| Today is the seventh day with no
information on the whereabouts of the missing bags, and the assurances
are getting weaker each day. Talk about insurance and compensation
is not what we want to hear. We have done and will do everything
we can to locate the bags, but are also planning for the possibility
of never seeing them again. Airline compensation will be less than
20% of the replacement cost, and there are many irreplaceable items.
Travel guidelines say to keep all irreplaceable items with you on
carry-on bags. But when one travels three days to get to the destination,
the carry-on space gets filled with essential travel items such
as travel documents, money, minimum change of clothing, medications,
and toiletries. When you pack for three years into four bags, everything
is an essential item.
We are not ready to give up on the bags yet, but are thinking
about the lessons to learn from this experience. We believe the
generic versions of medications can be found locally, but we want
to get the consent of the doctors. We will have to learn to work
with less equipment and find acceptable local food items more
quickly than we had planned, but we have faith in our God, each
other, and you. We know we will come through this and come out
wiser and closer to God.
This morning’s devotion material was on Corinthians 12:12-25,
about teamwork. How appropriate for today, as eight families from
five countries gather to start the journey of service together!
This assignment in Nepal is going to be much easier than our assignment
in Congo was in terms of living conditions, but the work itself
will be more complicated, since people from many different cultures,
faith and worship styles have to harmonize to witness in this
Hindu kingdom. We will need to accept and adjust to different
ideas about mission, values, and the concept of partnership with
the people of Nepal. Just during these few days we have been here
there have been moments when we wished the body of our mission
organization had four left feet rather than two hands and two
feet. Although uniformity makes it simpler than the search of
harmony and unity in diversity, we need to struggle harder to
find Christian unity. We remember well the advice given to us
during the first week of our orientation five years ago. "You
need to sort out what the few ‘non-negotiables’ are
for which you should give your life. All others are mere preferences,
and learn to treat them as such." We referred to this advice
at least daily for the past five years and will continue to do
so.
We need to live this principle today—in our common journey
with other United Mission to Nepal members and also in search
of our bags. We will write soon about our new life here in Nepal
and the continuing saga of our bags.
We do not have a permanent house or Internet connection, but
we will be keeping this e-mail address. We may be slow in responding
to your messages, but we will get to them eventually. For the
moment, not all messages get into the "non-negotiables’
category.
We ask your prayer for our obedience, and we pray that you find
your ‘non-negotiables’ and keep them on top of your
priorities.
Dannebhat for listening.
God bless!
Haejung & Simon
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