PC(USA) - Mission Connections - Letter

Mission Connections

PC (USA) Seal


	A letter from Simon and Haejung Park in Nepal

	December 2002 Dear Friends, Thanksgiving dinner on Friday with Tandori (heavily seasoned with Indian spices and oven-baked) chicken is not exactly a traditional Thanksgiving feast, but quite like our lives these days. December is our fifth and the last month of language and culture training period. Officially this is the time to increase our knowledge base, but in truth we are learning to survive with limited language, limited familiarity, and limited ability to satisfy our needs in usual ways. We are learning that for every item we cannot find, we can find two or three passable substitutes, and heretofore necessary items are often just an item on the wish list. The more we substitute and make adjustments, the more we came to appreciate what we have. Compared to our life in Congo, we are basking in the lap of luxury. While our lifestyle is very luxurious compared to the Nepali nationals, there are truly luxury enclaves for foreign missions and the ruling class which we only hear about. Their list of wants seem to be much longer than ours, just as ours is longer than Nepali folks'.

	"This Christmas season we hope to see and hear our surroundings with the eyes and ears of the coming King. What did Jesus see, hear and feel during his thirty years of preparation?"		While struggling to express our ideas and needs with our very limited language skills, we experience a small dose of the frustrations of the voiceless and powerless people. Trying to cope with the frequent strikes and imposed restrictions, we taste a bit of life out of our hands. Watching Hindu festivals as outsiders, we appreciate the bewilderment of ordinary people having to simply watch incompressible destruction taking place in their homeland. Beginning today, December 9, all the educational institutions in Nepal are closed due to threats of the Maoist Student Union. No one knows how long this imposed strike will continue. In order to avoid the damaging effects of frequent disruptions, rich folks send their children to India or other countries for education, further depleting energy and financial resources from the country.

	This Christmas season we hope to see and hear our surroundings with the eyes and ears of the coming King. What did Jesus see, hear and feel during his thirty years of preparation? How would what we see today help us serve as faithful and good servants in the next two and a half years of our time in Nepal? We do not know specifically what, but feeling their pain as our own pain must be the beginning of our service. Otherwise, we tend to become able "problem solvers" intoxicated only by the feelings of accomplishment. We will be receiving our assignment letter from the United Mission to Nepal next week, and we pray that we receive and tackle each assignment with the attitude of serving the people and our Lord. No matter how much we tell ourselves to be faithful and humble, we fail again and again. We ask for your prayers that we serve with humility, but with knowledge built on the truth that God will free these people in His time. Most of the time we are the ones on the move, but in Nepal we will welcome newcomers and send off those returning home. Next year, we hope to become helpful "welcomers" and dependable "stayers" serving other missionaries as well.

	A few Nepali folks have been asking us about Christmas, trying to understand it based on numerous Hindu festivals. In general, the Hindu religion instructs its followers on how to earn enough credits to overcome suffering. No one can earn all the needed credit in one life, thus they keep returning in different forms and try and try they must. Our loving and holy God coming to free us from our sins is incomprehensible without changing their view of the world. But those who are able to overcome receive the good news with childlike heart and pure joy.		Christmas carols play when the lights come on for the festival of Tihar because the lights, made in China, were meant for U.S. customers.

	Tihar is one of the two major festivals in Nepal, and it fell in early November this year. People decorate their houses and store-fronts with flower laces and light strings. Our landlord had strung several colorful blinking lights on a tree next to our entrance. We were hearing very poor-sounding Christmas carols when the lights came on. It turned out the Chinese made lights were siphoned from the shipment to European countries for Christmas, complete with a tiny speaker for Christmas carols. So, this year we had Christmas before Thanksgiving and enjoyed God's sense of humor once again. Looking back, it has been another year of change and another period of training for being flexible for God. We shall listen to His voice. May you all have a wonderful Christmas and listen well. Simon & Haejung The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, page 166

Mission Speakers

Mission Workers

Letters from Young Adult Volunteers

Frequently Asked Questions

Mission Letters in RSS

Who We Are | Congregations | News and Events | Ministry and Vocations | Resources/Publications
Giving and Funding | US and World Mission | Search pcusa.org | Home