home of new friends from a very different religion than mine. I prayed with one of them in the hospital.

The people of the Middle East and her refugees, not to mention my Christian brothers and sisters there, have become very dear to me. To tell the truth, they have changed my life, upset my worldview, washed the black and white of my politics to include a bit of grey.

I love them.

But as I reflect on yet another international political earthquake set off by terrorism that struck Beirut, Paris and Baghdad in the last week, I feel conflicted.

I am filled with compassion for my fellow humans -- Muslim, Christian and everything else in between -- who are suffering from shock, trauma, loss and mourning in Paris and across France, Lebanon and Iraq.

At the same time, I am also filled with fear -- fear for the future of Europe, the Middle East and the whole world, as Satan and his spiritual forces, in partnership with willing human agents, are bringing chaos, destruction, death, hate and darkness to my world of order, life, love, light and ordinary daily joy.

I am afraid of what the future holds for all of us. I am afraid of how sometimes hate begets hate, and acts of violence beget vengeance -- a snowball that seems to just build and grow rather than melt and dissipate.

I will admit that the fear I feel also extends to the swelling river of refugees -- most of whom are of another religion than mine -- who are flooding into Western Europe where I now live. How many of those running for their lives, trying to protect their families, fleeing war for peace, might be inadvertently trailing terrorists in their wake, wolves among sheep?

I have many questions. I had all those same questions earlier this summer. It would have been naive of all of us -- even then -- not to imagine the very scenarios that unfolded this week. But because of these events, those theoretical questions are now reality.

Will I allow my fear to overtake my love? Will I turn away from the people I fear -- now and in the future -- rather than reach out my hands in love?

A statement by Jesus in Matthew 10:16 has been hovering in my thoughts for many months. It seems especially pertinent now: "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."

Here, Jesus acknowledges that we are peaceful, like sheep, and yet all around us there are wolves -- creatures that tear apart unwary and unprotected sheep with sharp teeth full of death. 

Jesus admits that HE SENDS US OUT AMONG THE WOLVES. He does not promise to remove us from the danger. We are sent directly into it.

Yet, in probably the only part of scripture that gives us a positive image of serpents, Jesus urges us to be shrewd, which means to be astute, sharp, discerning, aware. To keep our wits about us. At the same time, He calls us not to become cynical, but to remain innocent. Innocence is not the same thing as naivety. Naivety is akin to ignorance: to be unaware, blind. Innocence means to be pure, untainted by evil or immorality.

I find it interesting that both sheep and doves were common animals of sacrifice in the time before Jesus' ultimate sacrifice. Food for thought.

As Nazarenes across the Eurasia Region have been working among refugees from war-torn areas in the Middle East for more than five years, our people have been like sheep sent out among other sheep -- lost sheep in need of protection and compassion and care. Yet, it has always been true that perhaps hidden among these wandering flocks have been wolves. That is why our people have needed to be shrewd as snakes, to assess those who requested help, to ask thoughtful questions, to make repeated visits, sometimes unpredictably varying the times of their visits. In spite of these very real dangers, they have never stopped reaching out in love. Our church members have been innocent, but not naive. They have been pure, but not ignorant. 

They have loved, at risk to themselves. They have not allowed fear to swallow up their love.

I pray that our governments, militaries and law enforcement agencies across the West and the Middle East will have the resources, discernment, wisdom, cunning, collaboration and goodness to protect all innocent people from those who plan evil of all kinds, and to carry out godly justice by identifying, and fairly prosecuting and punishing those who break the laws of God and man.

While justice and protection of the peace is their calling, my calling as an individual follower of Christ is love -- a love that takes risks.

While both love and fear co-exist within me, I pray that love will far outshine my fear. I ask Jesus to grant me shrewdness, in tandem with innocence. But most of all, love.

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear." 1 John 4:18

-- Gina

Fall 2015 update

Andrew and I returned from our two-month U.S. home assignment at the beginning of September. It was a SUPER BUSY summer, as we presented in churches every Sunday morning, a number of Sunday nights, and a variety of weeknights. But we had a wonderful time with all the churches and groups that we spent time with. We felt so encouraged and blessed by the positive and affirming comments, the gifts, the meals together, and the prayers for us and our ministry. Thank you so much for inviting us into your church families! We really look forward to staying in touch.

Since we've been back, we took a badly needed week-long vacation on the coast here in the U.K.

Then, Andrew started up his year-long job at Nazarene Theological College as the resident assistant, a supportive position serving students living on campus. He participated in a three-day emergency training last week, where he was certified in CPR and other emergency capabilities. He has also conducted several meetings with the students. He is revising his first chapter of his thesis in the area of church history, and has been asked to teach 3-4 classes this fall, one of them in Belfast and another in Glasgow.

I've been kept very busy with the growing refugee crisis here in Europe, as hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the Middle East are entering countries in southeast Europe where we have missionaries and churches. Our people  instantly mobilized to deliver emergency aid to the refugees, and join other organizations and groups who are setting up shelters and providing assistance to those on their way to Germany and Austria. I've been trying to stay in contact with our people in order to write or coordinate communications with our regional and global church family about what is happening and how we can support our people on the ground in this rapidly changing situation.

Keep up with our reporting on our regional website, www.eurasiaregion.org, and our Facebook page, by searching "Church of the Nazarene Eurasia."

Next Sunday, I have the privilege of sharing my home assignment presentation with a church here in Manchester. They are facing the possibility that Middle East refugees will soon be locating to their community, and they want to understand the need and find out how our brothers and sisters in the Middle East have already been ministering to these hurting people displaced by civil war in Syria and Iraq.

In mid-October, I'll be flying to Chicago to spend a couple of days sharing with media and communications students at Olivet Nazarene University about how God can use their skills and passion to support and expand the work of our church globally, and here in the Eurasia Region. My hope is to be the catalyst for God to call young people to join our media and journalism efforts, especially in the Eurasia Region. We are badly in need of more people to help in this area. Please pray with me that God will call students at Olivet (and from anywhere else!), for now and in the future, to serve with our church in communications.

Afterward, I'll head to Colorado to submit my application for my next year's visa to live in the UK as a volunteer with NTC. While I'm waiting for my visa to be issued, I'll fly to the Eurasia Regional conference, where I'll meet up with Andrew, and spend 10 days coordinating a team of people who are joining me in doing communications work at the conference. I'm so thankful for these people who are helping me there.

When the conference is over in early November, I'll fly back to Colorado to pick up my visa and then return to Manchester just in time for our 9th wedding anniversary. :-)

It's going to be a very busy 5 weeks. I'm looking forward to all these great travels, and I'm also looking forward to mid November when my traveling is over for the year and we can just focus on the holidays and our life in the NTC community in Manchester.
 

On Home Assignment

We apologize that we have been MIA for a couple of months from our blog. This is because we are on what our church calls "home assignment." It used to be called "furlough" or "deputation." Basically, home assignment is when missionaries return to their home country, usually for 2-3 months, and they travel around wherever they are invited, visiting churches and groups to share about how God is at work in their ministry and in the country where they are working.

Home assignment is sometimes a very difficult time for missionaries because in many instances (including ours) we must keep up with our entire normal workload, while adding in visits to churches and long distance travel virtually every weekend. We meet up with anyone who asks, so we can have opportunities to start or continue relationships and partnerships and to share about our lives and how God is at work in His world through our church, as well as learning about how God is at work in your churches and communities.

We are particularly blessed because this year we are spending our two-month home assignment on our home district of Colorado, where both of our families live in the same city. This means that we can stay with my parents in their basement whenever we're in town, and that is very comfortable. We can also drive one of my parents' cars, since they are retired and it's not too disruptive for them that we have their car most of the time. And when we're done with work for the day we can enjoy meals with our families and relaxing time just talking and catching up.

We are also really excited that Colorado is our LINKS district. LINKS is an initiative that matches a missionary family to a district for two years, so that the churches on the district can really get to know the missionary family, that they can each pray for the other, and many times the districts will send gifts, packages, letters and cards. It's really fun for us to be able to visit many of the churches who have been caring for us in the past year, with fun letters and cards in the mail, newsy email greetings, care packages and gifts for anniversaries and birthdays. It adds something special to be able to meet everyone in person after we've been communicating in writing for about a year.

While home assignment can be very draining and tiring with all the travel, and trying to squeeze in time on the computer and Skype to keep up with projects, articles and publications for me, and time reading and writing for Andrew's PhD research so he can meet a September deadline, at the same time it is also very encouraging and energizing to spend time with our churches at home. We love hearing from people "I've been praying for you" or "We will be praying for you." We love whenever it's convenient for a church to plan a potluck or a dinner so that we can have time over a meal sharing informally and getting to know you. We have deeply appreciated the positive feedback after our presentation, as many of you have said you've been challenged by the stories from the Middle East, gained a new perspective on your own lives and faith, and felt moved to give financially or to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Middle East who are bravely continuing to minister to refugees in the midst of a time of instability and crisis. We've been humbled and blessed by the gifts given to support and continue our ministry in Eurasia.

The Colorado churches have been particularly thoughtful in asking about our comfort and needs while we are on the road, in taking special care regarding my food allergies whenever there is a meal provided, in giving us a very restful experience when we stay in your homes or in a hotel so we can have time alone together to re-energize and recharge for the next day's long drive. It was so fun to arrive in our hotel room last night and find a homemade snack basket with fresh banana bread, fruit and water and juice. What a nice and thoughtful touch! Another family sent us on our way a few weeks ago with locally grown plums and homemade banana bread, as well. And one church, who knew our love for good coffee, sent us out with a care package of locally roasted coffee beans, and travel coffee cups. These gifts symbolize a desire to know us and to support us in small ways that have big meaning!

We also really love to hear about your lives, how God has blessed you, how your churches are at work in innovative ways to meet the unique needs in each of your communities. We love to share our lives, but we love when you share yours with us, as well!

We have about 3 weeks left of our home assignment. We are starting to think about our friends and our life in Manchester. Yet we are still enjoying our time in our home country and culture, with new and old friends, and time with our parents and siblings and my brother's two children. We look forward to a few days in Texas. And then all too soon it will be time to say goodbye.

Thank you, Colorado, for being an AWESOME LINKS district, for sharing your lives and hearts with us and opening yourself up to our lives and hearts as well.

Survivors

I have now been back from Nepal for almost a week. As I sit in my small, but comfortable flat in the UK, with refrigerated food, in a city with working banks, public transportation, electricity, Internet and running water, as well as numerous shops selling anything I could want to eat, my thoughts return to the people I met in Nepal. The now homeless family who are sharing a tent with 75 others who are also homeless; a tent they built by removing the plastic sheeting over their greenhouse and repurposing it with items they had at hand -- rope, poles, and who knows what other tools they found.

I remember the other shelters I saw, constructed from sheets of metal tied to branches, pushed up against dirt embankments to steady them. In my mind I see the fields of ripening crops that they grow themselves, teaching each new generation how to plant seeds, nurture the tiny seedlings and harvest when the grain and vegetables are ready. I recall the streams of clear, mountain water channeled through carefully shaped rocks. I see the goats and the cows penned up in quickly constructed shelters to protect them from the hot sun.

I think about how in the midst of a disaster not of their own making, these people immediately found ways to survive.

I wonder to myself, if this massive earthquake had happened where I live, to us, how would we have made it?

I am clueless about growing my own food. Every time I try to nurture an herb, I kill it. My one attempt at growing potted tomatoes was an utter failure. I don't know how to milk an animal or find the eggs that a hen hides so cunningly. I can barely put up a flimsy camping tent, let alone salvage random objects from a mound of debris and construct a shelter. When I go camping, I leave the tent in the evening and eat at a restaurant before going back to the wilderness to sleep because I can't figure out how to cook on a camping stove. At my best, I can tighten a screw on my kitchen cabinets.


Basically, as a city dweller in the developed world, I would be helpless in a natural disaster. Utterly vulnerable. For all our electricity and internet and indoor plumbing, I wouldn't know the first thing to do to support myself if all the infrastructure and resources were suddenly gone.

To me, the Nepali people are like McGuyver.

In spite of what they don't have, and regardless of the trauma they might have been experiencing, they immediately did what they could to survive. The Nepali people didn't wait around for the government or foreign aid groups to come and do things for them. They pulled each other from the rubble, even if it took hours or days. They built temporary shelters for themselves and their animals. And when someone was hurt, the people of the village assisted or carried the injured person to the nearest hospital or clinic or mobile health center.

One Humedica doctor I talked to said she observed that the Nepali people take care of one another. I heard that from the family who told me they shared their rice with others in the village, even when thieves tried to steal what little they had left. And I heard that from the woman who said the village was sharing 10 bags of rice they'd bought together on credit from the nearest functional shop.

As people who live much closer to the land than we do, who have built their own houses with their own bare hands, and on a daily basis must solve problems with their own ingenuity using what they have, the Nepali people seem impressively resilient in the face of a catastrophe.

Not to say that they are just fine on their own and don't need -- or want -- help. The people I talked to were so grateful that the church would come to assist them in getting back on their feet.

Many of them lost their existing food supplies when their two- and three-story homes collapsed. One family told me they had taken nothing but boiled water for 10 days before our team arrived with emergency food.

Some lost livestock, which they depended on for milk and eggs and meat. A man told me that his house collapsed on his cow and chickens which were housed on the bottom floor.

And when the monsoon rains come soon, these inventive temporary shelters will not shield them. They need rain-proof structures, and fast.

The people of Nepal need, and want, help. With the right help, they will not only survive, but rebuild their lives and thrive once again.

If you would like to be part of the story in sending your support and love to the people of Nepal, consider a donation through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, at www.ncm.org/nepal.

Behind the scenes

The high noon sun was creating deep shadows on the people’s faces on Monday,as I stood in the center of about two dozen pressing close around me. When the villagers of Tindhara, a remote location 60 kilometers east of Kathmandu, realized that I was writing down stories of their experiences in the earthquake, many wanted to share and others were eager to listen.

Gripping my reporter’s notebook and pen, I fielded questions to a Nepali pastor who translated for us, and he relayed back their stories. Although the people were undoubtedly traumatized – 34 of their friends and family had died in a village of just more than 1,000, and all of them had lost their homes – they really wanted to talk about it.

I had never been in a situation like this before. As a journalist for the past 15 years, I’ve done countless interviews, but never in a disaster or in such a tightly pressed little crowd.

One man was carrying a boy with his entire leg in a cast. Their house had collapsed on the boy and it took the father and several neighbors a few hours to dig him out. Fortunately he was able to get medical treatment. Another man’s arm was in a sling. He can’t move his fingers. He has visited a doctor but that doctor apparently didn’t have any way to treat him. Yet, he is one of the lucky ones, climbing out of the ruins of his house alive. He plans to go to a hospital to get an X-ray and perhaps surgery to correct the broken bone.

The most disturbing was a man who wanted to show me his torn finger. It’s a gruesome injury. The tip of his finger is split in half and terribly swollen – an open wound that hasn’t been disinfected and he hasn’t had access to antibiotics. The finger is wrapped in a pitiful single strip of filthy gauze, which is doing nothing to protect the gaping flesh from dirt and dust, and he has nothing but a blister pack of painkillers.

He showed us the house that is now in ruins. During the 90-second earthquake, he pulled his wife and two grandchildren through the door before the walls fell on his arm, slicing open his finger.  They didn’t reach his mother in time. Three days later the village pulled her body from the layers of bricks and planks of wood that had buried her.

I could see why places like Tindhara hadn’t been reached by government or aid groups more than 10 days after the earthquake. The six-hour drive from Kathmandu was grueling – and we were only traveling 60 kilometers.  Our convoy was made up of three large flat-bed trucks carrying the rice, oil and salt, accompanied by a four-wheel vehicle (I started out in that one) and then a handful of motorcycles, each carrying two people. The total number of people going to Tindhara was about 20 Nazarene pastors and leaders.

The plan was that a motorcycle would go ahead of the convoy to let us know of any obstacles. The other motorcycles would travel around the three trucks. The four-wheel drive vehicle  brought up the rear, carrying me and the videographer, Steve, the Nepal NCM coordinator Dilli, and the Eurasia Regional NCM coordinator Jorg Eich. Our vehicle was intended to spot any bags of rice or oil that might have toppled out of the trucks.

We were told the drive would be 2.5 to three hours. Since we ran out the door at 5 a.m., no one ate breakfast or had tea or coffee. I decided not to drink anything so that I wouldn’t be the cause of a complicated stop for a bathroom on the way.

As we left the district of Kathmandu, the city looked normal. All the buildings were intact and businesses were open. Fortunately the NCM center is in a district of the city that was undamaged by the quake. We started climbing into the hills surrounding the city, on roads that had been paved years ago.

When we began descending into a wide, beautiful, green valley, enclosed by terraced mountain sides where rural people were growing rice and other vegetables, the conditions began to deteriorate. The climate in Nepal is very dry because of the altitude. The roads were layered in a thick red dust kicked up by the trucks. Being in the rear, we were the recipients of the dust from all three trucks. The windshield, my camera gear and everything else were soon coated. (When I washed my hair the next morning, the water ran a dirty brown.)

At the bottom of the valley, people told us the roads were only going to get much worse. The team decided to leave several motorcycles and our small SUV. We divided up between the truck cabs and the backs of the trucks with the rice and kept going.

As we climbed up the other side of the valley and into the mountains, the dusty roads became more pitted, or lined with rough, sometimes sharp river stones, or were washed out by streams created by rainstorms. We rocked back and forth for the next three hours, my spine even cracking at times. Often I was thrown into the driver (couldn’t have been more than a teenager) or his assistant to my left (also a teenager). Once I thought to myself, is this what the earthquake felt like?

We began to encounter collapsed houses, built of red brick and mud, roofed with tiles or corrugated metal sheets. Sometimes a two- or three-story house had just a large crack in the wall; other times one end of the house had slid off, revealing the floors inside. Other times we passed nothing but piles of bricks, wooden beams and roof tiles for hundreds of feet.

Once we were high enough, with a view down into some lower hills, we could see entire villages flattened, dotted with sheets of plastic stretched out to create temporary shelters.

Then we entered one or two villages where the already narrow road was even tighter because the structures on either side had fallen into our path. In these instances, we had to actually drive over what was left of the houses to pass through.

After six hours of teeth-jarring travel, with only one stop for a meal at a roadside restaurant at about 8:30 a.m., we entered Tindhara around noon.

One of the motorcycles had gone on ahead and alerted the village. The people had gathered in the narrow street, surrounded by rubble. And the distribution began. I did my interviews.

At one point Steve and I went to visit one of the temporary houses that the people were building by pulling the corrugated metal roofs from the debris of their homes and propping on planks and branches to form crude shelters. This family of 7 or 8 had managed to save some furniture and other objects, such as purses, a New York Yankees ballcap, some blankets, some bags of food and other items which they had dragged up the slope to higher ground in their shelter. They were all sleeping in a space no more than 150 square feet. In fact the furniture and things took up about 85% of that space, so we really couldn’t figure out how/where they were stretching out to sleep. I think Steve plans to make a short video about this.

Around 3 p.m., the last time I had eaten was 8:30 a.m., and I had only sipped about one bottle of water all day. I realized I was in danger of getting dehydrated, and getting a migraine due to lack of food and water. I had a couple of granola bars, but I felt uncomfortable eating them in front of these hungry people. I also didn’t know where to get more purified water. I hadn’t used a toilet since 8:30 either, another sign I was getting dehydrated. I was definitely thirsty.

Rev. Dilli told me that the village was named after a clean mountain spring which would be safe to drink from. And I remembered that I had brought water purification pills with me. So I walked down the road to three cold streams of water coming out of a rock on a hillside and filled up my one-liter water bottle, then put in the water purification tablet. I looked at the instructions and saw that I had to wait 30 minutes for the pill to completely clean the water.

I found Steve squatting in the shade and I joined him, followed by Jorg. We had been working hard for several hours and the sun and lack of water and food was getting to us. I reminded myself that this momentary discomfort was nothing compared to what these people had endured for 8 or 9 days, and on top of that I had the knowledge that I was driving back into the capital to eat a warm homecooked meal, drink all the water I wanted and sleep in the shelter of a comfortable bed in a safe concrete building. By the way, the spring water was quite good.

When the food distribution was finished, we all said goodbye to the people and returned back the way we had gone, stopping at one point to pick up a man who had broken his leg in the earthquake and wanted to visit a hospital in Kathmandu, and stopping again at 5 p.m. to grab a small meal at a roadside restaurant.

We arrived at the Nazarene center at 9 p.m. Then Jorg and Steve and I stayed up until past 1 a.m. filing reports and pictures and article.

The man who stole the rice

I was in the last of three trucks in our convoy, when the procession came to an abrupt halt amid mounds of debris thrown by last week's earthquake into the narrow, pitted dirt road. Through the dusty windshield, I strained to see why we had stopped.

Ahead of us, surrounding the first truck was a very large group of men.

While there seemed to be some commotion at the first truck in the front, I noticed an elderly Nepali man reach for something near the first truck, which was partially obscured by the second flat-bed in front of me. Then the man began walking toward us, bearing what appeared to be one of the 25-kilogram bags of rice our people had so carefully loaded into the three trucks after sunset last night.

As he passed us, I wondered if he had managed to steal the bag of rice while everyone's attention was diverted to the crowd of men blocking the road. I was in the cab of the third truck, sandwiched between the driver and his assistant, neither of whom spoke English. So there was no one to alert to what might have been a theft.

Suddenly the tightly packed crowd began to move back and the first truck started forward. The second truck started up its engine and followed, and we came again last. The entire episode was, momentarily, a mystery to me.

It wasn't until after the whole day was over and some of us were gathered over dinner around an outdoor plastic table at a roadside restaurant (with a view to the hazy, distant outline of the Himalayas) that I heard the story.

We had been passing through a village that had been flattened in the April 25 earthquake. When the men of the village saw our vehicles loaded with rice, they swarmed the road to stop us and demand that we give up the load -- 305 bags in total, enough to feed more than 1,200 people for a month. These bags were destined for a larger, harder hit village several hours ahead on our route.

The Nepal District accountant and church leader, a young man in his 30s with a deceptively placid personality in any other situation, bravely stood up on the bed of the first truck and calmly -- but firmly -- addressed the demanding crowd. He explained that we were Nazarene Compassionate Ministries and through the support of generous people around the world, we had purchased this rice and determined through careful research that a village further up the mountain desperately needed this assistance. He pointed out that nonprofit organizations like ours, who are trying to help as many people as we can who are in need, might be less willing to help this village in the future if the people behaved badly and stole from us.

At these words, the men were ashamed and they backed away from our trucks. But not before the elderly man slipped in and pulled a bag of rice from the truck, then calmly walked away.

The Nazarene workers collected contact information from the men, who asked them to consider coming back to help them as well.

Our convoy continued on to the Tindhara village, home to more than 1,200 people, 34 of whom were killed in the earthquake. It had been determined by a needs assessment conducted on Friday, by a team of 5 Nazarene pastors who rushed there by motorcycle, that 100 percent of the homes in the village had been destroyed. The people didn't even have tents, and were constructing temporary shelters by pulling the corrugated metal roofs from the rubble and propping them on stilts made of branches or bamboo, then draping the sides with tarps and cloths.

Many had lost the tools they used to farm, as they were buried when their homes collapsed. Some livestock were also killed by falling structures. Several told us that their stores of corn, millet and rice were hopelessly lost because in the mess created by their fallen homes, the grains mixed with mud and dirt and were now inedible. One woman told us her family had ingested nothing but boiled water since the day of the earthquake.

The group of more than 20 Nazarene pastors and leaders, including the Nepal NCM coordinator and and the Eurasia Regional NCM coordinator (NCM stands for Nazarene Compassionate ministries, a relief and development arm of the Church of the Nazarene denomination), spent more than two hours handing out the 305 bags of rice (well, 304, since one had been stolen on the way), as well as oil and salt, to each family, determining the amount to be given based on how many people were in the household. The calm and orderly distribution spoke well of the team.

To my surprise, I heard later that the man who had stolen the rice pulled up on a motorcycle midway through the distribution. He approached the Nazarene team and apologized for the theft, and he handed back the rice. He had been thinking about what he heard when our accountant had bravely addressed the crowd, about how we were just there to help, and how this village was in such desperate need. He felt he must give back the rice and apologize. The entire team was surprised and thanked the man, who turned around and left.

We had departed Kathmandu at 5:30 a.m. We arrived at Tindhara at sometime past 12:30 and by 1 p.m. distribution under the hot, dry early May sun was under way. The team put up a banner that announced that we were Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, and on every bag of rice and oil and salt there was a sticker with more information about our organization.  Every family had their food by 3:30, and we said goodbye and departed, our leaders planning to return soon to continue ministry to this devastated village.

The entire experience was a glowing example to me of Nazarenes' care and compassion for the "least of these." Only a few in this village are Christians, but the church gave out food to anyone and everyone, with no strings attached regarding religion or anything else. Also, I was impressed by the teamwork, the organization, the good communication, and the efficiency of the operation. Finally, I was impressed with how it was the Nazarene pastors and leaders who made the decisions and led the distribution; this is truly a local church, grassroots-led effort here in Nepal.

The reason that our leadership chose to first reach out to Tindhara after the earthquake was in part due to the fact that one of our Nazarene members in Kathmandu grew up in this village, and his family still lives here (they also lost their home). It was this young man who made the connection and also has an abiding hope that our denomination will start a Nazarene compassionate ministries center here soon to bring other services to the village, such as a child-focused community development project and community based health care. Because of this young man, it is also the desire of the district leadership to establish a presence in this village. The earthquake unexpectedly opened that door.

The young man from Tindhara* said: "I'm very happy, because of you I can help my neighbors."

*Name omitted for security reasons.

First day in Nepal, 8 days after the earthquake

Sitting in the gate area of the Istanbul airport, waiting for my flight to Kathmandu airport, I looked around at the other passengers and wondered what their stories were, why they were on this flight 7 days after a major earthquake that has killed more than 6,000 people in Nepal.

Then the woman next to me asked me a question, and I found out why she was going.

She is from Spain, and is going as a volunteer with Doctors without Borders to assist in developing a psychological response to the trauma of April 25th's 7.8-magnitude earthquake. While she has done some counseling and trauma response in war zones, she had never worked in the wake of a natural disaster. She asked me if it was my first time in a disaster zone, and I nodded.

"How do you feel? Are you afraid?" she asked me.

"Afraid of what?" I asked.

"Aftershocks."

I admitted that I hadn't thought much about aftershocks, that my big fear was being required to ride a motorcycle in order to get outside Kathmandu or to more distant places for gathering stories. I don't like motorcycles.

Just three days ago I found out about this trip. I received the phone call at 11 p.m. my time in Manchester, UK, that the Church of the Nazarene needed a journalist to accompany a videographer to help connect the global church with the local church in Nepal, and to tell the stories of how the church is responding to the needs for shelter, food and water around the country. Just two days ago I agreed to come and Friday was the first I knew about the details. I was on a plane by Saturday morning.

I had a daytime flight from Manchester to Istanbul, then laid over for about 3 hours before catching my overnight flight to Kathmandu. I watched a couple movies, slept for a couple of hours. When I awoke and got restless, I slid open the window shade and realized that it was dawn. The sun would be up soon. Above the grey nothingness below poked the razor-sharp teeth of the Himalayas, chewing up the horizon. There was a molten orange glow along the edges of a few of the peaks. I grabbed my mobile phone and as I snapped a few pictures, suddenly the glow turned into a blinding blaze, and the sun triumphantly climbed above the edge into view. It was magnificent. I couldn't help but think about the metaphors.

We have more than 100 organized churches and more than as many church plants, attended by over 8,000 Nazarenes in Nepal. The country's district superintendent, Rev. Dilli, in collaboration with the Eurasia Region's compassionate ministries coordinator, Jörg Eich, and in partnership with other NGOs, is mobilizing the Nepali church to gather food such as rice and sugar and distribute it to the villages which have been hit hard by the earthquake. They are also developing a plan to ensure people have clean water and shelter.

I arrived on the same flight with Steve, an American videographer who also dropped everything to come and help capture the stories on video. We've had breakfast, grabbed a short nap, and after lunch our first order of business is to interview Rev. Dilli and Jörg on camera to talk about the situation as it stands right now. Then Rev. Dilli said he would take us to visit the Nazarene church where he was preaching when the earthquake struck, show us where the congregation fled outside and began praying as the ground rolled beneath them, and also to another Nazarene church which was gathered for worship and came through the earthquake undamaged.

I am sitting at an unused desk, eavesdropping on Dilli and Jörg in the next office talking about how many thousand bags of rice they need, how much sugar, oil and salt -- they're talking about tons of food staples. Dilli says they're going out to distribute food tomorrow about 70 km from Kathmandu and it sounds like we'll go with them to interview people and capture the stories in that location. I really hope there won't be motorcycles involved.

Having posted news about this sudden trip on social media, and seeing the amazingly swift and positive response of friends and colleagues around the world who are praying for Nepal, praying for the church here, and praying for me and Steve (and my husband Andrew who is supporting me from Manchester), I feel surrounded and lifted up in prayer.

Pray that I won't have to ride a motorcycle. :-)

Photos from the Middle East

 A view to Israel across the Dead Sea.

 A view of the Promised Land from Mt. Nebo, where Moses is said in the Bible to have gotten his view before dying and being buried somewhere here.

The conference of leaders from the Middle East, worshipping together.

Me at Mt Nebo, with the Promised Land behind me.

 A Nazarene church.

 Another Nazarene church.

Turkish tea served to us by hospitable hosts in their home.

 A Nazarene primary school.

 Nazarene school

 Nazarene church

 Nazarene man who designs Christian cross-stitch artwork and then hires refugees to stitch them.

Amman

 The place where Jesus was baptized.

 Baptisms in the Jordan River

 Jordan River

 Dead Sea, Jordan and Israel

 Roman ruins in Amman

 Wandering camels

Modern Bedouins.

Zarah filming

Travels and illness

We've had a challenging month and a half. It started with me (Gina) leaving for a week to a Middle Eastern country, and on the same day, after dropping me off at the airport, Andrew came down with the flu which, after a week, turned into a severe chest and sinus infection that lingered for the next three weeks. After about 2 weeks, a doctor gave him a round of antibiotics, which didn't work. So they tried a second type of antibiotics for another week. We're not sure if the medicine or time was the main healing factor, but after more than 4 weeks, he finally began to recover his strength and energy, and stopped coughing so much. After her trip to the Middle East, I returned for 2 weeks and was able to care for Andrew, but then left again for a week to Amsterdam to attend a Christian media training conference.

During this challenging time, the community we live among at Nazarene Theological College, here in Manchester, surrounded Andrew with love and support. One woman cooked him dinner every night for a week and supplied him with leftovers for his lunch. She also ordered groceries for him online since he didn't have the strength to walk into town to get groceries and carry them back by hand (we don't have a car). Others visited him, emailed him and checked on him to make sure he was doing OK, and spent time with him so he wouldn't feel isolated.

We are so grateful for everyone in the States who was praying for both of us, as well as the love and support in our immediate environment in the UK. We felt that we got to see and experience the Body of Christ at its best.

The training conference in the Netherlands was very interesting, as more than 400 Christians from different parachurch organizations and nonprofits gathered to share ideas and information, learn and talk about how to use technology and communication methods to share the gospel with people around the world, especially unreached people groups. I came away particularly inspired to start exploring podcasting as part of my future ministry.

It was particularly encouraging that so many of the people at the conference have had experience with the Church of the Nazarene -- either attending one of our churches at some point in the past or present, or having encountered us in the area where they live or as part of their work. Everyone without fail was impressed with our church and had very positive things to say about us. I felt very proud to represent our small denomination among so many people from around the world who surprisingly have encountered us and come away thinking positively of us.

A trip to the Middle East

Gina here. I recently had an amazing trip to the Middle East with our communications volunteer, Zarah. We went to one country for one week in order to collect written and video recorded stories of Nazarenes through whom God is working to bring hope and love to the people in their communities.

We spent 3 days at a conference for leaders of our church across the Middle East, as they participated in leadership training, and spent time with their new field strategy coordinator, a pastor from the Middle East, who shared his vision and upcoming plans for the field. They spent time over meals and during breaks building relationships with one another, toward a goal of greater unity during a time of unprecedented instability in their part of the world.

After the conference, Zarah and I spent another few days in a city where I interviewed more people about their personal stories and we recorded footage for three videos.

Before I left, I had requested prayer from many churches and friends because I had been sick in the week leading up to the trip. By the first day of the trip, I felt remarkably better and completely recovered by the second day. I was really grateful for this answer to prayer. Also, I had requested that God would lead us to the stories he wanted us to tell, and I believe he did that, since I managed to interview 8 or 9 people during a very busy week. Additionally, I had requested prayer during the trip because a microphone we were using in the video recording sessions suddenly developed a loud buzzing sound that could have prevented us from filming the other videos. But the next day, after you prayed, the microphone mysteriously worked again and we didn't have any other problems.

It was challenging to fit everything in during that short week, and we were working on videos up to 2 hours before we left for the airport at midnight on the 25th. But I want to give thanks to God for what I would consider a successful trip. Not only did we come back with lots of good stories to share, but we were able to meet people and exchange contact information that I hope will lead to additional updates and stories in the future.

Having been to the Middle East twice now, and having been in the homes of Syrian refugees who fled their countries with sometimes nothing but the clothes on their backs, and having spent time with the Nazarene churches who are sacrificing their money, time and personal belongings to share God's love with these refugees while caring for their physical needs, the Middle East has come to hold a very special place in my heart. The situation there is often on my mind.

That's why I was struck once again, in spending time with my fellow believers on this trip, at how deeply they care for these strangers among them, and how hard they are working -- as few in number as they are -- to meet a massive tidal wave of human need with the very few resources that they have.

The leaders I met with unanimously said to me that this is the time, now is the day, when the harvest is ready in their part of the world. People are losing hope in their own religion, as they begin to recognize it has caused mass death, violence, conflict and hatred. They are hungry for something else, for answers that involve love, forgiveness and reconciliation. And we can give them that, in Jesus Christ. People are ready. They want to hear about Jesus. They want to see people love one another.

Please pray with me for the millions in the Middle East who are ready to hear about Jesus, that they would indeed hear him or see him. Pray also for the churches, the entire Body of Christ, which is responding as best they can to the harvest. Pray for God to send more workers to the harvest. Pray for God's people to be unified, to put aside petty disagreements or disharmony and to come together as one, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to bring in the harvest before the time is past.

Sleeping Rough

In the UK, when you sleep in a sleeping bag, or outside, or I guess away from a bed, they call it "sleeping rough." It's a term they often apply to homeless people, as well as campers. That's what we did last weekend. And it was a very interesting experience.

Our local church is part of a network of churches that assist an organization with providing shelter and meals to asylum seekers in the UK. Many of them are homeless until their paperwork is approved and they are given legal status to be in the UK, to work and to set up a home.

A group of men from different countries are transported around to a different church each night where they sleep in sleeping bags in a room and are given a meal provided by members of the church, as well as the opportunity to shower in the building. At least three members of the church are required to stay with them each time. They asked Andrew and I to volunteer one time, so we agreed.

Another guy named Mark, who has done this numerous times, was the third person in our team, since he could show us how everything worked.

We busied ourselves with pulling all the sleeping bags and pillows out of a closet, arranging two tables and 15 chairs, and setting out a huge pot of chicken curry, a big bowl of rice, and packages of flat bread, and a coffee station. We also put out special pitchers so that the men would be able to wash their feet before doing their prayers.

At 8:45 the men arrived. They all spoke English very well. They each went around to us and shook our hands and introduced themselves. Then they sat down and began serving themselves from the curry and rice. They also made sure that we volunteers had plates of food, too.

After dinner, we cleared all their dishes and washed for them, while some of the guys took showers. Most went in the sanctuary to set up their sleeping bags and just play on their smart phones or read newspapers and relax. A few stayed in the eating room and talked to Mark while we sat and listened.

One young man seemed to relish telling funny stories of his experiences with the culture in Britain, as well as talk about the political and national situation of his people in the Middle East. He reminded us a lot of the young guys we became friends with in our German class. The other man was a very big, but seemingly very gentle, middle aged black man from Cameroon. He also enjoyed just sitting with a cup of tea and talking.

About 10 p.m. Andrew and I crashed on a couch in the foyer while the men settled into their sleeping bags in the sanctuary and turned out the lights.

Then at 5 a.m. either one of them started singing or they had an call to prayer as a cell phone alarm because there was very loud Arabic singing for a few seconds. And 5 a.m. is typically when many people from the Middle East do their first prayers of the day.

At 7:30 we joined the men for a breakfast of toast with jam and Nutella and cereal.

The Cameroonian man had asked the night before and then at breakfast if these foods were traditional British foods. We explained that the curry from the night before was probably Indian or Pakistani, so it was not traditional British food, but it was commonly eaten in Britain. I asked him if he had heard of fish and chips. He had not. So I explained about deep fried fish. Then I asked him if he knew what French fries were. He didn't. So I explained about sliced, fried potatoes. I told him about Shepherd's Pie, which he thought he would like, and also about meat pies. He said that at all the night shelters they keep serving them ethnic foods from the Middle East or India and he really wants to try British food to see what it is like.

"Some day, I'm going to go home to my children and tell them about my time in England and I want to tell them stories about the food and this and that," he said. I hope he gets to try some British food soon.

Then their ride came and it was time for us to go.

We both enjoyed spending time with these men and getting a tiny peek into their lives. I think Andrew plans to continue with this ministry maybe once a month.